It's Faaaaahn Daaaahn Go!
Curtis Jonathan Hussey (born July 22, 1981) is an American professional wrestler. He wrestled for WWE under the ring name Fandango which stands for "Fantastic," "Amazing," "Nimble," "Dashing," "Attractive," "Noteworthy," "Gifted" and "Original". He was formerly known as Johnny Curtis.
Hussey was trained by Killer Kowalski, began his professional wrestling career in 1999, and worked for several promotions beginning in September. He competed in several Independent companies in New England, winning the PLW New England Championship,
PWF Northeast Tag Team Championship with Kenn Phoenix on more than one occasion as well as the PWF Northeast Heavyweight Championship, NCW New England Championship and Tag Team Championship with Damian Houston, and the SCCW Lightweight Championship.
In 2006, Hussey signed a development contract with World Wrestling Entertainment, and was assigned to Deep South Wrestling (DSW), WWE's developmental territory. He was then moved to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) in June 2008, where he won the Florida Tag Team Championship on more than one occasion with Tyler Reks and Derrick Bateman. In December 2010, he competed in the fourth season of NXT, and he eventually won the competition in March 2011.
He was released from WWE in June 2021, and returned to the independent circuit as Dirty Dango.
"TRO-PE-S!":
- Aborted Arc: He was the winner of NXT season 4 and was guarantied a Tag Team title shot with his mentor R-Truth. But with R-Truth's heel turn that was dropped. This arc was eventually resolved on an episode of NXT almost 21 months later. However, the mentor part of the title shot was retconned with Curtis choosing Michael McGillicutty as his partner.
- Accidental Misnaming
- JBL keeps referring to his dance partner Summer Rae as "Mrs. Fandango." She's actually the third partner he's had since he made his debut (though she has stuck around the longest so far).
- He himself has never called backstage interviewer Renee Young the same name twice. Usually he's never even close, calling her "Daisy" and "Isabella," among others.
- Agent Peacock: He's a ballroom dancing pretty boy whose outfits are getting more and more flamboyant as time goes on, but he can still put his enemies away easily. Possibly also Camp Straight since he's still got Summer Rae◊ fanatically head over heels for him as well. Fandango was shown to get jealous when she got too touchy with Cody Rhodes.
- Alliterative Name: Dirty Dango.
- Arch-Enemy: Derrick Bateman on NXT. Chris Jericho in the beginnings of his Fandango gimmick.
- Ascended Meme: ♪ DA DUH DA DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DA ♫
- Audience Participation Song: His wordless theme became one on the 4/8 post-WrestleMania 29 edition on Raw. It has yet to be seen if it has YES-level staying power.
- Berserk Button: Fandango is really particular about how he wants his name to be pronounced.
- Minor Insult Meltdown: God help you if you mispronounce or make fun of his name. At best, he'll simply refuse to compete. At worst, he'll attack you for it. Lately, he's been doing much more of the latter.
- Bullying a Dragon: On the July 26, 2013 edition of SmackDown!, he interrupted CM Punk, who is not only a five-time world champion, but is also the guy who had the balls to run off with the company's most important title one hour before his contract expired and picked a fight with Brock Lesnar the night after a Money in the Bank ladder match where he got busted open and had to get thirteen staples in his head. Michael Cole even pointed out that it wasn't the best time to interrupt Punk when he's been in a bad mood for the last two weeks and doesn't take interruptions well (even when he's in a good mood), especially when he's still talking about something important. Fandango promptly got a mic to the head and a GTS for his troubles.
- Canon Discontinuity: Johnny Curtis and Fandango are two completely different characters, according to WWE.
- Casanova Wannabe: His time on the main roster has exposed his character as the type that leads girls on and flirts with them with no regard for their actual feelings. It came back to bite him in the ass in the summer of 2014, where the two girls he was two-timing became friends and started humiliating him at every turn.
- Catchphrase: "We have reservations", which he and Summer said whenever they wanted to conclude an interview.
- His own name. and, occasionally during the beginning of his run, "Breathe the A's..."
- Chained Heat: William Regal handcuffed him and Maxine together as a requirement to keep their spots on NXT.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Very much a part of his pre-Fandango character as Johnny Curtis. His Catchphrase was "let's get weird."Maxine: "Why do you have chloroform?"Curtis: "Why— why don't I have chloroform?"note
- Of course, the switch to Fandango has not changed this. He recently appeared on a radio show and had one of the hosts rub lotion on his back. He's still completely barking mad, he's just very sparkly now.
- Of course, the switch to Fandango has not changed this. He recently appeared on a radio show and had one of the hosts rub lotion on his back.
- Crossover: Johnny Curtis won the PWF Northeast Tag Team Titles with Kenn Phoenix at an NWA Wildside shows.
