Doc Gallows may be known today as one-half of The Good Brothers and a decorated tag team veteran, but his early days in WWE’s developmental system were full of bizarre—and dangerous—experiments to get noticed.
In a wild new interview on Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw, Gallows shared two outrageous stories from his time in Deep South Wrestling, WWE’s former developmental territory, including one involving a live tarantula that landed him in the ER.
Desperate to stand out early in his career, Gallows (then known as Deacon Deville) revealed he purchased a Mexican red leg tarantula and built a promo gimmick around the spider. Things took a terrifying turn during one of the infamous promo class sessions.
“I get this idea—I’m going to put him in my mouth,” Gallows explained. “Open my mouth, he’ll crawl out, and I’ll cut the promo… I go, ‘This will get me called up. I think it’s genius.’”
Instead, the tarantula bit down on Gallows’ tongue and unleashed its hairs down his throat, triggering a severe allergic reaction.
“All of a sudden I realized my f***ing throat’s closed,” he said. Gallows had to rush to urgent care in full wrestling gear, just to breathe again.
Gallows also revisited a notorious moment of Deep South absurdity known among talent as “Donut Day.” The backstory? Wrestlers were desperate to skip a brutal Friday training session, so someone offered a bizarre alternative.
“Matt Cardona volunteered to take a running stinkface from a nude guy while holding donuts in his mouth,” Gallows said, revealing that he was the nude guy.
“Somehow I, the spider-eating freaking Deacon, got volunteered. All I had was a Texas Longhorns hat over my junk. Bam, wham, wham—every time they fed him another donut, I hit him with it.”
The unorthodox performance worked—practice was canceled, but the memory lived on in developmental lore.
After these early stunts, Gallows eventually made his WWE TV debut as Festus, later aligned with CM Punk in the Straight Edge Society. He has since enjoyed a major career revival with Karl Anderson as The Good Brothers, working in TNA, New Japan, WWE, and now the independent circuit.
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
