{"id":32878,"date":"2019-01-02T19:15:43","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T00:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=32878"},"modified":"2019-01-02T19:15:43","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T00:15:43","slug":"newjapanweek-gang-warfare-18-bullet-club-back-to-its-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2019\/01\/02\/newjapanweek-gang-warfare-18-bullet-club-back-to-its-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"#NewJapanWeek: Gang Warfare ’18: Bullet Club Back To Its Roots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coming into 2018 the Buller Club was on the verge of war, Cody<\/strong> was likely to break away and turn on\u00a0Kenny Omega<\/strong>.\u00a0 The line between\u00a0The Elite\u00a0<\/strong>and the Bullet Club was getting blurry and the faction was no longer what it once was. This year saw Civil War, mutiny and a switchblade intent on tearing it apart.\u00a0 We have a new look Bullet Club after a tumultuous year for the Bullet Club.\u00a0 With the Elite gone who is left?<\/p>\n

“The Switchblade” Jay White<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The de facto leader<\/a> and ace of the Buller Club,\u00a0<\/a>Jay White debuted one year ago and has shot straight to the top in New Japan.\u00a0 This year alone he has defeated Kenny Omega,\u00a0Hiroshi Tanahashi\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Kazuchika Okada\u00a0<\/strong>in singles matches.\u00a0 Working in the shadows White rejected Omega’s recruitment attempts at the beginning of the year to “join”\u00a0CHAOS<\/strong>.\u00a0 White used CHAOS simply to fight the Bullet Club as he was intent on watching it crumble.\u00a0 After the ousting of The Elite, White happily joined forces with The Firing Squad to take down Okada and bring the Bullet Club back to its old chaotic ways.<\/p>\n

Tama Tonga<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The leader of the Mutiny\u00a0Tama Tonga sat silently and watched as Cody and Omega fought for the leadership of his stable. After the title match at the G1 Supershow in San Francisco, Tonga alongside\u00a0Tanga Loa<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Haku\u00a0<\/strong>laid out the members of The Elite and kicked them out of the Bullet Club.\u00a0 Known for his crude backstage interviews,\u00a0the charismatic Tonga took back the Bullet Club and has since moulded it in his image.\u00a0 Alongside\u00a0Loa he is one-half of the IWGP Tag Team Championship team\u00a0Guerillas of Destiny (GoD)\u00a0<\/strong>and with Loa and\u00a0Bone Soldier Taiji Ishimori\u00a0<\/strong>he is one of the NEVER Six Man tag team champions.\u00a0 An integral\u00a0part of the BCOG identity and a tag team specialist Tonga is second in command to White.<\/p>\n

Tanga Loa<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Loa alongside Tonga holds two titles and was there to help take back the Bullet Club.\u00a0 He delivers the in-ring introductions for the group, much like\u00a0Taka Michinoku<\/strong> does for\u00a0Zack Sabre Junior<\/strong>, and wins a lot of matches with his Apeshit finisher.<\/p>\n

Bad Luck Fale<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 6 ft 4 big man is the Bullet Club’s muscle.\u00a0 He doesn’t wrestle as much these days as he spends a lot of time at his Fale Dojo training the next generation of wrestlers.\u00a0 When he is around though you can be sure he will cause chaos.\u00a0 With his size and\u00a0love of brawling, he is the perfect bodyguard for the BC.\u00a0 His personality is summed up by his “F**k Em” shirt, he has no time for anybody and will hurt anyone that gets in his way.<\/p>\n

Taiji Ishimori<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In April, vignettes appeared hyping the return of Bone Soldier<\/strong>.\u00a0 Fans were filled with worry that it would be the return of the old untalented Bone Soldier.\u00a0 Instead, we got the debut of former NOAH performer Taiji Ishimori.\u00a0 Ishimori arrived as a former 3-time\u00a0GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion, a former\u00a0X Division champion and a former 6-time\u00a0GCH Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion.\u00a0 A well respected Junior heavyweight, he slotted in as the Bullet Club’s junior ace and tore the house down with\u00a0Hiromu Takahashi\u00a0<\/strong>in the\u00a0Best Of The Super Juniors\u00a0<\/strong>final.\u00a0 Heading into Wrestle Kingdom<\/strong> as the number one contender for\u00a0KUSHIDA’s\u00a0<\/strong>Junior Heavyweight championship and is likely to walk out with his first singles championship in New Japan.<\/p>\n

Robbie Eagles<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“The Sniper Of The Skies” debuted as Ishimori’s tag team partner<\/a> in this year’s Junior Tag league.\u00a0 One of the best from Australia’s packed scene Eagles finally got to showcase his abilities on a big stage.\u00a0 In his first match he got the win over\u00a0Jyushin “Thunder” Liger\u00a0<\/strong>and did well in the tag league.\u00a0 We haven’t seen him since the end of that tour but he is sure to be back to wow the New Japan fans once again.<\/p>\n

Hikuleo<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The younger brother of Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa, the giant Tongan was on the injury shelf for most of 2018, but hopes to return in 2019 to make a bigger impact with the old school return of Bullet Club.<\/p>\n

Gedo<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The man behind the Rainmaker turned on Okada to join the Bullet Club.\u00a0 Now the manager for Jay White Gedo has gone back to his old heel persona to help push Jay White to the top.\u00a0 At his age, he is mostly a pin eater but he’s a great heel manager to have in White’s corner<\/p>\n

Jado<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Also turned on Okada and defected to CHAOS Jado has yet to wrestle with the bullet club but similar to tag partner Gedo is a pin eater at this stage in his career<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coming into 2018 the Buller Club was on the verge of war, Cody was likely to break away and turn on\u00a0Kenny Omega.\u00a0 The line between\u00a0The Elite\u00a0and the Bullet Club was getting blurry and the faction was no longer what it once was. This year saw Civil War, mutiny and a switchblade intent on tearing it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2013,"featured_media":34175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,13,14],"tags":[149,181,2505],"class_list":["post-32878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international","category-njpw","tag-bullet-club","tag-jay-white","tag-new-japan-pro-wresting"],"modified_by":"Jamie Greer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}