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Bullet Club. 4-4-4-4-4 LIFE!

"Welcome to the Bullet Club!"

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(The) Bullet Club is a professional wrestling Power Stable that operates in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, a gang of (mostly) Foreign Wrestling Heels that have become one of the most dominant stables and popular in New Japan, with their history below. Members are denoted in bold.

The seeds for the group were first sown in April 2013 when Prince Devitt, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, lost a champion vs. champion match to IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi. He would disrespect everyone except his Apollo 55 tag partner Ryusuke Taguchi, who he tried to get to go along with his new attitude, but completed his Face–Heel Turn by attacking Ryusuke after they failed to recapture the IWGP Junior Tag Team Championship. Devitt joined forces with Bad Luck Fale, who became Devitt's personal bouncer and was dubbed "The Underboss". At Wrestling Dontaku, Devitt and Fale would attack Hiroshi Tanahashi, and convinced "The Machine Gun" Karl Anderson (who Tanahashi had previously defeated) and Tama Tonga (who was in Anderson's corner) to join. Devitt took to the mic afterwards and announced the formation of a stable of gaijin (foreigners to Japan) — the Bullet Club was born.note 

     Shoot Style Era: Prince Devitt w/Karl Anderson 

The group immediately became a powerhouse in New Japan as Devitt swept the Best of the Super Juniors tournament and retained the Junior Heavyweight Title. While Tama shared inter promotional tours with Mexican promotion CMLL, he teamed with Ray Bucanero and El Terrible, forming Latinoamerica Bullet Club (or Bullet Club Latinoamerica), a short lived sister faction that quietly dissolved later that year. Both Bucanero and Terrible would win the CMLL Tag Team titles once each with Tonga. The stable fought Tanahashi and others such as Captain New Japan, and Jushin Thunder Liger, and tried and failed to dethrone Tanahashi's successor champion, member of the CHAOS faction Kazuchika Okada. Joining in October 2013 were The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson), a team of dynamic wrestling brothers who went on to win the Super Juniors Tag Tournament as well as the IWGP Junior Tag Team Titles, bringing even more gold into the group. Then in November, Doc Gallows joined the group and became Karl Anderson's tag partner. The two behemoths would win the yearly World Tag League, earning themselves a title shot at the upcoming January 4th Wrestle Kingdom VIII show.

Bullet Club would find mixed success at that event; while Anderson and Gallows won the IWGP Tag Team Championship and the Bucks successfully defended their Junior Tag titles, Devitt's year-plus reign as Junior Heavyweight Champ was ended at the hands of Kota Ibushi. Shortly after, Devitt would find himself going up against a foe from the past: former tag partner Ryusuke Taguchi wanting revenge. The Devitt/Taguchi rivalry culminated in April at Invasion Attack in a Loser Leaves Town match. Facing off against his old friend, Devitt renounced his villainous ways and rejected any underhanded tactics, even going so far as to attack the Young Bucks when they tried to interfere on his behalf. This would result in his defeat and exodus from New Japan, leaving the Bullet Club without a leader. However, like any good villain, the Club had a Plan B.

     Phenomenal Era: Karl Anderson & AJ Styles 

Later in the show, after IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada won a tag match, AJ Styles attacked him, ending with his Finishing Move, the Styles Clash. Styles then revealed his Bullet Club shirt, establishing himself as the newest member of the group, and co-leading the group with founding member Anderson. Styles challenged Okada for the championship, feeling Okada was still the same "young boy" he had known previously in TNA.note  Their match was set for May, Wrestling Dontaku 2014. Despite Bullet Club's interference in the match Okada appeared to have the advantage, only for Yujiro Takahashi, a member of Okada's own CHAOS stable, to attack Okada while the ref was distracted, then reveal his own Bullet Club shirt, formally defecting. With Okada virtually unconscious, Styles hit his finisher and brought the most prestigious belt in all of Japan into the club. Shortly afterwards Fale would capture the IWGP Intercontinental Title and Yujiro would win the NEVER Openweight Championship. Bullet Club had successfully won every title in New Japan, becoming one of the most successful stables in recent pro wrestling history.

In November 2014, Kenny Omega, a Canadian cruiserweight who had been in NJPW since 2010, joined, invited by the Young Bucks. Omega announced he was gunning for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, which he won at the next January 4 show. That same night, Doc's then-wife Amber Gallows (formerly known as Amber O'Neal) started accompanying him and Anderson as "The Bullet Babe". The day after, Cody Hall, son of Scott Hall, joined as the stable's "young boy", with Anderson stating that Hall would have to earn a full spot in the stable. The day before the 2015 Super Jr. Tag Tournament, Omega invited NWA Junior Heavyweight Chase Owens, needing a partner for the tournament and seeing that he had the potential to be a superstar.

At New Year's Dash 2016, after a largely unsuccessful Wrestle Kingdom 10, Styles and Omega teamed to beat CHAOS's Shinsuke Nakamura and Yoshi-Hashi, with Omega doing what Styles couldn't do the night before and pinning Nakamura. Omega then turned on and attacked AJ Styles with the One-Winged Angel, following which the Young Bucks, Anderson, Gallows, and Cody Hall came out to calm the situation. However, Omega and the Bucks convinced the others to unite with them, continuing the beatdown to "fire" Styles from Bullet Club, writing him out of the New Japan company, and also cement Omega as the new leader. Omega then declared he was no longer a junior, referred to himself and the Young Bucks as The Elite sub-stable, while stating that Bullet Club rule the world, and challenged Nakamura for the Intercontinental Championship.

     The Elite Era: Kenny Omega w/The Young Bucks 

Nakamura would vacate the championship and the company instead, with his departure confirmed at the end of the month. Instead, Omega defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi for the vacated championship at February's The New Beginning in Niigata. At the same event, Anderson and Gallows, accompanied by Fale and Tama, lost their rematch opportunity to take back the IWGP Tag Team titles from Great Bash Heel and bowed to the New Japan fans, indicating their own departure from the company, which took place soon after.

Subsequently, Tama Tonga announced a new tag team partner/Club member, his brother, going by Tanga Loa, adopting the team moniker G.o.D: Guerrillas of Destiny. At Invasion Attack on April 10, 2016, the GOD defeated Great Bash Heel to reclaim the IWGP tag team titles for the Club. At the May 8 NJPW / Ring of Honor joint event Global Wars, the Young Bucks and Guerrillas of Destiny were scheduled in an eight-man tag match. Though the Bucks promised a new Bullet Club member and a "superkick party" later that night, the team won without a hint of either. However, they reappeared during the ROH World Championship main event between Jay Lethal and Colt Cabana, revealing ROH stalwart and their one-time enemy Adam Cole in a Bullet Club shirt. The Cole-Bucks-Guerrillas tandem proceeded to destroy everyone and everything in a calamitous run-in which culminated in 51 superkicks. The next ROH TV taping saw the group joined also by Hangman (Adam) Page. Over the next three months Cole's quest to regain the ROH World Championship (which he had held once before) resulted in him cutting the hair of then-champion Lethal, enraging Lethal into a title match at Death Before Dishonor XIV, where Lethal lost the championship for the first time in years. Cole lost the ROH Championship shortly after to former partner turned heated rival Kyle O'Reilly at ROH Final Battle.

At the September 21 Destruction in Kobe event, the new anti-Club faction "Hunter Club", led by Yoshitatsu, had a schism; with former anti-Bullet Club "Captain New Japan" being denied membership. He jumped ship to Bullet Club itself, being renamed Bone Soldier upon his debut. December 11 saw Omega reveal a new member: the American Nightmare Cody Rhodes (and by extension his wife Brandi Rhodes). Cody (Rhodes) made his debut for the faction on Wrestle Kingdom 11 on January 4, 2017, defeating Juice Robinson. At the same show, the Guerrillas lost their tag team titles to Chaos members Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano, and Cole regained the ROH World Championship from O'Reilly for the record-setting third time overall, his second time as a member of Bullet Club, and became the first man in history to win the title outside of ROH. Meanwhile, Omega challenged Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort frequently cited as one of the best matches of all time, also starting their trilogy of similarly acclaimed matches. After Wrestle Kingdom 11, Cody (Hall) departed New Japan, and with it, the Bullet Club.

     Civil Wars 

CIVIL WAR PART 0: THE EXODUS OF ADAM COLE
Following Omega's loss, Cole began dissenting and trying to assert himself as a leader over the group. However, a storyline in which Frankie Kazarian betrayed Cole's upcoming challenger Christopher Daniels in favor of the Club turned out to be a ruse to distract Cole, allowing Daniels to beat him for the ROH championship on March 10. Cole blamed the Bucks for not having his back and tried to fire them from the Club, only for them to retort that their Elite cohort Omega was the only leader of Bullet Club. The tension, Cody's pursuit of Daniels' championship after Cole's failed rematch, and a storyline developed on the Bucks' YouTube series Being the Elite, culminated with Cole being literally superkicked out of the Bullet Club by the Bucks. The Bucks replaced him with British wrestler Marty Scurll at Omega's call, following a loss to Tanahashi at the May 2017 War of the Worlds show.

This would not be the last dissent of the year for the Club, however. Cody clashed with some of Omega's decisions publicly, almost forfeiting the Omega/Okada Iron Man match, ostensibly out of concern for Omega's health. Additionally, Tama Tonga, frustrated with Omega's emphasis on the Elite and their closest cohorts to the detriment of the full Bullet Club (of which he and Fale were the only remaining founding members), delivered an impassioned promo at the G1 Tournament. In September 2017, as Kenny was unable to participate in events due to a knee injury, the G.O.D.'s younger brother was recruited to the Bullet Club, initially under the name of Leo Tonga (he would later retake his regular name of Hikuleo at the behest of Haku). In November, Bullet Club recruited two more members: Australian wrestler "Mr. Juicy" Gino Gambino (a graduate and trainer at Bad Luck Fale's dojo), and friend of Cody's, actor Stephen Amell; however, both Amell and Gambino would make only sporadic appearances with the group in support of their associates.

CIVIL WAR PART 1: TEAM KENNY VS. TEAM CODY
After these additions, more conflict brewed within the Bullet Club, highlighted at Wrestle Kingdom 12 and New Beginning in Sapporo, both in January 2018. Omega would repeatedly preference his relationship with former tag partner Kota Ibushi over Club relations, while Cody would openly critique that preference. Kenny would attempt to recruit "Switchblade" Jay White, only for him to outright reject the invitation at New Year's Dash. On the second day of New Beginning in Sapporo, Omega would cause the Young Bucks and Marty to leave in frustration with him, leading to Cody and Page attacking him, and a Kota Ibushi save. The following episode of Being the Elite would suggest tensions were cooling between them all, but behind all of this, at day 1 of New Beginning in Sapporo, Tama had cut another promo, flanked by Fale and Loa. Without addressing anyone in particular, he pointed out that any leadership needs mutual respect and support with the crew. The feud continued to grow, with Cody backed by Hangman Page, Omega backed by Ibushi, and singles matches between the two pairings would be set for the upcoming Supercard of Honor, with leadership of the Club being implied. Through all of this, the Young Bucks and Marty would be vocally caught in the middle, with Tama silently, emotionlessly, waiting

Come said Supercard, and the Bucks appeared to have their loyalties with Omega by attempting to superkick Cody. However, they hit Kenny by mistake and cost him the match; their attempts to make peace resulted in Kenny furiously disbanding the Elite despite the Bucks' cries. The battlelines seemed to be drawn as the Golden Lovers aligned themselves with the Tongan contingent to take on Team Cody despite most members of both sides still being cordial with each other. After a 10-man tag match at Wrestling Dontaku 2018, the Club made amends with each other…all save for Kenny and Cody, who still intended to kill each other. That night also saw the return of Bone Soldier, but with a new face beneath the mask: former Pro Wrestling NOAH standout Taiji Ishimori, who attacked Will Ospreay and announced his intention to gun for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.

Then things got more twisted. During Dominion Kenny finally achieved his ultimate goal by defeating Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, with Ibushi in his corner. The Bucks come down and the four declared themselves the Golden Elite, extending a peace offering to Cody only for him to decline and take one last chance at Bullet Club leadership by challenging Kenny to a title match at the G1 Special at Cow Palace. He would ultimately fail, but in the process show some respect for Kenny. Things finally looked to be settling down with Kenny as the undisputed leader…only for Tama Tonga to FINALLY make his move with Tanga Loa and Haku, destroying nearly every other Bullet Club member. (Taiji Ishimori, Bad Luck Fale, and Hikuleo were absent, as were supporting members Amell and Gambino; the latter two would be referenced sparingly by the others on social media in relation to the storyline.) Not even the noted "Honorary Tongan" Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi were safe, as they too were decimated for trying to keep the peace. Cody came down and ultimately declared his loyalty to Kenny, also getting destroyed in the process. The Tongans declare themselves the "true" Bullet Club, with no leader.

CIVIL WAR PART 2: BULLET CLUB OG VS. BULLET CLUB ELITE
Despite being absent from the G1 Special's events, Fale and the injured Hikuleo were soon revealed to be with their fellow Tongans in a Guerrillas of Destiny YouTube video that showed Fale calling the shot for the attack. Two whole different groups were now calling themselves the Bullet Club, differentiated as Bullet Club OG (The Tongans (Fale, Tama, Loa, HIKULEO, Haku), Ishimori, and Gambino) and Bullet Club Elite (Everyone else + Kota Ibushi).

During the G1 Climax tournament, Tama and Fale represented BCOG in peculiar fashion, racking up disqualifications rather than points, while Omega nearly went undefeated before a string of losses as the end cost him the top spot in the B Block; Ibushi won that block instead, only to be beaten by Hiroshi Tanahashi in the final for the Wrestle Kingdom Briefcase. During this time Ishimori was confirmed by Tama to be with the OG faction, and after fulfilling some final obligations with Impact Wrestling, he returned alongside the Tongans toward the end of the G1 tour. Following this and The Elite-hosted All In event in Chicago on September 1, the Bullet Club OG and Elite members would face each other in tag team action at several special events, including the Guerrillas of Destiny taking both the NEVER Six-Man and IWGP tag team titles off the Young Bucks (the former also involving the two sides' respective juniors Ishimori and Scurll) while Omega continued to defend the IWGP Heavyweight Title. The Tongans also began declaring aloud that The Elite and their allies were not Bullet Club, and in the Tongans' eyes had stopped being Bullet Club long ago, framing the conflict as Bullet Club vs. The Elite, as well as announcing that they were recruiting new members.

At King of Pro Wrestling on October 8, Tama, Fale, Loa, and Ishimori defeated Matt, Nick, Chase, and Page in an eight-man tag team match, and after the match Ishimori announced that the recruiting search had led to his choice of Australian wrestler Robbie Eagles as his new tag team partner. Later, Scurll failed to secure the vacated IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, losing in the tournament final for the title against Kushida. However, the pivotal event came in the aftermath of the next match, when a post-match attack by Jay White and Gedo following White's loss to Hiroshi Tanahashi saw both Kazuchika Okada and Gedo's longtime partner Jado come out to the ring, during which Bullet Club OG would creep onto the scene. With their agenda in mystery, they converged around Gedo, Jado, and Okada, baiting the Rainmaker into an attempt to attack Gedo only to betray him with a Gun Stun and proceed to assault him, before allowing White to finish the job. Jay White, Jadō & Gedō all joined in on various Too Sweet gestures during this assault, cementing their new allegiance with the original brotherhood of Bullet Club, with the New Zealand native citing his history with Bad Luck Fale and Prince Devitt being responsible for having brought him into NJPW. The Elite had better luck in the main event, where Omega successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against teammates Ibushi and Cody and they all walked out as one. However, when addressing the fans alongside Ibushi, Cody, and the Bucks, he made it a point that not all of them were Bullet Club and so they were standing together as The Elite.

     Switchblade Eras: Jay White w/Gedo 

SWITCHBLADE ERA 1: CUTTHROAT
Since then, BCOG would be regularly referred to as simply the Bullet Club, with Tama Tonga and Jay White both reinforcing this in their post-match interviews, while Omega, the Bucks, Scurll, Page, and Cody's affiliations with the group were quietly phased out. Finally, the BTE cast members announced on October 30 while on Chris Jericho's cruise that they were no longer part of Bullet Club and were all now simply known as The Elite. Thus the Civil War ended almost without further incident, with the exception being a Three-Way Tag match at Wrestle Kingdom 13, in which the Bucks were pinned by Los Ingobernables de Japon's EVIL and SANADA, costing G.o.D. both the Heavyweight Tag Team Championships, and direct revenge. After Wrestle Kingdom, the Elite started their own promotion, All Elite Wrestling, and left both ROH and NJPW.

With the Club's identity secured, the Super Junior Tag League saw Ishimori and Eagles team together and achieve moderate success, while the heavyweight members of Bullet Club continued to rack up wins in tag team action during the tour. Even so, they continued to promise more members to come through at least two separate avenues; while Tama maintained that the BC recruiting push was actually not over, White claimed he had yet another member of CHAOS waiting on the inside to defect to Bullet Club at the most opportune time, hinting that this defection would crush Okada's spirit. At the end of 2018, Tama announced on social media that the club had chosen White as their new leader.

