Bullet Club

Bullet Club (バレットクラブ, Barettokurabu), stylized as BULLET CLUB and sometimes shortened to BC, is a <a href="/facts/Professional_wrestling/wtYLlT50">professional wrestling</a> <a href="/facts/Glossary_of_professional_wrestling_terms/Uhv1cA22">stable</a> primarily appearing in the Japanese <a href="/facts/Professional_wrestling_promotion/guFrxaB6">promotion</a> <a href="/facts/New_Japan_Pro-Wrestling/PaVP15Yv">New Japan Pro-Wrestling</a> (NJPW). 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 <a href="/facts/Total_Nonstop_Action_Wrestling/radkD74Q">Total Nonstop Action Wrestling</a> (TNA, formerly Impact Wrestling) and <a href="/facts/All_Elite_Wrestling/jGTFwtfF">All Elite Wrestling</a> (AEW). The group additionally appears on events promoted by Tamashii, NJPW's <a href="/facts/Australasia/KCCr5pqh">Australasian</a> affiliate, as well as on events of other Australasian <a href="/facts/Independent_circuit/pPE8aygT">independent promotions</a>.
The group was formed in May 2013 when Irish wrestler <a href="/facts/Finn_B%25C3%25A1lor/bmmWrwNc">Prince Devitt</a> betrayed his Japanese partner <a href="/facts/Ryusuke_Taguchi/7m7g5Xfw">Ryusuke Taguchi</a> and came together with American wrestler <a href="/facts/Karl_Anderson/YG5Jc0ea">Karl Anderson</a> and Tongan wrestlers <a href="/facts/Bad_Luck_Fale/cHuxF6fm">Bad Luck Fale</a> and <a href="/facts/Tama_Tonga/9mFVYdKg">Tama Tonga</a> to form a <a href="/facts/Heel_(professional_wrestling)/c5QnY4Qf">villainous</a> stable of foreigners, which they subsequently named Bullet Club. Before the end of the year, the stable was also joined by three other Americans, <a href="/facts/The_Young_Bucks/4AyhHHCs">The Young Bucks</a> (Matt and Nick Jackson) and <a href="/facts/Doc_Gallows/BIuHSJfe">Doc Gallows</a>. Wrestlers from the Mexican <a href="/facts/Consejo_Mundial_de_Lucha_Libre/6lVFWFTR">Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre</a> (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 <a href="/facts/IWGP_Junior_Heavyweight_Championship/b2Hu28cp">IWGP Junior Heavyweight</a> and <a href="/facts/IWGP_Junior_Heavyweight_Tag_Team_Championship/L0bB46oV">IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships</a> while also having conquered three of NJPW's five annual tournaments. The stable marked a major turning point for the career of Devitt, a longtime <a href="/facts/Face_(professional_wrestling)/JPRUkGPR">fan favorite</a>, who began his ascent out of the <a href="/facts/Cruiserweight_(professional_wrestling)/UKBNUssF">junior heavyweight</a> division and into the <a href="/facts/IWGP_Heavyweight_Championship/MFfLw9jc">IWGP Heavyweight Championship</a> picture.
In April 2014, Devitt left NJPW and was replaced in Bullet Club by American wrestler <a href="/facts/AJ_Styles/c570018k">AJ Styles</a>. The following month, Bullet Club received its first Japanese member when <a href="/facts/Yujiro_Takahashi/6VPwLKKq">Yujiro Takahashi</a> betrayed his former partners in <a href="/facts/Chaos_(professional_wrestling)/xBEff0G1">Chaos</a> to help Styles capture the <a href="/facts/IWGP_Heavyweight_Championship/MFfLw9jc">IWGP Heavyweight Championship</a>, meaning that the stable had now held all titles NJPW had to offer. When NJPW added a seventh title (the <a href="/facts/NEVER_Openweight_6-Man_Tag_Team_Championship/YVmlzvDL">NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship</a>) at the start of 2016 and an eighth title (the <a href="/facts/IWGP_United_States_Heavyweight_Championship/BERqLGfm">IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship</a>) in July 2017, Bullet Club quickly won them as well. To date, they are the first of three stables (the others being Chaos and <a href="/facts/Taguchi_Japan/kU6jEkIb">Taguchi Japan</a>) to have