As individual (2 reigns):
191-533: The AEW World Trios Championship is a men's professional wrestling world tag team championship created and promoted by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It is a specialized tag team championship, being contested by teams of three wrestlers, referred to as trios. The current champions are the Death Riders ( Pac , Claudio Castagnoli , and Wheeler Yuta ), who are in their first reign as
382-1013: A Feast or Fired match where Bey secured one of the cases which contained an Impact Tag team Title shot whenever they feel like it. On October 5, Impact announced that Bey and Austin would invoke this opportunity at Bound for Glory for the Impact World Tag Team Championship against The Rascalz. At Bound for Glory, Austin and Bey defeated The Rascalz to become Impact Tag Team Champions for the second time in their careers. On March 8, 2024 at Sacrifice , Bey and Austin lost their tag team belts to Eddie Edwards, and Brian Myers of The System . On July 20, 2024 at Slammiversary , Austin and Bey won back their TNA World Tag Team Championship against The System members Eddie Edwards and Brian Myers. On September 13, 2024 at Victory Road, Austin and Bey lost their titles back to Edwards and Myers of The System . On Saturday October 26, 2024 at Bound for Glory Ace Austin, & Chris Bey were apart of
573-511: 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
764-580: 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
955-446: A " gimmick " consisting of a specific persona , stage name , entrance theme , and other distinguishing traits. Matches are the primary vehicle for advancing storylines, which typically center on interpersonal conflicts, or feuds , between heroic " faces " and villainous " heels ". A wrestling ring , akin to the platform used in boxing , serves as the main stage ; additional scenes may be recorded for television in backstage areas of
1146-617: 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. The Young Bucks, who entered the tour as both the IWGP Junior Heavyweight and ROH World Tag Team Champions , lost the latter title to reDRagon ( Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly ) on May 17, ending their two-month reign in their first defense. Meanwhile, their seven-month reign as
1337-647: A Vertical Drop Brainbuster). His teammates assisted him to the back. On the Road to The New Beginning on January 23, 2021, El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori defeated El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru of Suzuki-Gun to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for a second time. After a month-long hiatus, White returned on February 1 on the Road to the New Beginning show attacking Ishii continuing their feud. On
1528-413: A background in authentic wrestling no longer mattered. After this time, matches became more outlandish and gimmicky and any semblance professional wrestling had to catch wrestling faded. The personas of the wrestlers likewise grew more outlandish. Gorgeous George , who performed throughout the 1940s and 1950s, was the first wrestler whose entrance into the arena was accompanied by a theme song played over
1719-509: A blue globe at the center with "TRIOS" written across the globe in black with a gold border. Above the globe is a black banner that says "WORLD" in gold while a black banner below the globe says "CHAMPION" in gold. At the top of the plate is AEW's logo while filigree fills out the rest of the plate. Sitting on either side of the center plate are two side plates each. The inner side plates show two wrestlers performing simultaneous superkicks on another wrestler. The outer side plates originally showed
1910-532: A carny term for a shooting gallery gun whose sights were not deliberately misaligned. Wrestling in the United States blossomed in popularity after the Civil War , with catch wrestling eventually becoming the most popular style. At first, professional wrestlers were genuine competitive fighters, but they struggled to draw audiences because Americans did not find real wrestling to be very entertaining, so
2101-519: A central authority. Nor could any of them stomach the idea of leaving the NWA themselves to compete directly with McMahon, for that would mean their territories would become fair game for the other NWA members. McMahon also had a creative flair for TV that his rivals lacked. For instance, the AWA's TV productions during the 1980s were amateurish, low-budget, and out-of-touch with contemporary culture, which lead to
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#17327767742492292-585: A champion that Curley put forth: Dick Shikat . The National Wrestling Association shut down in 1980. In 1948, a number of promoters from across the country came together to form the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The NWA recognized one "world champion", voted on by its members, but allowed member promoters to crown their own local champions in their territories. If a member poached wrestlers from another member, or held matches in another member's territory, they risked being ejected from
2483-457: A degree. Vince Russo, the boss of WCW in 2000, completely disregarded kayfabe by routinely discussing business matters and office politics in public, which alienated fans. I watch championship wrestling from Florida with wrestling commentator Gordon Solie . Is this all "fake"? If so, they deserve an Oscar . Bullet Club Gold Bullet Club ( バレットクラブ , Barettokurabu ) , stylized as BULLET CLUB and sometimes shortened to BC ,
2674-410: A fee, a visitor could challenge the wrestler to a quick match. If the challenger defeated the champion in a short time frame, usually 15 minutes, he won a prize. To encourage challenges, the carnival operators staged rigged matches in which an accomplice posing as a visitor challenged the champion and won, giving the audience the impression that the champion was easy to beat. This practice taught wrestlers
2865-414: A genuine sport, and the phrase "professional wrestling" therefore has a more literal meaning in those places. A notable example is India's Pro Wrestling League . In numerous American states, professional wrestling is legally defined as a non-sport. For instance, New York defines professional wrestling as: Professional wrestling means an activity in which participants struggle hand-in-hand primarily for
3056-614: A knee injury. On September 22 at Death Before Dishonor XV , The Young Bucks lost the ROH World Tag Team Championship to The Motor City Machine Guns. On November 5 at Power Struggle , Scurll defeated Will Ospreay to bring the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship back to Bullet Club. On November 11, Australian Wrestler Gino Gambino joined the group after being invited by Fale with a BC shirt after their tag match, and formed
3247-405: A legitimate sport. Firstly, wrestling was more entertaining when it was faked, whereas fakery did not make boxing any more entertaining. Secondly, in a rigged boxing match, the designated loser must take a real beating for his "defeat" to be convincing, but wrestling holds can be faked convincingly without inflicting injury. This meant that boxers were less willing to "take dives"; they wanted to have
3438-639: 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
3629-799: A match against Gus Sonnenberg in January 1929. Bowser then broke away from the trust to form his own cartel, the American Wrestling Association (AWA), in September 1930, and he declared Sonnenberg to be the AWA champion. This AWA should not be confused with Wally Kadbo's AWA founded in 1960. Curley reacted to this move by convincing the National Boxing Association to form the National Wrestling Association , which in turn crowned
3820-439: A match later on the event, which she lost in quick fashion and took all the anger on everyone around her. 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 9 , 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
4011-460: A member of the Bullet Club via his official Twitter account. On the Talk is Jericho podcast with Chris Jericho on October 30, Matt Jackson confirmed that he, Cody Rhodes , Kenny Omega , Marty Scurll , his brother Nick Jackson , and Adam Page are now called simply The Elite and that they are no longer part of the Bullet Club. All members except one (Scurll) left NJPW and ROH and are now part of
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#17327767742494202-440: A new city, attendance was high because there was a waiting fanbase cultivated in advance by the cable TV shows. The NWA's traditional anti-competitive tricks were no match for this. The NWA attempted to centralize and create their own national cable television shows to counter McMahon's rogue promotion, but it failed in part because the members of the NWA, ever protective of their territories, could not stomach submitting themselves to
4393-402: 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
4584-504: 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
