On the June 29, 2007 episode of "SmackDown!", vignettes hyping Jesse and Festus's return to the roster, sans the Dalton name (and no longer presented as brothers), began to air. Their vignettes were billed as 'Jesse and Festus on...', each week choosing a different subject but always with the same formula of Jesse, talking very excitedly about the subject, and ending each vignette by pointing to Festus and saying "that, "that" is the face of a" (something relating to the topic), while Festus merely stared absently into the camera. 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.