WWE raiding NJPW of many top stars (UPDATE: Kenny Omega received 3 offers in 2015)

[GKJ]

Pretty sure NJPW owns the trademark...so I doubt they get to use it...unless they make some sort of deal.

With the word 'Bullet,' WWE would be changing it anyways.

 

[Morozov]

So let me ask this question, as someone who doesn't know anything about the Bullet Club other than what is being written these last few days.

If the Bullet Club (with a different name, obviously) arrives in WWE, who from the current rosters (WWE or NXT) makes sense to join them?

Ideally nobody except Balor. I don't really want to see WWE add their own guys in, at least not immediately.

"we are taking over the wrestling world" let them as a group come try takeover WWE now that they've "conquered" these other places.

Their thing though in Japan was that they were all the foreign guys aligned, so over there basically anyone who wasn't Japanese made sense. Obviously that doesn't really work in WWE.

 

[HeymanGuy]

This is all too mouth watering. I hope something comes of it.

 

[Emperoreddy]

They aren't even trying to hide it at this point. Official WWE Twitter posting about AJ with #BulletClub?

 

[Reality Check]

It's nearly impossible to hide anything these days. Might as well embrace it.

The internet was really just starting to get going during the Monday Night War.

I'm cool if they start a similar stable. But they'll never surpass the Social Outcasts in my heart.

 

[Kimi]

They aren't even trying to hide it at this point. Official WWE Twitter posting about AJ with #BulletClub?

To be fair, they do post this every now and then anyway.


But we're at subtly levels of a brick right now.

 

[Blitzkrug]

It's smart. Just don't announce when he's going to appear. Now you'll get a slight ratings bump from people tuning in just to see if that night is the one where the club makes its debut.

 

[Emperoreddy]

It's smart. Just don't announce when he's going to appear. Now you'll get a slight ratings bump from people tuning in just to see if that night is the one where the club makes its debut.

And you start getting your audience curious to learn more about Bullet Club, so its a slight of hand way to educate them without having to fully acknowledge the competition to much.

Now NXT guys are starting to tweet about it too. Itami and Joe chiming in.

Finn is still the one leading the pack over it. He is basically marking harder then anyone over this. Understandably so since it involves some of his best mates, and could be his ticket to the top.

 

[Fa Ci La]

Ideally nobody except Balor. I don't really want to see WWE add their own guys in, at least not immediately.

"we are taking over the wrestling world" let them as a group come try takeover WWE now that they've "conquered" these other places.

Their thing though in Japan was that they were all the foreign guys aligned, so over there basically anyone who wasn't Japanese made sense. Obviously that doesn't really work in WWE.

yeah samoa joe was the only one that came to mind, and even then

 

[GKJ]

Ideally nobody except Balor. I don't really want to see WWE add their own guys in, at least not immediately.

"we are taking over the wrestling world" let them as a group come try takeover WWE now that they've "conquered" these other places.

Their thing though in Japan was that they were all the foreign guys aligned, so over there basically anyone who wasn't Japanese made sense. Obviously that doesn't really work in WWE.

When Bullet Club is in the US, aren't they generally faces?

 

[Blitzkrug]

Ideally nobody except Balor. I don't really want to see WWE add their own guys in, at least not immediately.

"we are taking over the wrestling world" let them as a group come try takeover WWE now that they've "conquered" these other places.

Their thing though in Japan was that they were all the foreign guys aligned, so over there basically anyone who wasn't Japanese made sense. Obviously that doesn't really work in WWE.

I like this idea. You can kind of work the angle of "we also wanted to show we were good enough" too since a few of those guys (Gallows, AJ to an extent) were passed over by WWE.

 

[Kimi]

When Bullet Club is in the US, aren't they generally faces?

Only 'cos they're cool (and local, kinda). You can have them be cool heels, they don't need to be getting booed.

 

[GKJ]

Only 'cos they're cool (and local, kinda). You can have them be cool heels, they don't need to be getting booed.

They're over huge with smarks, but I thought they work proper faces sometimes. I'm familiar with them, but I'm not familiar with the wrestlers in general.