The Switchblade then began 2019 by defeating Kazuchika Okada clean in their grudge match at Wrestle Kingdom 13. Prior to this, Ishimori had defeated Kushida to claim the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, in addition to G.o.D.'s aforementioned IWGP Tag Team Championship loss to EVIL and SANADA. Meanwhile, Chase and Yujiro's affiliation with The Elite broke down after nearly six months via miscommunication in a match at the pre-show, leading to the two rejoining Bullet Club to help G.o.D. and Ishimori retain the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship the next day at New Year Dash. While they wound up losing the Six-Man titles later in the month during an…interesting babyface phase for Tama, G.o.D. would later recover to defeat Evil and Sanada at Honor Rising on February 23, 2019 to become 5x IWGP Tag Team Champions, then accept a challenge that same night from ROH World Tag Team Champions The Briscoe Brothers (Jay and Mark Briscoe) to a Winner takes all match for both sets of tag titles at G1 Supercard in Madison Square Garden.

On March 8, 2019 NJPW announced the inclusion of a new member to the ranks of Bullet Club through their YouTube channel and repeated promotions throughout the New Japan Cup. Sources later identified him as El Phantasmo, a Canadian wrestler active both in circuits in his homeland and in the British indie scene. He helped form a successful tag team with Ishimori, winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team championships. This also saw the departure of Eagles from the group; having grown tired of Bullet Club's ruthlessness, he found a new home in CHAOS, thanks to Will Ospreay. Gambino, who by this point was a color commentator for NJPW, could only look on in disgust.

As for G1 Supercard, the tag team championship Winner takes all match wound up being turned into a four-way with the addition of EVIL and SANADA as well as ROH's Villain Enterprises (PCO and Brody King). G.o.D. won the match and thus captured the ROH World Tag Team Championship, though the moment was marred by controversy post-match. Meanwhile, Okada won the New Japan Cup to become the #1 contender for Jay White's IWGP Heavyweight Championship, finally defeating White as well as reclaiming the title in the Supercard main event.

Before the final day of the 29th G1 Climax, Tama Tonga tweeted that he had managed to recruit a "world-class" athlete into Bullet Club. To the surprise of many, it was former NOAH and NXT roster member KENTA, who had just made his New Japan debut 2 months prior and had remained an unaffiliated roster member since then. In a 6 man tag match, KENTA betrayed his former allies in CHAOS and even best friend Katsuyori Shibata by allying with the Bullet Club in a massive beatdown, eventually taking the NEVER Openweight Title from CHAOS members (and Shibata's friends) Ishii and Goto, in turns.

In late 2019, Gino Gambino made a surprise return to his home promotion (NJPW affiliate) Melbourne City Wrestling (MCW), attacking a visiting Will Ospreay. In his promo, he alluded to a war between CHAOS and Bullet Club to take place in 2020... Only for most 2020 wrestling plans to be put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic affecting real life. Time will tell how Bullet Club wars with CHAOS, its members Ospreay and Eagles, and Shibata, in the future.

SWITCHBLADE ERA 2: REAL
When New Japan returned to having events in June 2020 upon adhering to social distancing guidelines, many of its key members — White, KENTA, Fale, G.O.D. and Phantasmo chief among them — were left overseas and out of the New Japan Cup. This didn't stop them from pulling out one more ace in the hole: EVIL shocked the world by not only beating Kazuchika Okada to win the whole tournament, but also turned his back on his comrades in Los Ingobernables de Japon by attacking Tetsuya Naito and defecting to Bullet Club; this decision would pay a mere 24 hours later, when EVIL defeated Naito to bring both the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental championships simultaneously to his new crew, also bringing in Dick Togo as his elder teammate and manager. With Bullet Club now worldwide due to pandemic reasons, EVIL, Jay, and Tama declared that EVIL would "lead" and front the Bullet Club in Japan for now.

Shortly after EVIL's win, NJPW announced a weekly US based show called New Japan Strong, starting with a tournament to determine the challenger for the IWGP US title. With four entrants (KENTA, Loa, Chase, and Tama), Bullet Club had a man in every single first round match. Indeed, it was KENTA who went all the way, defeating David Finlay in the final for the briefcase. Hikuleo and White also returned to action stateside during the New Japan Strong series, before the latter rejoined the roster in Japan for the G1 Climax tournament. Prior to the G1, EVIL had lost the dual IWGP championships back to Naito; however, both EVIL and White represented BC in the tournament, joined by KENTA and Yujiro in their respective blocks. While both White and EVIL had acrimonious moments in their matches with their fellow BC stablemates, as well as began teasing facing each other for the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships, EVIL fell out of the title picture by failing to defeat Naito and instead found himself feuding with his former pareja in SANADA heading into 2021. Jay, however, came up just shy of the Finals in the tournament itself, but still found his way into the chase to leave Wrestle Kingdom with the dual IWGP Championships and therefore "become God" when he defeated Ibushi to take the Wrestle Kingdom briefcase away from the G1 winner for the first time since its inception in 2012. The Tongans would also return to Japan, with G.O.D. in particular finally capturing the World Tag League trophy, while Ishimori claimed the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship again.

2021 was ushered in with yet another less-than-pleasant Wrestle Kingdom for Bullet Club. While January 4 saw G.O.D. capture the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team titles for the sixth time, defeating Dangerous Tekkers and finally capturing that elusive first Wrestle Kingdom victory, and KENTA retain his briefcase for a IWGP United States Championship match by defeating Satoshi Kojima, it also saw El Phantasmo fail to defeat Hiromu Takahashi in a #1 contender's match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. January 5 saw Ishimori lose said championship back to Hiromu, EVIL fall to SANADA, and Jay come up short in the main event to "become God" as he, like Naito the night before, was defeated for the belts by Ibushi. Following this, Jay had an emotional breakdown in which he declared his intention to leave the company once his contract was over.

However, one month later during the annual New Beginning tour, White would return to action with an assault on Tomohiro Ishii, feeling that his loss to Ishii during the G1 had derailed his path to NJPW godhood. Around this time, Tama Tonga was decrying The Good Brothers' reunion with The Elite in AEW and Impact Wrestling as a "betrayal" and a "bootleg Club". Jay would back up Tama's assertions, claiming that Bullet Club was about moving forward, not living in the past, and officially christening this period the REAL Bullet Club Era. He would later reinforce this notion by showing up in The Good Brothers' own home promotion of Impact Wrestling (where ex-Club leader Kenny Omega ruled the roost as the promotion's champion), and made known his displeasure with them in person. King Switch's time in the Impact Zone bore some fruit as well; on the August 5, 2021 edition of Impact!, Chris Bey was recruited into the club by Jay White, marking the first African-American talent in Bullet Club history. The expansion also continued in Japan at NJPW's Wrestle Grand Slam on September 4, when following the first heated clash between former Roppongi 3K and CHAOS teammates, EVIL, Dick Togo, and Yujiro would hit the scene. They not only welcomed the villainous victor SHO into Bullet Club, the four would usher in a new subgroup within BC, known as House of Torture.

The Tongans have signaled their approval to both of these recruits, as well as both Jay's and EVIL's activity in general, despite hints that the two may not be consulting one another on their endeavors. However, Jay would later intimate on social media that he may be out to make some changes, to which Tama, who himself had cleanly defeated eventual G1 Climax 31 winner Kazuchika Okada during the final stretch of the tournament, responded by throwing some shade at his sense of control. This caused Jay's leadership to be put under question heading into 2022, incuding from at least one Bullet Club member, due to his absence from Japan; an act which would be met with consequences.

SWITCHBLADE ERA 3: GET PAID
In early 2022, Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa joined Jay White and Chris Bey on a tour of Impact Wrestling, eventually challenging The Good Brothers for the Impact Tag Team Championship. However, at the No Surrender 2022 event, White and Bey turned their backs on G.o.D when White attacked Tama and cost them the tag team championship for the Good Brothers. In doing so, G.o.D was kicked out of the club and the Good Brothers returned to the club fold. The Guerillas' excommunication was finalized during the 2022 New Japan Cup, where Tama and Loa made a case to have their fellow Club members turn against White; they (along with Jado) got subsequently beaten down by the remaining Club members on orders from Jay himself.

The Club restacked their numbers with another former enemy of theirs during Wrestling Dontaku 2022; once a flamboyant babyface and member of the Sekigun, Juice Robinson returned to New Japan after much time spent in the US and attacked former ally Hiroshi Tanahashi to stake his claim as a challenger for the IWGP US Heavyweight Championship, Chase and Fale had won the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship titles. In addition, Jay White and the Good Brothers also made shock appearances, with The Machine Gun targeting the NEVER Openweight Championship Tama Tonga had just won from EVIL, whereas The Switchblade once again declared that he covets Okada's IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. The next big event, Dominion, was not perfect, but it was massively successful. Robinson, who had won the United States Champion in America at Capital Collision, was forced to vacate the belt due to an appendix injury, while Chase and Fale lost their tag titles back to United Empire members Jeff Cobb and Great-O-Khan. This, however, was first offset, then utterly toppled, by Anderson and White both winning the championships they claimed, leading to a celebratory Bullet Club roll call. Later, another Impact Wrestling addition to BC came in the form of X Division Champion Ace Austin joining their ranks at the Best of Super Juniors after helping three of The Club defeat a United Empire trio in a six-man tag team match.

During this time Jay White made special appearances in All Elite Wrestling where he courted a friendship with Adam Cole, leading to a curious working relationship between Bullet Club and The Undisputed Elite heading into the joint AEW/NJPW supershow Forbidden Door, while The Elite's usual leader Kenny Omega was absent due to injury. At said show, The Young Bucks had a one-time reunion with The Club to team up alongside El Phantasmo in a trios match against Sting, Darby Allin and a visiting Shingo Takagi, coming away with a loss. Cole, meanwhile, took part in a four-way match for Jay's IWGP World Heavyweight Championship also involving Okada and "Hangman" Adam Page, which would be his last match of 2022 as Jay pinned him after he succumbed to a concussion. The angle would be largely phased out afterwards, though Jay continued to reference Cole as his friend ever since.

However, the big change in Bullet Club was still to come. Despite Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa being ejected from Bullet Club, Jay White gave Hikuleo the option to stay or leave while treating him as a protégé. Initially Hikuleo chose to stay with Bullet Club after losing to Jay at a NJPW Strong event, but after Tama beat Jay in the G1 Climax, he earned a shot at the title which would be scheduled for October's Declaration of Powr. When Jay and Tama confronted each other after a six-man match weeks prior to the event, Hikuleo stepped in, to which Jay gloated that Bullet Club was his family now. This backfired hard when Hikuleo turned and chokeslammed Jay, reuniting with his brother and declaring his intent to challenge Anderson for the NEVER Openweight Championship.

After Anderson and Gallows returned to WWE mid-title reign, Hikuleo invited him to come back and defend the belt rather than allow NJPW to strip him of it, going through Bullet Club members to get to the challenge after it had been rescheduled for December 14. Anderson retained, but would soon be challenged again by Tama Tonga, this time for Wrestle Kingdom on January 4, 2023. Tama defeated Anderson, allowing him to depart NJPW with no further obligations and thus ending The Machine Gun's active Bullet Club tenure once again (though he and Gallows remained offshoot members as The OC). Also at Wrestle Kingdom, Jay would lose the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship back to Okada.

While Anderson was gracious about his loss to Tama, reaffirming his kinship to his one-time kohai, Jay was adamant that some prior unresolved setback must have been to blame for his defeat at the hands of Okada, concluding that Hikuleo had to pay for his defection. This led to Jay challenging Hikuleo to a shocking challenge in a "Loser Leaves Japan" match on February 11's New Beginning in Osaka, a match that Jay White lost. Days later, he lost to AEW wrestler and NJPW Strong frequent guest Eddie Kingston in a "Loser Leaves NJPW" match, but before he could give his final words, he was attacked by longtime frenemy David Finlay, who berated Jay for letting the top of the world slip through his fingers and swore he would now kill for everything Jay White had just once had. Upon returning to Japan, Finlay had a more foreboding theme song, a black-and-white look including dyed hair, and Gedo at his side with a Rebel Club T-shirt. After his win, Gedo introduced David Finlay as the newest member of Bullet Club, with intentions to lead the sometimes-dominant gaijin faction into a new, more savage era...

     Rebellious Era: David Finlay w/Gedo 
Having been a perennial midcarder prior to his sudden takeover, Finlay at the top of The Club was faced with more questions than answers. In order to assert his credibility as a new leader, Finlay swore to win the 2023 New Japan Cup and then defeat Okada for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. However, his violent replacement of The Switchblade had already given a bad impression to at least one member of The Club, with El Phantasmo showing clear reticence at having to work with Finlay, much to The Rebel's frustration. Two further developments haven't helped much in that regard: not only did the Rebel fail to win the New Japan Cup with a loss to SANADA, but Jay's signing with AEW showed him still bearing Bullet Club iconography and aligned with fellow Club member Juice Robinson.

At Sakura Genesis 2023, El Phantasmo's defiance towards the new leader saw Finlay take further steps to establish control by excommunicating the Headbanga, although it may not be so clear cut, as ELP had begun teasing his support once more for the Switchblade. The Rebel's next move saw him induct the NJPW LA Dojo alumnus Clark Connors into the ranks as his first recruit, after which Connors entered a brief feud with United Kingdom upstart Dan Moloney. Come Dominion 6.4.2023, not only did Connors convince Drilla Maloney to defect from The United Empire, Finlay reached out to more LA Dojo alumni in Alex Coughlin and Gabriel Kidd as they joined The Club as well; the quintet would form a new subgroup called Bullet Club War Dogs to crystallize Finlay's roughhousing philosophy.

Over in AEW, White and Robinson made their intentions known to dominate their new home the same way they did with New Japan as the Club, but under different colors, leading to the creation of Bullet Club Gold, a stable which would later add the sons of Billy Gunn to its ranks (more on BC Gold's section below). NJPW video packages about the collective state of Bullet Club would include War Dogs, House of Torture, and BC Gold, as well as Bad Luck Fale's exploits in New Zealand and Australia with his Rogue Army recruits (consisting of Jack Bonza, Lyrebird Luchi, Caveman Ugg, and The Natural Classics [brothers Tome and Stevie Filip]), confirming that all these groups are considered part of Bullet Club. Despite this, all of them operate seemingly independent of each other and are even tangentially opposed, with EVIL and Finlay's troupes coming to blows during their G1 Climax match and the members of War Dogs taking occasional verbal shots at White, Robinson, and even WWE's OC, with Jack Perry joining House of Torture in the first round of New Japan Cup. Whether all these sub-groups can ultimately align as one or they will outright splinter apart as separate factions remains to be seen, as the Rebellious Era of Bullet Club seems to be both outwardly and internally living up to its name...

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That's Japanese for "Club".
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The Club (and its variations Bálor Club/The OC/OGBC) are concepts related to the Bullet Club, effectively WWE's Bland-Name Product used to reference its members' time in the Bullet Club, without outright promoting NJPW.

Upon leaving NJPW, former Bullet Club leader Prince Devitt would make his WWE debut in the NXT brand as Finn Bálor, referencing his fanbase as the "Bálor Club", revitalizing NXT, and eventually becoming its record-setting champion. Heading into 2016, AJ Styles would make his debut at Royal Rumble 2016 as a babyface, and the week after WrestleMania 32, Gallows and Anderson debutednote  on Raw with a post-match run-in, attacking Styles' opponent Roman Reigns' cousins The Usos. Despite his initial reluctance, AJ accepted their help and officially reunited "The Club" for a war of trios. After Styles failed to win the WWE World Championship at Extreme Rules with the help of Gallows and Anderson, Styles told them that they should separate and remain friends, but Anderson and Gallows refused and ended their friendship with Styles… only for that to be revealed as a ruse, as they reunited the next week to #BeatUpJohnCena, firmly completing Styles' Face–Heel Turn, and establishing Anderson and Gallows as a Heel tag team.

With the 2016 WWE draft and brand split, Styles was drafted to SmackDown Live but Anderson and Gallows were drafted to Raw, separating them. However, Bálor was drafted to Raw (as a babyface), as well. Following a segment at SummerSlam which included all four men teasing a reunion, Styles defeated Cena cleanly, while Bálor became the first-ever WWE Universal Championship by defeating Seth Rollins (vacated it the next day due to injury). A month later Styles beat Dean Ambrose to become WWE World Champion. At Royal Rumble 2017 Gallows and Anderson became WWE Raw Tag Team Champions by defeating The Bar. Less than a year after their debuts, all members of "The Club" had become a champion, though they were separated by brands and alignments. The spring of 2017 saw Gallows and Anderson used less on TV, and Bálor's return from an injury saw him working against them in minor matches. Though a Club reunion seemed dim, a viral outbreak in the locker room prior to the 2017 TLC pay-per-view PPV prompted Bálor and Styles to compete in an inter-brand replacement match, which WWE promoted as the first in-ring collision of the two former leaders of "The Club" when it was "in Japan". Though the two shared sweet moments, Gallows and Anderson were still not featured. By the end of 2017, there were no signs of any reunion of The Club.