4775-456: A series of matches pitting members of Bullet Club against each other in both tag and singles matches. During this time, Tongan members Tonga, Loa and Fale keep distance with the two factions, being known as Bullet Club OGs. Around this time, the tension within Bullet Club would be documented as the focus of the YouTube series Being The Elite . G.O.D. also began their own YouTube series following
4966-750: A singles match. Anderson was invited to join the attack at first hesitant as he was confused, but then turned on Tanahashi, hitting him with the Gun Stun . Also Tama Tonga who makes his return and who had a partnership with Anderson for the last few weeks joined the attack. In a post-match interview, the four men announced the formation of an all- gaijin stable named "Bullet Club". 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
5157-820: 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
5348-417: 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 Dominion 6.22 , Devitt defeated Tanahashi, again following interference from
5539-718: A tag team in Melbourne City Wrestling (MCW) with Gambino as "Bullet Club Down Under". Gambino primarly wrestled representing the group in the oceanian circuit most notably for MCW and in NJPW events in Australia. On November 17, actor Stephen Amell , who had befriended Cody when they worked together in WWE, joined Bullet Club, wrestling his first match as a member at ROH's show later that same day. The following month, Guerrillas of Destiny made it to their second consecutive World Tag League final by winning their block in
5730-448: A tag team match, where Devitt 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
5921-473: A taping of Ring of Honor Wrestling . On March 4, The Young Bucks lost the ROH World Tag Team Championship to The Hardys ( Matt and Jeff Hardy ). On March 10 at ROH's 15th Anniversary Show , Kazarian turned on Adam Cole and Bullet Club, revealing his tenure was only a ruse to help Christopher Daniels become the new ROH World Champion. The following day, Cole, disappointed with The Young Bucks for not having his back, tried to fire them from Bullet Club, but
AEW World Trios Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue
6112-501: A team, while individually, it is the first for Castagnoli and Yuta and the record-tying second for Pac. They won the title by defeating previous champions The Patriarchy ( Christian Cage , Killswitch , and Nick Wayne ), Bang Bang Gang ( Juice Robinson , Austin Gunn , and Colten Gunn ), and House of Black ( Malakai Black , Brody King , and Buddy Matthews ) in a four-way London Ladder match at All In on August 25, 2024. The title
6303-499: 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 ( Beretta and Rocky Romero) and Anderson and Gallows by
6494-503: A typical American household only received four national channels by antenna, and ten to twelve local channels via UHF broadcasting . But cable television could carry a much larger selection of channels and therefore had room for niche interests. The WWF started with a show called All-American Wrestling airing on the USA Network in September 1983. McMahon's TV shows made his wrestlers national celebrities, so when he held matches in
6685-586: A victory for all the pain to which they subjected themselves. In the 1910s, promotional cartels for professional wrestling emerged in the East Coast (outside its traditional heartland in the Midwest ). These promoters sought to make long-term plans with their wrestlers, and to ensure their more charismatic and crowd-pleasing wrestlers received championships, further entrenching the desire for worked matches. The primary rationale for shoot matches at this point
6876-486: A wrestler performing an electric chair driver, but when the standard belts returned in 2024 after the custom "scissoring" belts had been used, the outer side plates were changed to saying "WORLD TRIOS CHAMPION" (which had first appeared on the scissoring belts). During House of Black 's ( Malakai Black , Brody King , and Buddy Matthews ) reign that began in March 2023, they introduced their own custom "black out" versions of
7067-675: Is a professional wrestling stable primarily appearing in the Japanese promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and is currently led by Seventh leader David Finlay . In the United States, the group currently appears 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 (TNA, formerly Impact Wrestling) and All Elite Wrestling (AEW). The group additionally appears on events promoted by Tamashii, NJPW's Australasian affiliate, as well as on events of other Australasian independent promotions . The group
7258-410: Is a true sport. Wrestlers would at all times flatly deny allegations that they fixed their matches, and they often remained in-character in public even when not performing. When in public, wrestlers would sometimes say the word kayfabe to each other as a coded signal that there were fans present and they needed to be in character. Professional wrestlers in the past strongly believed that if they admitted
7449-400: Is also the shortest at three days while The Acclaimed's (Max Caster, Anthony Bowens, and Billy Gunn) sole reign is the longest at 238 days. Billy Gunn is the oldest champion, winning the title at 59, while Nick Wayne is the youngest at 19. The current champions are Death Riders (Pac, Claudio Castagnoli , and Wheeler Yuta ), who are in their first reign as a team, while individually, it is
7640-547: 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
7831-587: 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 and Time Splitters in
AEW World Trios Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue
8022-409: The 2013 Best of the Super Juniors tournament, where he won his block with a clean record of eight wins and zero losses, advancing to the knockout stage on June 9, where he first defeated Kenny Omega in the semifinals and then Alex Shelley in the finals to win the tournament, after which he proceeded to challenge Hiroshi Tanahashi. Devitt's old tag team partner Ryusuke Taguchi had originally earned
8213-440: 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
8404-582: 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
8595-553: The 2017 tournament with a record of five wins and two losses. On December 11, they were defeated in the finals of the tournament by Los Ingobernables de Japón ( Evil and Sanada ). Four days later at ROH's Final Battle , Cody lost the ROH World Championship to Dalton Castle. On December 17, Fale and Guerrillas of Destiny defeated Bushi , Evil and Sanada to become the new NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions. On January 4, 2018, at Wrestle Kingdom 12 ,
8786-480: The 2019 G1 Climax Final , Kenta turned on Tomohiro Ishii and Yoshi-Hashi in a match against Bad Luck Fale and the Guerillas of Destiny, aligning himself with Bullet Club. After the match, Kenta was attacked by Katsuyori Shibata for his betrayal, but Shibata was quickly overwhelmed by Bullet Club. In the main event, Kota Ibushi defeated White to win the 2019 G1 Climax . On August 25, 2019, El Phantasmo won
8977-544: The Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) 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
9168-864: The IWGP Heavyweight Championship , meaning that the stable had now held all titles NJPW had to offer. When NJPW added a seventh title (the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship ) at the start of 2016 and an eighth title (the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship ) in July 2017, Bullet Club quickly won them as well. To date, they are the first of three stables (the others being Chaos and Taguchi Japan ) to have won every championship available in NJPW. They also held every male championship in Ring of Honor (ROH) ( World , TV , World Tag Team and Six-Man ) active at
9359-595: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship by beating Hiromu Takahashi , meanwhile Evil would lose the Heavyweight and Intercontinental titles back to Naito. Both Jay White and Kenta made their return to Japan for G1 Climax 30 , with fellow Bullet Club members Evil and Takahashi also taking part in the tournament. This marked the beginning of an internal conflict within Bullet Club, as Evil became reluctant to relinquish leadership of
9550-657: The Impact World Tag Team Championship and kicking them out of Bullet Club, while reinstating Gallows and Anderson. On February 25, 2023, Ace Austin and Chris Bey, better known as ABC, defeated the Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) to capture the Impact World Tag Team Championships and bringing them back to Bullet Club. On July 15, at Slammiversary , Austin and Bey lost
9741-628: 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
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#17327767742499932-624: The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board that professional wrestling is not a real sport because its matches have predetermined outcomes. Shortly thereafter, New Jersey deregulated professional wrestling. The WWF then rebranded itself as a " sports entertainment " company. In the early years of the 20th century, the style of wrestling used in professional wrestling matches was catch wrestling . Promoters wanted their matches to look realistic and so preferred to recruit wrestlers with real grappling skills. In
