THIS Released WWE Star Appears At NWA Hard Times 2

Released by WWE earlier this year, this former champion appears at the NWA's latest PPV.

by Andrew Pollard
Fandango WWE
WWE.com

Having been released by WWE this past June, the former Fandango appeared at last night's NWA Hard Times 2 PPV.

These days going by the Dirty Dango moniker, the one-time NXT Tag Team Champion turned up alongside JTG following the NWA Tag Team Title bout. There, La Rebelion's Bestia 666 and Mecha Wolf successfully retained those belts against The End tandem of Odinson and Parrow. Post-match, JTG and Dango arrived to indicate they have La Rebelion's gold in their sights.

As Johnny Curtis and Fandango, the 38-year-old Portland native was in the WWE system from 2006 through until this year.

Trained by the legendary Killer Kowalski, Dango had spells in Deep South Wrestling and Florida Championship Wrestling before appearing in the fourth season of the original NXT as the rookie of R-Truth. That was all under the Curtis name, with the change to Fandango coming in late-2012 ahead of a formal main roster debut early the following year - which famously led to a WrestleMania 29 victory over Chris Jericho.

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That 'Mania bout would be the peak for Fandango, with him spending the next three years largely spinning his wheels and usually picking up defeats. 2016 would see Dango form the Breezango tag team with Tyler Breeze, and the pair would remain as partners until both were released this 25 June.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.