January 2018, however…Bálor would call on Gallows and Anderson to aid him in a six-man tag team match, temporarily turning them Face. After that, they appeared twice more on TV as a cohesive unit, finally referring to themselves as the Bálor Club while also donning shirts reading OGBC, before Anderson and Gallows were drafted to SmackDown in the post-WrestleMania Superstar Shake-Up. The pair teamed with Styles on one more TV appearance as of June 2018, before reuniting with him in a collective Face–Heel Turn in June 2019 after all four men switched brands. Bálor, meanwhile, turned heel after returning to (the now-televised) NXT in October, incorporating his prior attitude and mannerisms from his last year in Japan into a reignited persona, and putting him in television timeslot competition with The Elite on AEW. Styles, Anderson and Gallows moved to RAW and would become known as The OCnote , with notable moments including all three recapturing the United States (Styles) and Raw Tag Team (Gallows and Anderson) championships briefly, as well as Gallows and Anderson assisting AJ in his WrestleMania 36 feud against The Undertaker.note 

This was ultimately the last appearance of Gallows and Anderson in WWE, as shortly thereafter they would be released due to COVID-19 Pandemic-related budget cuts, leaving only Styles and Bálor still under the WWE umbrella. Two years later, however, the two former Bullet Club leaders both found themselves in the crosshairs of Edge and his apprentice Damian Priest, who both turned heel against them separately on the same night before combining forces against Styles at WrestleMania 38. While mainly targeting Styles, the newly-christened Judgment Day tandem had "punishment" in store for Bálor as well, giving the two alumni a common enemy to finally join forces against. Which they did once Bálor came to the aid of Styles...on May 2, 2022, almost nine years to the day The Prince first formed The Club. Two weeks later, in response to The Judgment Day's addition of female bruiser Rhea Ripley complicating Styles and Bálor's efforts, this new iteration of WWE's version of The Club finally introduced a new WWE member, as well as a regular female wrestler, when they invited Ripley's betrayed former partner Liv Morgan to join them. While this would seem to be short-term, given that it's a response to an immediate need in WWE, Styles has expressed on Twitter that this is only the beginning. In the end, Bálor would shortcut the entire thing by convincing Priest and Rhea to turn against Edge, retooling Judgment Day from Edge's faction to a trio of equals content to leave Styles and Morgan alone.

As Judgment Day continued their path of destruction - even recruiting Dominik Mysterio to turn against his father, Bálor began targeting Styles again. In a bit of a call-back to their history, he recalled the close friendship both shared and encouraged AJ to join the group as another equal of theirs. AJ refused, and after weeks of attacks, he seemingly relented on the October 10th, 2022 edition of Raw by pledging allegiance... only to reveal that he not only would continue to battle Judgment Day, but he now had help: following their release two years prior, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson made their shock return to reform the OCnote , laying the groundwork for a clash between three of Bullet Club's most prominent headliners against the stable formed by the man who created the Club in the first place, with Jay White implicitly approving of the faction's influence spreading...

The OC would wage war with Judgment Day over the course of several months, but with Rhea Ripley still an unanswered variable to take into consideration, they gained one more unlikely ally in the process: Mia Yim would make her return to the WWE following her release, and link up with the OC equalize the odds.


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4 Life

The Super Elite is another concept related to the Bullet Club via reference to its members' time in the Bullet Club, but unlike WWE who barely mentions their NJPW run, All Elite Wrestling has made explicit references to the members' run in NJPW (thanks to the ongoing AEW–NJPW working relationship).

On April 15, 2020, Gallows and Anderson were released from their contracts with WWE as part of WWE's cost cutting measures. Anderson, Tama, and Fale then began teasing Anderson's return to Japan. While he and Gallows have not returned just yet, they have made Impact Wrestling their new home, and would soon reunite with an old ally; upon winning the AEW World Championship with the aid of Impact's Don Callis (himself an old color commentator ally of the Bullet Club during the days of the Elite), Kenny Omega would repeatedly cross over to Impact to reform his old ties with the Good Brothers, even explicitly mentioning their prior history with the Bullet Club by name. In turn, Gallows and Anderson appeared to invade AEW several times on Omega's behalf. This would later bring out the Young Bucks, who in turn joined this Bullet Club reunion, making the Good Brothers associates and later full fledged members (who also represent their home promotion of Impact Wrestling) of the Elite. While the Young Bucks were somewhat reluctant about the affair and initially refused to go along with Omega and company's plan of beating up Jon Moxley, the AEW Tag Team Champions would turn heel and fully align themselves with the group after some persuasion by Omega's manager Don Callis. Eventually, Hangman Page has become rather uneasy with Omega's underhanded and cruel tactics and started to sympathize with a rival group, The Dark Order. Omega, sensing weakness, kicked Page out of the group, but his place wouldn't be empty for long, as another Bullet Club alumnus took it; the one that was ousted by Omega and the Bucks, but was welcomed back as a hero: Adam Cole.

It should be noted that unlike the WWE reunions with Styles and/or Bálor, Anderson and Gallows' association with The Elite was met with derision from active members of Bullet Club such as Tama Tonga, Jay White, and KENTA, decried them as a "bootleg Bullet Club" or "cheap knockoff reunion" and as such refused to associate them with the Bullet Club name. However, the two sides had yet to come to blows for several months, and KENTA had even teamed with Omega during a brief AEW visit due to common enmity with Moxley. This lasted until the month of August, where Jay and G.O.D. would confront the Good Brothers at Impact and NJPW Strong events respectively. The Super Elite would quietly disband in late 2021 after the working relationship between Impact and AEW ended, although it didn't stop The Club's enmity towards The Elite or The Good Brothers...at least, not just yet.

Despite the end of AEW and Impact's relationship, both still had a mutual partner in New Japan, which led to the AEW debut of Jay White himself in a backstage segment which saw him aiding Cole and the Bucks — apparently at Cole's request, as the Bucks seemed to be surprised at his presence. Citing his former ties to Bullet Club, Cole called in White as back-up for The Elite despite the tumultuous history both factions shared, and although Switchblade hasn't shown up as much in AEW just yet, his reintroduction of Gallows and Anderson to The Club as well as his role in Cole's machinations could lead to further interactions between BC and the largest off-shoot faction birthed from them.

After Cole and White both confirmed their friendship, and White affirmed his support specifically for The Undisputed Elite, speculation abounded heading into the joint PPV event AEW × NJPW: Forbidden Door about what interaction would take place between Elite and Bullet Club members. The Young Bucks teamed with El Phantasmo and were accepted back into The Club on a one-night basis, though it was in a loss to Sting, Darby Allin, and Shingo Takagi, while Jay defended his newly-won IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against three men including Cole, who was covered by White to retain after dodging a Rainamker from former champion Okada (though this was later revealed to be the result of a concussion).

Cole and his cohorts turned on The Young Bucks shortly after the event, only for injuries to take them out of action before anything could develop. Omega would soon return from his own injury to rejoin the now-babyface Elite in competing for, and twice holding, the AEW Trios Championship. Cole would return to action in March 2023 as a babyface with full support of the crowd after his real-life concussion battle. To add further intrigue, another unit branching out from Bullet Club would take root in AEW during this time, but one which held much closer to the source idea of the covenant both in name and in mentality...


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Bullet Club Gold is the offshoot concept most closely related to Bullet Club, created as a seemingly direct branch of the stable in All Elite Wrestling.

As an active member of Bullet Club since May 2022, Juice Robinson would begin making appearances with both All Elite Wrestling and Impact Wrestling over the ensuing few months, before signing with AEW in December of that year. In March 2023 he picked a feud with Ricky Starks, set to culminate in a one-on-one match on the April 5 episode of AEW Dynamite...only for Jay White to appear before Starks could even hit the ring. Interestingly, White was still bearing Bullet Club iconography despite having been assumed gone from the group after he was forced out of NJPW two months earlier, and aligned with Robinson in assaulting Starks. Jay and Juice established Bullet Club Gold as the "greatest era of Bullet Club", while making exclusive use of the finger gun as their signature gesture in lieu of the "Too Sweet" Turkish Wolf.

The self-proclaimed "High Rollers" of the "Bang Bang Gang" proceeded to torment Starks while establishing Jay's foothold in the promotion, while Ricky sometimes gained help from members of The Pinnacle faction such as Shawn Spears and FTR to fend them off. Come June, White would be assisted in defeating Starks by a run-in from former AEW Tag Team Champions Austin and Colten Gunn, with Robinson coming out and signaling his thumbs-up after the fact. The alignment between The Gunns and Bullet Club Gold would continue in the ensuing weeks as they crossed paths against common enemies such as Starks and FTR, before an eight-man tag team victory over said enemies along with CM Punk in the second main event of AEW Collision saw Austin and Colten officially inducted into Bullet Club Gold.

Much like The Super Elite, Bullet Club Gold is treated with opposition by members of NJPW's Bullet Club, specifically new leader David Finlay and his "War Dogs" recruits from the NJPW LA Dojo. Unlike The Super Elite, BC Gold has not backed off using Bullet Club branding and, based on timing of events, seem to have maintained rights to the franchise, much to the consternation of Finlay's regime. Curiously enough, despite ex-NJPW member El Phantasmo's predictions, neither of the two groups so much as appeared at the 2023 Forbidden Door. Intriguingly enough, New Japan has gone so far as to still consider BC Gold as a part of the larger Bullet Club, but only time will tell if and when the Rebel and King Switch will finally cross paths...


"Bullets fire and tropes appear!":

