In an interview with The Hartford Advocate, WWE superstar Fandango discussed the origins of his character, whose idea it was, why he embraced the character, the fans reaction on the post-WrestleMania edition of WWE RAW and much more.

On the origins of his character, whose idea it was and why he embraced the character with open arms: “Initially, Vince McMahon had an idea of a male stripper. We kind of did that in a few dark matches as simply Johnny Curtis. I think they saw it and realized real quick that it’s a little risky. It was Fandango a little more sexy, a little not quite PG. Vince had an idea to do the ballroom thing, and I embraced it, man. Thing is, if you can play a hard character, a real complicated character like this or The Undertaker – anything that’s really far out there – I think you can make money with it if you really embrace it, you know what I’m saying? If you just go into it not really into it, people are going to see right through it and see just a guy playing a character. I’m like, ‘This is an opportunity I’ve been waiting for for 13, 14 years. I either gotta really embrace this thing or just go back to working for EWA in Maine making 50 bucks a night.”

On the reaction from the crowd on the post-WrestleMania 29 edition of WWE RAW: “I almost started smiling when they were doing it just because that Monday Night Raw was unbelievable. For me being a wrestling fan, that was one of those crowds that kind of reminds me of the old ECW arena where the fans became part of the show. Anyone that got to go out there that Monday night after ‘Mania got to enjoy that crowd. First thought in my head was, ‘Oh, can we make some money off of this?’ That’s all I thought about honestly. We did the Europe tour right after that. The Raw after ‘Mania we went to Europe for two weeks on tour, and just the crowd reaction over there was unbelievable, so maybe I’m like the new Hasselhoff where I’m just big over in Europe.”

The interview is available in full at this link.