won every championship available in NJPW. They also held every male championship in <a href="/facts/Ring_of_Honor/1MYyt9kB">Ring of Honor</a> (ROH) (<a href="/facts/ROH_World_Championship/xqyBSQMQ">World</a>, <a href="/facts/ROH_World_Television_Championship/a5z7Xhgj">TV</a>, <a href="/facts/ROH_World_Tag_Team_Championship/vK5ba1gz">World Tag Team</a> and <a href="/facts/ROH_World_Six-Man_Tag_Team_Championship/69CJe47Q">Six-Man</a>) active at the time of the NJPW–ROH partnership. The stable continued adding members, most notably Canadian wrestler <a href="/facts/Kenny_Omega/JRI9la1x">Kenny Omega</a>, who became the group's third leader in early 2016 when Styles, Anderson and Gallows all left NJPW. After a "civil war" between <a href="/facts/The_Elite_(professional_wrestling)/wGBAkjbg">The Elite</a> and OG factions within the stable, Omega, <a href="/facts/Cody_Rhodes/D9uuUU1W">Cody</a>, <a href="/facts/Marty_Scurll/Fqblp1jl">Marty Scurll</a>, <a href="/facts/Adam_Page/tBS1HbRl">Adam Page</a> and The Young Bucks quietly left the faction in October 2018 to continue on their own as The Elite and to later form <a href="/facts/All_Elite_Wrestling/jGTFwtfF">All Elite Wrestling</a> (AEW) with New Zealand wrestler <a href="/facts/Jay_White/BvjkoaU6">Jay White</a> taking over as the fourth leader of the group.
Due to <a href="/facts/COVID-19_pandemic/0xTsh7Ut">COVID-19 pandemic</a> travel restrictions in 2020, a portion of the group (including current leader Jay White) could not travel to Japan, with new member <a href="/facts/Evil_(wrestler)/DBUKgPvK">Evil</a> becoming a temporary top representative member of the group in the Japan-based contingent of the group after turning on long time <a href="/facts/Los_Ingobernables_de_Japon/XTfDEruC">LIJ</a> stablemate, leader and then Double IWGP Champion (Heavyweight and Intercontinental) <a href="/facts/Tetsuya_Naito/bYYqD1wW">Tetsuya Naito</a> after his new japan cup finals win, and went on to win both titles at <a href="/facts/Dominion_in_Osaka-jo_Hall_(2020)/oG2AfUPy">Dominion</a>, while White (along with other members unable to go back to Japan) established a U.S.-based branch and started making appearances in NJPW's US brand <a href="/facts/NJPW_Strong/sRaHgRr2">NJPW Strong</a> and then partner promotion <a href="/facts/Impact_Wrestling/radkD74Q">Impact Wrestling</a>. Even after travel restrictions began easing as time went on, the two branch structures would remain in place as they would expand into Impact Wrestling in 2021 with <a href="/facts/Chris_Bey/2KEk658o">Chris Bey</a> becoming the first wrestler to join from the Impact roster. Later that same year, Evil formed the <a href="/facts/House_of_Torture/X3vKHW03">House of Torture</a> sub group with manager <a href="/facts/Dick_Togo/WvE4srPG">Dick Togo</a>, Yujiro Takahashi and <a href="/facts/Sho_Tanaka/qQYYCHBK">Sho</a>. In March 2023, <a href="/facts/David_Finlay_(wrestler)/gFAFPtsn">David Finlay</a> became the fifth leader of the group and created the Bullet Club War dogs sub group with manager Gedo, former LA Dojo young lions <a href="/facts/Clark_Connors/RYqxt342">Clark Connors</a>, <a href="/facts/Gabe_Kidd/AbxCvnve">Gabe Kidd</a>, <a href="/facts/Alex_Coughlin/QrS0UPrC">Alex Coughlin</a> and <a href="/facts/Drilla_Moloney/SA0qTEqQ">Drilla Moloney</a> (with the latter joining after betraying former stable <a href="/facts/United_Empire/3FJM7XXa">United Empire</a>). A month later on April 5, 2023, Jay White would make his official debut for AEW, establishing with <a href="/facts/Juice_Robinson/Ah5uLV1U">Juice Robinson</a> a new sub group of the group called "Bullet Club Gold" (they also use the name the "Bang Bang Gang") with <a href="/facts/The_Gunns/t19qPwYp">The Gunns</a>.

Bullet Club open-in-new

Bullet Club