| Drew Hankinson | |
|---|---|
Drew Hankinson as Luke Gallows |
|
| Ring name(s) | Big LG[1] Deacon Deville[2] Dorian Deville[2] Festus[2] Festus Dalton[2] Freakin' Deacon[2] Impostor Kane[2] Johnny 99[3] Justice Dalton[2] Luke Gallows The Masked Assassin[2] Sex Ferguson[2] Keith Hanson[4] |
| Billed height | 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)[5] |
| Billed weight | 291 lb (132 kg)[5] |
| Born | December 22, 1983 [6] Cumberland, Maryland |
| Billed from | Chicago, Illinois |
| Trained by | Justin Kace[2] Jim Hawkins[2] Bill DeMott DSW Training staff |
| Debut | January 22, 2005 |
Andrew "Drew" Hankinson (born December 22, 1983)[6] is an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his time with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where he appeared under the ring names Festus and Luke Gallows. Drew Hankinson currently wrestles on the Independent Circuit as Keith Hanson.[5]
Hankinson was also known for his appearances as an impostor of the wrestler Kane, before his role as Festus, the tag team partner of Jesse, while they were part of the tag team Jesse and Festus on the SmackDown brand, from June 2007 until the WWE's annual draft saw the team separated during the spring of 2009. After a few months, he reappeared as the enforcer and "disciple" of CM Punk, sporting a cleaner, militant look, with the Festus character's "real identity" revealed as Luke Gallows.
Contents |
Hankinson began his career in West Virginia with Mason Dixon Wrestling and in Pennsylvania with the World Star Wrestling Federation (AWA/World Star Wrestling), Summit Wrestling Association of Southern Pennsylvania, and Maryland-based promotions National Wrestling League and the Eastern Wrestling Alliance,[7] wrestling as Dorian Deville, and for West Virginia's Championship Pro Wrestling as the masked wrestler, Dargon. In April 2005, despite failing to make it as one of the final ten contestants on the $1,000,000 Tough Enough, he was signed to a contract by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and was assigned to the Deep South Wrestling (DSW) developmental territory where he formed a partnership with Palmer Cannon.[2] Hankinson wrestled in DSW as Deacon Deville before changing his ring name to The Freakin' Deacon.
As part of the promotion for the WWE produced movie See No Evil, the WWE ran a storyline in which May 19 was a significant date for Kane. The date was actually the U.S. release date for the movie in cinemas. Kane plays the lead role in the movie. The original plan was to have Kane defeat Rey Mysterio for the World Heavyweight Championship on that date. This would be only 2 days before a major pay-per-view title defense between the champion Mysterio and challenger J.B.L.. However, Jacobs was aiming to take time off after the movie's release, but winning the title would not allow him to do this. So at Jacobs' request, an alternate storyline was produced.
On May 29, Kane was close to beating Shelton Benjamin for the Intercontinental Title. Kane won by disqualification when a second Kane (Hankinson) interrupted the match and attacked the original Kane. The second Kane, henceforth known as Impostor Kane, looked and acted exactly like the original Kane did when he debuted on WWF programming. As a result, Hankinson would repeatedly attack the real Kane during or after his matches. Ring announcers claimed that the identity of the Impostor Kane would likely be revealed to be someone from the real Kane's past. The pair finally faced off at the WWE Vengeance Pay-per-view. Surprisingly, Hankinson (the impostor) won the match using one of Kane's trademark moves. However, the crowd in attendance did not understand where the storyline was going and barely reacted to these events. One night later, the original Kane attacked the Impostor Kane, removed his mask, and threw him out of the building. This ended the storyline, and Hankinson returned to Deep South Wrestling.
Hankinson returned to Deep South Wrestling, in addition to appearing at SmackDown! house shows as The Freakin' Deacon. In late January he formed a tag team with G-Rilla.
On the May 11, 2007 edition of SmackDown!, a vignette aired suggesting that Hankinson would be repackaged as Festus Dalton as part of a tag team using a Southern gimmick, alongside fellow WWE developmental talent Ray Gordy.[8] On June 2, 2007, however, it was reported that WWE was dropping the "Dalton Boys" gimmick. The explanation for them not showing up on SmackDown was because they got lost on their way to the arena. Hankinson and Gordy had actually been sent back to OVW and Hankinson changed his name to Justice Dalton. It marked the second time Hankinson had been dropped from the main roster.
Hankinson was then renamed "Festus", while Gordy was dubbed "Jesse", and on the June 29, 2007 edition of SmackDown!, vignettes hyping Jesse and Festus began to air. For weeks, Jesse would be presented as the mouth-piece of the tandem, who was in awe of his tag team partner. Hankinson, however, played a character that was mentally challenged and unresponsive. In spite of Festus' dim-witted nature, Jesse kept claiming that Festus was an emotionally driven and physically unstoppable giant. On the September 7, 2007 edition of SmackDown!, there was a segment featuring Jesse and Festus now actually in the arena rather than in a studio. On October 5, Hankinson won his debut match on SmackDown with his partner Jesse.[9] When the opening bell rang, Festus' personality changed into a very focused and angry competitor as compared to the mentally retarded character he had portrayed.[9] When the bell rang signifying the end of the match, Festus returned to his "normal" docile self.[9] On the December 21, 2007 edition of SmackDown!, Festus defeated Deuce in a Santa Match with both of them wearing Santa Claus outfits.[10] On the January 25 edition of SmackDown!, Jesse explained the reason that they had not been on television since the new year was because Festus has been seeing doctors about his "problems".[11] In reality Drew had surgery on his right shoulder, as evidenced by a very large new scar that can still be seen today.
