Jesse and Festus

On the May 11, 2007 episode of WWE's *SmackDown!*, a vignette aired featuring Jesse Dalton and Festus Dalton as part of a tag team using a hillbilly gimmick.

On the June 29, 2007 episode of *SmackDown!*, vignettes hyping Jesse and Festus's debut on the roster, sans the Dalton name (and no longer presented as brothers), began to air.They wrestled in dark matches and at *SmackDown!* and *ECW* house shows. Their in-ring debut came on the October 5, 2007 episode of *SmackDown!* by defeating Mike Tolar and Chad Collyer when Festus used an over-the-shoulder gutbuster and pinned Tolar. This match introduced the gimmick of Festus' Pavlovian response to the ring bell: when the opening bell rang, Festus's persona changed into a very focused, aggressive competitor, as compared to the aloof, absent-minded character he had been portrayed as; when the closing bell rang, Festus returned to his "normal" self.

On the October 16, 2007 episode of *ECW*, Jesse and Festus made their debut for the *ECW* brand in conjunction with a "talent exchange" discussed between *ECW* General Manager Armando Estrada and acting *SmackDown* General Manager Vickie Guerrero. Jesse and Festus defeated their first notable opponents, the team of Elijah Burke and Nunzio, with an aided diving shoulder block.

On the November 9 episode of *SmackDown!*, Jesse and Festus suffered their first WWE loss in a 10-man tag team battle royal WWE Tag Team Championship contender's match, against Deuce 'n' Domino, The Major Brothers, Shannon Moore and Jimmy Wang Yang, and Drew McIntyre and Dave Taylor. Festus, the biggest man in the ring and obviously a threat, was eliminated early due to a team effort from the other teams. Thus, Jesse was eliminated as well.

Jesse and Festus suffered their second loss in the WWE when they were defeated by then-WWE Tag Team Champions The Miz and John Morrison on the November 27 episode of *ECW*. Jesse and Festus were defeated again by Miz and Morrison on the December 7 episode of *SmackDown!*. Jesse and Festus finally defeated The Miz and John Morrison in a non-title match on December 16.

After a brief hiatus, more vignettes aired, this time featuring Jesse, who explained Festus's condition and spoke of a cure for it. The team returned on the February 8, 2008 episode of *SmackDown*, defeating Deuce 'n' Domino. Festus appeared to be unchanged, aside from perhaps being more aggressive than ever. This success continued as they once again defeated The Miz and John Morrison in another non-title match on the February 29 airing of *SmackDown*. When they received a shot at the titles on the March 21 episode, however, they came up short, and similarly lost out months later at The Great American Bash, when the titles changed hands to Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder courtesy of a pin on Jesse.

On the September 12 airing of *SmackDown*, Jesse and Festus made their way to the ring dressed in moving attire complete with a hand truck, large cardboard box and moving supplies. After an attack from Kenny Dykstra, the duo proceeded to package Dykstra up and roll him away. The next week they did the same thing to Ryan Braddock, and later the set of Carlito's Cabana. However, they soon reverted to their previous gimmick.

The team was separated when Festus was drafted to the *Raw* brand in the 2009 Supplemental Draft. Jesse adopted a new in-ring persona, a white rapper called "Slam Master J". After months of inactivity, Festus returned to *SmackDown* as Luke Gallows, and became an enforcer for CM Punk. Punk claimed that the Festus gimmick was due to Festus being addicted to pills, but Punk had managed to cure him. J and Gallows also took part in the 26-man battle royal at WrestleMania XXVI, which was won by Yoshi Tatsu. This would be the final time they shared the ring together.