The Bullet Club, or Biz Cliz as its sometimes known, is one of the hottest tickets in professional wrestling these days and its influence can be seen across the board. With the NWO recently turning 20 years old, there hasn’t been anything quite like that since. Sure, DX came close, but nothing has come close to the power house that was the original incarnation of the NWO.
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That was until Bullet Club showed up in New Japan and eventually Ring of Honor. Similar to how the NWO was based on an “invasion” from a rival company, the Bullet Club has a reputation of actually invading other companies, and poaching members to don their black and white attire.
The influence of the Bullet Club were immediately felt and are still being felt in rival promotions such as WWE, who refer to AJ Styles, a former leader of the Bullet Club, and Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows collectively as The Club. It’s a nice homage, but doesn’t have the same sort of ring. With Styles, Gallows, and Anderson’s exodus to the WWE, the Bullet Club needed fresh blood to keep things flowing. Enter Adam Page and Adam Cole, two of Ring of Honor’s most senior veterans.
Cole’s turn to the Bullet Club was especially a shock to fans around the world and the arena at Global Wars almost seemed to fall apart once the lights came back and Cole was standing with the Young Bucks wearing a Bullet Club shirt.
ComicBook.com correspondent Lan Pitts had the chance to sit down with Nick Jackson of the Young Bucks, and the two newest members of Bullet Club, Adam Cole and “Hangman” Adam Page and talk about paying homage to the NWO and at the same time, being its proper successor, and how it keeps evolving.
Cole, Hangman, you’re the newest members of Bullet Club, giving it some new blood, do you consider your position in ROH has changed at all?
Cole: Yeah, I think definitely. The position the Bullet Club has on the scape of pro wrestling is certainly the largest thing I’ve ever been a part of. It changes my perception of Ring of Honor and opens doors to New Japan Pro Wrestling. It puts us in a bigger spotlight.
Jackson: And we’re higher on the card [laughs].
Page: For sure yeah, Bullet Club is definitely synonymous with pro wrestling as a whole. I mean just the shirt design is one the coolest things around and already something that is synonymous with wrestling as well.
The NWO recently turned 20 this past week. Are you guys still surprised about the BC’s longevity thus far? It’s still fairly new in the grand scheme of things for sure, but its impact has already been felt across professional wrestling.
Jackson: I’m not surprised at all. I think one of the big reasons why the three of us got into wrestling was the NWO. I mean, I’m just speaking for them [laughs], but for me it was. Hulk Hogan was a huge influence of me and when he had the Hollywood black and white banner, it was just unreal for me and that’s what made me a mark. So for me to do pretty much what he was doing back then, is cool to live through that.
Cole: Going off on what he said, I think another huge reason the Bullet Club has continued to stay as hot as it has is because everybody who has been a part of it has been a major part of independent and international pro wrestling in general. So I think the group constantly changing, constantly evolving, and guys just being themselves, and having fun and the fans see that so it resonates so well with them.
So you guys are in the middle of the Aftershock tour, leading up to Death Before Dishonor XIV in Las Vegas. You guys will be teaming in the ring together for the next few weeks, so how do you feel about your teamwork as a unit thus far?
Page: It’s been great so far, even with the little bit we’ve teamed up. The chemistry is definitely there. There hasn’t been any quirks we’ve had to work out or anything like that. Everything’s been great.
Jackson: We just did a tour with Page in Japan and we got some chemistry with him as the camera guy filming these vignettes with the Bucks and Kenny Omega. Doing little things like that help. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it helps add chemistry in the ring too. Because now creative knows that the three of us are psychopaths.
Page: I mean, I knew before.
Jackson: So now I understand him a little bit. With Adam Cole, we’ve been teaming with him for a while as a part of Mount Rushmore in PWG, so we already have that chemistry with him so now it’s learning it with Page over here.
Page: It’s been easy, too, because we tagged together one time and it felt like the second or third year we were together. It was just instantaneous.
So do you guys still see the Bullet Club as heels or have evolved into something else entirely?
Cole: I think we’re whatever the hell we want to be.
Page: I mean I’m hanging people, for the love of God [laughs]!
Jackson: We do whatever we want and that’s why its cool. You could put that label “heels”, but in real life, we’re just guys who are doing whatever we want and having fun in the process.
