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Bullet Club sometimes shortened to BC, is a professional wrestling stable in New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW).

History[]

Formation (2013)[]

On February 3, 2013, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Prince Devitt pinned IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi in a tag team match, where he and Karl Anderson faced Tanahashi and Devitt's longtime Apollo 55 tag team partner Ryusuke Taguchi. This led to a match between Devitt and Tanahashi on March 3 at NJPW's 41st anniversary event. Though neither man's title was on the line in the match, Tanahashi vowed to relinquish the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in case Devitt was victorious. After defeating Devitt, Tanahashi went to help his opponent up, but was pushed away by the disappointed Junior Heavyweight Champion. The following weeks, Devitt began portraying a more cocky and heel persona, regularly disrespecting both partners and opponents, with the exception of Ryusuke Taguchi, whom he tried to get to go along with his new attitude. However, this changed on April 7 at the Invasion Attack pay-per-view, when Devitt turned on Taguchi, after the two had failed to recapture the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship from the Time Splitters (Alex Shelley and Kushida). During the attack, Devitt was helped by the returning King Fale, who attacked not only Taguchi, but also Shelley, Kushida and Captain New Japan, whom Devitt then proceeded to unmask. Following the attack, Devitt took a microphone, introduced Fale as his new "bouncer", giving him the new name "The Underboss" Bad Luck Fale and dubbed himself the "Real Rock 'n' Rolla". At the following pay-per-view, Wrestling Dontaku 2013 on May 3, Devitt and Fale teamed up for the first time to defeat Taguchi and Captain New Japan in a tag team match. Later in the event, Devitt and Fale entered the ring to attack the now former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi, after he had defeated Karl Anderson in a singles match. Anderson first went to stop Devitt and Fale, but then turned on Tanahashi, hitting him with the Gun Stun. As the three men continued their attack on Tanahashi, they were also joined by Tama Tonga, with whom Anderson had formed a partnership during the past two weeks. In a post-match interview, the four men announced the formation of an all-gaijin stable named "Bullet Club". The name, which Devitt had come up with, was in reference to Devitt's finger gun hand gesture and "Real Shooter" nickname and Anderson's nickname, "The Machine Gun". Behind the scenes, the four men were best friends and travel partners and NJPW decided to put them together following the positive response to the Apollo 55 breakup angle, changing the original scenario, where Devitt and Fale would have gone on as a duo.

Under Prince Devitt's leadership (2013–2014)[]

The four members of Bullet Club wrestled their first match together on May 22, when they defeated Captain New Japan, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Manabu Nakanishi and Ryusuke Taguchi in an eight-man tag team match. Two days later, Devitt entered the 2013 Best of the Super Juniors tournament, where he won his block with a clean record of eight wins and zero losses, though most of his matches featured outside interference from the rest of the Bullet Club. On June 9, Devitt advanced to the finals of the tournament after defeating Kenny Omega in his semifinal match, again with help from Bullet Club. During the final match, later that same night, Bullet Club was ejected from ringside after getting into a brawl with Captain New Japan, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kushida, who accompanied Alex Shelley to the match. Despite losing his back-up, Devitt defeated Shelley to win the 2013 Best of the Super Juniors, after which he proceeded to challenge Hiroshi Tanahashi. Devitt's old tag team partner Ryusuke Taguchi had originally earned a spot in the semifinals of the tournament, but a legitimate hip injury forced him to pull out. During the following day's press conference, Devitt also mentioned a move to the heavyweight division, aiming to become the first wrestler to hold the IWGP Junior Heavyweight and IWGP Heavyweight Championships simultaneously. On June 22 at NJPW Dominion 6.22, Devitt defeated Tanahashi, again following interference from the rest of the Bullet Club, to earn his first-ever shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. The reigning champion, Kazuchika Okada, accepted Devitt's challenge for the title later in the event on the condition that he first defend the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against his CHAOS stablemate Gedo. Bullet Club's feud with Tanahashi continued at the July 5 Kizuna Road 2013 pay-per-view, where Tama Tonga and visiting Mexican wrestler El Terrible lost the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) CMLL World Tag Team Championship to Tanahashi and Jushin Liger. Terrible worked also the rest of his two-week NJPW tour as a member of Bullet Club. In the main event, Devitt successfully defended the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Gedo to earn his IWGP Heavyweight Championship match with Okada. The Heavyweight Championship match took place on July 20 and saw Okada defeat Devitt, despite interference from the rest of Bullet Club, to retain the title. From August 1 to 11, both Devitt and Anderson took part in the 2013 G1 Climax, wrestling in separate round-robin blocks. During the tournament, Devitt picked up big wins, albeit through outside interference, over IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada and former champions Hiroshi Tanahashi, Satoshi Kojima and Togi Makabe, but failed to advance from his block. Meanwhile, Anderson entered the final day with a chance to reach the finals, but a loss against Tetsuya Naito eliminated him from the tournament. On September 5, Rey Bucanero, another CMLL wrestler, started a NJPW tour working as a member of Bullet Club. On September 14, the rest of Bullet Club helped Bucanero and Tama Tonga defeat Hiroshi Tanahashi and Jushin Liger for the CMLL World Tag Team Championship. The rivalry between Devitt and Tanahashi culminated in a Lumberjack Deathmatch on September 29 at NJPW Destruction 2013, where Tanahashi was victorious.

