Bullet Club
Bullet Club, stylized as BULLET CLUB and sometimes shortened to BC, was a professional wrestling stable primarily appearing in the Japanese promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling. In the United States, the group appeared on events run by the company's U.S. subsidiary, New Japan Pro-Wrestling of America, as well as U.S. partner promotions Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, All Elite Wrestling and Ring of Honor. The group also previously appeared on events promoted by Tamashii, NJPW's Australasian affiliate, as well as on events of other Australasian independent promotions, on Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre events in Mexico, and on Revolution Pro Wrestling and TNT Extreme Wrestling events in the United Kingdom, as well as many other independent promotions around the world.
The group was formed in May 2013 when Irish wrestler Prince Devitt betrayed his Japanese partner Ryusuke Taguchi and came together with American wrestler Karl Anderson and Tongan wrestlers Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga to form a villainous stable of foreigners, which they subsequently named Bullet Club. Before the end of the year, the stable was also joined by three other Americans, The Young Bucks and Doc Gallows. Wrestlers from the Mexican Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre promotion have also worked tours of NJPW as members of Bullet Club, which led to the formation of an offshoot group named Bullet Club Latinoamerica in CMLL in October 2013. At the end of 2013, Bullet Club held both the IWGP Junior Heavyweight and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships while also having conquered three of NJPW's five annual tournaments. The stable marked a major turning point for the career of Devitt, a longtime fan favorite, who began his ascent out of the junior heavyweight division and into the IWGP Heavyweight Championship picture.
In April 2014, Devitt left NJPW and was replaced in Bullet Club by American wrestler AJ Styles. The following month, Bullet Club received its first Japanese member when Yujiro Takahashi betrayed his former partners in Chaos to help Styles capture the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, meaning that the stable had now held all titles NJPW had to offer. When NJPW added a seventh title at the start of 2016 and an eighth title in July 2017, Bullet Club quickly won them as well. To date, they are the first of three stables to have won every championship available in NJPW. They also held every male championship in Ring of Honor active at the time of the NJPW–ROH partnership. The stable continued adding members, most notably Canadian wrestler Kenny Omega, who became the group's third leader in early 2016 when Styles, Anderson and Gallows all left NJPW. After a "civil war" between The Elite and OG factions within the stable, Omega, Cody, Marty Scurll, Adam Page and The Young Bucks quietly left the faction in October 2018 to continue on their own as The Elite and to later form All Elite Wrestling with New Zealand wrestler Jay White taking over as the fourth leader of the group.
Due to COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions in 2020, a portion of the group could not travel to Japan, with new member Evil becoming a temporary top representative member of the group in the Japan-based contingent of the group after turning on long time LIJ stablemate, leader and then Double IWGP Champion Tetsuya Naito after his new japan cup finals win, and went on to win both titles at Dominion, becoming the first non-Bullet Club leader to accomplish this feat. While stranded overseas, White established a U.S.-based branch and started making appearances in NJPW's US brand NJPW Strong and then partner promotion Impact Wrestling. Even after travel restrictions began easing as time went on, the two branch structures would remain in place as they would expand into Impact Wrestling in 2021 with Chris Bey becoming the first wrestler to join from the Impact roster. Later that same year, Evil formed the House of Torture sub group as its leader, composed of manager Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi and Sho. In March 2023, David Finlay became the fifth leader of the group following Jay White's exit from NJPW. A month later on April 5, 2023, Jay White would make his official debut for AEW, establishing with Juice Robinson a new sub group of the group called Bullet Club Gold. By the month of June, Finlay created the Bullet Club War Dogs sub group with manager Gedo, former LA Dojo young lions Clark Connors, Gabe Kidd, Alex Coughlin and Drilla Moloney, whereas Bullet Club Gold, also known as The Bang Bang Gang, saw White and Robinson be joined by The Gunns.
On January 5, 2026, Yota Tsuji announced the dissolution of the stable, replacing the group with the new Unbound Co. stable.