10123-740: The Super J-Cup when he defeated Dragon Lee . On August 31 at Royal Quest , NJPW's first independently promoted show in the United Kingdom, Kenta defeated Tomohiro Ishii for the NEVER Openweight Championship , thus winning his first championship in NJPW and bringing the title to Bullet Club. At the Destruction in Kobe event, White defeated Tetsuya Naito to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship in
10314-776: The United States , Mexico , Japan , and northwest Europe (the United Kingdom , Germany/Austria and France ), which have each developed distinct styles, traditions, and subgenres within professional wrestling. Professional wrestling has developed its own culture and community , including a distinct vernacular . It has achieved mainstream success and influence within popular culture , with many terms, tropes , and concepts being referenced in everyday language as well as in film , music , television , and video games . Likewise, numerous professional wrestlers have become national or international icons with recognition by
10505-474: 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
10696-584: The 1920s, a group of wrestlers and promoters known as the Gold Dust Trio introduced moves which have since become staples of the mock combat of professional wrestling, such as body slams, suplexes , punches, finishing moves, and out-of-ring count-outs. By the early 1930s, most wrestlers had adopted personas to generate public interest. These personas could broadly be characterized as either faces (likeable) or heels (villainous). Native Americans, cowboys, and English aristocrats were staple characters in
10887-400: The 1930s and 1940s. Before the age of television, some wrestlers played different personas depending on the region they were performing in. This eventually came to an end in the age of national television wrestling shows, which forced wrestlers to stick to one persona. Wrestlers also often used some sort of gimmick, such as a finishing move, eccentric mannerisms, or out-of-control behavior (in
11078-509: The 1990s, WCW became a credible rival to the WWF, but by end it suffered from a series of creative missteps that led to its failure and purchase by the WWF. One of its mistakes was that it diminished the glamor of its World Heavyweight Championship . Between January 2000 and March 2001, the title changed hands eighteen times, which sapped fan enthusiasm, particularly for the climactic pay-per-view matches. In professional wrestling, two factors decide
11269-411: The 19th century, who later sought to make matches shorter, more entertaining, and less physically taxing. As the public gradually realized and accepted that matches were predetermined, wrestlers responded by increasingly adding melodrama, gimmickry, and outlandish stunt work to their performances to further enhance the spectacle . By at least the early 20th century, professional wrestling had diverged from
11460-919: The AEW World Trios Championship in a winners take all championship unification match to unify the titles and become recognized as the Unified World Trios Champions. When Bullet Club Gold (who since became known as the Bang Bang Gang) were stripped of the Unified Trios Titles on July 10, 2024 ( aired July 13), the AEW and ROH titles were separated, thus ending the unification. The standard AEW World Trios Championship belts were made by Ron Edwardsen of Red Leather Belts. They have five gold plates on black leather straps. The circular center plate has
11651-454: The American independent circuit and only booked to work NJPW's larger events, Anderson was positioned as the new leader of Bullet Club, while also acting as their mouthpiece. However, Styles was considered the leader of the ROH version of Bullet Club, a role which was also given to him by NJPW by the end of 2015. Styles, however, has maintained that he was never the leader as, according to him,
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#173277677424911842-653: The Atlantic Athletic Corporation (AAC). The AAC shut down in 1960. In 1958, Omaha promoter and NWA member Joe Dusek recognized Verne Gagne as the world champion without the approval of the NWA. Gagne asked for a match against the recognized NWA champion Pat O'Connor. The NWA refused to honor the request, so Gagne and Minneapolis promoter Wally Karbo established the American Wrestling Association in 1960. This AWA should not be confused with Paul Bowser's AWA, which ceased operations just two months prior. Gagne's AWA operated out of Minnesota . Unlike
12033-608: The Best of the Super Juniors 2018 tournament, but ended up losing to Hiromu Takahashi in the finals. On June 9 at Dominion in Osaka-jo Hall , the Young Bucks defeated Evil and Sanada to win the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships for the first time, and Omega would defeat Kazuchika Okada 2 falls to 1 to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the first time, ending Okada's reign as
12224-609: 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 (WCW) stable New World Order (nWo). 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
12415-700: The Dangerous Tekkers. On June 23, At Kizuna Road Taiji Ishimori and El Phantasmo defeated Roppongi 3K to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for the third time. Following Roppongi 3K 's break-up during the August 16, 2021, edition of Super Junior Tag League , a grudge match between Sho and Yoh was set up on night one of Wrestle Grand Slam in MetLife Dome which Sho won. After
12606-819: The Fallen , All Elite Wrestling (AEW) announced a tournament for the inaugural AEW World Trios Championship, which would culminate at the All Out pay-per-view on September 4, 2022. Unlike the AEW World Tag Team Championship , which is a standard tag team title contested by teams of two wrestlers, the Trios Championship is contested by teams of three wrestlers, referred to as trios. At All Out, The Elite ( Kenny Omega , Matt Jackson , and Nick Jackson ) defeated "Hangman" Adam Page and The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds and John Silver ) in
12797-519: The February 3 episode of AEW Dynamite , Kenta appeared and launched a sneak attack on current IWGP United States Champion Jon Moxley after Moxley attacked Kenny Omega. After the match, Omega said he would team with Kenta in a match against Moxley and Lance Archer . At The New Beginning USA on February 26 Kenta finally received his title match against Moxley, but ultimately lost. At Road to Castle Attack on February 25 Ishimori and Phantasmo lost
12988-475: The Heavyweight and Intercontinental titles from Ibushi. In a backstage comment after the match, White without Gedo teased quitting the company, stating, "maybe my time should be spent somewhere else." At New Year's Dash the following day, White took the pin fall in a ten-man tag team match with Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, EVIL, and Yujiro Takahashi, against CHAOS members Yoshi-Hashi, Tomohiro Ishii, Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto and Toru Yano (Ishii pinned White after
13179-469: The IWGP Heavyweight Championship, but his plan of obtaining one through the 2017 New Japan Cup was derailed, when he was eliminated in his first round match by Tomohiro Ishii. After defeating Ishii in a rematch on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2017 , Omega was nominated by Kazuchika Okada for an IWGP Heavyweight Championship rematch at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall . On June 11 at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall , The Young Bucks defeated Roppongi Vice to win
13370-754: The IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Champion with the help of Bullet Club's new member Dick Togo . After the match, Evil announced that he had taken over control of Bullet Club in White's absence, becoming the stable's first Japanese leader. On August 21, 2020 Kenta defeated David Finlay to win the first ever New Japan Cup USA , and therefore earn a future match for the IWGP United States Championship . On August 29, 2020, at Summer Struggle in Jingu , Ishimori would bring back
13561-619: 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
13752-427: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship back and Anderson and Gallows lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship. 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,
13943-486: 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
14134-584: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions ended on June 21 at Dominion 6.21 , where 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