In 2008, Jesse and Festus came out and before the bell rang Jesse explained that Festus had changed. However, Festus did not change and continued to make a determined and monstrous face after the bell had rung. On the March 21, 2008 edition of SmackDown, Jesse and Festus had a chance to face John Morrison and The Miz for the Tag Team Championship, although Morrison and The Miz retained their titles in this match.[12] Festus received his first loss when he wrestled against World Heavyweight Champion The Undertaker on the April 11, 2008 edition of SmackDown after passing out while in the Hell's Gate.[13]
On April 15, 2009, Festus was drafted to the Raw brand as part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft and, as a result, was separated from his tag team partner Jesse, who remained on SmackDown.[14] After this,he took a hiatus from Wrestling thus ending his the team with Jesse ( Later known as Slam Master J)
After a six-month hiatus from television, Hankinson returned on the November 27, 2009 edition of SmackDown, repackaged as a villain under the name Luke Gallows, sporting a new attire with a goatee, shaved head, and having lost a considerable amount of weight. After accompanying CM Punk to the ring for his match with Matt Hardy, Punk revealed that Gallows was actually Festus' true identity and claimed that Gallows' family and friends enabled his alcoholic inclination, which led to him being in the mental state he was in as Festus, before stating that Gallows was cured due to Punk showing him the straight edge lifestyle.[5] On the December 11 episode of SmackDown, Gallows made his in-ring re-debut for the brand as he and Punk defeated Hardy and R-Truth after Gallows pinned Hardy with his new finishing move, the "Twelfth Step".[15] On the January 8, 2010 episode of SmackDown, Gallows defeated Hardy in his re-debut singles match.[16] The next week Gallows and Punk defeated Matt Hardy and The Great Khali, The Hart Dynasty and Cryme Tyme in a Fatal Four-Way match to become #1 Contenders for the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship. On the February 10, 2010 episode of Raw, The Straight Edge Society was eliminated in an Triple Threat Elimination Tag Match between them, The Miz and The Big Show and DX for the Unified Tag Team Championship. The Miz and The Big Show became the new Unified Tag Team Champions. At WrestleMania XXVI Luke Gallows competed in a dark 30-man battle royal to open Wrestlemania which was won by Yoshi Tatsu. On the April 13 episode of WWE NXT, he challenged CM Punk's rookie Darren Young and the stipulation, if Young loses, he will have to surrender his hair to Punk and have it shaved bald. Gallows came close to getting the victory when Young came up with a roll-up and saved his hair, with Punk showing some favor to his rookie and Gallows seeming unhappy. At Extreme Rules, during Punk's Hair match against Rey Mysterio, Gallows and Serena helped Punk throughout the match until they were banned from ringside. On the July 2nd tapings of SmackDown, after a match between Luke Gallows and Kane, a security video was shown by Serena of her being caught drinking in a bar by Punk on the same day of The Undertaker's attack proving The Straight Edge Society's innocence in order to save Punk. Serena begged for forgiveness even after Punk warned her not to, but the Straight Edge Society simply left without her. The following week, however, Serena was forgiven by Punk for her actions, as they embraced, but Gallows did not approve. The following week Gallows was set to fight Big Show but gave the match to the SES Masked Man, who was unmasked as Joey Mercury during the match. On the September 3 edition of Smackdown, Gallows and Punk faced The Big Show in a 2 on 1 handicap match, which Gallows and Punk lost. After the match Punk delivered the GTS on Gallows.
On the September 16th edition of WWE Superstars, before a match with MVP, Gallows cut a promo announcing that he was no longer part of the Society by proclaiming he was his own man. Gallows went on to lose the match. On the September 21st taping of Smackdown, Gallows began a face turn when he confronted CM Punk in a backstage segment stating that after defeating him, he would have a beer, but lost a match to Punk later in the night.
Gallows, now officially established as a face, defeated Vance Archer on the November 4 airing of Superstars.[17] His final TV appearance was during a backstage segment in which Kane was looking for his father, on the November 19, 2010, edition of SmackDown. Hankinson was released from his WWE contract on the same day, along with several other superstars.[18] Later that month, CM Punk would tweet regretting his loss.[19]
Hankinson wrestled on December 3, 2010 as Keith Hanson, at a Inoki Genome Federation (IGF) event, where he defeated The Predator. On January 29, 2011, he lost to ECW Original Tommy Dreamer in a hardcore match at a National Wrestling Superstars (NWS) event in New Jersey. On May 29, 2011, Gallows debuted for NWA Rampage in Warner Robins, Georgia. Gallows defeated former Ring of Honor and TNA star by DQ after Rave's group, Jimmy Rave Approved, interfered. Afterwards an 8-man tag took place in which Gallows teamed with Kyle Matthews, J-Rod, & Frankie Valentine to defeat Rave, Sal Rinauro, Chip Day and Corey Hollis. On June 5 Gallows returned to NWA Rampage and lost to Heavyweight Champion Bull Buchanan. On June 14, 2011, Hankinson wrestled a tryout dark match for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), in which he was defeated by Gunner.[20]
He received some attention on July when CM Punk was pursuing the WWE Championship leading up to his departure in Money in the Bank 2011 as he was mentioned alongside Colt Cabana as one of the "voiceless".[21] On July 24th Gallows returned to NWA Rampage in a 4-corners elimination match for the NWA Rampage heavy-weight title also featuring Bull Buchanan, Rob Adonis, & J-Rod. Gallows eliminated J-Rod before being eliminated by Adonis.
In December 2011, Gallows took part in TNA's India project, Ring Ka King.[22]