     Tropes A through J 
  • A House Divided: In short, this was the state of Bullet Club in The Elite Era.
    • Since taking over the Club, Kenny Omega has taken personal preference towards his trio with the Young Bucks — the Elite — and eventually many of the ROH-affiliated additions they made to the group such as Cody, Adam Cole, Marty Scurll and Hangman Page. This eventually became a point of dissent with those who primarily operated in New Japan, including founding members Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga, who felt that Omega neglected the Bullet Club being a brotherhood in the same manner that Prince Devitt, Karl Anderson and AJ Styles treated it during their time as leaders, focusing solely on the Elite and their affiliates. Furthermore, Omega has had bubbling issues with at least one of said "affiliates" throughout all of 2017. He spent the first half of the year rebuffing Adam Cole's Big Bad Wannabe ambitions and ultimately kicking Cole out of the Club, only to then start having problems with Cody over various decisions they disagreed about and even trying to make subtle moves on Cody's wife. All in all, Omega only cares about one half of the Bullet Club and is running that half of the Club into near disrepair, while the other half has to maintain unity in the background and are getting sick and tired of it. Recently this was toned down in the tail end of 2017 after the Bucks entered legal trouble with WWE, but only the Elite affiliates adjusted to support them, and the Bucks were the only ones who came to help Omega after five minutes of him being battered and bloodied by an ambush attack from Chris Jericho.
    • At Wrestle Kingdom 12 in 2018, the Elite were the only BC members to win their matches, including Omega's match against Jericho. During Cody's match with Kota Ibushi, Cody attempted to play mind games by taking a shot at Kenny's "love" for Ibushi but lost the match. The next night at New Year's Dash he attempted to lead Bullet Club members in destroying Ibushi after beating Kota's team in a ten-man tag match, only to be stopped by Omega, who told him he wasn't the Bullet Club leader. Knowing what happened to the last man the Elite pulled rank on, he instantly began to question his worth in Omega's system. As lampshaded by "Switchblade" Jay White, who Omega tried to bring into Bullet Club supposedly to stop the infighting only to be literally driven flat on his face for his efforts, the Club had been almost made to worship Omega and have already begun to turn against him.
    • New Beginning in Sapporo (as well as Being the Elite episode 90, covering events from both before and after said show) saw Cody take out Kenny after his loss of the United States Championship to Jay White, particularly in response to him stopping Hangman Page from laying claim as a challenger to White's title. Page agreed to help Cody attack Kenny, while Marty Scurll merely begged him for an explanation, until Ibushi came out to save Kenny, who refused his handshake only for them to suddenly embrace, reuniting the Golden Lovers. Being the Elite reveals that Kenny had been sketchy and distant with his Elite colleagues in the days prior to the event, and in the aftermath Cody and Page are committed to moving on post-Kenny while Marty remains non-committal…and the Bucks have invited Ibushi and Omega into room 710. It seems the battle lines in the divide between Bullet Club and The Elite have finally started being drawn.
    • And when finally the Bullet Club started to truly heal with Cody seemingly giving Kenny his respect and Kenny offering an olive branch…the Tongans attacked at the G1 Special in San Francisco and created the Bullet Club OG to battle the Bullet Club Elite. Where one rift healed, another explosively opened. Furthermore, rather than healing, this rift was solved through the two halves being cast apart from each other into two entirely separate houses, both of which seem to be united within themselves.
  • Area 51: The subject of the summer 2019 "Storming Area 51" meme. This is relevant here because Chase Owens and Bad Luck Fale played to the meme, constantly referencing it as though they planned to get the rest of Bullet Club to help.
  • Arch-Enemy:
    • The most prominent example of this trope would be the CHAOS stable led by Shinsuke Nakamura and Kazuchika Okada.
      • For Nakamura's part, he quickly became this for Bad Luck Fale, the two having faced each other several times in single and tag matches and having traded the IWGP Intercontinental Championship between them before Nakamura's departure, and towards the end of his New Japan run all the way into his WWE run he maintained rivalries with both Styles and Devitt/Bálor which seemed respectful at first before he came to viciously turn against them as soon as Styles beat him.
      • As for Okada, both Devitt and Anderson had turns at him and the company's lionized babyface Hiroshi Tanahashi over the IWGP Heavyweight Title, but only Styles managed to break in and become their real third rival. Omega became the perennial fourth rival against them and Naito later on, but with much more respectful tones than his predecessors. However, Jay White's machinations and betrayal of CHAOS, taking Gedo with him to the group whose leaders recruited him to Japan in the first place, were enough to force Okada's CHAOS team and Tanahashi's main "lion mark" unit to join forces to take on the reassembled tower of Bullet Club — which still didn't keep him from capturing the title for two months.
    • Between the IWGP Heavyweight and NEVER Six-Man tag team championship hunts, The Guerrillas of Destiny's main rivals would be Toru Yano and Ryusuke Taguchi, who would often team against them with a third partner for the Six-Man belts, and Los Ingobernables de Japon members EVIL and SANADA, who often ran up against them in consecutive World Tag League finals and Wrestle Kingdom IWGP title matches.
    • Among The Elite-connected members, The Young Bucks would bring reDRagon baggage involving both the IWGP Junior and ROH tag belts. Adam Cole would continue this with his feud with Kyle O'Reilly over the ROH World Championship, before oddly enough trying to have this with Omega over control of the group, getting the boot before too long, and reuniting with O'Reilly and Bobby Fish as part of The Undisputed Era. Still, the Enemy Civil War dynamic would develop anyway, between Omega and Cody instead, finally becoming the final straw that forced G.o.D to go full Firing Squad and violently eject the entire Elite party from Bullet Club. The Elite narrowly avoided this trope with Bullet Club by conceding the war on a cruise ship months before departing for AEW.
    • Across the pond in McMahon-land, Styles, Anderson and Gallows went to war with the Anoa'i dynasty (specifically Reigns and the Usos) over the WWE Championship, and also faced off against John Cena, Dean Ambrose, and The New Day in 2016. In the brief Bálor Club run in early 2018, Finn and The Good Brothers' main rivalry was with The Miz and his Miztourage, though they also briefly antagonized Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns… and Jason Jordan (so no, it was not The Shield). In 2018 Nakamura's post-match attack on Styles at WrestleMania 34 also paved the way for him to become enemies with Bálor the following year, and Anderson and Gallows had a front row seat to Samoa Joe's cruel baiting of AJ by using his family. The OC trio with Styles later added Ricochet, Viking Raiders and Braun Strowman to their rivals list in 2019 while also picking up where things left off with both New Day and Rollins. Styles and Bálor's enemies in 2022 were Edge and Damian Priest, to the point they effectively joined forces to take on The Judgment Day. The feud still continue after Balor joined The Judgment Day and wants Styles join The Judgement Day but Styles refused instead make a reunion with Anderson and Gallows.
  • Arc Symbol: A skull with two AK-47s in an "X" formation. Most of the Club's members have their own takes on the logo: the Young Bucks have a variant with a deer skull, Kenny Omega's is in an 8-bit fashion with an Omega symbol, Cody Rhodes' has the American flag painted on the skull, Scurll's logo has a bird skull and two umbrellas instead of AKs, G.O.D.'s version includes their facial paint, later replaced with a gorilla skull, and White's logo has two switchblades knives instead of the AKs, mixed bangs covered on the skull's right side. El Phantasmo's variant has the skull wearing shutter shades.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In building towards an upcoming match, The Elite on Twitter would declare that they are going to set Michael Elgin's beard on fire (arson), give Yoshi Tatsu a Styles Clash (murder), and cut Hiroshi Tanahashi's hair off…
  • The Artifact: They initially started as about a pure a Foreign Wrestling Heel stable can get; from 2014-2018, they only had one Japanese member in Yujiro Takahashi, who very much embraced the Club's ways. Since then, the Club's Japanese roster count grew to the point where the COVID-19 pandemic led to a brief moment in time where almost all active Bullet Club talent in the country was entirely Japanese, as many of its foreign talent had to stay behind in their respective home countries due to travel restrictions.
  • Awesome Moment of Crowning: The Bullet Club have a way of making a really special deal out of whenever one of their members achieves a major milestone, such as winning a world championship or a G1 tournament, simply by supporting the winner in his celebration. Highlights include AJ Styles' two IWGP Heavyweight Championship victories, and Kenny Omega's triumph in the 2016 G1 Climax - arguably some of the biggest accomplishments earned by an individual member of the club. But the closest to a literal example has to be Cody's most recent win of the ROH World Championship at Best in the World 2017, where, following his pinfall victory over Christopher Daniels, he celebrated with a cheering crowd, the Bucks, Scurll, the Being the Elite video camera/phone, and a microphone in which he got to cut a promo declaring that he was no longer the Prince of Pro Wrestling, he was now the King running over everyone.
  • Badass Biker: The Bullet Club is heavily inspired by this trope. Many of the members make frequent use of black leather in their entrance attire. There's a legitimate biker club in India called the Royal Enfield Bullet Club centered around a specific brand bike of the same name. And two of its (former) top members, AJ Styles and Doc Gallows, had both been seen riding motorcycles in wrestling media during their last gimmicks before joining Bullet Club. Oh, and ask original leader Prince Devitt what this was all about.
  • Badass Longcoat: Kenny Omega and Karl Anderson used to wear them to the ring. Luke Gallows still does.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Their calling card. One of the biggest examples was in The New Beginning in Osaka 2015, which saw the group hold all but one of NJPW's championships.
  • Bald of Evil: Anderson, Gallows, and Fale.
  • Bash Brothers: Anderson and Gallows. The Young Bucks as well, even moreso than the first two, since they're real life brothers and have been teammates their entire careers. Tama Tonga has been this with both cousin Fale, adopted brother Tanga Loa and biological brother Hikuleo.
  • Bastard Understudy:
    • Kenny Omega became this as AJ Styles' send-off from NJPW at New Year's Dash 2016. Despite being brought in as a mercenary and to fill the Junior Division hole left by original leader Prince Devitt, he never openly showed disloyalty to the club's senior members and leaders. However, as soon as he saw weakness in the club with every major member (other than The Young Bucks) losing at Wrestle Kingdom 10 the night before, he made sure he was the one to pick up the ball by pinning Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura in his and AJ Styles' tag match against Nakamura and Yoshi-Hashi, then attacked AJ and convinced the club in a brief argument to finish Styles off, essentially marking him as the new leader.
    • Adam Cole started to show shades of it as the head of the Club's ROH operations. In 2017, Cole teased dissension in the ranks with Kenny Omega after their tag team match at the first day of Honor Rising. He then attempted to kick the Young Bucks out of the Club, only for them to state that Omgea was the group's leader and that Cole had no say in the matter. The Bucks instead kicked Cole out of the Club in May, fitting, at the behest of Omega, replacing him with Marty Scurll.
    • With Cole's exit, the role of ambitious substitute Bullet Club leader did not disappear. It instead split between two members who started having issues with Omega later on in the year: Cody Rhodes and Tama Tonga.
      • For Cody, it started with Omega taking an act of concern (nearly throwing in the towel when it looked like Kenny couldn't go during a title match against Okada) and turning it back on him in an act of spite (by trying to force Cody's wife Brandi to do the same when Cody had his turn), then covertly making overtures toward his wife on Being the Elite. As Cody's heelishness started to shine through and Kenny cemented himself more as a semi-Camp Gay Token Good Teammate despite leading what was supposed to be a notoriously villainous group, things deteriorated to the point Cody was openly treating himself (and anyone he was working with without issue) as being Bullet Club leaders.
      • For Tama, it was a building frustration with Kenny's concern being more about The Elite than Bullet Club in general which eventually bubbled over during their 2017 G1 Climax encounter thanks to Omega being decked out in all Elite gear. Though things were able to settle down post-match, Tama (along with Bad Luck Fale) signaled his intent to have the "OGs" take back Bullet Club every chance they got on Twitter since then, including defiantly having NJPW's Bullet Club members continue using the iconic "Too Sweet" Turkish Wolf hand-signal even after the Young Bucks got themselves slapped with a legitimate Cease and Desist by WWE.
      • At New Beginning in Sapporo 2018, night one saw Tama's post-match comments veer into an impassioned rant about possibly having to come unhinged and stop being anyone's second in order to correct the issues in Bullet Club, while night two saw Cody finally attack Kenny, which prompted Kota Ibushi to save the Cleaner while the rest of the BTE members stood divided over the issue. With Kenny's obliviousness to his own faults and Cody's newfound treachery stoking the fires of division with their friends, Tama and Fale continued to galvanize and unite their part of Bullet Club as it floated in the background. Ultimately, Kenny and Cody ended up fighting one last time for at the G1 Special San Francisco for Kenny's newly-won IWGP Heavyweight Championship, before finally beginning to reconcile…only for the Tongans to strike at the Elites and act as the BC's "Firing Squad" after a year of frustration.
  • Beard of Evil: Tonga's face paint is meant to make it stand out more, at least when the beard itself isn't painted anyway.
  • Big Bad:
    • Prince Devitt was this at first. Though his reign lasted less than a year, Devitt had sprouted seeds for the future of Bullet Club.
    • Karl Anderson and AJ Styles took over as this (see Big Bad Duumvirate below), until…
    • Kenny Omega usurped control of Bullet Club and essentially played this role for just over two years (his third year as leader saw him act as more of a babyface/tweener, with other members looking to displace him playing the stable's main heels).
    • Styles returns to this position as the main focus of The Club in WWE and then as the top heel on SmackDown Live.
    • Adam Cole at one point became the main man for the Bullet Club takeover of ROH. He was later surpassed by Cody Rhodes and then replaced as a member by Marty Scurll, but has turned up in NXT as a conquering schemer with two of the Club's (and his own) former enemies, Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly.
    • With their OG faction successfully separating Bullet Club from The Elite, Tama Tonga would officially name Jay White, the man who Bad Luck Fale and Prince Devitt had brought into the company four years prior, as the new leader of Bullet Club at the end of 2018.
    • With NJPW returning to operations following a three-month hiatus due to COVID-19, Jay White and the Tongans were all stuck overseas, forcing a Japanese restocking of Bullet Club... that was spearheaded by the Face–Heel Turn of none other than former rival EVIL, who snatched Tetsuya Naito's championships literally a day after betraying him.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate:
    • In the time between Prince Devitt's departure and Kenny Omega's coup (see Bastard Understudy above), Karl Anderson was the defacto leader of the group, cutting their promos and seemingly fronting their decisions, which made sense since he held seniority as one of the co-founders including Devitt and had the best mic skills of the group. But with AJ Styles holding the IWGP Title while appearing on the American indies moreso than in New Japan, he was the man to beat, making him a combination of both Dragon-in-Chief and The Face of the organization. In fact, AJ had been considered the leader in Bullet Club's US operations such as ROH, a status which New Japan recognized towards the end of his run there. In any case, neither man ever claimed to be the absolute leader and there never seemed to be any signs of either subservience or a power struggle, at least not between these two.
    • Kenny Omega may be the official leader of Bullet Club in 2016, but Adam Cole is just as close to the Young Bucks as he is and is the central figure in its current Ring of Honor operations, even becoming the ROH World Champion, while AJ remains the leader of the offshoot faction and has the strongest presence in America as the WWE Champion. Despite getting along initially, Omega and Cole have shown signs of disagreement since the former's return to New Japan after a brief hiatus following Wrestle Kingdom 11. This and other actions culminated in Cole's exodus from Bullet Club.
    • Cody went on to take Cole's position as the ROH proxy leader, also winning the company's World Championship. For the most part Cody and Omega get along far better than he and Cole did, though there are occasional hints of Omega's attitude wearing thin with both Cody and Tama Tonga and causing potential friction between the larger Bullet Club and The Elite. Things ultimately deteriorated to the point that by the end of January 2018, Cody had attacked Omega in a New Japan ring and Tama indicated he was finished with himself and Bullet Club being lackeys to the current division.
    • Tama Tonga and Bad Luck Fale essentially became this as the primary shot-callers and coordinators of Bullet Club OG, seeking to take back Bullet Club from the clutches of The Elite and restore the faction to the original violent brotherhood state in which they founded it along with its previous leaders. They later added to this unit by making it a trio with a new ace for the group in Jay White, later naming him the official new leader. Even then, the group was established in such a way that White was more akin to what AJ was during his tenure as leader — less of a true decision maker, but more of being the best wrestler the group had to offer. This became more of a Big Bad Ensemble when the likes of KENTA and EVIL started coming in as Heavyweight Championship threats (with EVIL even briefly becoming champion), which Jay still tolerated despite some tension...until Tama started questioning his place on the throne due to his absence from Japan. Jay proceeded to dispense of this trope and seize true command of Bullet Club, starting with excommunicating G.O.D. and bringing back The Good Brothers.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Adam Cole has 100% become this in 2017.
    • Trying to play Eviler than Thou with Kenny Omega from the moment Omega came back from his post-Wrestle Kingdom 11 hiatus, despite said comeback occurring as partners in a tag team match. This included abandoning several double team opportuniti -ADAM COLE BAY BAY!- as well as constantly cutting into Omega's post-match return promo -ADAM COLE BAY BAY!-
    • Attempting to "fire" from the Bullet Club the very same Young Bucks that brought him into Bullet Club because they "didn't have his back" when he fell for a trap by people who've done the same trap before.note 
    • Calling TSA to keep Omega out of the US on grounds of child abuse so he couldn't make it to a set of ROH tapings. Seen on Being the Elite.note 
    • Poisoning Nick Jackson's drink and bragging about it to Marty Scurll as if Scurll was only his backstage buddy and not the Elite's too. Also seen on Being the Elite.note 
    • This ultimately came to an end at the ROH/NJPW War of the Worlds show on May 12, 2017 with Omega, being the REAL Big Bad of Bullet Club, firing Cole and replacing him with Scurll, and the Bucks once again providing the excommunicating superkicks, with full agreement from the rest of the good brothers.