14325-486: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship back to Suzuki-Gun. On Night 1 of Castle Attack Jay White defeated Tomohiro Ishii in the semi-main event while Evil lost to Kazuchika Okada in the main event. On the second night G.O.D. successfully retained their IWGP Tag Team titles against the team of Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi while El Phantasmo failed to win the vacant IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship . On June 1, G.O.D. lost their IWGP Tag Team Championships to
14516-405: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for the sixth time. In the main event of the show, Omega and Okada wrestled to a 60-minute time limit draw for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. The match also started a storyline, where Omega and Cody began having problems with each other with Cody wanting to throw in the towel for Omega, insisting he was too badly injured. On June 23 at Best in
14707-400: 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-American in time for
14898-612: The Impact roster, establishing them and Bey as a U.S. based branch of the stable in Impact Wrestling. By late January, Jay White would return to Impact Wrestling and bring the G.O.D. along with him. On February 9, Jay White would walk through the Forbidden Door to AEW by seemingly helping The Elite take out Trent Barreta and Rocky Romero . At Impact Wrestling's No Surrender PPV, Jay White attacked G.O.D, costing them
15089-764: The Intercontinental Championship back to Naito (night 1), LIJ (Evil, Takagi and Bushi) defeated Taguchi Japan (Makabe, Yano, and Taguchi) (c), Chaos (Ishii, Hashi and Eagles), Suzuki-gun (Taichi, Desperado and Kanemaru) and Bullet Club (Fale, Takahashi and Owens) in a Gauntlet match for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championships (night 2), Ishimori and Phantasmo would lose the Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships back to Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh w/ Rocky Romero) (night 2), and Kenta would lose
15280-556: The Jr. Heavyweight Title to Dragon Lee in a triple threat match that also involved Bandido and in the Main Event Jay White lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship to Kazuchika Okada. Ishimori, Phantasmo, and Eagles would all enter the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, with Ishimori ending with 14 points, Phantasmo ending with 12 points, and Eagles ending with 10 points. Ishimori and Phantasmo would defeat Roppongi 3K to win
15471-677: The Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles on June 16, 2019. On June 30, at Southern Showdown in Sydney, Australia, Robbie Eagles defected from Bullet Club after refusing to hit Will Ospreay with a chair at the request of White, Jado, and Bad Luck Fale. Eagles hit White with a superkick and helped Ospreay up to his feet, then aided Ospreay, Hiroshi Tanahashi , and Kazuchika Okada in fending off the Bullet Club members, following which they accepted him as an official member of CHAOS, completing his defection. On August 12, at
15662-693: The Mexican Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) 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
15853-590: The NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship, beginning 2018 with six members of Bullet Club holding championships in NJPW (the others being Omega and the Young Bucks with the IWGP United States Championship and the IWGP Jr. Tag Team Championships respectively). At the same event, Bullet Club, with Cody leading, attempted to attack Kota Ibushi with a chair following a 10-man tag match, but were stopped by Omega, teasing tension between
16044-504: The NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. On the July 19 tapings for Impact Wrestling , Chris Bey took on Juice Robinson and after the match, Jay White gave Bey a Bullet Club shirt and the two threw up the "Too Sweet", making Bey the first African American wrestler and first active Impact star to join Bullet Club. Throughout the summer of 2021, Hikuleo and El Phantasmo would begin making frequent appearances in Impact Wrestling, and by fall would ultimately become listed as members of
16235-465: The NEVER Openweight Championship to Goto (night 2) and Jay White (w/ Gedo) defeated Kota Ibushi (night 2), the latter being Bullet Club's first and only win. After defeating Kazuchika Okada in the New Japan Cup 2020 finals, Evil would turn on Los Ingobernables de Japon stablemate Tetsuya Naito and joined Bullet Club. The next night at Dominion in Osaka-jo Hall , Evil defeated Naito to become
16426-408: The NWA, at which point his territory became fair game for everyone. The NWA would blacklist wrestlers who worked for independent promoters or who publicly criticized an NWA promoter or who did not throw a match on command. If an independent promoter tried to establish himself in a certain area, the NWA would send their star performers to perform for the local NWA promoter to draw the customers away from
16617-488: The NWA, which only allowed faces to be champions, Gagne occasionally allowed heels to win the AWA championship so that they could serve as foils for him. In August 1983, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), a promotion in the north-east , withdrew from the NWA. Vince K. McMahon then took over as its boss. No longer bound by the territorial pact of the NWA, McMahon began expanding his promotion into
16808-475: The ROH World Tag Team Championship for the second time and Guerrillas of Destiny regained the IWGP Tag Team Championship, but Adam Cole lost the ROH World Championship. On January 4, 2017, at Wrestle Kingdom 11 , The Young Bucks lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to Roppongi Vice. while the Guerrillas of Destiny lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship to Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano. In
16999-454: The ROH tag team The Kingdom ( Matt Taven and Michael Bennett ). The Young Bucks regained the title on May 3 at Wrestling 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
17190-482: The Tongans, before Yujiro Takahashi and Owens attempted to bring the conflict to a halt; the Tongans ultimately dismantled all four. Cody then came out and was offered a chance to attack Omega with a steel chair, only to go after the Tongans and be attacked as well. As the Tongans left, declaring themselves to be the true Bullet Club, Omega and Cody embraced, finally realigning and in effect restoring Omega's leadership of
17381-561: The World , Cody defeated Christopher Daniels to bring the ROH World Championship back to Bullet Club. On July 1, during the first night of G1 Special in USA , Cody unsuccessfully challenged Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. During the match, Omega, playing off what had happened at Dominion, walked out, wanting to throw in the towel for Cody, which led to Cody confronting him after the show. The following day, Omega defeated Tomohiro Ishii in
17572-426: The Young Bucks defeated Roppongi 3K ( Sho and Yoh ) to regain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. Also at the event, Fale and the Guerrillas of Destiny lost the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship and Marty Scurll lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship back to Will Ospreay . The following night at New Year Dash!! 2018, Fale and the G.O.D. defeated Beretta, Ishii and Yano to win back
17763-401: The arena's loudspeakers, his being Pomp and Circumstance . He also wore a costume: a robe and hairnet, which he removed after getting in the ring. He also had a pre-match ritual where his "butler" would spray the ring with perfume. In the 1980s, Vince McMahon made entrance songs, costumes, and rituals standard for his star wrestlers. For instance, McMahon's top star Hulk Hogan would delight
17954-418: The art of staging rigged matches and fostered a mentality that spectators were marks to be duped. The term kayfabe comes from carny slang. By the turn of the 20th century, most professional wrestling matches were "worked" and some journalists exposed the practice: American wrestlers are notorious for the amount of faking they do. It is because of this fact that suspicion attaches to so many bouts that
18145-561: The audience by tearing his shirt off before each match. The first major promoter cartel emerged on the East Coast, although up to that point, wrestling's heartland had been in the Midwest. Notable members of this cartel included Jack Curley , Lou Daro, Paul Bowser and Tom and Tony Packs. The promoters colluded to solve a number of problems that hurt their profits. Firstly, they could force their wrestlers to perform for less money. As
18336-528: The bottom of their block with a record of three wins and four losses. On December 5 at Shine Wrestling 's Shine 23, Amber O'Neal joined the group when she was confronted by her former tag team partner Santana Garrett who made her return and stopped O'Neal's attacked on her schedule opponent Luscious Latasha, with O'Neal explaining her actions and new attitude to Garrett, that she only knew Amber O'Neal and proceed to renamed herself by her marriage name as Amber Gallows, "The Bullet Babe". She challenged Garrett for
