Bullet Club is in a strange spot but not necessarily bad spot

17 comments

1. Yeah it’s been like this for a while. It seems like their split up until tournaments or crossover events.

   It doesn’t seem like Gedo nor the company cares to really clarify it and just leave it the way it is.

2. They just need to split from HoT, kick out Fale, Chase, and maybe even KENTA. I like the War Dogs. I think that just needs to be Bullet Club.

3. My main complaint is that they aren’t really doing anything with it one way or the other. Either show more of the different subfactions not getting along. Possibly leading to (yet another) NWO Hollywood vs Wolfpac type storyline.

   Or do some sort of storyline where they end up getting along whilst still existing as different groups. It’s not exactly rare for heels to bond over the shared interest of being an asshole.

4. Yup. The problem is that they all are supposes to be part of Bullet Club: if they were simply War Dogs and House of Torture (you can leave BC Gold as such), or Wardogs being recognized as the proper Bullet Club (and maybe Gold also being BC until a feud between both for a Forbidden Door PPV) and HoT was 100% its own thing they probably would be better off than they are right now. Even though to be fair the Wardogs other than Finlay are doing great, but Kenta and specially Chase Owens don’t add anything to the whole thing, HoT doesn’t even have BC logos or anything related and BC Gold is on AEW, so at least for Japanese fans they aren’t much of a factor (and then again, you have a good setup in there for a potential faction warfare that culminates in either the official end of Bullet Club or one of the two becoming the official BC, specially now that Gold might be starting a face lr at least tweener turn).

5. Finlay/Evil at the G1 last summer seemed to be the perfect opportunity to make a clean break between BC/HoT, and solidify Finlay’s leadership…. but they kept the status quo. That lead me to think it will pretty much stay this course for the long run

6. Bullet Club clutter has been a problem since AJ Styles was kicked out. The Bucks, Kenny, and their RoH friends made up main event Bullet Club whilst Tama, Fale, Yujiro, and Chase became the “B” team. Then we got the Elite, Firing Squad, and it spiraled from there.

7. I’m at the point now where I think they’re not gonna do anything until they want HoT or War Dogs (most likely HoT) to be faces, and then they will split one of the factions off from BC. They’re probably worried about another situation like Covid happening where they suddenly aren’t able to have any of their overseas talent to use. That’s probably the reason they haven’t split anything off yet.

8. I imagine Kenta, Owens, and Ishiimori are neutral members of Bullet Club and can join any of the sub factions

9. Honestly I see one of three things happening

   1. HoT breaking away which is most likely happening
   2. Them just never really addressing it and just letting shit rock
   3. Disbanding bullet club and making HoT and war dogs actual factions instead of sub factions like the elite but they make too much money off bullet club so I doubt it

10. As always, bullet club is fine

11. It’s been that way for a long time now

    Like in Kenny’s time there was little interaction between the elite and the OG

    Then they were kicked out and Jay had some good time with a United BC but then again covid happened and HOT was born

12. I feel like the only thing that keeps New Japan from splitting the groups is Bullet Club branding pulling merch sales. They are all separate entities, without any reason to cooperate. Bullet Club used to be about it’s leader first and foremost, who was setting the stakes and place of Bullet Clubs in New Japan, but actually even in the whole business pre pandemic, when Bullet Club members touring the indies was a thing. Things have changed completely, Bullet Clubs imo is a living experimental stable at the moment, being only held together by its branding.

13. I am not a HoT fan at all, but at this point Kenta would fit better with the funny/crazy HoT guys than what he fits in with War Dogs. I am a Kenta fan, so I rather would see him leave BC and do his own thing.

14. BC, HOT and War Dogs are basically like 3 family houses under one banner.

15. Honestly, I think it should be split three ways in the new year into three completely separate factions:

    War Dogs: Finlay, Gedo, and his four rowdy Bois. The violent group of gaijin, similar to the original club.

    House of Torture: the interference kings. This has basically happened anyway but they’re still attached to BC for some reason. This should be completely separate for Evil to build up.

    Bullet Club (or a new name): Throw Ziggler as the leader. BC joins with Ziggler after the Global Championship match and beats down Finlay. Ziggler, KENTA, Ishimori, Fale and Owens make up this group. I think it would be cool for them to do a whole “Bullet Club is dead” thing and create a new group.

    In my opinion, a lot of the factions in NJPW have run their course and we should see a transitional period into new groups like the United Empire. When Bullet Club first arrived it brought over a lot of fans and I think NJPW is in need of a big event like this again.

16. It’s time to end that faction.

17. It feels like a compromise of not wanting to stop selling classic Bullet Club style t-shirts and wanting new factions/merch. At Wrestle Kingdom, the war dog boys started getting some more aesthetic differences to differentiate them from general BC (like HoT already has done).