    • Now Tama Tonga and Bad Luck Fale have inserted themselves into this role. The BCOG were supposed to be the second coming of the "true" Bullet Club, willingly cheating to get ahead in matches and sticking together no matter what, leading a lot of people to expect Tama and Fale to have big years in the G1 Climax. The Climax comes around and…well it seems the BCOG have forgotten the concept of cheating to WIN a match. The Tongans end up causing more DQ finishes in this single G1 Climax than NJPW has had in the last five entire years combined, all to "prove a point". Most of the field now treat the BCOG as an annoyance rather than any discernible threat, especially when Jay White is showing how to cheat to actually win (and Toru Yano, but everyone expects that from him and even he toned it down this year). Oh, and because of their antics late in the tournament, Minoru Suzuki is after their heads. Oops.
      • Subverted heavily, as the Tongans were far more successful during the tag team preview matches of the G1 tour, with Tama and Tanga Loa specifically going 9-0. They also became more heavily dominant in the war against The Elite following the G1, swiping two tag team championships from the Young Bucks. Finally, the aforementioned Jay White would soon join the OG covenant himself, in an act which they described as inevitable due to their role in his recruitment to NJPW, while also taking the legendary wrestlers-turned-managers Jado and Gedo with him in defecting from CHAOS. BCOG initially led people to believe they were being helmed by two disruptive nuisances who are in over their heads when the whole time it was three dangerous tacticians. Shortly after this, The Elite surrendered the Bullet Club name.
  • Big Little Brother: Hikuleo is both taller and bigger than both his older brothers.
  • Bookends:
    • Devitt's Heel–Face Turn saw him leave the group in the exact reverse situation from the one that caused his initial Face–Heel Turn that started Bullet Club in the first place.
    • Likewise, Cole's time with the Club both began and ended with a lights-out new member reveal, stereo superkicks, and Cole receiving double cheek kisses from the Young Bucks.
  • Boomerang Bigot
    • Yujiro turned on his countrymen and promotion and aligned himself with Bullet Club. He would occasionally joke about it by refusing to speak or understand Japanese when interviewed with the Club, leaving most of the duties to Kenny Omega. Subverted in that he began proudly calling himself the Tokyo Pimp, bringing Japanese gogo dancers to the ring in his entrance, and finally began to speak Japanese again after befriending new member Taiji Ishimori in 2018.
    • Kenny Omega turned on what was effectively his adopted home. Before joining Bullet Club, he said that he no longer considered himself a gaijin, but then said he had lied and was interested only in money and the Junior Heavyweight crown. This was ultimately proven to be a lie when he and the Elite took over Bullet Club and promptly began turning into gradual babyfaces, interacting positively with wrestling crowds both in Japan, the US, and abroad, while campaigning to change the wrestling world according to Omega's vision of "love and strength".
  • Broomstick Quarterstaff: Omega, though usually limited to his entrance.
  • The Brute: Fale, G.O.D. and Gallows each serve as this.
  • Canon Discontinuity: In short, Bullet Club differentiates between alumni, dismissed in their last appearances to immediately travel elsewhere while maintaining ties to The Club in their gimmicks, and exiles, kicked out for disturbing the natural flow or overall goals of the group in one way or another and subsequently feuding with them for a short time. BC consistently would treat their alumni fondly as though they were still members, but be far more hot-and-cold at best with their exiles. If BC alumni aligned themselves with BC exiles, or attacked other alumni to cement a sort of character change, their status would be up for debate and the resulting angle would determine which way they're counted by the group and its homebase faithful from that point forward. For full details, see bullets below.
    • Primarily in relation to the departures of Prince Devitt and AJ Styles, both being betrayed by the Young Bucks (also in relation to Gallows and Anderson, who were not betrayed). Originally played straight for years, as the Bullet Club acted for the most part as though AJ being violently kicked out never happened, and treated him as though he was still a good brother representing in WWE like Prince Devitt/Finn Bálor. Subverted or retconned during the initial schism, as Tama Tonga made it clear on social media that he remembered what Omega and the others did to Styles, pointed out that they did it when he and Fale weren't present, and professed that he much preferred the days when Bullet Club was united with one goal, with Devitt, Styles and Anderson at the front of the pack. Finally averted following the true launch of the Bullet Club Civil War, as Tama stated in his Sports Illustrated interview that the seeds for the Civil War were sewn the moment The Elite formed and eliminated Styles. When Hangman Page took shots at Bad Luck Fale and the BCOG, claiming that they were stuck in the past and acting like they were still hanging out with Karl Anderson and AJ Styles in 2015, this was another hint that under Omega's vision, the BC Elite no longer cared about preserving the past kinships with the original good brothers that had forged the Club's power to begin with.
    • Styles himself played it to the same conclusion. For years whenever he was forced to bring up the beating they gave him on the way out, he would express some type of wish that it be forgotten about. However, during the schism, when he was asked in a panel in 2018 which side he supported in the Civil War, Styles brought up the beating to explain that he supported the Firing Squad. Around the same time, Devitt tweeted an x-ray supposedly og his own injured wrist, doing the inverted Too Sweet gesture the BCOG were using. With the Elite officially gone from Bullet Club, Tama Tonga declared AJ's dismissal to be this, saying AJ, Devitt, Anderson, and Gallows are still officially BC members.
    • Repeated with Chase and Yujiro's exile from the Club during the Civil War. During the assault at the G1 Supercard, the Tongans attacked anyone who attempted to stop them from assaulting the Elite, including Chase and Yujiro, and for some months, the pair were treated as exiled. Then, after it became apparent the war would be more of a cold war not resolved in the ring, Chase and Yujiro were welcomed back and treated by the OG Club as having been on a spy mission to ensure the Elite failed.
    • Tama Tonga considered Anderson and Gallows to have betrayed Bullet Club when they sided with The Elite in AEW in 2021, although they still continued to maintain Bullet Club symbols and claim the notion of being BC royalty. This led to a few confrontations at NJPW Strong and Impact Wrestling shows between BC and The Good Brothers over the ensuing year. Several months after The Super Elite quietly parted ways, tensions still remained hot, culminating in Guerrillas of Destiny taking on The Good Brothers in February 2022 to both claim the Impact World Tag Team titles and officially "fire" Karl and Doc from Bullet Club. Gallows and Anderson were still considered peripheral to Bullet Club this whole time; the problem wasn't so much them leaving the fold, but trying to bring people back in who the others didn't want.
    • At said title match itself, Jay White and Chris Bey turned on G.o.D to side with The Good Brothers in response to Tama Tonga questioning Jay's leadership due to being inactive in Japan. While this could on paper be said to be G.o.D's excommunication from Bullet Club, Jay hadn't been in Japan for about a year at this point and the rest of the group had not been consulted to make that call, with tensions rising within the group itself over who to side with. For the next whole month, despite Tama and Loa being officially written off as having been removed from Bullet Club according to certain wikis, there was still some question as to whether the others would side with Tama and Loa, or with Jay and his unit in America... until Tama's match with EVIL in the New Japan Cup saw the entire club except Jado turn on G.o.D. and thus confirm both their excommunication and The Good Brothers' official reinstatement into proper BC.
    • In early 2022, Finn Bálor posted a picture of all his accomplishments with the Bullet Club logo in the background, only to later come to the aid of AJ Styles against Edge and Damian Priest of The Judgment Day on the eve of Bullet Club Day 2022, finally teaming up in WWE for the first time ever. Fale and Jay both gave nods of approval on Twitter. When The Prince later aligned with Judgment Day and left both AJ and Liv Morgan hanging, White and Anderson sent a picture captioned to Bálor on Instagram during their simultaneous NJPW singles title reigns, hinting that they were watching his actions. When Bálor began trying to recruit Styles and then beating him down after his objections, Anderson and Gallows returned to WWE and reformed The OC to back up AJ. In response to standing opposite The OC, Bálor claimed that he'd left The Club and moved on while everyone who's come since has been living off his legacy. All this hints that flipping to Judgment Day was the moment he stepped at least one foot out the door of the BC family as a whole, and the other foot came when The OC had enough of him having Judgment Day attack AJ again.
    • The OC's return to WWE came while Karl Anderson was still NEVER Openweight Champion. This became yet another case where guys were Wiki'd as having "left" Bullet Club while still being treated by the group as part of it. Jay White would constantly praise Anderson and Gallows for spreading the influence of Bullet Club whenever he got the chance during press conferences and interviews, claiming this fit his vision of global expansion and even accepting treating Mia Yim as a new member of BC. Anderson and Gallows continued to claim Bullet Club and The OC simultaneously in online videos hyping up his reappearances to defend the NEVER Openweight Title, and the back-and-forth shoutouts on Twitter would support this as well. On WWE television, "The Voice of WWE" Michael Cole finally mentioned Bullet Club on-air intentionally for the first time during the entrances to PPV matches involving the two sides where he elaborated on the history between The Prince and The OC, playing right into Jay's point. In his final appearance as NEVER Openweight Champion, Anderson walked to the ring adorned in the OC's black and red merchandise while also still being billed as representing Bullet Club.
  • Canon Name: In NJPW, ROH, and TNA, Cody Rhodes' surname was this.
  • Co-Dragons: Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga considered themselves this to Jay White after appointing him as the new frontman of Bullet Club, although a closer look at how the club operates in the Cutthroat Era arguably puts all three at equal importance heading the group, with Jay as the weapon, Tama as the pillar, and Fale as the general. This lasted until Tama began teasing a play for the throne due to Jay's absence in Japan, which led to The Switchblade making the removal of G.o.D a crucial component of his Bullet Club global takeover/expansion plot, with Tama's heart-and-soul position instead going back to the reinstated Anderson.
  • Combination Attack: AJ and the Bucks used simultaneous suicide dives. During the Elite Era, several variations of the Elite used combination attack spots.
  • Commuting on a Bus: Jeff Jarrett is considered a member of Bullet Club but mostly works in production and relations, rarely wrestling or appearing in front of any New Japan audiences.
  • Continuity Nod / Shout-Out: Despite the falling-out that took place in Prince Devitt's on-screen exit from NJPW and the later more extreme case with AJ Styles, the NJPW homebase members and WWE alumni of Bullet Club all continuously send nods to each other indicating that they're still all on the same page.
    • Following Devitt's exit and Styles' entry on the same night, the two each adopted one of the other's signature moves. Styles has taken to using Devitt's Bloody Sunday DDT (which he outright admitted on Twitter was a tribute to Devitt), while Devitt used a variation of AJ's Pelé kick on WWE NXT as Finn Bálor.
    • Both WWE and Anderson himself pretty much confirmed in the lead-up to his NXT title shot in 2015 taking place at a special show in Japan that Anderson and Devitt are still as close friends as ever. Devitt proudly showed off some of his Bullet Club gear during a WWE Netowrk documentary in which he went through his history, which also showed pictures of him with Anderson as well as a clip of them greeting again when Anderson came down to see him in Florida prior to the trip. On Anderson's part, said reunion trip also produced a Vine video from Anderson's account of the two hanging out with Karl's sons, as well as an appearance by Devitt on Anderson and Gallows' "Talk'n Shop" podcast in which Devitt described his exit from the Club with the words "I orchestrated a little babyface scenario."
    • Despite ROH acknowledging the "executive decision" that went down in Japan with Styles' excommunication at the beginning of 2016, Anderson and Gallows as well as the Young Bucks all aided Styles and enjoyed a curtain call with him in his final appearance with the company before his Royal Rumble debut. Then when Anderson and Gallows made their way into WWE, they made it their mission to reunite with him again, with their Bullet Club history explicitly referenced in all but name (they were simply called The Club).
    • The Club has Japanese characters on their clothing, referencing their time in Japan.
    • In a post-show video after the July 18 episode of Raw, Anderson stated that "The Club owned Japan." Styles and Gallows corrected with "Still do." Stealth reference thinly masked by the fact that they recently headlined a WWE tour of Japan.
    • In his match against Tomohiro Ishii during the 2016 G1 Climax tournament, Tama Tonga countered the Ishii Driller into a cutter, which was Anderson's Finishing Move during his time in New Japan (as the Gun Stun), then hit him with another one to get the pin. Tama has since adopted it as his finisher.
    • In the last moments of the 2016 G1 Climax, Kenny Omega hit Hirooki Goto with a Bloody Sunday, a Styles Clash, AND his One-Winged Angel for the victory.
    • SummerSlam 2016 found Styles, Gallows, and Anderson reuniting backstage for the first time since the draft and discussing their matches later that night. Then, they look off camera, and it pans to see...Finn Bálor in his Bálor Club shirt. They offer him a Too Sweet, but he just smiles and walks away. Hilariously, The Club aren't even mad, and Styles even gives a knowing glance and point to the camera.
      • This would pay off more than a year later, where Bálor and Styles faced each other in an impromptu match at TLC 2017 in which Styles was flown over from South America to fill in for an infirm Bray Wyatt, who was supposed to be Bálor's opponent. After Bálor defeated Styles in an instant classic that had no business being one under the circumstances, both men would finally share a Too Sweet together before Styles gave Bálor the ring, the entire scene being reminiscent of a pre-Elite Bullet Club G1 match.
    • A week after giving Big E. Langston a groin injury, Gallows and Anderson posed as doctors in a vignette mocking his "ringpostitis". Remember, Luke uses his first name in Vince's ring, not his club nickname. Speaking of which…pay attention to the next two.
    • During a Bullet Club vs. Chaos six-man tag team match, Loa scoop-slams Yano near the corner and then goes to intimidate the referee while Fale and Tama pull Yano groin-first into the post the same way Anderson and Gallows did Big E. Fale even outright says "ringpostitis" ten seconds later.
    • We got one to a different company and club. Once upon a time in TNA there was a pack called the Aces And Eights, which Doc was a part of, only to leave after the group passed him over for Vice President in favor of a different Mr. Anderson.note  Then over a year later, two particular brothers who formerly led that pack decided to make a direct challenge to the Bullet Club when TNA held Bound for Glory in Japan. Fast forward again, nearly two more years later to the night after SummerSlam, The Dudley Boyz, announced their departure after a full year back in WWE. In came Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows jumping the Dudleyz, driving both Bubba Ray onto the outside floor and D-Von through a table in the ring with the Magic Killer, destroying them with no chance of retaliation (at least directly, anyway; Bully Ray would resurface entering a feud against the ROH contingent of Bullet Club).
    • Fale has shouted out Anderson and Gallows while too-sweeting the camera during his entrance on occasion. He also shouted them out along with Bálor and Styles during his post-match press minute on Bullet Club's five-year anniversary.
    • Bálor once worked together with Anderson and Gallows to eliminate The Big Show during a battle royal, then almost exchanged a Too-Sweet afterwards until the Good Brothers' new friend Elias attacked Bálor from behind.
    • Two weeks after the SmackDown Live crew held Raw under siege to kick off the year's Survivor Series storyline, New Day suddenly turned up in the crowd announcing that the blue team was about to hold the show under siege again. So Raw General Manager Kurt Angle had a crew of Raw superstars united to fend off the second impact. The three Raw guys who led the charge? Bálor, Anderson and Gallows.
    • On the New Year's Day 2018 edition of Raw, Bálor, Gallows and Anderson finally reunited in a victorious six-man tag team match against Elias, Bo Dallas, and Curtis Axel.
    • Aside from a mutiny against Bullet Club Elite, Bullet Club OG is a love-letter to…well, the original pre-Elite days of the Bullet Club. Tama Tonga's Sports Illustrated interview put forward the notion that while Bullet Club operates in Japan, it can be found in WWE, referencing Finn Bálor, AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, and Luke Gallows as being "loyal to us" and "Bullet Club for life". Tama even claimed that the alumni approved of their strike, which Styles himself would confirm when asked which side he supports at San Diego Comic Con. Even the "Firing Squad" shirt they debuted in their attack in San Francisco bears the same color scheme as the original, pre-Bone Soldier, Bullet Club shirt.
    • AJ and the Good Brothers became known as The OC upon their collective Face–Heel Turn in 2019, with the catchphrase of "The Official, The Original, The Only Club That Matters" first introduced by Anderson on Twitter. After a few days of being bombarded with mentions about it once the tagline hit TV, Tama offered his own take affirming that everything between the two sides was still above board.
    • Towards the end of G1 29, Bullet Club's "world-class" recruit turned out to be KENTA, in a massive betrayal of the CHAOS/Hontai alliance, especially Katsuyori Shibata. But there are two others he goes way back with as well. After all, when Prince Devitt first debuted on NXT and became Finn Bálor, who was it again that brought him in to help against The Ascension? And before that, who again was a symbolic mentor to Taiji Ishimori back in his NOAH days?
    • The OC's raid of NXT in November 2019 saw them take on Tommaso Ciampa, Matt Riddle, and Keith Lee in a six-man tag team match, only for Finn Bálor to come out, distract Ciampa long enough for Styles to hit him with a Pelé, and attack Riddle with a 1916 on the outside. Styles and Bálor stared at each other for a moment before both slowly raising Bullet Club taunts, Finn's finger guns and AJ's Too Sweet.
      • Said OC raid also started with an attack on The Undisputed Era, who Bálor seemed to be courting an alliance with... until weeks later when Bálor leveled Adam Cole with a swift overhead kick, then marked a challenge for Cole's NXT Championship.
    • On the September 1, 2020 of NXT during the Fatal 4-Way for the vacant NXT Championship, Bálor and Cole are the only ones in the ring, and they seem to make a quick alliance by Two Sweeting each other, only for Bálor to attack his clubmate. They wound up tying for first place and facing each other one-on-one for the title, with Bálor winning and the two exchanging a Too Sweet afterwards.
    • Kenny Omega reunited with Anderson and Gallows on Impact Wrestling towards the end of 2020 into 2021, with Omega outright referencing their union on Impact as "reforming the old Bullet Club". The Young Bucks became pseudo-members of this alliance on New Year's Smash on January 6, 2021 when it crossed over into AEW, with The Elite members doing the Too Sweet for the first time since they were kicked out of Bullet Club. However, this one was not met with a warm welcome like the others; Tama Tonga immediately made his feelings clear on his podcast and social media outlets that by siding with The Elite, Gallows and Anderson had "sold out", Jay White started calling them out as ripoffs living in the past the moment he returned from his sabbatical, and KENTA refused to buddy up to Omega in his AEW guest appearances despite working together to target Jon Moxley. In fact, more often than not Tama ends up responding to shade being thrown by Omega and Don Callis.
    • The logo on the pants worn by Styles' "personal colossus" Omos in their Raw Tag Team Championship match against The New Day at WrestleMania 37 vaguely resembles the Bullet Club logo from a distance.