18527-587: The brand-new promotion All Elite Wrestling . At the end of 2018, Taiji Ishimori and Robbie Eagles ended the Super Jr. Tag League in a tie for 4th place with 3 wins and 4 losses for a total score of 6, while Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa lost in the finals of the World Tag League 2018 against Los Ingobernables de Japón (Evil and Sanada). Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi rejoined Bullet Club at New Year Dash. On December 22, Tama Tonga announced that White
18718-412: The broader public. In the United States, wrestling is generally practiced in an amateur context. No professional league for competitive wrestling exists due to a lack of popularity. For example, Real Pro Wrestling , an American professional freestyle wrestling league, dissolved in 2007 after just two seasons. In other countries, such as Iran and India , wrestling enjoys widespread popularity as
18909-424: The cartel grew, there were fewer independent promoters where independent wrestlers could find work, and many were forced to sign a contract with the cartel to receive steady work. The contracts forbade them from performing at independent venues. A wrestler who refused to play by the cartel's rules was barred from performing at its venues. A second goal of the wrestling cartels was to establish an authority to decide who
19100-418: The case of heels). The matches could also be gimmicky sometimes, with wrestlers fighting in mud and piles of tomatoes and so forth. The most successful and enduring gimmick to emerge from the 1930s were tag-team matches. Promoters noticed that matches slowed down as the wrestlers in the ring tired, so they gave them partners to relieve them. It also gave heels another way to misbehave by double-teaming. Towards
19291-412: The championship belts. The belts featured mostly the same basic design as the standard belts, but with silver plates instead of gold (the globe was also black instead of blue). The side plates were also changed to The House of Black's logos with a vertical "HOB" tooled into the leather between the outer side plates and the button snaps. After The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens, Max Caster, and Billy Gunn) won
19482-423: The character in shows must be considered fictional, wholly separate from the life of the performer. This is similar to other entertainers who perform with a persona that shares their own name. Some wrestlers also incorporate elements of their real-life personalities into their characters, even if they and their in-ring persona have different names. Kayfabe is the practice of pretending that professional wrestling
19673-512: The commission. The Commission did on very rare occasions hand out such authorizations, such as for a championship match between Jim Londos and Jim Browning in June 1934. This decree did not apply to amateur wrestling, which the commission had no authority over. Wrestling fans widely suspected that professional wrestling was fake, but they did not care as long as it entertained. In 1933, a wrestling promoter named Jack Pfefer started talking about
19864-468: The competitive sport to become an artform and genre of sports entertainment . Professional wrestling is performed around the world through various " promotions ", which are roughly analogous to production companies or sports leagues . Promotions vary considerably in size, scope, and creative approach, ranging from local shows on the independent circuit , to internationally broadcast events at major arenas. The largest and most influential promotions are in
20055-540: The current fashion of wrestling is the universal discussion as to the honesty of the matches. And certainly the most interesting phrase of this discussion is the unanimous agreement: "Who cares if they're fixed or not—the show is good." Newspapers tended to shun professional wrestling, as journalists saw its theatrical pretense to being a legitimate sport as untruthful. Eventually promoters resorted to publishing their own magazines in order to get press coverage and communicate with fans. The first professional wrestling magazine
20246-405: The end of the 1930s, faced with declining revenues, promoters chose to focus on grooming charismatic wrestlers with no regard for their skill because it was charisma that drew the crowds, and wrestlers who were both skilled at grappling and charismatic were hard to come by. Since most of the public by this time knew and accepted that professional wrestling was fake, realism was no longer paramount and
20437-521: The episode's scheduled six-man tag team match between Death Triangle ( Pac , Penta El Zero M , and Rey Fénix ) and Best Friends ( Chuck Taylor , Trent Beretta , and Orange Cassidy ) would be for the vacant Trios Championship, which was won by Death Triangle. During Dynasty : Zero Hour on April 21, 2024, Ring of Honor World Six-Man Tag Team Champions Bullet Club Gold ( Jay White , Austin Gunn , and Colten Gunn ) defeated The Acclaimed ( Anthony Bowens , Max Caster , and Billy Gunn ) to win
20628-603: The facade of kayfabe as best as they could. In 1989, Vince McMahon testified before the New Jersey government that professional wrestling was not a true sport and therefore should be exempted from sports-related taxes. Many wrestlers and fans resented McMahon for this, but Lou Thesz accepted it as the smart move as it gave the industry more freedom to do as it pleased, and because by that point professional wrestling no longer attempted to appear real. The demise of WCW in 2001 provided some evidence that kayfabe still mattered to
20819-482: The fifth leader of the group. Due to COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions in 2020, a portion of the group (including White) could not travel to Japan, with Evil becoming the de facto sixth leader and the leader of the Japan-based contingent of the group, while White (along with other members unable to go back to Japan) established a U.S.-based branch. Even after travel restrictions began easing as time went on,
21010-452: 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 ( 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
21201-456: 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
21392-454: The finals of an eight-man tournament to become the inaugural IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion . Later that month, three members of Bullet Club took part in the 2017 G1 Climax ; Fale in block A and Omega and Tonga in block B. Omega won his block and advanced to the finals of the tournament with a record of seven wins and two losses by defeating IWGP Heavyweight Champion Okada in their third match against each other on August 12. During
21583-505: 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 , The Young Bucks regained the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, Omega lost
21774-482: The first for Castagnoli and Yuta and the record-tying second for Pac. They won the titles by defeating previous champions The Patriarchy ( Christian Cage , Killswitch , and Nick Wayne), Bang Bang Gang ( Juice Robinson , Austin Gunn, and Colten Gunn), and House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews) in a four-way London Ladder match at All In on August 25, 2024 in London, England . They originally won
21965-470: The first place. "Double-crosses", where a wrestler agreed to lose a match but nevertheless fought to win, remained a problem in the early cartel days. At times a promoter would even award a victorious double-crosser the title of champion to preserve the facade of sport. But promoters punished such wrestlers by blacklisting them, making it quite challenging to find work. Double-crossers could also be sued for breach of contract, such as Dick Shikat in 1936. In
22156-472: 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 (ROH) events, have to be approved by NJPW booker Gedo . On February 3, 2013, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Prince Devitt pinned IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi in
22347-542: The first time in G1 Climax history that the winner would fail to successfully defend their challenge rights certificate. In the main event, Evil attempted to regain the Heavyweight and Intercontinental titles from Naito, with White interfering towards the end of the match, and teasing an attack on Evil before proceeding to attack Naito instead; however, Ibushi chased White away, and Naito eventually defeated Evil to retain his titles. At Wrestle Kingdom 15, White failed to win
22538-549: 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
22729-610: The game is not popular here. Nine out of ten bouts, it has been said, are pre-arranged affairs, and it would be no surprise if the ratio of fixed matches to honest ones was really so high. The wrestler Lou Thesz recalled that between 1915 and 1920, a series of exposés in the newspapers about the integrity of professional wrestling alienated a lot of fans, sending the industry "into a tailspin". But rather than perform more shoot matches, professional wrestlers instead committed themselves wholesale to fakery. Several reasons explain why professional wrestling became fake whereas boxing endured as