With the Tanahashi rivalry behind him, Devitt moved onto a new rivalry with Togi Makabe, who played a big part in him losing the Lumberjack Deathmatch. During the rivalry Makabe was backed up by his G.B.H. partner Tomoaki Honma and Kota Ibushi, a recent NJPW signee, who was looking for a shot at Devitt's IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. On October 11, Tonga and Bucanero returned to CMLL, where they formed "Bullet Club Latinoamerica" with El Terrible and female wrestler and manager La Comandante. Meanwhile, Anderson looked to avenge his loss from the finals of the 2012 G1 Climax by attacking Kazuchika Okada on October 14 at King of Pro Wrestling 2013 and asserting himself as the next challenger for his IWGP Heavyweight Championship. On October 15, NJPW announced the Super Juniors Tag Tournament, which would see American tag team The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) making their debut for the promotion, representing Bullet Club. On October 18, Tonga and Bucanero were stripped of the CMLL World Tag Team Championship, when they were unable to defend the title against La Máscara and Rush due to Bucanero being sidelined with an injury. On October 25, The Young Bucks made their NJPW debut, defeating Baretta and Brian Kendrick in the first round of the Super Jr. Tag Tournament, thanks to a pre-match assault by the rest of Bullet Club. On November 6, The Young Bucks first defeated Gedo and Jado in the semifinals and then the Forever Hooligans (Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero) in the finals to win the tournament. Three days later at Power Struggle, The Young Bucks defeated Suzuki-gun (Taichi and Taka Michinoku) to become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Later in the main event of the evening, Karl Anderson failed in his attempt to capture the IWGP Heavyweight Championship from Kazuchika Okada. On November 11, NJPW announced the participating teams in the 2013 World Tag League. In the tournament, Bullet Club would be represented by two teams in separate blocks; Devitt and Fale in block A and Anderson and the debuting American Doc Gallows in block B. On December 7, both teams entered the final day of the round-robin portion of the tournament with a chance to advance to the semifinals. Anderson and Gallows won their block with a record of four wins and two losses by defeating NWA World Tag Team Champions Jax Dane and Rob Conway, while Devitt and Fale were eliminated with a record of three wins and three losses, after losing to Captain New Japan and Hiroshi Tanahashi, who had lost all their other matches in the tournament. The following day, Anderson and Gallows first defeated Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma in the semifinals and then Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima in the finals to win the tournament. On January 4, 2014, at Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome, The Young Bucks made their first successful defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in a four-way match against the Forever Hooligans, Suzukigun and the Time Splitters. Meanwhile, during the same event, Anderson and Gallows defeated K.E.S. (Davey Boy Smith, Jr. and Lance Archer) to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship. After the two early wins in the event, Bullet Club's night ended on two losses, when first Bad Luck Fale was defeated in a King of Destroyer match by Togi Makabe, who gained revenge on Fale for costing him both the G1 Climax and World Tag League in 2013, which was followed by Prince Devitt losing the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship to Kota Ibushi, ending his fourteen-month reign.