 

[Morozov]

The nWo were heels too, but they were "cool" so you had a whole lot of people who were behind them.

I'd love it if the WWE was fully open about where they've been, what they've done, and now they're here to do the same thing. The article on WWE.com is going down that path, hopefully that's what we see on TV.

But then my philosophy of what I've always wanted to see WWE like is similar to that. Obviously WWE doesn't really like to reference things outside of their bubble, if it was up to me I'd openly be saying this guy is a former ROH champion, this guy is a former NJPW champion etc, but now they've come here "to the big league", so while you're recognising these other promotions, you're still putting your place over as the best. But that's more of a "sport" type approach which obviously isn't what they go for. I'd be trying to say hey we're the NHL, whereas WWE tries to say hey we're Hockey.

There's obviously also a value for them in being able to "brand" guys as well.

 

[Fa Ci La]

https://twitter.com/enuhito_eng/status/684933522071535616

enuhito(English) @enuhito_eng
Breaking News :

Tokyo Sports reported that Nakamura will leave NJPW at the end of this month.

wow, he could actually be available for WM.

 

[Kimi]

Awesome.

 

[Emperoreddy]

They are going to need him with the way injuries are going.

 

[Mowzie]

Any possibility of Daniel Bryan introducing the group which would include the NJPW guys, Balor, maybe Itami if he's healthy enough? Bryan gives them mainstream value, and when/if he's cleared, he could be tossed out of the group and fued with Balor or whoever.

 

[Kimi]

Makes no sense.

Eggs and baskets and what not. And it makes Bálor look lesser because of it, which makes even less sense as you want a badass in a badass group. Hard to be that when you're getting overcrowded by a bigger star.

If you can bring Bryan back, you put him in a match with Nakamura and make use of the fact that that's a dream match for him. They're already planted that seed in a bunch of places.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

The tough part about this is that this would have more of an impact if Balor was already established on the main roster. Introducing the Club and him in this run may be difficult without cramming a lot of things that could be used over a lengthy period of time...like two years worth of content here.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Imagine a Survivor Series after they split in 2017 match:
Finn Balor, Sami Zayn, Cesaro, Neville, Hideo Itami
vs.
AJ Stlyes, Kevin Owens, Nakamura, Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson

OR

A handicap match:
Finn Balor, AJ Styles, Gallows, and Anderson
vs.
Reigns, Rollins, Ambrose

OR

An Elimination Chamber match where each team has three men inside.
Rollins vs. Balor vs. Reigns vs. Styles vs. Ambrose vs. Nakamura
Lots of options for 2-on-1 beatdowns and possible turns.

OR

A War Games match:
Shield vs. Bullet Club vs. Wyatts

You could probably get Bryan/Owens/Zayn/Cesaro involved in any of these.

 

[Kimi]

The tough part about this is that this would have more of an impact if Balor was already established on the main roster. Introducing the Club and him in this run may be difficult without cramming a lot of things that could be used over a lengthy period of time...like two years worth of content here.

I'm not sure you're wasting much story here. And Bálor not being on the roster really isn't an issue at all with a Bullet Club invasion story.

New guy coming in and kicks ass is really all you're doing.

You're wasting a turn, or a faction break up or long term feud climax or anything.

 

[TNT87]

I've been hoping Styles would join the WWE for a long time.

 

[Morozov]

You don't need an already established guy on the roster to guide them in and cast a shadow over them, you just bring them in and put them over properly, let them stand on their own feet.

These aren't just some average indy guys, and even if the "WWE universe" doesn't know that yet, it's up to WWE to frame them in a way that the audience understand Nakamura, AJ, Bullet Club is a big deal in wrestling.

 

[GindyDraws]

Considering that most of WWE's contingency plan is out of action (Cena, Orton, Rollins) and several of the grunts (Cesaro, Sin Cara, Tyson Kidd) are not available, and the WWE is very hesitant on letting Daniel Bryan wrestle... it's either accept the talent transfusion from New Japan, let them work WrestleMania, or else we'll have to endure PartTimeMania once again with Triple H/Reigns as the main event.