22920-460: The government. They pledged to stop allocating exclusive territories to its promoters, to stop blacklisting wrestlers who worked for outsider promoters, and to admit any promoter into the Alliance. The NWA would flout many of these promises, but its power was nonetheless weakened by the lawsuit. Paul Bowser's AWA joined the NWA in 1949. The AWA withdrew from the Alliance in 1957 and renamed itself
23111-457: The group "[did not] follow anybody". 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
23302-670: The group back to White, resulting in two simultaneous de facto leaders, with other members aligning more with one or the other. Both White (in block A) and Evil (in block B) came close to winning their respective blocks with scores of 12, but were ultimately unsuccessful. On November 7 at Power Struggle , Kenta successfully defended his New Japan Cup USA-earned IWGP United States Championship challenge rights certificate, while White defeated G1 Climax winner Kota Ibushi to win Ibushi's IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships challenge rights certificate for Wrestle Kingdom 15 , marking
23493-466: The group on their side. Fale and Hikuleo were shown to have aligned with the Bullet Club OG contingent in a video entitled "Don't Call it a Comeback" on G.O.D.'s official YouTube channel. During a livestream on Instagram on August 10, 2018, Tama Tonga confirmed that Ishimori is aligned with Bullet Club OG. On the final of the G1 Climax 28, the trio of Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa and Taiji Ishimori beat
23684-486: The head-to-head match between Omega and Tonga, which was won by the former, tensions escalated between the two with Tonga questioning Omega's leadership of Bullet Club due to his association with The Elite. On August 13, Omega was defeated in the finals of the 2017 G1 Climax by Tetsuya Naito. On September 6, it was announced that Tonga and Loa's youngest brother, NJPW young lion Leo Tonga , was joining Bullet Club, replacing Omega on an upcoming tour due to him having suffered
23875-526: The independent. By 1956, the NWA controlled 38 promotions within the United States, with more in Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. The NWA's monopolistic practices became so stifling that the independents appealed to the government for help. In October 1956 the US Attorney General's office filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NWA in an Iowa federal district court. The NWA settled with
24066-492: The individual wrestlers are paid or have been paid for their performance in a professional wrestling exhibition. All engagements of professional wrestling shall be referred to as exhibitions, and not as matches. In the industry's slang, a fixed match is referred to as a worked match, derived from the slang word for manipulation, as in "working the crowd". A shoot match is a genuine contest where both wrestlers fight to win and are therefore "straight shooters", which comes from
24257-480: The industry was anything but a competitive sport. The first wrestling promoter to publicly admit to routinely fixing matches was Jack Pfefer . In 1933, he started talking about the industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , resulting in a huge exposé. The exposé neither surprised nor alienated most wrestling fans, although some promoters like Jack Curley were furious and tried to restore
24448-496: The industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , maintaining no pretense that wrestling was real and passing on planned results just before the matches took place. While fans were neither surprised nor alienated, traditionalists like Jack Curley were furious, and most promoters tried to maintain the facade of kayfabe as best they could. Not the least interesting of all the minor phenomena produced by
24639-468: The longest champion in history at 720 days. After the match, Omega made peace with the Young Bucks in the ring, and would announce during the post match comments that Ibushi, the Young Bucks, and himself had the formed a new sub-group called The Golden Elite. The following day at a press conference aired on NJPW World, Omega confirmed that he and the Young Bucks were still a part of the Bullet Club, as well as clarifying that while Ibushi had joined The Elite, he
24830-449: The main event of the show, Omega unsuccessfully challenged Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Afterwards, Omega took a hiatus from NJPW to "reassess [his] future". Upon his return on February 26, a new storyline involving tension between Omega and Cole was started, with The Young Bucks caught in the middle. On February 11, Frankie Kazarian joined Bullet Club, turning on longtime tag team partner Christopher Daniels at
25021-455: The main event. At Wrestle Kingdom 14 (Jan 4th-5th), Bullet Club went on a losing streak at the event when they lost 6 of 7 of their matches at the event, Chaos (Goto, Ishii, Yano and Hashi) defeated Bullet Club's KENTA, Fale, Takahashi and Owens w/ Pieter) (night 1), Guerillas of Destiny (Tonga and Loa) would lose the IWGP tag team championships to Robinson and Finlay (night 1), White would lose
25212-450: The match, Bullet Club's EVIL , Yujiro Takahashi , and Dick Togo would enter the ring and present SHO with a Bullet Club shirt signalling SHO's welcoming into Bullet Club. They would announce the four of them would form a subgroup within Bullet Club called House of Torture. On November 6 at Power Struggle , Kenta defeated Hiroshi to win the IWGP United States Championship while House of Torture defeated Yoshi, Tomohiro, and Hirooki to win
25403-523: The members of Bullet Club who are stationed mainly in NJPW. On April 7, Omega and Cody fought in a singles match at Supercard of Honor XII . During the match, the Young Bucks attempted to help Omega by superkicking Cody. However, this backfired when Cody moved out of the way, with the Bucks kicking Omega instead. Thanks to this, Cody was able to use the Cross Rhodes on Omega to win the match. Following
25594-498: The members of wrestling cartels as the champion drew big crowds wherever he performed, and this would occasionally lead to schisms. By 1925, this cartel had divided the country up into territories which were the exclusive domains of specific promoters. This system of territories endured until Vince McMahon drove the fragmented cartels out of the market in the 1980s. This cartel fractured in 1929 after one of its members, Paul Bowser , bribed Ed "Strangler" Lewis to lose his championship in
25785-405: 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
25976-417: 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,
26167-589: The name the Bang Bang Gang. Bullet Club was conceived by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) 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 (foreigner) stable . Devitt came up with
26358-429: 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
26549-550: 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
26740-433: The other members of the group. During 2016, Gallows and Anderson also left NJPW after signing a contract with WWE, with their final match in NJPW taking place at Honor Rising: Japan in an eight-man tag team match where Bullet Club lost. However, on March 12, Tonga revealed that his partner for the upcoming IWGP Tag Team Championship match and the newest member of Bullet Club was his real-life brother Tevita Fifita , who
26931-561: The outer side plates were changed to saying "WORLD TRIOS CHAMPION". AEW's logo was also added to the top of each side plate. During Dynasty: Zero Hour in April 2024, ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions Bullet Club Gold (Jay White, Austin Gunn, and Colten Gunn) defeated The Acclaimed to win the AEW World Trios Championship, holding and defending both titles under the Unified World Trios Championship banner, using
27122-512: The premise that the performers are competitive wrestlers. Professional wrestling is distinguished by its scripted outcomes and emphasis on entertainment and showmanship . The staged nature of matches is an open secret , with both wrestlers and spectators nonetheless maintaining the pretense that performances are bona fide competitions, which is likened to the suspension of disbelief employed when engaging with fiction . Professional wrestlers perform as characters and usually maintain
27313-717: The promotion's closing in 1991. In the spring of 1984, the WWF purchased Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), which had been ailing for some time due to financial mismanagement and internal squabbles. In the deal, the WWF acquired the GCW's timeslot on TBS . McMahon agreed to keep showing Georgia wrestling matches in that timeslot, but he was unable to get his staff to Atlanta every Saturday to fulfill this obligation, so he sold GCW and its TBS timeslot to Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). JCP started informally calling itself World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In 1988, Ted Turner bought JCP and formally renamed it World Championship Wrestling. During
