Monday, April 22, 2013

Fandango: The Rise and Fall of Curtis Jonathan Hussey



I'm calling it: if and when the WWE makes the Fandango DVD it will be 15 minutes long.

The first seven minutes would be a montage of the numerous times that "we almost got to see the debut of FAN-DAN-GO", the next two minutes would be "highlights" from the his Wrestlemania 29 match with Jericho, the following three minutes would be the post-Mania Raw crowd singing the his theme song, and the last three minutes will be credits.

The return of Johnny Curtis has been a strange one. One that showcases how far out of touch the WWE is from their fan base as well as the times. After what felt like dog years of promo vignettes of this new dancing superstar, the WWE Universe was finally granted the opportunity to witness the birth of a new "wrestling" sensation, Fandango.What first felt like the WWE cramming another dancer into their ranks to take the hard earned cash of kids and their parents, has somehow become something much more than just a wrestler and a gimmick. The very response Jerry was forced to give a few Raws ago on the new "sensation" called Fandangoing shows just how much more Fandango represents than the WWE ever intended.


On the surface, Fandango is a silly gimmick. He enters to unintimidating music accompanied by what could pass for a legitimate female dancer, and enters the ring with a flaming wire-frame silhouette of himself hanging in the air like a false idol. Stone Cold was once said that to make it in this business, you've got to look like you can kick somebody's ass. Now, no matter how physically fit Fandango is, nothing could save his masculinity from this gimmick. Much like Hornswoggle and Natalya cannot escape the carnival-freak, giant sized hands of the "Great" Kahli, the ball shrinking gimmick of Fandango will forever cling to Curt now because the last thing that a dancer screams is badass.

Unless you're Channing Tatum.

It sounds insensitive to say such harsh things about dancers but in the insensitive world of the WWE, nothing is off limits. It doesn't matter how good in the ring or on the mic Fandango is either. The crowd will despise the character and for good reasons.But something has happened here that no one could have expected. Somehow, Fandango has caught on. Much to the credit of the fanatic post-Mania crowd, singing Fandango's theme song has become a thing.

The problem is that the WWE gets a positive reinforcement for their terrible new wrestler/gimmick which will undoubtedly lead to more terrible gimmick wrestlers. But Fandango is something special. We have barely seen the guy wrestle and people respond as if they love him. But do they?

Wrestling fans are smarter than anyone gives them credit for. What has happened it that Fandango was dealt the worst cards in terms of what he was asked to do. His look and gimmick sucked and everyone hated him for it. But with this theme song, the WWE universe was able to deflect their hate and channel it into a mockery of what the character is. They don't sing Fandango's theme because they like it or him. They sing it because of the hate they have for the character, and pointing their fingers to the sky as they sing the circus like theme is the perfect outlet.

The WWE will never see it this way and the fact that Jerry came out to address the term Fandangoing is proof. They genuinely believe that they have something special on their hands when really they are too out of touch to notice how out of touch they are.
 
I intended to make this much longer but the realization that the WWE is so out of touch makes me too sad to continue.

2 comments:

  1. wwe is like the radio .. they take a good thing and then promote the hell out of it and replay it again and again until people are super bored with it and they start hating it !
    they are like the parents ! they notice their children intrested in something, and they start talking about it all the time to sound cool in front of them while the kids are wishing for them to leave them alone to have fun with what they love ...

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  2. Precisely the point! The WWE will beat any horse to death, poison it, drown it, and then set it on fire before they let something go.

    Its sad.

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