On May 3rd, 2013, Prince Devitt and Bad Luck Fale faced Ryusuke Taguchi and Captain New Japan in a match at Wrestling Dontaku. A few weeks earlier, Devitt betrayed his long-time tag team partner when Apollo 55 unsuccessfully tried to regain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag titles from Motor City Machine Guns. Devitt’s turn was a long-time coming, as a darker, more vicious side of him had been brewing for months leading up to his betrayal. But nobody saw what was coming when Devitt finally turned.

Joining Devitt in the attack were Karl Anderson, Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga. These four men would form a new stable of “gaijins,” or non-Japanese wrestlers, who were fed up with NJPW always treating them as second class citizens. This tag team match at Wrestling Dontaku 2013 is considered the birth of this stable, known to this day as Bullet Club.

Devitt led the charge of fed up gaijins as he had felt for some time that he was overlooked and deserved better. This group planned to elevate themselves and each other by any means necessary, and quickly became a serious threat to the rest of NJPW.

Since then, the stable has become one of the most popular in history. Merch sales are some of the highest of all-time, and the group has grown, changed leaders, and had chapters pop up around the world. AJ Styles, Kenny Omega, Adam Cole, The Young Bucks, Cody Rhodes, Jay White, and many others have donned the skull & guns on their chest at one point or another, and while things haven’t always been perfect, Bullet Club is still going strong ten years later and is seeing another resurgence as a serious threat to the wrestling world.

10 years since Captin FOOKIN' New Japan.

Time for some Bullet Club reunion shows. If things ever got bad enough NWO/BC angle when?

The strength of Bullet Club is unprecendented as a force in pro-wrestling. From their humble beginnings as a four man group in a much more underground era of NJPW than we have now, the stable has grown from strength to strength, their black tendrils extending into all of pro-wrestling's biggest companies, even WWE. As RT has pointed out, many of the world's best wrestlers have had a stint in Bullet Club, often as career-defining chapters.

In their home promotion they have frequently been positioned as the top antagonistic stable. Former leaders AJ Styles, Kenny Omega and Jay White have all been IWGP World Heavyweight Champions, and have all defeated the final boss of the company, Kazuchika Okada, Jay White on multiple occasions. The recurring villain. It won't be long before we see David Finlay at the top of the food chain.

Despite that I've always found that Bullet Club is often one of the least interesting factions in whatever promotion they end up in. They do have a lot of history, and just as much in-fighting as battling against other factions, but rarely am I excited for a Bullet Club angle outside. In fact a lot of their members are dead weight. They do pick great leaders but aside from that it's where a lot of mediocre talent end up. Unlike almost all the other NJPW stables, there's no quality control. Bullet Club goes for numbers over talent.

That's a good point. Stables according to JR is to bring a bunch of guys with nothing going on and see if 1 can make something stick and get the rocket strapped. With BC it seems like the leader is already there and they add a bunch of jobbers to help him be a heel.

Is Chase Owens still in Bullet Club?

Not seen Chase Owens in a while, but I haven't heard about him leaving or being kicked out, so let's go with yes.

May 14, 2023 9:26:34 GMT Emperor said:

Not seen Chase Owens in a while, but I haven't heard about him leaving or being kicked out, so let's go with yes.

Last time I heard about Chase Owens he was getting me too'd but the accusations got really murky. That was nearly 3 years ago, I haven't heard about anything since. I was never a huge fan, just seemed like one of those guys they brought in for experience who somehow got to stick around despite not really showing a ton of potential. When guys like Juice Robinson, Tama Tonga, Hangman Paige, Lance Archer, Will Ospreay, Jay White (obviously) were all showing signs of improvement, he just seemed like one of those guys they kept around because they liked him and he was a pro.

When I say I haven't seen Owens in a while I only mean a few months. He was in the G1 Climax last year, and was eliminated in the second round of the New Japan Cup earlier this year. He's around, but he's never been on every tour, he usually just shows up for the bigger events. We'll probably see him in the G1 again unless he (hopefully) gets booted out with all these new guys coming in.

Ok, how is Chase Owens still around?

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Regardless it is an incredible run by any means for a faction. 10 years is massive.

Really, it's the story of several different factions under the same black & white tee shirt. The original and Styles-era faction is a completely different beast to The Elite, and that's where things really picked up - That version of Bullet Club is responsible for so much. It kicked started a lot of renewed interest in NJPW and ROH and later laid the foundations for AEW, the careers of Adam Cole, AJ Styles, Kenny Omega, Cody, etc were all either revitalised or giving a massive shot in the arm being part of Bullet Club.

As much focus as there has been on The Elite over the last few years, I feel not nearly enough is credit to Prince Devitt. Without him, there is no Bullet Club. AJ Styles instead goes to Japan and wrestles a series of dream matches and signs to WWE the same man he was in TNA, Adam Cole, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks never get the rub and Cody never finds his place on the independents - he likely would have been in TNA if it weren't for Bullet Club and certainly doesn't return to WWE a made man.