27504-439: The purpose of providing entertainment to spectators and which does not comprise a bona fide athletic contest or competition. Professional wrestling is not a combative sport. Wrestling constituting bona fide athletic contests and competitions, which may be professional or amateur combative sport, shall not be deemed professional wrestling under this Part. Professional wrestling as used in this Part shall not depend on whether
27695-441: The rest of Bullet Club turned on Styles and kicked him out of the group with Omega taking over the leadership. Omega also announced his graduation from the junior heavyweight division, stating that he did not want a rematch with Kushida, but instead a match with Nakamura for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. In the aftermath of Omega taking over Bullet Club's leadership, he and The Young Bucks formed their own subgroup within
27886-440: 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
28077-470: 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 Terrible lost
28268-715: The reunion of the Golden☆Lovers and despite not joining Bullet Club as a member, Ibushi would become a regular in Bullet Club tag matches. On May 3, the first night of Wrestling Dontaku 2018 , the trio of the Young Bucks and Scurll defeated Fale and the G.O.D. to capture the NEVER Six-Man Tag Team Championship. During the second night of Wrestling Dontaku, Tama Tonga introduced the new "Bone Soldier", who attacked Ospreay and revealed himself to be Taiji Ishimori . Ishimori would go on to win Block A of
28459-587: 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
28650-404: The stable, called The Elite . Omega and The Young Bucks came up with the idea for The Elite themselves, feeling the need to create something new after being forced by NJPW into Bullet Club and what Omega called a "Too Sweet", "Suck it" parody of the nWo. Omega stated that he and The Young Bucks were The Elite, but accepted if NJPW continued calling them Bullet Club "in parentheses" as the stable
28841-440: The stamina for an hours-long fight. Audiences also preferred short matches. Worked matches also carried less risk of injury, which meant shorter recovery. Altogether, worked matches proved more profitable than shoots. By the end of the 19th century, nearly all professional wrestling matches were worked. A major influence on professional wrestling was carnival culture. Wrestlers in the late 19th century worked in carnival shows. For
29032-506: The standard AEW Trios belts, the ROH World Six-Man belts, and The Acclaimed's custom "scissoring" belts to represent the collective accolade. This would continue until July 2024 when Bullet Club Gold (who had since become known as the Bang Bang Gang) were stripped of the Unified World Trios Championship. This subsequently ended the unification of the AEW and ROH titles with the custom "scissoring" belts also being dropped in favor of
29223-402: The standard AEW World Trios Championship belts. As of November 25, 2024, there have been eight reigns between seven teams composed of 20 individual champions, and two vacancies. The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson) were the inaugural champions and they have the most reigns as a team at two, while individually, all three and Pac are tied, also at two. The Elite's inaugural reign
29414-404: The tag titles to Subculture in a four-way tag team match also involving Rich Swann and Sami Callihan , and Moose and Brian Myers , thanks to The Rascalz interfering in the match. On July 20, during the rematch, The Rascalz once again cost Austin and Bey their rematch against Subculture for the Impact World Tag Team Championships. However, on IMPACT 1000 , Austin and Bey were involved in
29605-426: The territories of his former NWA peers, now his rivals. By the end of the 1980s, the WWF would become the sole national wrestling promotion in the U.S. This was in part made possible by the rapid spread of cable television in the 1980s. The national broadcast networks generally regarded professional wrestling as too niche an interest, and had not broadcast any national wrestling shows since the 1950s. Before cable TV,
29796-571: The time of the NJPW–ROH partnership. The stable continued adding members, most notably Canadian wrestler Kenny Omega , who became the group's 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 form their own group called The Elite , which would eventually form AEW, with New Zealand wrestler Jay White taking over as
29987-475: The title against La Máscara and Rush due to Bucanero being sidelined with an injury. On October 25, American tag team The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) 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 ( Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero ) in the finals to win
30178-428: The title as Blackpool Combat Club, but changed their team name to Death Riders on November 6, 2024. As of November 25, 2024 Professional wrestling Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Professional wrestling (often referred to as pro wrestling , or simply, wrestling ) is a form of athletic theater that combines mock combat with drama , with
30369-410: The title in August 2023, they introduced their own custom "scissoring" championship belts. They featured the same basic design as the standard belts, but with pink straps. Additionally, the ends of the belts were shaped like scissors and said "Scissor Me" on one side and "Daddy Ass" on the other side, referencing their " scissoring " gimmick. The inner side plates were the same as the standard belts, but
30560-552: 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
30751-544: The tournament final to become the inaugural champions. Following berating comments made by reigning AEW World Champion CM Punk at the All Out post-event media scrum on September 5, a legitimate physical altercation occurred between Punk and The Elite. As a result, AEW president Tony Khan suspended all involved. On the September 7 episode of Dynamite , Khan announced that both the World Championship and Trios Championship were vacated. Khan then announced that
30942-460: The tournament in his first attempt as well as the first non-Japanese wrestler in history to win the tournament. During the following month, Captain New Japan and Cody joined Bullet Club. Captain changed his character to "Bone Soldier". The name came from Bullet Club's original shirt, which featured a character named Bone Soldier. In addition, the term had previously also been used as a nickname for members of Bullet Club. Also, The Young Bucks won
31133-441: The tournament, later defeating Suzuki-gun ( Taichi and Taka Michinoku ) 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
31324-500: 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. ( Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer ) to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship . During the same event, Devitt lost
31515-519: The trial, witnesses testified that most of the "big matches" and all of the championship bouts were fixed. By the 1930s, with the exception of the occasional double-cross or business dispute, shoot matches were essentially nonexistent. In April 1930, the New York State Athletic Commission decreed that all professional wrestling matches held in the state had to be advertised as exhibitions unless certified as contests by
31706-494: The trio of the Young Bucks and Marty Scurll for the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Championship. On October 8, 2018, at King of Pro-Wrestling , former Chaos members Jay White, Jado and Gedo joined Bullet Club. Australian wrestler Robbie Eagles was also announced as a new member as Ishimori's tag team partner in the Super Jr. Tag League. On October 24, 2018, Cody announced that he was no longer
31897-471: The truth, their audiences would desert them. Today's performers don't "protect" the industry like we did, but that's primarily because they've already exposed it by relying on silly or downright ludicrous characters and gimmicks to gain popularity with the fans. It was different in my day, when our product was presented as an authentic, competitive sport. We protected it because we believed it would collapse if we ever so much as implied publicly that it
32088-413: The two branch structures would remain in place as they would expand into Impact Wrestling with Chris Bey becoming the first wrestler to join from the Impact roster. In March 2023, David Finlay became the seventh leader of the group. A month later on April 5, 2023, Jay White would make his official debut for AEW, establishing with Juice Robinson a new branch of the group – Bullet Club Gold, they also use
32279-486: 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 Time Splitters 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