February's The New Beginning tour featured Bullet Club defending both of their tag team championships and the re-ignition of a rivalry between Devitt and his former partner Ryusuke Taguchi, who returned from an eight-month injury break. On February 9 at The New Beginning in Hiroshima, Anderson and Gallows made their first successful defense of the IWGP Tag Team Championship in a rematch with K.E.S., while two days later at The New Beginning in Osaka, The Young Bucks made their second successful defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against the Time Splitters. Devitt dominated his encounters with Taguchi for most of the tour, including pinning him in his return eight-man tag team match on February 2, but at the tour ending event in Osaka, Taguchi pinned his former partner in a tag team match, where he teamed with Togi Makabe and Devitt with Fale. Afterwards, Anderson and Gallows found themselves new title challengers in Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata, who defeated the Bullet Club representatives in a non-title match at NJPW's 42nd anniversary event on March 6. Anderson and Gallows also lost to Shibata and Goto, respectively, in their first round matches in the 2014 New Japan Cup on March 15. Two other members of Bullet Club also took part in the tournament and both were eliminated by Shinsuke Nakamura; Devitt in the second round and Fale in the finals. On April 3, Nick Jackson was given the opportunity to bring the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champioship back to Bullet Club, but he was defeated in the title match by Kota Ibushi, despite outside interference from his brother. Meanwhile, as the one-year anniversary of the break-up of Apollo 55 approached, the rivalry between Devitt and Taguchi escalated, leading to Taguchi challenging his rival to a Loser Leaves Town match. The stipulation, however, was never made official for their April 6 Invasion Attack 2014 match. During the match, Devitt got into an argument with The Young Bucks, after the two repeatedly interfered in the match despite his orders not to do so. This led to The Young Bucks turning on Devitt, who responded by diving onto his Bullet Club stablemates. After Taguchi defeated Devitt, the two men shook hands, ended their rivalry with each other and Devitt's association with Bullet Club. Devitt's resignation from NJPW was announced the following day.

Rebirth and championship dominance (2014–present)[]

Later at Invasion Attack 2014, American wrestler A.J. Styles debuted as the newest member of Bullet Club, attacking IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada. Styles, who knew Okada from their days working together for the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion, claimed that Okada was still the same "young boy" (rookie) he had known in TNA and asserted himself as the next challenger for his title. Following Invasion Attack 2014, with Styles still working a full schedule on the American independent circuit and only booked to work NJPW's larger events, Anderson was positioned as the new leader of Bullet Club. However, Styles was considered the leader of the Ring of Honor (ROH) version of Bullet Club, a role which was also given to him by NJPW by the end of 2015. On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2014, Styles defeated Okada to become the new IWGP Heavyweight Champion, when Yujiro Takahashi turned on Okada and the Chaos stable and jumped to Bullet Club, becoming its first Japanese member. With Bullet Club capturing NJPW's top title, while also holding both of its tag team titles, and adding new members, this was billed as a "rebirth" for the stable, which was celebrating its one-year anniversary during the event.

Later in the month, Bullet Club took part in NJPW's North American tour, produced in collaboration with ROH. On June 21 at Dominion 6.21, The Young Bucks' seven-month reign as the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions came to an end, when they were defeated by the Time Splitters in their sixth defense. Later that same event, Bad Luck Fale defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to become the new IWGP Intercontinental Champion. On June 29, Yujiro Takahashi brought another title over to the Bullet Club, when he defeated Tomohiro Ishii with help from his stablemates for the NEVER Openweight Championship. With the win, Bullet Club had won every title in NJPW, now simultaneously holding all four of its heavyweight titles.

From July 21 to August 8, five members of Bullet Club took part in the 2014 G1 Climax with Fale and Gallows wrestling in block A and Anderson, Styles and Takahashi in block B. All five failed to advance from their blocks with Fale finishing third and Gallows ninth in their block of eleven and Styles finishing second, Anderson third and Takahashi tied sixth in their block. Styles was eliminated due to losing to block winner Okada in their head-to-head match. On August 10, Global Force Wrestling (GFW) founder Jeff Jarrett joined Bullet Club, attacking Hiroshi Tanahashi after he had defeated Styles in a non-title match. On September 21 at Destruction in Kobe, Fale lost the IWGP Intercontinental Championship back to Shinsuke Nakamura in his first defense. Bullet Club lost their two remaining singles titles on October 13 at King of Pro-Wrestling with Takahashi losing the NEVER Openweight Championship back to Tomohiro Ishii in his second title defense, while in the main event Styles lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship to Hiroshi Tanahashi in his third defense, after Jeff Jarrett's outside interference was stopped by the returning Yoshitatsu.