- Curbstomp Battle: His Wrestlemania debut against Chris Jericho saw Fandango on the receiving end of one of these, which, it should be noted, was Fandango's first WWE match ever (the Curtis stuff didn't count). And while Fandango did win the match (thus it cannot be called a squash, like Johnny's debut was), anyone complaining about not taking him seriously is probably referring to this occasion.
- Dance Battler: As Fandango.
- Demoted to Extra: He made one or two appearances on Smackdown, before he was sent to NXT again, but he was all better for it, because there he got an actual storyline, feud and matches.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The very first promos for him had him called "Fandangoo" (which meant "Fabulous," "Angelic," "Noble," "Dapper," "Astonishing," "Naughty," "Graceful," "Opulent," and "Outstanding.) which was probably done to write around the trademark of the movie ticket website. Apparently they decided they could all get along, cause it was switched to Fandango pretty quickly (although it has confused at least a few fans who have sent tweets to the wrong Fandango twitter handle.)
- Enemy Mine/Villain Team-Up: With Maxine on NXT. Which worked remarkably well.
- Evil Versus Evil: Versus Wade Barrett.
- Finishing Move
- A top rope leg drop
- For a while, he would sometimes end matches with a swinging reverse STO.
- Informed Ability
- He can't dance. All he ever does is spread his arms wide and shimmy his hips. The positive response from the fans is proportional to the ridiculousness of his delusion.
- Neither can his partner Summer Rae. Although their lack of ability colliding with their delusion does add a new layer of humor to their characters. All of this was made even worse after he threw Summer Rae over for Layla, who actually was a dancer and cheerleader before entering the WWE.
- Michael Cole, of all people, has starting to call them out on this, saying "He doesn't do anything!" any time he "dances." Of course, it's treated as a Cassandra Truth while everybody else still gushes over his ability.
- Jobber: Basically a go-to jobber during TNA's formative years, and not in the "make someone look good" kind of way but as a time-filling kind of way, as most of the time he wrestled in dark matches.
- Large Ham: With a gimmick that stands out this much, it's almost impossible not to be.
- Love Triangle: With Derrick Bateman and Maxine. She ended up choosing Johnny Curtis even though he was objectively the worse of the two.
- Manipulative Bastard: How Johnny Curtis broke up Maxine and Derrick Bateman.
- Mr. Fanservice: Before his days as Fandango, in his wrestling entrances he would often do some dirty dancing along with a striptease, all for the audience's pleasure. As Fandango, he may still engage in a bit of this, especially with his costume design.
- Oh, Crap!: Look at the expression on his and Layla's faces◊ when The Shield come out to beat the hell out of him.
- Perma-Stubble: Despite his hype vignettes showing him clean-shaved.
- Pretty Boy: Exaggerated as Fandango.
- Running Gag: Being announced for his debut, only to refuse to wrestle after an announcer or interviewer gets his name wrong.
- Say My Name: It's "Faaaaaaaahn-DAAAAAAAAAHHHHHN-goooooohhhhh..." And you'd better say it correctly, too.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here/Rage Quit: Does this a lot.
- Shout-Out
- Apparently to Dancing with the Stars, if dirtsheets are to be believed. Of course, WWE lampshades this relentlessly, with at least someone on the commentary team mentioning the show during his matches.
- And one of the phrases he's been using (see Small Name, Big Ego below), is lifted almost word for word from a catch phrase of Captain Jack Sparrow, who was also somewhat particular about having his name said a certain way.
"You will remember this as the night you almost saw the debut of FAHN-DAHN-GO!" - Small Name, Big Ego: Endlessly hyped before his debut and has an elaborate entrance setup (glittering curtains and a flaming cutout of his silhouette), for a start.
- Squash Match: Poor Johnny's debut match on Smackdown was against Mark Henry, who at the time was in his "demolish-all-my-opponents" phase.
- Tag Team:
- (as Johnny Curtis in the New England independent scene): Talent Exchange, w/Kenn Phoenix (Ken Doane, aka Kenny from the Spirit Squad/Kenny Dykstra)
- (as Johnny Curtis in WWE's FCW developmental promotion): The Thoroughbreds, w/Kevin Kiley (aka Alex Riley.)
- Breezango w/ Tyler Breeze
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Absolutely, at 6'4".
- Tweener: Immediately following his Wrestlemania debut he was very over and got baby face like pops, despite still antagonizing the crowd and generally not changing his demeanor at all.
- Visual Pun: For weeks up until his original debut in 2011, he was in promos where this was the focal point.
- Wrestling Doesn't Pay: He's a ballroom dancer-turned-wrestler.
- You Have Failed Me: Summer Rae has, apparently. Fandango has taken on Layla as his new manager (and new girlfriend).
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Fandango was somewhat accepting of his new found fan base at first, offering to go "Fandangoing" with them if they would just say his name. Unfortunately, the live crowd still could not get it right so he still antagonized them.
