Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson arrived in WWE, alongside Bullet Club leader AJ Styles, in 2016. As The O.C., they won the RAW Tag Team Championships, but were released in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
They returned to TNA and spent some time in Japan, only to be brought back to WWE by Triple H in 2022. They barely did anything over the next three years and were once again released by the company this past February.
Talking to PWInsider.com, Gallows reflected on that initial run. "It really was a whirlwind. We came back in 2019, reunited as the OC, and went into WrestleMania for The Undertaker’s last match. I got thrown to my death, Carl took the final Tombstone ever—and then, just 11 days later, we were unceremoniously fired."
He added, "When we came back in October of 22, it felt great. It felt fresh. It felt new. And then, you know, a few short months later, we’re in New York, and we’re getting ready to leave the building, and a limousine pulls up, and we see a moustachioed man pop out, and it was, it was Vince McMahon coming back for the first time."
"We happened to see him in the parking garage. And I don’t know what goes on behind closed doors there, but from that point on, everything certainly got weird, whether it was the Vince thing and then the eventual sale to TKO and however that timeline worked, but you know, you could feel again, the winds of change."
"Sometimes you’re just not in favour," Gallows acknowledged, "and if that’s the case, it doesn’t matter what you do." McMahon's return to WWE didn't last long, but the response from fans to his creative endeavours was overwhelmingly negative.
Asked whether there are any hard feelings about being released for a third time by WWE, he said, "Not at all. There’s no bitterness, no hard feelings. You just keep on trucking. That’s what you do."
Gallows and Anderson have since returned to working in Japan and on the independent scene. It's unlikely that they'll show up in AEW, as Tony Khan was said to be very upset that they appeared on his programming—due to AEW's working relationship with TNA at the time—but ultimately decided to return to WWE.
Regardless, the fan favourite tag team wrestler looks back at all his runs in WWE with fondness, including the time he spent as Festus. "I was fishing for feedback, and all I was told was, '[Vince] loves Festus. Just be weird.' That was the guidance. And it worked. Fans still remember it, kids loved it at the time, and honestly, it was a great way to ease into being a television wrestler."
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