Luke Gallows has provided details on the origin of his Festus character, which began with a sudden and direct meeting with Vince McMahon. Originally slated to debut as part of a pig-farmer tag team named Jesse and Justice Dalton, Gallows was pulled aside moments before his first television match for the unscheduled meeting. Inside his office, McMahon pitched the Festus gimmick by personally demonstrating the character’s catatonic facial expression and demanding the 23-year-old Gallows, who had never spoken to him before, replicate it.
McMahon reportedly corrected Gallows’s attempt, saying, “Not like that, goddamn it—like this!“. The surreal interaction concluded with the two sticking their tongues out at one another.
McMahon justified the gimmick with a story about a catatonic person he knew in his youth, a claim Gallows now states he is “…pretty sure was bulls–t“. After Festus debuted, the entirety of the creative feedback was that McMahon “loves Festus. Just… be weird,” according to Gallows. This directive led to a complete overhaul of his in-ring work.
Officials instructed him to “not wrestle like a wrestler anymore.” His offense was subsequently retooled to include “big bear-paw punches, slaps,” and a “nuts-to-the-face spot” to build a character who looked like he did not know how to professionally wrestle.
Gallows affirmed he was never embarrassed by the role. Acknowledging that wrestlers often aspire to be a “Ric Flair” archetype, he described performing as Festus as “a lot of fun” and a significant financial success, adding, “It literally bought me my first house.”
This reflection on direct, albeit unusual, creative guidance comes months after Gallows and Karl Anderson’s departure from WWE in February 2025. The Good Brothers have since described their final run with the company as being hampered by profound creative stagnation.
That experience stood in contrast to their early careers. The duo stated they felt their careers were stalled after McMahon’s 2023 return to the company, a development Gallows noted made “everything certainly got weird.” He described the period as wearing “golden handcuffs,” where they were paid but not being utilized on television.