    • Long after Anderson and Gallows quietly split off from The Elite and then returned to Bullet Club, they would also reunite with AJ Styles in WWE against Finn Bálor and The Judgment Day. During this feud, Michael Cole would make frequent reference to the history that Styles and The O.C. have with Bálor, complete with directly name-dropping Bullet Club live on WWE air. In an interview during this time, Jay White said he considers The O.C. to be part of The Club regardless of what company they're working for, even calling Mia Yim a full-fledged member since she joined them.
  • Cool Mask: The Bone Soldier mask became established as such with its second wearer, Taiji Ishimori. Aside from using it for his entrances only and allowing it to be associated with an actual winner, he also introduced alternate versions of it including a metallic black one.
  • Cool Shades: Bad Luck Fale rocks a pair to the ring. Yujiro does as well. Kenny Omega wears them too. Scurll joins them later on. El Phantasmo also later wears one.
  • Crazy-Prepared: In his match with Toru Yano (whose wacky antics involve the ref getting distracted so he can low blow his opponents) in the 2014 G1 tournament, Yujiro showcases this as he suffers a Groin Attack during it but doesn't show any damage and after defeating Yano reveals he had a Cup on the entire time. Even more justified if one remembers that Yujiro used to be stablemates with Yano in CHAOS before defecting to the Bullet Club.
  • Cross Through: The Young Bucks and AJ Styles paved the way for the rest of Bullet Club to frequently cross through between its home promotion and Ring of Honor. Later, Adam Cole and the Bucks would serve as the Club's ROH representatives or "away team" with Cole holding the ROH World Title on the group's behalf. Cody also represents the club outside of those promotions. Prior to the in-house schisms getting out of control, the members seemed to act on Twitter like the Bullet Club is still one entity, ignoring the time they threw AJ out, and regarding The Club, the ROH branch and the main team in NJPW as still being the same thing. Even after the "firing squad" mutiny of Bullet Club OG, Tama Tonga affirms that the ex-Club members in WWE are considered to be Bullet Club for life, and Styles has confirmed his support for the Tongans.
  • Crowd Chant:
    • Karl Anderson has had his promos interrupted by "Fuck TNA" chants at ROH events, such as War Of The Worlds. This isn't hostile, mind you: it's said fully in support, since he was responsible for "bringing back" AJ Styles and The Young Bucks.
    • The name of Bullet Club has become its own chant everywhere that current members or past remnants have a presence in.
    • Anderson's "Too Sweet" in the Club's second theme has become one for Western fans after a two-count is heard.
  • Dark Action Girl: La Comandante in CMLL, since it has several divisions for women and a partnership with REINA.
  • Dark Is Evil: The group is known to dress in black and they are easily bad to the point of Obviously Evil.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Particularly in America, ever since their popularity power grew enough to turn them face there. This lasted until 2016, with both ROH and WWE attempting heel Club takeovers.
  • Defector from Decadence: Frankie Kazarian temporarily joined for a spell, only to reveal that it was ruse to aid Christopher Daniels in his feud with Adam Cole over the ROH World Championship. A more straight example would be Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi initially aligning themselves with the Elite contingent when the civil war occurred, and even did so for a spell after the Elite split from Bullet Club formally. Eventually, they returned to the OG group under Jay White's leadership. NJPW Southern Showdown saw Robbie Eagles defect from Bullet Club to CHAOS at the culmination of a storyline where Phantasmo cheating Eagles out of their match at Best of the Super Juniors and then repeatedly undermining him for the rest of the tour afterwards caused Eagles to become conflicted about taking part in Bullet Club's dirty tactics, which Will Ospreay sensed and took advantage of to reextend his CHAOS invite to Eagles. Following their IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match at Southern Showdown, Eagles punched Phantasmo out of his way and shook hands with Ospreay, then refused to attack Will with a chair or let Jay White do so the following night, attacking White instead and standing with Ospreay.
  • Devil in Plain Sight:
    • Within the context of the club, anyway, Kenny Omega's actions at the start of 2016 should not have come as a surprise to anyone. Pretty much everything the man has said in official material since joining Bullet Club was either explicitly or implicitly about himself — even when talking about the club as a whole. His entrance is the most blatantly self-aggrandizing of them all in the way he sings his own theme song operatically, blatantly over-emphasizes his gun point pose, and uses his teammates (especially younger members Chase Owens and Cody Hall) as sidekicks and item-carriers. He openly threatens to kill his opponents over perceived slights, and even when standing in the club's midst could often be seen staring off to the side or at one of the others with a crazed look on his face. "The Cleaner" is clearly insane. That said, the Young Bucks are there to keep everything together and when it comes down to it, Kenny still occasionally shows clear loyalty to Bullet Club itself even as the leader. On the other hand, the fact that he's not overly attached to the fraternal concept of Bullet Club and instead more focused on spreading their dominance to impart his vision on the business allows him to be a more efficient leader, sensing when someone starts to become a liability and reacting accordingly — an increasing necessity without Anderson around.
    • What goes around comes back around, as Kenny Omega's divisive leadership of the Bullet Club has led to both Tama Tonga questioning his loyalty to the Club and Cody Rhodes making a play for his spot as the leader. But while Cody is the obvious Starscream, with his and Kenny's feud over the top spot with the ROH/Elite unit caught in the middle taking center stage, Tama Tonga has been maintaining the core of Bullet Club, both in heel mentality and in unison, assembling an increasingly powerful force with the "Bullet Club OG" unit in New Japan. What cemented Tama as this trope was the pull-apart brawl between Cody and Kenny on BTE episode 93, in which the Tongans and the BTE members both intervened to keep Kenny and Cody apart from each other…except for Tama Tonga, who stayed seated looking at them seated with an unfazed gangster expression on his face as though it wasn't even worth getting involved. Wrestling Dontaku 2018, Bullet Club's five-year anniversary, saw him lead the way when the OG unit pressed the BTE crew into linking up the wolf hands after Kenny chased Cody off the scene, as well as ultimately revealed that, despite Cody attempting to steal credit for the "return of Bone Soldier" and Kenny believing him on Twitter, it was Tama Tonga who Taiji Ishimori reached out to in order to get into NJPW as the new Bone Soldier. Then came the G1 Special in San Francisco. Tama and his family finally made their move to strike out The Elite from Bullet Club, sparking the true civil war — and eventually winning it.
  • Dissonant Serenity: Tama Tonga's infamous "zero fucks given" moment, sitting down completely nonplussed during Kenny Omega and Cody Rhodes' pull-apart incident in front of the majority of the Bullet Club, including both OG and BTE members, on BTE episode 93, was the point where the possibility of Tonga rising from the chaos of Kenny and Cody's house-dividing ambitions to become the true leader of Bullet Club went from a fringe chance advocated by BC old-heads to being seen as a very real potential scenario.
  • Divergent Character Evolution: All three of Bullet Club's Cutthroat Era junior heavyweight competitors were quite similarly earnest faces in outside promotions just prior to joining NJPW as part of The Club. During their team-up, however, they completely diverged — Eagles remained largely the same guy in a heel stable, Ishimori has absorbed stock heel tropes, and Phantasmo has done a complete 180° turn into an absolute jerkass heel, resulting in a Freudian Trio with a clear dose of Teeth-Clenched Teamwork. This ultimately played out to the conclusion of Eagles leaving the team.
  • Equal-Opportunity Evil: Members of the group have been from Ireland, Mexico, Tonga, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Subverted during their first year — Yujiro hadn't come in yet, which meant all the members were gaijins (foreigners to Japan), and Devitt and Anderson had the occasional promo taking issue with the Japanese people. Funnily enough, Bullet Club's tenure under Jay White saw the most amount of Japanese talent active within the group despite a core part of its identity under Omega, Styles and Devitt being a predominantly gaijin faction.
  • Evil Brit: The appropriately named Villain, Marty Scurll, who joined the Bullet Club by helping The Elite kick out Adam Cole.
  • Evil Versus Evil: Their feud with another heel New Japan stable, Los Ingobernables de Japon.
  • Face–Heel Turn
    • Devitt had been a long-time face for a time before turning on Ryusuke Taguchi ending Apollo 55 and forming the group. Anderson and Tonga also had been faces at the time before they joined him in forming the group.
    • Similarly, AJ Styles was a long time face even when he left TNA and portrayed a face on the independent circuit, so it was a surprise to some to see him be a heel and join Bullet Club. He still wrestles as a face while representing the Club in America as The Face / Dragon-in-Chief of the club, making him also something of a Token Good Teammate. The latter trope would be played straight in the beginnings of his WWE team-up with Anderson and Gallows, before he ultimately turned full heel to beat up John Cena. After turning face separately over time, the three reunited in another heel turn in 2019.
    • Once a long time fun-loving face in love with Japan to the point of learning the language and getting a home there, Kenny Omega is now an arrogant gaijin mercenary Cobra-Wesker fusion whose primary motivations are for money, championships, and (formerly) "cleaning out the crap" in the Junior Division. His gradual Heel–Face Turn as the leader of the Elite side of Bullet Club has tipped him back in the other direction with the addition of the belief that he carries a world-changing vision of wrestling.
  • Facial Markings: Tonga and Loa cover their face with paint as did Gallows. Devitt, Anderson, and the Bucks on occasion as well. When Devitt became Finn Bálor in the WWE, he would continue painting his face and body when wrestling as "the Demon King." Gallows stopped donning paint of any kind for years since returning to WWE with Anderson, all the way up until they rebranded as The OC.
  • Fake Defector: Frankie Kazarian, who joined Bullet Club by turning his back on old partner Christopher Daniels to help Adam Cole retain the ROH World title. His membership lasted a month before revealing it to be a ruse, helping Daniels defeat Cole for the belt.
  • Five Moves of Doom: AJ applies an inverted face lock and suplexes the victim onto one Buck, who catches him in position for a tombstone. AJ then throws the other Buck up over his shoulder to spike the tombstone. Then the holding Buck gives the victim to AJ who sets him up for the Styles Clash, but AJ doesn't drop him until after both Bucks superkick the poor guy.
  • Flipping the Bird: The Tongans will often taunt foes both direct and distant with a middle finger.
  • Foreign Culture Fetish: The Japanese lettering and fond NJPW references from The OC are more of a Shout-Out than anything that would be strictly of this trope. Chase Owens, who is clearly a product of the Southern United States, and Yujiro Takahshi, the first Japanese member of Bullet Club, both milking the "honorary Tongans" label for all its worth in the first half of 2018, is clearly this trope.
  • Foreign Wrestling Heel: While the main branch in NJPW was founded on this trope, with Yujiro Takahashi being the first exception, the Latin American branch operating mainly out of CMLL is largely made of Latin Americans, excepting Tama Tonga. However, over the years it hasn't been this trope since more Japanese wrestlers have joined the stable.
  • Freudian Trio: The three Junior Heavyweights of the Cutthroat Era have developed into this. Robbie Eagles would be the id, competing with some sense of honor and simply desires to prove himself to the Bullet Club Loyal as well as showcase the heart of Australian pro wrestling, though he would get easily flustered when he couldn't do this. Taiji Ishimori is the ego, whose very moniker comes from the essence of Bullet Club itself, who will cheat, taunt, and ambush foes if necessary but not much beyond that and ultimately has no problem with any of his teammates. El Phantasmo is the superego, going out of his way to be a dick to non-Bullet Club fans, circumventing rules and conventions at the first sign of opportunity, and even undermining Eagles starting from the moment he was questioned for pulling a fast one on him all the way through to the end of Best of Super Juniors. Ultimately Eagles couldn't take anymore, defecting from Bullet Club to join CHAOS at the conclusion of Southern Showdown in his home nation.
  • Friendly Enemy: Despite the battle lines being drawn between the NJPW and ROH contingents in the first half of 2018 thanks to Kenny and Cody's rivalry, the Club themselves still treated each other cordially, even culminating in a big Too Sweet at Wrestling Dontaku that year which the Young Bucks took part in despite the legal troubles surrounding their use of the gesture. This got quickly thrown out the window when the Firing Squad was formed, with the intent to take Bullet Club back from the Elite's antics.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Kenny Omega went from a faithful young upstart who loved New Japan to a psychotic hitman threatening to kill his rivals to the boss of the biggest heel faction in the company.
  • Four Is Death:
    • The Core Four, with Anderson, Fale, Tama, and either Gallows or Devitt depending on the time.
    • The Dream Team, with Omega, Cole, and The Bucks, putting together The Elite (Omega/Bucks) and Superkliq (Cole/Bucks) power trios into one…dream team.
    • The Golden Elite, with Omega, the Bucks, and Kota Ibushi of all people, have formed this as the leaders of the face-leaning tweener incarnation Bullet Club Elite.
    • The O.C., with Styles, Anderson, Gallows and Mia Yim who has joined them in order to counter the Judgment Day's Rhea Ripley.
  • Fun Personified: Kenny was this before joining the club, and only became an evil version upon turning heel and joining them, before reverting back to playing this straight over time with The Elite.
  • Fun with Acronyms
    • Guerrillas of Destiny, the name of the Tonga brothers' tag team.
    • Gallows' Organization for Nether Area Diseases and the Octogenarian Leisure Destination For Aging Rehabilitation Treatment, Anderson and Gallows' parodies of Wrestling Doesn't Pay based on attacks they conducted which they then used to mock The New Day.
  • Good Hair, Evil Hair: When Kenny Omega joined them as the Cleaner, he drastically changed his hair, dying it a mix of black and gray. He gradually turned babyface as the leader while the dye ran out.
  • Graceful Loser: After Bullet Club OG defeated Bullet Club Elite over and over in special events in late summer/early fall 2018, and then finally restocked their roster at King of Pro Wrestling to no longer need The Elite to be a complete faction, the Elite crew began to simply accept that they had in fact lost Bullet Club. Five members of their team would label their next T-shirt releases on Pro Wrestling Tees as being their "final" BC affiliated shirts, as well as strongly hint (or outright confirm in Cody's case) on Twitter that their time with BC was a thing of the past. This culminated in the entire team's announcement, while taping Talk is Jericho at the Chris Jericho Rock 'n' Wrestling Rager at Sea, that they were all going by The Elite as a group and were no longer affiliated with Bullet Club.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: Since the reformation of the Golden Lovers, Kota Ibushi has begun teaming with Bullet Club in multi-man matches, including those where Kenny isn't present. His status as to whether he was a member or not was clarified with the formation of the Golden Elite, where Kenny stated that despite him and the Young Bucks still being a part of Bullet Club, the membership did not extend to Ibushi.
  • Hard Head: Fale, no surprises there.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Devitt had his when he faced Ryusuke Taguchi in a Loser Leaves NJPW match, renouncing his cheating ways and refusing the Young Bucks' help. This plus losing the match resulting in Devitt obviously leaving the group.
  • A Hero to His Hometown: The Western gang of gaijin "cool heels" who recently acquired the most popular independent American wrestler of the past decade are generally very popular as a whole in America. This accounted for the Club's Heel–Face Revolving Door in 2015, as just about every American promotion that booked Bullet Club members that year, including Ring of Honor and Global Force Wrestling, did so as faces, whereas they have always been a heel group to some degree or another in their main stomping grounds in NJPW. The vast majority of BC's Impact Wrestling appearances in 2021 and 2022, save for membership transfers and a short feud with The Motor City Machine Guns, would also see Bullet Club work in a tweener/babyface role.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks were a prime case of this by the end of 2018. The Bucks caused trouble with Prince Devitt in his last match, helped bring in Omega as a new member during Karl Anderson and AJ Styles' run, then assisted Omega in ousting Styles and convincing Anderson to concede direction to Kenny. This convoluted plot enabled them to quietly take the power of Bullet Club and use it as the personal army for Omega's "Change the World" agenda, with said agenda including the Bucks bringing their indie friends into the Club and its lore through a Ring of Honor expansion. As a consequence of this, however, the biggest internal threats the Club has ever had, in the form of Adam Cole, then Cody Rhodes, were brought in by The Elite themselves, and while they were able to nip Cole in the bud early, they (particularly Kenny) actually poked at Cody and drove him to his treachery and didn't realize it until he was setting them against each other and claiming leadership. Furthermore, the other men they brought in, Marty Scurll and Adam "Hangman" Page, have proven to be very much Wild Card characters in this crisis situation, and the core members of Bullet Club, represented by day-one OG members Tama Tonga and Bad Luck Fale, became increasingly skeptical about everything involving The Elite. By the time Cody and Kenny finally began to patch up their issues, the Fifita clan members had already hatched a plan to attack Kenny and everyone who sided with him to conclude the G1 Special in San Francisco. Their own machinations to take over Bullet Club have smacked them right back in the nose in 2017-2018, ultimately resulting in them losing Bullet Club. Subverted in that they bowed out of Bullet Club gracefully when it became clear they no longer controlled it, walking away with The Elite as a full faction.
  • Incoming Ham: As the Bálor Club: NEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRDS!
  • Insane Troll Logic: Why did Fale start going after the ring announcers whenever they try to introduce him now? Because one of them mistakenly announced him as Tama Tonga one time and that pissed him off.
  • Insistent Terminology: Since launching the Civil War, the heel side including the Tongans and Taiji Ishimori have been identified as Bullet Club OG to offset Kenny Omega's tweener side in Bullet Club Elite. Except they don't really call themselves Bullet Club OG much because they seem to favor insisting that they and they alone are Bullet Club to begin with, framing the conflict as simply Bullet Club vs. The Elite. Even Sports Illustrated went along with it when they published their interview with Tama after the G1 Special. Ultimately they were proven right, as The Elite didn't put up much of a fight for the BC name, conceding it via podcast on Chris Jericho's cruise 3½ months later without ever getting a major pin on Bullet Club.
  • Ironic Nickname: Ironic in the sense that you wouldn't expect things to end up that way, rather than named that way from the start. Still, going by his independent/shoot appearances and eventual return to WWE, the character name of Anderson's larger counterpart is actually Luke Gallows—Doc is short for Director Of Chaos, his position in Aces And Eights before it was forced to disband.
  • It's All About Me: Part of what defined The Elite's era was this. While the start of Kenny's leadership showed that they were still as tight with the rest of the group and even beyond that, he made no secret about how he prioritized himself and the Young Bucks more than the other members. Over time, the Elite's various ROH affiliates who later joined the group (Cole, Cody, Scurll, Page) only continued to overshadow the homegrown NJPW talent, eventually triggering the inevitable split between the Elite and OG factions.

