Every Original WWE NXT Black & Gold Roster Member - Where Are They Now?

19. Johnny Curtis

Johnny Curtis Milk
WWE

What was he doing at the time?

Being weird, but not weird enough to turn a somewhat-beloved NXT run into a well-liked main roster one. As “Durty Curty”, to say he was making the best of a bad situation on the never-ending “NXT Redemption” gameshow would be understating it.

Because the show seemingly never had a purpose in sight once the original goal was kiboshed ("Redemption" was supposed to come from winning your way back onto the next season of NXT, but in the ultimate irony, the show never booked anything towards an ending and left them in stasis as abandoned misfits forever), the characters were allowed to set their own rules for the universe. In the case of Johnny Curtis, Derrick Bateman, Maxine and Kaitlyn, they went for sitcom misadventures that occasionally spilled over into the ring. The move to Full Sail brought about the end of it all, but not, oddly, without a payoff - Bateman beat Curtis in a straight singles shootout on the very first Florida episode.

What is he doing now?

Fandango was at long last what got Curtis where he'd long felt like he belonged. Sadly, WWE got on board the second audiences did and killed the fun, but via teaming with Tyler Breeze and letting his freak flag fly, he stuck around in WWE until 2021. He subsequently turned that into a TNA run that remains in place as of 2026. 

Contributor
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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for nearly 10 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 65,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live.