32470-457: The two men over the leadership of Bullet Club. On night two of The New Beginning in Sapporo , following Omega's loss of the IWGP United States Championship to Jay White , he was attacked by Cody and hit with the Cross Rhodes, continuing the infighting within the faction. The rivalry between Cody and Omega continued throughout February and March at both Ring Of Honor and NJPW events, beginning
32661-461: 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. Later at Invasion Attack 2014, American wrestler A.J. Styles debuted as
32852-551: The two responded by stating that he could not fire them as Omega, not Cole, was the leader of the stable. On May 12, Omega fired Cole from Bullet Club and gave his spot in the stable to ROH World Television Champion Marty Scurll . Two days later, on the final night of the tour, Scurll lost the ROH World Television Championship to Kushida, following a distraction from Cole. In the months following Wrestle Kingdom 11, Omega looked for another shot at
33043-405: The venue, in a format similar to reality television . Performers generally integrate authentic wrestling techniques and fighting styles with choreography , stunts , improvisation , and dramatic conventions designed to maximize entertainment value and audience engagement. Professional wrestling as a performing art evolved from the common practice of match-fixing among American wrestlers in
33234-535: The way of proceedings: the "in-show" happenings, presented through the shows; and real-life happenings outside the work that have implications, such as performer contracts, legitimate injuries, etc. Because actual life events are often co-opted by writers for incorporation into storylines of performers, the lines between real life and fictional life are often blurred and become confused. Special discern must be taken with people who perform under their own name (such as Kurt Angle and his fictional persona ). The actions of
33425-420: The wrestlers quietly began faking their matches so that they could give their audiences a satisfying spectacle. Fixing matches was also convenient for scheduling. A real ("shoot") match could sometimes last hours, whereas a fixed ("worked") match can be made short, which was convenient for wrestlers on tour who needed to keep appointments or share venues. It also suited wrestlers who were aging and therefore lacked
33616-425: Was Wrestling As You Like It , which printed its first issue in 1946. These magazines were faithful to kayfabe . Before the advent of television, professional wrestling's fanbase largely consisted of children, the elderly, blue-collar workers and minorities. When television arose in the 1940s, professional wrestling got national exposure on prime-time television and gained widespread popularity. Professional wrestling
33807-746: Was announced that El Phantasmo would be joining Bullet Club. On April 6, at G1 Supercard in Madison Square Garden the Guerrillas of Destiny retained their IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Titles and won the ROH World Tag Team Titles from Villain Enterprises (Brody King and PCO) in a Winner take all Fatal 4 Way Match that also involved the Teams of Los Ingobernables de Japón (Evil and Sanada) and The Briscoe Brothers (Mark and Jay Briscoe). The same night however Taiji Ishimori lost
33998-488: Was challenges from independent wrestlers. But a cartelized wrestler, if challenged, could credibly use his contractual obligations to his promoter as an excuse to refuse the challenge. Promotions would sometimes respond to challenges with "policemen": powerful wrestlers who lacked the charisma to become stars, but could defeat and often seriously injure any challenger in a shoot match. As the industry trend continued, there were fewer independent wrestlers to make such challenges in
34189-470: 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 and GFW manager Scott D'Amore joined the group when both Jarrett and D'Amore cleared the ring from Bullet Club's attack on Tanahashi, then Jarrett proceeded on attacking Tanahashi with a custom Bullet Club guitar after he had defeated Styles in a non-title match. On September 21 at Destruction in Kobe , Fale lost
34380-401: Was established on July 27, 2022, and the inaugural champions were The Elite ( Kenny Omega , Matt Jackson , and Nick Jackson ). From April until July 2024, the AEW World Trios Championship and Ring of Honor 's World Six-Man Tag Team Championship were held and defended together as the Unified World Trios Championship. On the July 27, 2022, special episode of Dynamite titled Fight for
34571-511: 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 (Matt and Nick Jackson) and Doc Gallows . Wrestlers from
34762-563: Was given the ring name "Hangman Page", which he eventually also began using in ROH. Before summer, several members of the Bullet Club won titles, like the Young Bucks winning the IWGP Jr. Tag team Titles, Guerrillas of Destiny winning the IWGP Tag Team Titles and Omega winning the Intercontinental title. However, the biggest accomplishment was Omega winning the 2016 G1 Climax , becoming the third wrestler to win
34953-969: Was not a member of Bullet Club. Omega also claimed he was still the leader of Bullet Club, and announced that his first defense of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship would be against Cody at the G1 Special at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. On July 7, at the G1 Special, Omega defeated Cody to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Title. After Omega's usual post-match address to the fans, he and The Young Bucks were joined by Tonga, Loa and King Haku . The Tongans appeared to be congratulating Omega, only to attack them soon after, revealing new "B.C. Firing Squad" T-shirts, as they did so. Page and Scurll both came to The Elite's defense by attacking
35144-650: Was previously considered a niche interest, but the TV networks at the time were short on content and thus were willing to try some wrestling shows. In the 1960s, however, the networks moved on to more mainstream interests such as baseball, and professional wrestling was dropped. The core audience then shrunk back to a profile similar to that of the 1930s. In 1989, Vince McMahon was looking to exempt his promotion (the World Wrestling Federation ) from sports licensing fees. To achieve this, he testified before
35335-472: Was pushed away by the disappointed Junior Heavyweight Champion. The following weeks, Devitt began portraying a more cocky and villainous 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 attacked Taguchi, after
35526-415: Was something other than what it appeared to be. I'm not sure now the fear was ever justified given the fact that the industry is still in existence today, but the point is no one questioned the need then. "Protecting the business" in the face of criticism and skepticism was the first and most important rule a pro wrestler learned. No matter how aggressive or informed the questioner, you never admitted
35717-413: Was stopped by the returning Yoshitatsu (Jarrett would leave the faction shortly after). 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
35908-417: Was the "world champion". Before the cartels, there were multiple wrestlers in the U.S. simultaneously calling themselves the "world champion", and this sapped public enthusiasm for professional wrestling. Likewise, the cartel could agree on a common set of match rules that the fans could keep track of. The issue over who got to be the champion and who controlled said champion was a major point of contention among
36099-493: Was the new leader of the Bullet Club. At Wrestle Kingdom 13, White defeated Okada in a singles match. Also, during the event Ishimori defeated Kushida to win the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title. At The New Beginning in Osaka, White defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi with a Blade Runner to win the IWGP Heavyweight Title. On February 23, Guerillas of Destiny would capture their fifth tag team heavyweight championship against EVIL and Sanada of Los Ingobernables de Japón at Honor Rising. On March 8, it
36290-502: Was their "cash cow". He explained the name change by stating that following Anderson, Gallows and Styles' departures from NJPW, "Bullet Club [was not] so much the Bullet Club anymore". Omega later added his opinion that Anderson, Gallows and Styles' departures had "watered down" Bullet Club's ranks, which is why he wanted to push The Elite to the forefront, claiming that when people said that "Bullet Club [had] been doing some really cool stuff", they always meant him and The Young Bucks and not
36481-500: Was two days later given the ring name "Tanga Loa", with the tag team between him and Tonga dubbed " Guerrillas of Destiny " (GOD). In ROH, Anderson, Gallows, and Styles left the stable in a more peaceful goodbye, compared to their more violent NJPW departure, where the stable kicked them out by beating them up. Also, ROH wrestlers Adam Cole and Adam Page joined the stable in May. Cole went on to form another Bullet Club sub-group with The Young Bucks, named "Superkliq". In NJPW, Page
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