Concept
Bullet Club was conceived by New Japan Pro-Wrestling in early 2013, following a positive fan response to a storyline, where Prince Devitt turned on his longtime tag team partner Ryusuke Taguchi to form a villainous partnership with Bad Luck Fale. Originally, Devitt and Fale were scheduled to go on as a duo, but the storyline was altered with them instead coming together with Karl Anderson and Tama Tonga to form an all-gaijin stable. Devitt came up with the name Bullet Club, which was in reference to his finger gun hand gesture and "Real Shooter" nickname and Anderson's nickname, "The Machine Gun". In naming the group, Devitt has stated that he specifically did not want the word "the" in front of the name or a name consisting of just three letters. Other names considered for the group included Bullet Parade, Bullet League and Bullet Brigade. As of May 2016, the Bullet Club trademark is owned by NJPW. Behind the scenes, the four founding members of Bullet Club were best friends and travel partners.The group has been compared to the World Championship Wrestling stable New World Order. As a way of paying homage to the nWo, members of Bullet Club began using the stable's signature "Too Sweet" hand gesture. The gesture, originally conceived by The Kliq's Sean Waltman and referred to by Kevin Nash as the "Turkish wolf", had supposedly been used by Anderson and Devitt behind the scenes since 2006. In March 2015, WWE filed a trademark application for the hand gesture. Some, including Matt and Nick Jackson, suggested this was done due to Bullet Club's popularity. The application was ultimately abandoned by WWE. In August 2015, after Devitt had joined WWE as Finn Bálor, WWE released Bálor Club merchandise playing off Bullet Club. WWE recognized Bullet Club in the first week of January 2016, when discussing rumors about members of the stable joining the promotion, preceding A.J. Styles' debut in the WWE as a 2016 Royal Rumble contestant. In April 2016, the former Bullet Club tag team of Gallows and Anderson debuted for WWE, with their NJPW background again being acknowledged by the company, eventually forming The Club with Styles. On September 25, 2017, Bullet Club appeared outside WWE's Raw show in Ontario, California, spoofing a segment from 1998 where D-Generation X "invaded" WCW's Nitro. Afterwards, WWE sent members of the stable a cease and desist letter, claiming they were using the company's intellectual property, specifically the Too Sweet hand gesture, leading to merchandise featuring the gesture being pulled from stores. WWE writer Jimmy Jacobs was let go by the company for posting a photo on Instagram with members of Bullet Club, taken during the mock invasion.
nWo's founding member Kevin Nash has praised Bullet Club as a more athletic version of the nWo, stating that there is mutual respect between the two stables, and informally passing the torch from his stable to Bullet Club. Jeff Jarrett, who has represented both Bullet Club and nWo, has named in-ring ability as the main difference between the two stables, stating "Bullet Club is off the charts bell to bell more talented". Former NJPW wrestler and current WWE trainer Matt Bloom has stated that Bullet Club's popularity helped the promotion become global.
Bullet Club's matches often involve excessive outside interference, ref bumps and other tactics, which are more common in American professional wrestling and are rarely seen in Japanese puroresu, even in matches involving other villainous acts. This disregard for Japanese traditions and culture got the stable over as a top act. Bullet Club has garnered a substantial amount of worldwide popularity, especially among American professional wrestling fans. As of March 2016, the stable's original Bone Soldier shirt was the top selling shirt on the Pro Wrestling Tees store, outselling all top independent wrestlers and WWE veterans that are affiliated with the site. In 2017, Bullet Club shirts were made available at Hot Topic stores, where they also became big sellers, supposedly selling 100,000 copies in the first three months. Bullet Club's popularity in the United States has led to members of the stable working as fan favorites at events held in the country.
As Bullet Club is owned by NJPW, all wrestlers joining the stable, including those who have joined at Ring of Honor events, have to be approved by NJPW booker Gedo.
History
Formation; Prince Devitt's leadership (2013–2014)
In 2013, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Prince Devitt and member of the team Apollo 55 with Ryusuke Taguchi began portraying a more cocky and villainous persona, regularly disrespecting both partners and opponents. The stable was created at Invasion Attack pay-per-view, when Devitt and King Fale attacked Taguchi, and the Time Splitters and Captain New Japan. 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. They were joined by Karl Anderson and Tama Tonga.Devitt won the 2013 Best of the Super Juniors tournament with a clean record of eight wins and zero losses, and moved 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 Dominion 6.22, Devitt defeated Tanahashi, 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 Terrible lost the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre World Tag Team Championship to Tanahashi and Jyushin Thunder Liger. Terrible worked also the rest of his two-week NJPW tour as a member of Bullet Club. After successfully defending his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Gedo, Devitt received his match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on July 20, but was defeated by Okada, despite interference from the rest of Bullet Club. 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 reigning 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 Jyushin Thunder Liger for the CMLL World Tag Team Championship. The rivalry between Devitt and Tanahashi culminated in a Lumberjack Deathmatch on September 29 at Destruction, where Tanahashi was victorious.
On October 11, Tonga and Bucanero returned to CMLL, where they formed "Bullet Club Latinoamerica" with CMLL World Heavyweight Champion Terrible and female wrestler and manager La Comandante. However, a week later, 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, American tag team The Young Bucks made their NJPW debut as the newest members of Bullet Club by entering the 2013 Super Jr. Tag Tournament. In early November, The Young Bucks defeated the Forever Hooligans in the finals to win the tournament, later defeating Suzuki-gun to become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. 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 The IronGodz, 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. This led to a match on January 4, 2014, at Wrestle Kingdom 8, where they defeated K.E.S. to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship. During the same event, Devitt lost 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. 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, The New Beginning in Osaka, Taguchi pinned his former partner in a tag team match, where he teamed with Togi Makabe and Devitt with Fale. On March 8, 2014, at Raising the Bar: Night 2 The Young Bucks defeated reDRagon to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship, and with their Junior Tag Team Titles they became double champions. In March, Bad Luck Fale made it to the finals of the 2014 New Japan Cup, but was defeated there by Shinsuke Nakamura. 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. However, the stipulation was never made official for their Invasion Attack 2014 match on April 6. 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, ending their rivalry with each other and Devitt's association with Bullet Club. Devitt's resignation from NJPW was announced the following day.