For the past decade, there’s a good chance you’ve seen one, two, or a million Bullet Club shirts at pro wrestling shows, concerts, or even the mall, as they’ve been everywhere. The massively popular (and sometimes overstuffed) stable that started in New Japan Pro Wrestling in May 2013 has infiltrated virtually every wrestling promotion like AEW, Ring of Honor, CMLL, and countless indies around the world. While the Bullet Club has never made its way to WWE, many of its former members have.
Long before Cody Rhodes was trying to finish his story at WrestleMania 40, A.J. Styles was putting on wrestling clinics in a WWE ring, and before Finn Balor brought his Demon persona to Titan Towers, they all made a massive impact overseas as key figures in the Bullet Club. But, they aren’t the only ones who have taken that path.
Let’s take a look at seven wrestlers who came to WWE after leaving the Bullet Club.
Cody Rhodes
Cody Rhodes is one of the hottest things in wrestling right now, but before he returned to WWE to help usher in the Triple H era, the “American Nightmare” reinvented himself on the international stage, and a lot of that success was because of his affiliation with Bullet Club. In December 2016, just months after leaving WWE, Rhodes joined the dominant stable of largely international talent and never looked back.
Over the next few years, Rhodes would capture multiple championships in Ring of Honor, New Japan, and various other promotions while being affiliated with the group and its offshoots like Team All In and Bullet Club Elite, which would go on to lead to the creation of AEW.
AJ Styles
Nearly two years before AJ Styles made his shocking WWE debut in the 2016 Royal Rumble, the “Phenomenal One” became one of the biggest international stars in NJPW and the third leader of the Bullet Club. Styles, who spent most of his career with TNA up to that point, helped turn NJPW into one of the hottest promotions on the planet.
During his Bullet Club tenure, Styles won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, one of the most prestigious and respected titles in the world, on two occasions, and put on a series of killer matches against the likes of Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazuchika Okada, and Tetsuya Naito.
Finn Balor
Finn Balor, who was going by Prince Devitt at the time, was the man responsible for getting the Bullet Club off the ground in May 2013, when he, alongside Karl Anderson, Toma Tonga, and Bad Luck Fale started the heel faction of international wrestlers in NJPW.
Though the group’s first leader would stick around for less than a year before he left the company and joined NXT as Finn Balor, Devitt made an immediate and long-lasting impact on the industry, as Bullet Club is still alive and well a decade later. Balor would form the Balor Club in WWE later on, which reunited him with Anderson and Luke Gallows for a short time.
Tama Tonga
Tama Tonga made an immediate impact upon making his WWE debut in April 2024, at which time he aligned with the Bloodline. But, before showing up and kicking off what appears to be the next chapter in the ongoing storyline, the nephew and adopted son of WWE legend Haku spent more than a decade riding roughshod over anyone who got in his way in NJPW.
A founding member of Bullet Club and later Guerillas of Destiny, Tonga was a major force in New Japan from his debut in 2010 until he left the promotion in January 2024, winning the IWGP Tag Team Championship and NEVER Openweight Championship on multiple occasions. By the time he left Bullet Club in 2022, Tonga was one of the group’s longest-serving members. If his WWE run is half as successful, Tonga will be a formidable foe for anyone who gets in his way in WWE.
Karl Anderson
A member of The O.C., or The Club, in WWE, Karl Anderson has spent the majority of his 22-year career working as one of the best tag team wrestlers on the planet, winning championships in major promotions around the world. One of the original members of Bullet Club, Anderson helped get the group off the ground in May 2013 when he and his brothers-in-arms went rogue and started a legendary heel run. Anderson would eventually become the second leader of the group before leaving for WWE in April 2016.
Anderson would later return to NJPW after being released by WWE in 2020, where he and Gallows became a dominant tag team once again, in addition to having some killer singles matches with the likes of Jon Moxley and Toma Tonga. He returned to WWE in 2022.
Luke Gallows
Like Cody Rhodes, Luke Gallows had a WWE career before leaving the company and starting a second chapter in New Japan Pro Wrestling. And just like the “American Nightmare,” Gallows was a longtime Bullet Club member during his time overseas. One of the biggest (in terms of sheer size) and most powerful gaijin wrestlers (non-Japanese performers) of this century, Gallows added a lot to the group in its early days.
With Karl Anderson, Gallows would leave NJPW in April 2016 and immediately make an impact in WWE and eventually won the WWE Tag Team Championship on two occasions (they also won the 2019 WWE Tag Team World Cup). Gallows would be let go by WWE in 2020 along with multiple others as part of COVID-19 budget cuts, but he did return to the company in 2022, where he remains.
Adam Cole
Around a year before Adam Cole joined NXT (where he would put on some iconic matches), the electric wrestler joined Bullet Club during one of its strongest eras. Though he was only part of the stable for just over a year, Cole made a massive impact in NJPW and ROH alongside the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, and various other members.
Cole was kicked out of Bullet Club just before he signed a contract with WWE, but it didn’t take the three-time ROH World Champion long to make his mark in NXT. With the help of the Undisputed Era, a faction he started with Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish, and Roderick Strong, Cole collected all kinds of championships during his tenure. Cole is currently wrestling for AEW where he leads the Undisputed Kingdom stable.
Over the years, we’ve also seen Bullet Club members like Kenta (Hideo Itami in NXT), Juice Robinson (CJ Parker in NXT), and various others go from WWE to NJPW, which could be something to pursue in the future. But for now, you can watch all of these wrestlers in action, along with the promising upcoming WWE events, with a Peacock subscription.