     Tropes K through Z 
  • Large Ham: Anderson, Gallows and Omega stood out as this. Styles takes the helm in WWE when he's pissed off.
  • Leave Him to Me!: Devitt's attitude towards the rest of the club when it came to Ryusuke Taguchi. Unfortunately, The Young Bucks didn't take the hint, leading to one of the few incidents of Club infighting at Invasion Attack. Displays this in WWE as Bálor, as while he still shows a handful of signs of loyalty to the club, aside from a three-month team-up with Anderson and Gallows at the start of 2018 he prefers to act on his own rather than rely on the others.
  • Lightning Bruiser: All four leaders have counted as this.
  • Meaningful Name: Tangaroa (also spelled Takaroa, Tangaloa, etc.) is one of the oldest Polynesian deities, whose legend varies depending on which island culture. In Tongan myth, he's the progenitor of an entire family of sky gods who were the ancestors of the first Tongan kings. Now the Guerrillas of Destiny become more significant when you remember both the acronym to their name as well as who their father is.
  • Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: Significantly more popular in the among western fans of AEW and NJPW than among Japanese fans.
  • Mighty Glacier: Fale is the biggest of the group and the tallest and is least likely to win a foot race. But all he needs to do is get you and you're in trouble.
  • Mr. Fanservice: Devitt's good looks and toned body made him popular with female fans. Same goes for AJ. Adam Cole was having some weight issues when he joined, having noticeably slimmed down during a battle with pneumonia, but otherwise qualifies. Cody Rhodes thinks he's this. Karl Anderson after he got ripped abs. Taiji Ishimori as well. Anderson and Ishimori have both worn cut shirts to show their abs.
  • Ms. Fanservice
    • Mao, a female dancer who has accompanied Yujiro at times to the ring dating back to his CHAOS days.
    • Amber O'Neal was this before she became Mrs. Gallows and declared herself part of Bullet Club. Her "Bullet Babe" nickname was an adaptation of her normal Red Baron as "The Beverly Hills Babe".
    • Brandi Rhodes was definitely this during Cody and The Elite's run within BC.
    • Pieter, a dancer known as "The Tokyo Latina", would gradually take over as the go-to eye candy after Yujiro brought her in, being treated as a member of The Club moreso than any of the above. Chase has an obvious crush on her, Fale is/was dating her in real life, and Jay has even shouted her out as a member while mocking Tetsuya Naito's LIJ roll-call.
  • Multinational Team: In the Bullet Club's long history, there have been representatives from the United States,note  in addition to Tonga,note  Japan,note  Irelandnote , Canadanote , Australianote , New Zealandnote  and the United Kingdomnote .
  • Naughty Nurse Outfit:
    • Mao, Yujiro's most common valet before Pieter, wore one during a match.
    • Dana Brooke served as this for one night as the "nurse" for Gallows and Anderson's OLD FART "retirement home" in a precursor segment to an intergender six-person tag match against The New Day and Bayley.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If any part of Kenny Omega and The Elite's plan in kayfabe was to actually transform the identity of Bullet Club into their vision over a long period of time, Kenny and Cody themselves not only completely ruined it, they achieved the exact opposite through their own actions. Namely their petty bickering with each other over leadership while at the same time both constantly deemphasizing their loyalty to Bullet Club as a whole behind the scenes. Not only were these things the main source of ire that sparked the Fifita clan's decision to mutiny, they also provided the perfect opening for Jay White to capitalize, with Kenny's invitation to White to join BC under his leadership resulting directly in White's capture of Omega's IWGP United States Championship. Which then led to The Elite's leadership issues only getting worse, the Tongans being able to consolidate the force of BCOG in the background, and White swimming into a burial of Hangman Page before moving on to disrupt CHAOS from the inside. All of which culminated in The Elite being effectively kicked out of Bullet Club in San Francisco (even though they put up an empty fight to keep the name for a few months) and then Switchblade defecting from CHAOS at King of Pro Wrestling to become The Club's new top ace and taking CHAOS's legendary managers with him. With Jay White, The Guerrillas of Destiny, Taiji Ishimori, and El Phantasmo having all captured IWGP titles for a unified heel BC since then, and Tama Tonga even organizing the first ever Bullet Club Block Party and promising more to come, it's safe to say that the strong and Machiavellian identity of Bullet Club is back with a vengeance.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Speaking of that return to Machiavellian Bullet Club, El Phantasmo overstepped his boundaries in that role to the point of being the primary catalyst to the defection of Robbie Eagles. In the beginning of the Best of Super Juniors tour, Phantasmo and Eagles were getting along just fine, playing off each other seamlessly in mocking their opponents; even before that, Robbie got along famously with the man who recruited him to be his teammate the year before, Taiji Ishimori. After Phantasmo pulled a cheap trick on Eagles to beat him in their B-Block match, however, things started going downhill. Eagles was crestfallen at being deceived by a teammate like that, and this was the beginning of his coming to terms with Bullet Club's guerrilla tactics clashing with his personal values. Then Phantasmo directly interfered to help him defeat Will Ospreay, who had a friendly past with both men prior to joining BC and would've overtaken Phantasmo's leading spot in the block at the time, which Eagles immediately deduced had been done in self-interest. Upset with being questioned, Phantasmo continued to poke at Eagles on the sly through the rest of the tournament, and wrote him off as a tag team partner in favor of Ishimori despite Robbie being key to BC's victory over Roppongi 3K to set up their tag team title match. Finally, in a very similar display to Prince Devitt's exodus, ElP interfered in Robbie's Junior Heavyweight title match against Ospreay at Southern Showdown despite Eagles saying not to, causing Eagles to attack ElPand later lose the match. This got the attention of Jay White, who became frustrated toward Eagles for not capitalizing on the opening and tried to get him to help destroy Ospreay after a six-man tag match the following night, ultimately being the straw that broke the camel's back.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Their specialty.
  • Not Me This Time: Played with. Cody attempted to take credit via Twitter for the 2018 return of Bone Soldier when it was being advertised, and given his controversial moves since trying to take over Bullet Club, Kenny Omega tweeted back about it as though he believed him. However it turned out that Tama Tonga had recruited Taiji Ishimori to become the new Bone Soldier in the Junior Heavyweight division and and refocus the idea of Bullet Club.
  • Occidental Otaku: Kenny Omega is a huge video game fan and his finishing move (see above) and his theme music (a Final Fantasy-inspired number called "Devil's Sky") reflect this.
  • Oireland: Devitt and Finlay hail from Ireland.
  • Older Than They Look: The Young Bucks are eleven-year wrestling veterans, 31 and 26 years old respectively, have both gotten married to womanly wives, and one's become a father. But if you saw Matt and Nick Jackson on the streets of Hesperia, California without first knowing who they are, you'd probably mistake them for high school kids about to attend a rave.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: Kenny Omega's entrance music contains this.
  • One Degree of Separation: Through their entire time in WWE, despite both having their Bullet Club ties frequently referenced as well as forming occasional trios with Anderson and Gallows, Styles and Bálor have never been on the same brand, leaving the mystery open as to how they would interact on a regular basis. Whenever asked about it in out-of-character interviews, all four men usually indicate that they would love to work together as a complete unit, but the office doesn't fully see the benefit of it. In fact, this is actually continued from NJPW, given that Styles joined BC later on the same show from when Devitt ultimately was forced out of Japan.
  • One-Steve Limit:
    • Averted with the Club's "young boy" Cody Hall and "The American Nightmare" Cody Rhodes. Eventually played straight following Hall's departure, leaving Rhodes as the only Cody in the Club.
    • Also averted with Adam Cole and Adam Page. Although the latter was usually addressed as Hangman Page to differentiate him from Cole, Jay Briscoe made a point of calling him "Adam".
  • Pimp Duds: Tokyo Pimp Yujiro Takahashi, of course.
  • Playboy Bunny: Pieter wears a much more sexualized version of this outfit.
  • Power Trio
    • AJ Styles and the Young Bucks, especially at CHIKARA's King of Trios.
    • Omega replaced Styles in 2016 and called them the Elite. They went on to win the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team belts from the Briscoes and Yano. When Cole teamed with the Bucks, they called themselves Superkliq.
    • In WWE, Anderson and Gallows have reunited with Styles to form their own incarnation of the Club. They later did this again with Bálor.
    • The Bucks and Hangman Page, who took the ROH Six-Man Tag championships as The Hung Bucks.
    • Omega, Cody, and Scurll have formed another unit called The Luxury Trio.
    • Speaking of Scurll, he and the Bucks calls themselves The Super Villains.
    • Tama Tonga and Bad Luck Fale have a habit of forming these to capture the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship. Nearly every Bullet Club reign with said titles has involved either one, the other, or both of them, with other partners including Tanga Loa, Yujiro Takahashi, and Taiji Ishimori. In fact, the others were The Elite and Super Villains, so for all intents and purposes, Tama and Fale's team-ups account for every championship trio whose proper team name is simply Bullet Club.
  • Psycho for Hire: Kenny Omega, in his "Cleaner" character. He's basically a hitman whose goal is to lay waste to the junior heavyweight division. Not surprisingly, he became the group's first-ever true Bastard Understudy.
  • Put on a Bus: The Latinoamerica members' association with the club would only span around the time of and shortly following their tours in Japan. Devitt left after losing a career match against Ryusuke. Real Life Writes the Plot as Devitt was going to sign with WWE and that was New Japan's way of writing him off. Styles was kicked out by Omega, while Anderson and Gallows would undergo a more peaceful departure ceremony; all three were WWE-bound within months of each other.
  • Putting the Band Back Together:
    • In joining Bullet Club, Adam Cole linked back up with The Young Bucks, his former partners in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla's Mount Rushmore stable, and they became known as Superkliq. (Later he wound up rejoining them there in the new Mount Rushmore as well.)
    • Anderson and Gallows' separate co-ops with Styles and Bálor since joining their brethren in WWE are treated as this. Later invoked by Kenny, after his cross into Impact in 2020 led to the Good Brothers allying themselves with him and the Young Bucks again.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: Yujiro wears pink and black trunks to go with his outfit.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Heading into their match at Strong Style Evolved for the IWGP United States Championship, Jay White and Hangman Page confronted each other at a press conference. After listening to Hangman spend three minutes insuniating that his schedule is too focused in Japan to be a "proper representative of NJPW in America" as the US Champion, Jay wasted no time in verbally cutting down Page for entering both New Japan and Bullet Club as a hanger-on to the Young Bucks and Cody, and from there promptly destroying the entire Being the Elite half of Bullet Club for their divisive drama. Interestingly enough, this moment was presented at the time as Bullet Club receiving a TRYSS from the CHAOS member who predicted he'd cause their downfall outright gloating about it. However, knowing how the rest of the year went, and looking back at the fact that Page was the one trying for a Worked Shoot only to be shredded with a response entirely drawn from Being the Elite's own kayfabe, it turns out in hindsight that this was Bullet Club giving one to The Elite, laying out to their face exactly why they were going to kick them out.
  • Red Baron
    • Oh so many. Real Rock'n Rolla for Devitt. The Underboss for Fale. Bad Boy for Tama. The Machine Gun for Anderson. The Phenomenal One for AJ. The Cleaner for Omega. The American Nightmare for Cody Rhodes. The Silverback for Loa. Mr. Rated R for Yujiro. The Villain for Scurll. Switchblade for White.
    • The group have adopted such nicknames as Ammunition Coalition, Brothers of the Covenant, Bone Soldiers, and the hashtag #BizCliz.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Karl Anderson was usually the Blue to Doc Gallows as the "A Team", though occasionally he was the Red to AJ Styles instead. Likewise, Tama Tonga is usually the Blue to Tanga Loa, though occasionally will be the Red to Bad Luck Fale or Jay White.
  • Shadow Archetype: Kenny Omega is this to all the other Bullet Club leaders, especially original leader Prince Devitt. All cocky and ambitious, all want money and championships, all talented enough to be successful on their own yet perfectly willing to flout puroresu tradition and use the help of their club mates when they have to in order to take it over the top. Yet where Devitt, Styles and Anderson valued all of their teammates and treated Bullet Club like a family, Kenny is flagrantly in love with himself and only considers The Young Bucks to be of any substantial importance — as seen by how quickly the three would adopt the "Elite" tag for themselves once they got rid of Styles. Thankfully for the Club's sake, the Bucks seemed to have the "caring about the others" part taken care of, and Kenny still showed enough loyalty when it counted toward Bullet Club itself for the others to regard him as a good leader…at least until his promotion of the Elite ahead of Bullet Club ran afoul of Tama Tonga during their match at the 27th G1 Climax in 2017. Both Tama and Bad Luck Fale have been increasingly hinting their intent to "take back" the Club from the Elite and their antics ever since, before finally making their move almost a year later heading into G1 28, resulting in Omega and the Elite being ousted in favor of placing Jay White as the frontman, who thus far has acted on the same will as Tama and Fale to return Bullet Club to its unified covenant roots.
  • Shout-Out
    • The group is known to throw out crotch chops and 2 Sweet signs. Signs that were used by D-Generation X and the New World Order. Karl Anderson has stated in interviews they do it to pay homage to both groups.
    • Yujiro often does the Hip Sways that Rick Rude did when he removes his towel around his waist. He doesn't tell the music to be shut off and for the cro0wd to shut up though.
    • Kenny Omega is a WALKING homage to Japanese video gaming and Western film. He's a powerhungry psycho who dresses like Albert Wesker with Marion Cobretti's shades and Dante's hair. His theme song, called "Devil's Sky", sounds like it belongs to an epic boss battle in an Eastern RPG. His main finisher is called the One Winged Angel, and his stage screen graphic will often feature fire burning behind a picture of him. After Shinsuke Nakamura left New Japan he also added the Boma Ye…erm, V-Trigger to his arsenal. Omega's also entered the Tokyo Dome twice with a Terminator gimmick, and invokes it from time to time; it's become something of a custom for New Japan fans to clap to the Terminator theme for some of Kenny's matches, especially for one of his spots where he recreates the Terminator's entrance before launching himself over the top rope.
    • One of Yujiro's valets during The 2015 World Tag League came out dressed up and dancing as Chun-Li.
  • Sibling Team: As stated, the Young Bucks. Ditto the Guerrillas of Destiny.
  • Sinister Shades: Fale's pair that he dons. Also, Omega's. Yujiro's been taking to using them lately. Scurll also wears a pair of teashades.
  • Sir Swears-a-Lot: Both Gallows and Anderson are the most vulgar of the group. New Japan would make a lot of money off them if they had a Swear Jar. Tanga Loa seems to hold this up a lot, as do Tama Tonga and Bad Luck Fale on occasion, to the point where Fale's newest catchphrase is "FUCK'EM!". Granted, they have a lot of free reign swearing while wrestling in Japan since all of their obscene stuff is in English. A storyline ensued in late summer 2018 where, because of how disruptive Tama, Loa, and Fale have been to the G1, NJPW's new president Harold Meij, who understands English, has started imposing new sanctions regarding obscene and disrespectful content, including swear words and gestures, with specific aims to target the Tongans.
  • Spell My Name With An S: Similar to the divine namesake, the second part of Tanga's name has been spelled both Roa and Loa. NJPW seemed to stick with "Roa" at first while ROH alternated between the two, before he ultimately clarified that it's actually "Loa". Despite this, NJPW still misspells it as "Roa" every once in awhile.
  • Spiritual Successor: To The Kliq and its two official sister stables, D-Generation X and the nWo. It stared with Anderson and Devitt greeting each other with the Turkish Wolf "Too Sweet" hand-signal behind the scenes as an in-joke nod to cool memories of fandom youth, and became a worldwide phenomenon widely considered one of the two hottest stables pro wrestling has had in YEARS.
    • Raw 25 solidified it as Bálor, Gallows and Anderson shared a Too Sweet with DXnote  and Razor Ramonnote .
    • The nWo moreso now that Bullet Club has split into the OG's and Elite, not unlike Wolfpac and Hollywood.
  • The Starscream: Adam Cole has started becoming an almost comical example of this in 2017, escalating the obvious tension between him and Omega on the Being the Elite series to "this club's not big enough for the two of us" levels. He's had several double team opportunities with Omega go -ADAM COLE BAY BAY!- during a tag match together, tried to fire the Bucks from Bullet Club despite not having the authority to do so for "not having his back" when he lost the ROH World Championship to Daniels via Kazarian's Fake Defector ruse which HE fell for, gotten Kenny temporarily banned from entering the US for ROH events on grounds of child abuse, and poisoned one of Nick's drinks and gloated about it to the group's outside friend (and sometimes rival in villainy) Marty Scurll. All these actions proceeded to do was first drive Omega down the direction of orchestrating the firing of Cole, then convince the Bucksnote  to actually go through with it and the rest of the Club to be okay with it.
  • Stealth Pun: The Young Bucks theme is called "Double Barrel".
  • Stock Sound Effect: "Last Chance Saloon" runs though a lot of stock gun sounds. When Anderson's name gets announced in Japanese, sounds of an gun cock and machine gun fire play while he mimics the action of shooting a gun.
  • Tag Team: In addition to the Club itself, there exists a few teams which serve as sub-units: the Young Bucks, Gallows and Anderson (later known as the Good Brothers), and the Guerillas of Destiny (Tanga Loa and Tama Tonga). The Young Bucks are also part of The Elite with Omega, and the Superkliq with Cole — combined, they are The Dream Team. Their latest trio with Hangman Page is called the Hung Bucks. Omega, Scurll and Cody refer to themselves as the Luxury Trio.
  • Take Up My Sword:
    • Anderson and Gallows' Magic Killer finisher is a carry-over from Anderson's tag team with Giant Bernard as Bad Intentions, which in turn is a carry-over from Bernard's tag team with Travis Tomkonote  as well as Tomko's TNA team-up with AJ Styles at the same time.
    • As one of the last two founders of the Bullet Club, Tama Tonga has taken to using Anderson's old Gun Stun cutter since the latter's departure in 2016.
    • Tama and his brother Tanga Loa, the Guerrillas of Destiny, have also gained new animosity with IWGP Heavyweight Championship rivals and Los Ingobernables de Japon members Evil and Sanada…when both duos started using the Magic Killer.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
    • Kenny Omega's relationships with both Adam Cole and Cody Rhodes, members who The Elite themselves had brought into Bullet Club, gradually deteriorated into this before ultimately dissolving. In Cody's case it was repaired after that, but it was too little too late, as they and all of their Elite teammates were soon kicked out of Bullet Club.
