He is known as Festus the professional wrestler on the WWE RAW ring but he was born as Andrew William Hankinson on December 22, 1983. Began his career as a wrestler with a number of wrestling groups in different states such as Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. In 2005, his wrestling skills was recognized and signed a contract under WWE and partnered with Palmer Cannon after being assigned at the DSW or Deep South Wrestling development territory. During this assignment, he was known as Deacon Deville then changed it to The Freakin’ Deacon.

He started in WWE as the Kane’s imposter who chokeslammed the same WWE superstar during his face off match with Shelton Benjamin. This scenario between Kane and the imposter continued for several weeks, with the latter winning over the matches. This resulted to a Vengeance match, which Hankinson won over using a chokeslam. Kane however did not take it very easy for him on the next match as he was totally beaten, tore down his mask then threw him off the ring. Both his identity and face was never revealed to the public during this match.

After that match, he went back to DSW while simultaneously coming out in SmackDown as Freakin’ Deacon. He was also paired up with G-Rilla later in the same year. In May of 2007, there was a hint that he would be packed differently as Festus Dalton and paired with Ray Gordy as a tag team with a “southern” air. However, this ‘Dalton Boys’ fame ended as fast as two months as they were dropped because of not appearing on SmackDown due to being lost on the road to the arena. This time, he went back to OVW then changed again his ring name, being known as Justice Dalton.

After several times of being dropped out of the SmackDown roster, he finally was able to debut in SmackDown on October 5 as Festus. He won the match after ‘transforming’ to a competitive player then went back to his usual self after hearing the bell. This marked his official birth on SmackDown.

After showing his skills in SmackDown, he was drafted in April of 2009 in RAW. Even if he has not been active in WWE since June 2009, he is still popular in having a very different aura as a fighter in the middle of the match then going back to his docile aura after the match.

Real Name: Andrew William Hankinson
Date of Birth: December 1983, 1965

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