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Luke Gallows first WWE gimmick from 2007, Festus - a country bumpkin character who transformed into a hoss at the sound of a ring bell, has been the subject of a lot of jokes among wrestling fans.
As guests on Chris Jericho’s podcast earlier this year, Gallows and his tag partner Karl Anderson even shared a hilarious story of how Festus was a Vince McMahon creation, down to the Chairman working with Luke on perfecting the character’s vacant stare when in non-wrestling mode.
Which makes the duo’s newest anecdote, from this week’s Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast, even funnier.
Apparently, McMahon’s forgotten that one of the guys in the new tag team he signed from New Japan used to use that gimmick:
Anderson: The best part of the Festus character is that we heard from Talent Relations, or the Head of Talent Relations is that Vince doesn’t even remember that he was Festus.
Gallows: I don’t know if we’re even allowed to say the word, but my wife didn’t even know that I was Festus when I married her, which is real.
Anderson: We go up to the Gorilla Position, and Mark Carano would say, I’m going to go tell Vince and remind him that you were Festus. I would say, don’t tell Vince, I need this run right now.
Now, the Bullet Club duo are renowned backstage funnymen - they talk with Roberts about being fine with the current comedy stuff they’re doing in WWE, because it’s an accurate extension of who they really are - so they could be embellishing this tale for comedic effect.
But, I kind of believe McMahon is so in-the-moment and focused on what’s next that he has little recollection of a ten year old gimmicked tag team.
Hopefully, Luke’s wife will also forget what his character was doing this past Monday night...