PARKS’S TAKE: The retirement of JDC felt like it was leading toward something all along, but will he unretire to get revenge now?

I knew there was a swerve coming. I was just wrong about who was swerving who.

Ever since the Johnny “Dango” Curtis (JDC) retirement storyline began in mid-November, I smelled a rat. It was too convenient, given all the other major wrestling retirements happening or being announced around that time. I figured Curtis was playing a long con, though I wasn’t sure what the end result would be. Certainly him turning on his System brethren was a possibility, either in his retirement match against Eddie Edwards or when he was to announce his replacement in the group.

Curtis’s character previous to joining The System was not exactly someone to look up to. Taking cues from his NXT “Dirty Curty” era, Curtis often talked about the wrestling business as a way to make money, full stop. He didn’t care about the art, didn’t care about entertaining fans. He saw it as a business. So I assumed, perhaps, that character would come to the fore once again in this “retirement” storyline.

Everything felt so heavy-handed in the build-up. Curtis said he just got married and his wife wanted him to leave the ring. It could be true, but at the time, it seemed like a reason to get the wheels turning on this story. There were no hints or subtleties indicating a turn was coming, so this was completely me, on my own, thinking something was up. Maybe I was giving TNA too much credit in developing a storyline like that.

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Once Genesis came and went with Curtis losing to Edwards and the locker room coming out to give JDC an ovation, I thought the turn MUST be happening on Impact when his hand-picked replacement in The System was to be revealed. In the end, however, it was Edwards and others turning on him and Moose. It was a strange situation given Moose is now on his own as Curtis, due to his retirement (if indeed it’s legit) can’t even team with him to get revenge.

The former Fandango had a fruitful career and for a short time, created a buzz that went beyond the boundaries of the wrestling industry. Now he apparently leaves it as The System reorganizes itself, dismissing him and Moose, replacing them with Cedric Alexander and Bear Bronson. We’ll see if Curtis stays involved in TNA at any level or if he’s gone for good. It’s too bad, as a Curtis long con turn at the end, even if it indeed led to his legit retirement, would’ve been more fitting of the character he played for most of his TNA run.