    • During the time Kenny Omega was building his version of Bullet Club in AEW and IMPACT with The Good Brothers and The Young Bucks, KENTA cracked the forbidden door to force Moxley to put the IWGP United States Championship on the line.note  This led to a tag match with Omega and KENTA paired together, although KENTA didn't seem too thrilled with Omega, as the homebase Bullet Club leaders are displeased that members of The OC would align with The Elite and allow them to claim Bullet Club.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: At New Year's Dash 2016, after attacking AJ Styles and hitting him with his One Winged Angel finisher, Kenny Omega finished the job by hitting Styles with his own finisher the Styles Clash, preceded by Stereo Superkicks courtesy of the Young Bucks. Talk about an excommunication.
  • Token Good Teammate: Robbie Eagles, as of the Best of Super Juniors 26, seems to be settling into this role. Where Taiji Ishimori and especially fellow BC newcomer El Phantasmo piss off the crowds by cheating, showing off, and generally acting like assholes, Robbie wrestles a far cleaner style and consistently gets the crowds on his side. He also doesn't approve of the abuse of the commentary team. This would culminate his Heel–Face Turn at NJPW Southern Showdown, shaking hands with Will Ospreay as a Worthy Opponent after losing their IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match on night 1 despite Phantasmo's protests, then refusing to take a chair shot to Ospreay when Jay White ordered him to do so and stopping White from doing it instead via superkick on night 2, defecting from Bullet Club to join Ospreay and Okada in CHAOS.
  • Too Many Belts: The Young Bucks became Triple Tag Team Champs by winning the IWGP Jr., ROH, and PWG tag team titles, and were known to wear all their titles to the ring at once.
  • Trash the Set: Adam Cole's induction of the group in May 2016 came off a lot like this. Interfering in the main event match between Colt Cabana and Jay Lethal, hardly anyone inside of the ring barricades was spared being superkicked. Both competitors, referee Todd Sinclair, Lethal's manager Taeler Hendrix, Kevin Kelly and even Steve Corino were laid out along with security, the Young Bucks' own father, and one heroic cameraman who stepped in front of another to save the "$40,000 camera".
  • Tribal Face Paint: The Guerrillas of Destiny.
  • Trouser Space: Where Adam Cole kept Jay Lethal's braids after Bullet Club shaved them off.
  • True Companions:
    • Through Bullet Club's first over 2½ years of existence prior to New Year's Dash 2016, no one was kicked out of Bullet Club as a member or associate. They would happily compete against each other when they had to (such as in tournament situations, for example), then shake hands and raise arms and drink beer together after the bell. The only guy who left during this time, Prince Devitt, left largely of his own accord (though The Young Bucks didn't help, what with meddling in his personal grudge match and then attacking him for having a problem with it), and going by Continuity Nod / Shout-Out above, things don't even seem half bad between him and the gang since. One can even stretch storylines to posit the idea that AJ Styles, who joined the same night Devitt left the club and whose Big Bad Duumvirate arrangement with Karl Anderson went seamlessly for over a year and a half, had been supported by the club since the closing stretches of his run with TNA—as in, before he even could join them in New Japan. Say what you will about their tactics in New Japan, but they were certainly a closer knit crew than any other stable Styles and Doc Gallows have ever been a part of. Of course, that was all prior to New Year's Dash 2016, when Kenny Omega proceeded to forcefully eject AJ, declare himself the new leader (as in, overriding Anderson), and position himself above the Junior Heavyweight ranks by challenging Shinsuke Nakamura for the IC title.
    • Subverted since then, thanks to Bullet Club's interactions in the time between Styles' ejection from Bullet Club (which Omega orchestrated) and his WWE debut. Aside from the endless Bálor Club teasing and occasional boasting about the Elite, the other Bullet Club members openly supported him in his final independent appearances. AJ and Doc still teamed up in a match in Georgia days after the ejection; the Club's Twitter account along with a couple of members expressed that AJ was "always a brother" and that kicking him out was an "executive decision"; and finally, Gallows & Gun and the Young Bucks shared a Curtain Call-esque moment with AJ in his final ROH appearance at an autograph signing the night before the Rumble. Of course, Kenny had no part of this.
    • Anderson and Gallows' first order of business upon debuting in WWE has been to reunite with Styles and back him up against Roman Reigns, and later against John Cena. (Hilariously, the Bucks "forgave" AJ on Twitter after this, while Kenny reconsidered his opinion after AJ won the WWE World Championship.) Later, Kenny finally cemented himself as one of these by hitting Devitt and Styles' finishing moves in succession before his own to win the G1 Climax, then throwing down the G1 Climax flag to wave the Bullet Club flag instead. This kicked off one of the greatest months in the collective history of Bullet Club. (Sadly, it was about the last time Kenny played to this trope.)
  • Ur-Example: AJ Styles and Finn Bálor recruiting Liv Morgan, while in response to Edge and Damian Priest being joined in Judgment Day by Rhea Ripley, marked the first time a WWE wrestler with no prior NJPW/BC history was ever brought into one of their versions of The Club, as well as the second female wrestler after Amber Gallows to be treated as a full regular member of any version of Bullet Club. Sadly, thanks to the Face/Heel Double-Turn between Edge and The Prince, this didn't last very long. Mia Yim would later ally herself with the OC against the Bálor-led Judgment Day, which WWE would amend by making her an official member of the faction, and Jay White has since added her to the ranks of the Club.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: They've been increasingly running on this. Especially (obviously) in the States, but even Japan has occasionally gotten warm to them. Then they ousted The Elite in summer 2018 and later recruited newly-notorious Hate Sink Jay White to replace them at the top, making it seem as though the villainy and the good publicity had come to a swift breakup. However, The Elite had been skirting the line as tweeners for quite some time by that point, and the too-sweet and villainous Bullet Club identity was a popular ideal in its own right for its sense of unity, gritty cool factor, and continued respect to past leaders Devitt and Styles, almost akin to a heel version of the Toretto family. Ultimately they hosted a very successful block party the day of WrestleMania 35 in which fans showed support for Bullet Club's present members (including the aforementioned Jay White) and treasured alumni (specifically Devitt and Styles) and scorn towards its enemies (such as Okada, The Elite, and Whatculture), to the point that even White himself effectively recognized the Bullet Club Loyal as an in-universe invoked Periphery Demographic with its own identity apart from the usual fans he unflinchingly hates.
  • We Can Rule Together: Both Kenny Omega and Bad Luck Fale have offered this to Jay White in 2018. He rejected Omega's offer in January, and has said nothing to Fale's deal over the summer…before ultimately accepting in October.
  • We Used to Be Friends: While mostly loyal to each other as part of Bullet Club, many would betray or disappoint a (former) babyface friend on their way into The Club.
    • Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi, who were longtime tag team partners before the infamous lariat from behind.
    • Devitt and the Time Splitters, who had mutual respect with Apollo 55 before Devitt attacked Taguchi right in front of them and taunted them with finger guns as Fale jumped them from behind.
    • Anderson and Hiroshi Tanahashi, who were friendly rivals before he and Tama joined in Devitt and Fale's beating and officially launched Bullet Club.
    • Styles and Tanahashi, whose last meeting prior to Styles going BC saw a bit of respect established between them.
    • Yujiro and Kazuchika Okada, when Yujiro betrayed CHAOS to help Styles capture the IWGP Title from him.
    • Omega and Kota Ibushi, the infamous Golden Lovers, who avoided each other as much as humanly possible the entire time Kenny acted as The Cleaner.
    • Jay White and Okada, in another betrayal of CHAOS, although he'd been an obvious False Friend to them for months.
    • Gedo and Okada, the former being Okada's longtime manager before stabbing him in the back with a chair and joining forces with The Switchblade.
    • Jado and all of CHAOS, who he once loyally backed for years before helping Jay and Gedo set Okada up to be assaulted at the advent of the Cutthroat Era Bullet Club.
    • Phantasmo and Will Ospreay, who knew each other in the UK when ELP, as far as he claims, pretended to be a babyface to sell more merchandise.
    • Eagles and Ospreay, another friendly rivalry seemingly ruined by Eagles' entry into Bullet Club.
    • KENTA and Katsuyori Shibata, former wrestling soul mates, with Shibata having personally brought KENTA into NJPW just months before he betrayed a CHAOS team-up for Bullet Club and then helped beat down a furious Shibata.
    • EVIL was one of the three founding members of Los Ingobernables de Japon and was often the faction's unofficial second-in-command behind Tetsuya Naito himself, who ended up being the victim of EVIL's own shocking betrayal in 2020.
    • Even the boys in WWE got in on this, on both ends of the tables.
      • Bálor was betrayed by Samoa Joe, who attacked him to get an NXT title shot and later went on to feud with Styles for the WWE Championship.
      • Styles betrayed John Cena by shaking his hand and then punching him in the face, leading to a 3-on-1 mugging with Anderson and Gallows.
      • Styles was betrayed by Shinsuke Nakamura, who attacked him in rage after losing their WWE Championship match at WrestleMania and later went on to feud with Bálor for the Intercontinental title.
      • Styles betrayed Ricochet by repeating the Cena assault after Ricochet beat him to retain the United States title.
      • Anderson and Gallows betrayed the mutual respect they gained with The Usos by helping Joe, of all people, beat them down to stop them from protecting Seth Rollins against Brock Lesnar.
      • Styles betrayed the mutual respect he had with Rollins and Reigns by approving of the above and later antagonizing Rollins to prove he was a better champion.
      • Bálor betrayed a very brief alliance with Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa shortly after his return to by attacking Gargano and abandoning Ciampa to The Undisputed Era, doing his old finger guns taunt to Gargano on the way out, confirming that his past has become his future.
      • Cole betrayed his stablemate Kyle O'Reilly after he started showing respect to Bálor, laying him out and effectively disbanding the Undisputed Era, even with the others begging him to stay.
      • Bálor turned on Styles after they started a feud with The Judgment Day only to oust Edge out of that group and take over it. A few months later, The Good Brothers came back and sided with AJ over Bálor, incensed at such betrayal of camaraderie.note 
  • We Want Our Jerk Back!: With all the glowing talk about covenant values and unity surrounding the ethos of Bullet Club as a group and how The Elite's run almost completely upended that, it's easy to forget that The Elite were the only leaders who tried to run Bullet Club as something other than a cool yet dangerous heel group that made every other NJPW wrestler's existence difficult while questing to capture all the titles and dominate the company — which is precisely what the Tongans, their recruits, and the fans who support them all fought for Bullet Club to go back to, and seem to be relishing now that they've got their wish.
  • Wham Episode: Anything involving leadership transfers (or attempts at such) would become this.
    • It was Invasion Attack 2014. Devitt had been defeated in a career match and it looked as if Bullet Club has been badly weakened with the loss of their leader. However, the following match, AJ Styles appeared and attacked Kazuchika Okada, revealing himself as the newest member of the group. The next month Yujiro would betray Okada and CHAOS and join the Bullet Club, enabling AJ to win the IWGP Heavyweight title and establish the Bullet Club as the most powerful faction in all of NJPW.
    • Despite Kenny Omega and AJ Styles losing both their matches at Wrestle Kingdom 10, the two appeared united the following day at New Year Dash 2016, facing CHAOS members Shinsuke Nakamura and YOSHI-HASHI. Omega pinned Nakamura to win the match, doing what Styles couldn't do the night before. As Styles celebrated on the turnbuckle, Omega did the same…only to suddenly hit Styles with his One Winged Angel finisher, effectively betraying the leader of the Club. Their stablemates came out, the Young Bucks attempting to reason with Omega as Anderson, Gallows and Hall checked on Styles. Just when things appeared to have been smoothed over, Omega and the Bucks triple-superkick Styles, to the surprise of the rest of the Bullet Club… whom Omega quickly convinced to follow him as their leader instead of Styles. Cue the Bullet Club laying a beatdown on Styles, with Omega and the Bucks hitting him with the Stereo Superkicks/Styles Clash combo for the exclamation point.
    • New Beginning in Sapporo 2018 Day 2 saw Cody attack Kenny Omega with the tacit support of Hangman Page following Omega's loss to Jay White. However, the real "Wham" here did not come from Bullet Club itself, as Marty Scurll didn't seem to go with it, the Young Bucks had already left the scene, and the non-Elite affiliated members were nowhere to be found. The "Wham" came from Kenny's longtime tag team partner/best friend/Golden Lover Kota Ibushi rushing out to make the save, then embracing the Bullet Club leader in the middle of the ring.
    • The next Wham Episode that was all about Bullet Club would come from the 2018 G1 Special in San Francisco, when following Omega and Cody's grudge-closing match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, and King Haku joined Omega and the Young Bucks on the stage to show support with wolf hands…only to suddenly attack Omega and the Bucks, laying them out in and around the ring…along with Marty Scurll…along with Hangman Page…along with "honorary Tongans" Yujiro Takahashi and Chase Owens when they came down to make peace…and along with Cody when he decided to attack the Tongans instead of Omega with the chair they offered him. The Tongans, wearing brand new BC "Firing Squad" T-shirts, have launched the true Civil War, declaring themselves (along with anyone who sides with them) to be the real Bullet Club. Also, Cody and Kenny are finally good again, uniting the entire BTE contingent.
    • And then came King of Pro Wrestling 2018. Hiroshi Tanahashi had just beaten Jay White to keep his Wrestle Kingdom main event briefcase, and was promptly attacked by Jay and his manager Gedo in typical Sore Loser heel behavior. However, shocking enough on its own, Kazuchika Okada, who White and Gedo had recently betrayed as the leader of CHAOS, ran out to stop his in-stable enemies from crippling his longtime rival Tanahashi. When Okada found himself with an opportunity to strike at Gedo, fellow CHAOS member Jado came out to broker peace between Okada and Gedo…and then Bullet Club OG, coming fresh off the latest in a string of victories over BC Elite as well announcing a new junior tag team partner for Ishimori, came out to the ring, walking slowly and menacingly with an unknown agenda. They converged around the ring, surrouding Gedo, Jado, and Okada; then Fale held Gedo in place as BCOG told Okada to hit him, and Ishimori held Jado to stop him from intervening. Okada hesitated, finally decided to run the ropes to come at Gedo…only for Tama Tonga to instantly betray him with a Gun Stun. The Tongans, Ishimori, Gedo, and Jado all proceeded to stomp away at Okada, before presenting his carcass to Jay White, who had been knocked outside the ring. White came back in the ring, all involved threw up the Turkish Wolf hand gesture passed down by The Kliq to The Club, then White finished off the assault with a Blade Runner to Okada, before they all linked hands in the "grounded" version of the handsign, cementing the rebuild of Bullet Club without The Elite.
  • Wild Samoan: Averted with the Tongans. Don't let Tama's face paint or occasional shoelessness fool you, the Fitica clan are among if not the most thoughtful and articulate members of this club. Shown best in their breakout of BCOG from Kenny Omega and BC Elite; when they became frustrated with the antics of The Elite, they spent almost a year surveying the territory, deciding whether they would call their own shot regarding the future of Bullet Club, and planning out how to do so, before they finally did it.
  • Worthy Opponent:
    • The Briscoe Brothers, however the Bullet Club did not believe the Hammerstein Ballroom to be a worthy arena nor Ring of Honor to be a worthy promotion.
    • Unlike the other Bullet Club top members who challenged Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight title, Omega became a worthy respected rival rather than an Arch-Enemy to Okada. It helps that they both had the same vision for New Japan and were basically fighting for themselves and their stables to take the lead.
  • Would Hit a Girl: They were prepared to destroy Maria Kanellis along with the rest of The Kingdom if she even teased stepping in the ring. Anderson and Gallows eventually hit her with a Magic Killer, even if Karl didn't look too happy afterward.
  • Writing Around Trademarks:
    • Doc Gallows combines both names he used in WWE (Luke Gallows) and TNA (DOC). It's unclear whether he would actually need to do so for an overseas promotion like New Japan, but keeping bases covered never hurt anyone.
    • The spin-off faction in WWE consisting of Styles, Anderson and Gallows is simply called The Club. WWE social media name-dropped the Bullet Club when the latter two made their debut. John Cena seems to care just little about trademarks, though, referring to them mockingly as the Pull-It Club while making it sound as similar to Bullet Club as he can whenever given the chance. When Styles appeared on Edge and Christian's show on the WWE Network, they did mention the group by name, although the two joked that the WWE would end up renaming it the Mullet Club. When they reconvened in 2019, they became known as The OC.
    • Due to his situation with WWE, Cody Rhodes is technically not allowed to be referred to with his last name. As such, he's solely referred to by his first name, Cody, in promotions with national TV deals in the US.
    • A gesture example which may actually be helping the overall story: the Young Bucks' antics on Being the Elite led to them imposing a storyline Cease & Desist on the "Too Sweet" gesture, which ended up turning into reality when the ROH group "invaded" Monday Night RAW. As such, the Club members affiliated with the Elitenote  have begun using the "One Sweet" — basically the "Too Sweet" with the pinky finger kept down. The rest of the Club still uses the "Too Sweet", since the C&D was on the Bucks specifically rather than the entire Bullet Club, and as seen with Stephen Amell, Cody changes his gesture based on whether or not the Elite are present.
    • The above actually played into how the Too Sweet has been used by the Bullet Club since summer 2018. While it is still thrown up traditionally from time to time, the Firing Squad/Cutthroat Era incarnation of the group opts to invert the gesture while dragging it closer to the ground whenever linking hands. Tama has described this as keeping things "grounded". They're also far more likely to do the gesture while linking hands than as a singular display to spectators, which also fits their mode as a team of heels and hearkens back to how Bullet Club originally displayed it in the Prince Devitt era (and how the reunited "OC" group in 2019 WWE does it).
    • Speaking of which, after being reaffirmed as Bullet Club members by Tama himself following the exodus of The Elite at the hands of G.o.D Firing Squad, how do the boys re-brand themselves in a second attempt at a WWE takeover while still slyly confirming their Bullet Club ties under Vince's banner? "The official, the original, the only club that matters."
  • Wrestling Family
    • Matt and Nick Jackson.
    • Tama is also the adopted son of King Haku and brother of Camacho, who he later brought into the club as Tanga Loa, and Hikuleo. In addition to this, he and Fale are cousins.
    • Doc Gallows is married to Amber O'Neal.
    • Cody Hall is the son of Scott Hall.
    • Cody Rhodes is the son of "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes and the younger brother of Goldust.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Kenny Omega's argument for betraying AJ Styles and ousting him from the Club, usurping the leadership in the process at New Year's Dash 2016. Omega states that Styles had failed time and time again in big title matches and that he was therefore fired from the Bullet Club. This marks the first time anyone has been outright kicked out of the Club. The second one involved Adam Cole.

Alternative Title(s): The Club, Balor Club, The OC, OGBC, Bullet Club OG, BCOG, BC Firing Squad, Bullet Club Gold

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