On November 8 at Power Struggle, Kenny Omega, who had joined NJPW at the beginning of the month, became the newest member of Bullet Club, challenging Ryusuke Taguchi to a match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. Omega had earlier dismissed the idea of joining Bullet Club as he did not consider himself a gaijin after six years of living in Japan, but now claimed he had lied and only wanted money and the title. Refusing to speak Japanese despite being fluent in the language, Omega dubbed himself "The Cleaner" with the idea of him being there to "clean up" the junior heavyweight division. From November 22 to December 5, three Bullet Club teams took part in the 2014 World Tag League; Anderson and Gallows and Styles and Takahashi in block A and Fale and Tonga in block B. Anderson and Gallows won their block with a record of five wins and two losses, while Styles and Takahashi finished close behind with four wins and three losses. Styles and Takahashi were victorious over the reigning IWGP Tag Team Champions in the head-to-head match between the Bullet Club teams, but were left behind them in the final standings due to losing to Okada and Yoshi-Hashi on the final day. Meanwhile, Fale and Tonga finished at the bottom of their block with a record of three wins and four losses. On December 7, Anderson and Gallows were defeated in the finals of the tournament by Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata.

On January 4, 2015, at Wrestle Kingdom IX, Omega, in his first match as a member of Bullet Club, defeated Ryusuke Taguchi to become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, while Anderson and Gallows lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship to Goto and Shibata, ending their year-long reign in their seventh defense. The following day, Cody Hall, the son of nWo founding member Scott Hall, joined Bullet Club as the stable's personal "young boy" with Anderson stating that he would have to earn his spot as a full-fledged member. Later that month, NJPW relaunched Bullet Club Latin America in time for the Fantastica Mania 2015 tour, co-produced by NJPW and CMLL. On January 18, during the fifth day of Fantastica Mania 2015, CMLL wrestler Mephisto joined Bullet Club, prior to successfully defending his Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship against Stuka Jr. On February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka, The Young Bucks regained the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship by defeating defending champions reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly) and Time Splitters in a three-way match. Later that same event, Anderson and Gallows regained the IWGP Tag Team Championship from Goto and Shibata, while in the main event A.J. Styles defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to also bring the IWGP Heavyweight Championship back to Bullet Club. Both of Bullet Club's tag team championship reigns ended in their first title defenses on April 5 at Invasion Attack 2015 with The Young Bucks being defeated by Roppongi Vice (Baretta and Rocky Romero) and Anderson and Gallows by the ROH tag team The Kingdom (Matt Taven and Michael Bennett). The Young Bucks regained the title on May 3 at NJPW Dontaku 2015 in a three-way match with Roppongi Vice and reDRagon. Also during the event, Bullet Club was involved in the first NJPW match to feature female wrestlers in over twelve years, where Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows and his wife Amber Gallows were defeated by Maria Kanellis, Matt Taven and Michael Bennett in a six-person intergender tag team match. On July 5 at Dominion 7.5 in Osaka-jo Hall, Kenny Omega lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship to the 2015 Best of the Super Juniors winner Kushida in his fourth defense, while Anderson and Gallows defeated Bennett and Taven in a rematch to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship for the third time. In the main event, Styles lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship to Kazuchika Okada in his second defense. From July 20 to August 15, five members of Bullet Club took part in the 2015 G1 Climax with Fale, Gallows and Styles in block A and Anderson and Takahashi in block B. Both Styles and Anderson entered their last round-robin matches with a chance to advance to the finals, but were eliminated after losing to Hiroshi Tanahashi and Satoshi Kojima, respectively. On August 16, The Young Bucks lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to reDRagon in their second defense. From September 4 to 6, Styles and The Young Bucks represented Bullet Club in American promotion Chikara's 2015 King of Trios tournament, where they made it to the finals, before losing to Team AAA (Aero Star, Drago and Fénix). On September 23 at Destruction in Okayama, Omega defeated Kushida, following outside interference from Anderson, to regain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. On October 23, Chase Owens became the newest member of Bullet Club.

