Vince McMahon Dumped Expensive Vignettes For Former Star
A former WWE star has recalled the time when Vince McMahon paid for some expensive vignettes to be shot before scrapping them altogether because of a detail he disliked.
Johnny Curtis joined WWE in 2006 competing in their developmental companies at the time before going onto greater fame as the dancing Fandango on the WWE main roster. Such was his rise, Fandango made his main roster debut on The Grandest Stage Of Them All, defeating Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 29.
However, before that match took place Fandango was introduced to the WWE Universe through a series of vignettes that aired on WWE television. Speaking to Rewind Recap Relive, Fandango revealed that shooting these vignettes cost a pretty penny when WWE booked out an exclusive ballroom in New York City. That shoot proved to be worthless however as Vince McMahon wasn’t happy with how the ballroom bruiser uttered his own name:
“We actually filmed a whole — Vince McMahon paid to rent out the whole Highline Ballroom, dance ballroom in New York City. We went there and filmed vignettes for a couple of days and there’s this super expensive set and he didn’t like the way I said ‘Fandango’, so he scrapped the whole thing and he came and produced the vignettes himself. So me not pronouncing the name the way he thought in his mind actually turned into a gimmick, into a shtick that we did on TV.”
Part of Fandango’s presentation on WWE television was he would stop people and correct their pronunciation of his name, giving an over-the-top, elongated version of his name that any ring announcer would do well to get right.
As part of a tag team with Tyler Breeze, known as Breezango, Fandango captured the NXT Tag Team Championship in August 2020. Both Fandango and Breeze ended their long association with WWE in June 2021 when both men were released from their contracts as part of continuing budget cuts in the company.