Dirty Dango shouts out Drew McIntyre for putting him in contact with Billy Corgan.
At the National Wrestling Alliance’s ‘Hard Times 2’ event, Dirty Dango, the former ‘Fandango’ appeared alongside JTG. The duo is now collectively known as ‘Dirty Sexy Boys’ and they were in action on the latest episode of Powerrr.
Dango had not competed under the NWA banner since 2002 when he wrestled at NWA Wildside tapings. He spoke to Chris Van Vliet and said after he was released from WWE, Drew McIntyre offered to give him NWA owner Billy Corgan’s contact information which led to Dango eventually appearing for the organization.
I was at Drew McIntyre’s wedding a few years ago. Drew and I are really close and Billy [Corgan] was there, from Smashing Pumpkins and when I got released — it’s weird, when you get released, you kind of figure out who your real friends are and a lot of people you think you’ll hear from, you don’t and a lot of people that you didn’t kind of expect to reach out to you, you do which is kind of surprising but, understandably man, it’s weird. When someone gets released that you’re not really close with, it’s like you don’t want — because you know they’re getting a thousand text messages but you don’t — it’s like a weird kind of situation but Drew reached out to me and he goes, ‘Hey man, if you ever wanna go try to get in with Billy, here’s his contact’ so, I gave him a call, he said, ‘Yeah, we’re doing some tapings in December’ and I just flew back today. We just did three or four days in Atlanta. Long, long days of filming but it was like a family reunion down there. It’s all my old buddies and Mike Knox and a bunch of guys from Deep South Wrestling, Sam Adonis was there. It was like a reunion and just that cliché analogy of, ‘Man, you gotta be nice to everybody on your way up.’ Not saying the NWA is on the way down but, it’s true man. We’re like this weird, niche community. We’re all connected in some way so if you’re a prick to somebody or like screw someone over, there’s a good chance you’ll run into them again, you know? But, if you’re cool and you got a lot of good friends and you’re nice to people, which I think I did and it’s just — it was cool man. To see all my old friends and sh*t and super laid-back atmosphere and it was fun.
During the conversation, he recounted many stories from his time with WWE. There was a point when he was going to win the Intercontinental Championship but suffered a concussion in a match with The Great Khali.
Dango kept that a secret from the company until he unintentionally revealed it to the powers when he was loopy from falling on his head again.
You know, they were gonna put the I.C. Title on me man and I got concussed working with Khali, Great Khali and I didn’t tell ‘em. I didn’t tell ‘em I was concussed. I think it was like a week or two before and I worked Khali like a couple weeks out of the pay-per-view and then we worked the week before the pay-per-view I think or something like that and then if you get concussed and you go out and get hit again, it’s a lot easier to get concussed, you know what I’m saying? If you don’t give your — if you don’t give the swelling enough time to go down, it’s really easy to get concussed again so, I was concussed and I kept performing. But I didn’t tell anybody. I think I was wrestling Zack Ryder at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island. I took like a shoulder attack and I was completely out. Somehow got through the rest of the match, got to the back and I thought I just wrestled Khali because your brain kind of goes back to where you originally got f*cked up so, I’m like, then I just kind of said it. You know I’m like, ‘Oh, I just thought I worked Khali. That’s where I got knocked out.’ Like I stooged myself off and I didn’t even, you know. To the company’s protocol, I was completely wrong, you know? You should definitely tell them when you’re hurt because they don’t want any of their athletes to get seriously injured but, me being from — I grew up in the wrestling business, like if someone’s going to put the I.C. Title on you, you don’t take yourself out of the — I didn’t want to stooge myself off. It was such — just a really tough spot so, they took me off TV for like a couple weeks, three or four weeks and then I think Curtis Axel won the I.C. Title and I think that kind of derailed me a little bit. I was partying a lot at that time too. You know, I kind of let up so my whole thing was I was in developmental for so long, I finally got to — in my mind, I got to the finish line and I made it, you know? But, you don’t just make it. You gotta keep grinding after you get there, even harder and I take full accountability for that. You know, I kind of got there, I thought I was in. I was like Vince [McMahon’s] little pet, you know? And, you know, I let up and that’s on me, you know? So…
Since departing WWE, Dango has appeared for Limitless Wrestling, WrestlePro, Northeast Wrestling and several more promotions. He is entering his 24th year in the wrestling business.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Chris Van Vliet with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