On January 4, 2016, at Wrestle Kingdom 10, Bullet Club was involved in five championship matches. In the first, The Young Bucks defeated reDRagon, Roppongi Vice and the team of Matt Sydal and Ricochet to regain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. In the following match, Fale, Takahashi and Tonga were defeated by Toru Yano and the ROH tag team of Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe in a match to determine the inaugural NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions. This was followed by two title matches, where Bullet Club lost two of their championships with Omega losing the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship back to Kushida and Anderson and Gallows losing the IWGP Tag Team Championship to Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma. In Bullet Club's final title match of the event, Styles unsuccessfully challenged Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Hours after the event it was reported that Anderson, Gallows and Styles had all given their notice to NJPW and would be leaving the promotion for WWE. The following day, the rest of Bullet Club turned on Styles and kicked him out of the group with Omega taking over the leadership.

Members[]

Current Members
Member Time
Ace Austin June 3, 2022 - present
Alex Coughlin June 4, 2023 - present
Bad Luck Fale^ May 3, 2013 - present
Chase Owens October 23, 2015 - present
Chris Bey July 19, 2021 - present
Clark Connors April 15, 2023 - present
Dan Moloney June 4, 2023 - present
David Finlay (seventh leader) March 6, 2023 - present
Dick Togo July 12, 2020 - present
Doc Gallows November 23, 2013 - February 20, 2016
February 19, 2022 - present
EVIL (sixth leader) July 11, 2020 - present
Gabriel Kidd June 4, 2023 - present
Gedo October 8, 2018 - present
Juice Robinson May 1, 2022 - present
Karl Anderson^ (second leader) May 3, 2013 - February 20, 2016
February 19, 2022 - present
KENTA August 12, 2019 - present
SHO September 4, 2021 - present
Taiji Ishimori May 4, 2018 - present
Yujiro Takahashi May 3, 2014 - present
Former Members
Member Time
Adam Cole May 8, 2016 - May 12, 2017
Adam Page May 9, 2016 - October 30, 2018
AJ Styles (third leader) April 6, 2014 - January 5, 2016
BONE SOLDIER September 25, 2016 - January 5, 2017
Cody Rhodes December 10, 2016 - October 24, 2018
Cody Hall January 5, 2015 - April 10, 2016
El Phantasmo March 8, 2019 - April 8, 2023
El Terrible July 5, 2013 - December 13, 2013
Frankie Kazarian February 11, 2017 - March 10, 2017
Gino Gambino November 11, 2017 - June 30, 2019
HIKULEO September 6, 2017 - September 25, 2022
Jado October 8, 2018 - March 13, 2022
Jay White (fifth leader) October 8, 2018 - February 18, 2023
Jeff Jarrett August 10, 2014 - January 4, 2015
Kenny Omega (fourth leader) November 8, 2014 - October 30, 2018
La Comandante October 11, 2013 - December 13, 2013
Marty Scurll May 12, 2017 - October 30, 2018
Matt Jackson October 25, 2013 - October 30, 2018
Nick Jackson October 25, 2013 - October 30, 2018
Prince Devitt^ (first leader) May 3, 2013 - April 6, 2014
Robbie Eagles October 8, 2018 - June 30, 2019
Tama Tonga^ May 3, 2013 - February 19, 2022
Tanga Loa March 12, 2016 - February 19, 2022
Bullet Club Latinoamerica
Member First appearance
La Comandante October 11, 2013
Rey Bucanero September 5, 2013
Terrible July 5, 2013

^ - Founding member.

Valets[]

In wrestling[]

  • Anderson's finishing moves
  • Gallows' finishing moves
    • Gallows Pole
  • Entrance themes
    • "Last Chance Saloon" by Deviant and Naive Ted
    • "Shot'Em" by [Q]Brick

Championships and accomplishments[]

External links[]

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