Cole: If you look at a guy in the UFC like, I don’t know, Conor McGregor. Some people love that guy, some people hate that guy, the Bullet Club is a polarizing group. People love us, or they hate us and call us rip offs and how there’s nothing original about us. Then you add just as many people buying our shirts and going crazy with the signs, so its cool to be a part of that. That people care so much about is not a heel or face thing, it’s a Bullet Club thing.
Jackson: And I love the thing about how we always get the “oh, Bullet Club” is just an NWO rip-off. No, we’re paying homage to them by throwing up the “too sweet” and we’re in the black and white, but those are really the only things in common. I mean, I guess we’re gang-like, too because the NWO was a gang, but there’s so many differences between us and the NWO group. I mean, there weren’t that many work horses in the NWO. We’re loaded with them. Anybody want to add to that?
Page: I think you summed it up pretty well. What was cool will always be cool.
I mean the Bullet Club has been involved in a few invasion arcs, but you guys walk that fine line between punks and thugs. The NWO originally was this order of thugs. I mean you had Kevin Nash throwing Rey Mysterio like a lawn dart. When they came to the WWE in 2002, they almost killed Rock with a truck! I don’t see you guys going anywhere remotely towards that.
Jackson: We never really have. The only thing we’ve done that relates to that was when Adam [Cole] joined at the pay per view. I liked when people automatically said “oh that was too much like the NWO” and I’m like, when the hell were people in the NWO doing top rope Tombstones? [Laughs] I don’t remember Scott Hall doing that.
Cole: I think that’s a different dynamic because the Adam Cole character has always been sadistic and manipulative and does whatever he can to take advantage of a situation so, there’s some of the pressure right there as being a member of the Bullet Club brings so the chaos combination with Young Bucks and Page hanging people is so new, but people love it just as much.
Jackson: When we realized that AJ, Anderson, and Gallows were leaving, we were like, this is our chance to step it up. Now, we have to recreate the Bullet Club as everybody thinks its going down, but hey screw them! Lets prove the doubters wrong and let’s make it even cooler!
I mean, to be fair, those same critics have been saying the same thing when Devitt [now WWE’s Finn Balor] left.
Jackson: To be honest, and Devitt will hate me for saying this, but Bullet Club didn’t even reach its height until Devitt left. Then Bullet Club blew up even more. It took a while, but once it picked up steam, it was huge. Sorry, Devitt, I know you’ll hate me for saying that. I love you, Devitt [kissing noises].
Cole: In one possible scenario too, if you want to look at it this way, Bullet Club is hotter than its ever been strictly because it’s a clear WWE reference every week on their shows.
Jackson: Bullet Club runs wrestling right now and that’s the truth, brother.
Adam, do you fee like now was the best time to have joined up with Bullet Club than say a year ago?
Cole: Yeah, I think so because with everything with me getting injured and out for four months and figuring out where I was going to go and what I was going to do. I think me reestablishing myself while I was gone and even tweeting interesting pictures and how I got pulled from the Ring of Honor shows, because of how crazy everything in wrestling is right now everybody thought I was leaving. So being able to genuinely surprise people in 2016 and have the lights go out and the lights come on and I’m standing there…it was cool, man. Has to be up there in my favorite moments of my career.
Nick, with you being the most senior member of the Bullet Club here, how do you feel about Adam’s involvement with the group?
Jackson: Behind the scenes, the Matt and I were the ones who got him booked, I guess you could say, probably about six months. We knew we needed a big name because we knew that AJ was secretly leaving so it was sort of what the hell do we do now? We thought of Adam right away because of our ties with Mount Rushmore and our chemistry we have with them at PWG. We heard Page was joining and were all like this is just great and even better. This is going to add even more of that element we needed in the Bullet Club, so I think it worked out great in the end.
Lastly, where do you guys see Bullet Club two to three years down the line? Do you still see it being a permanent part of Ring of Honor or do you think it will have worn out its welcome by then?
Cole: Man, it’s so hard to say even outside looking in and taking a look at how far the Bullet Club as gone and the impact they’ve made in wrestling. It’s a little scary looking at how influential the Bullet Club could and will be in that time. Again, there are wrestling fans that only watch WWE, but own Bullet Club shirts and know what it is. If things keep moving the way they’re moving, who knows where it goes from here. It’s already so much on the up and up, I don’t see it slowing down anytime soon.
Page: I think there’s a ton more eyes on us now in Ring of Honor and New Japan than ever before. In two more years? Yeah, way more.
Jackson: Storyline wise, in New Japan, we’re in this weird limbo where nobody has any championships so we have to rebuild and if in two years Kenny Omega doesn’t have the IWGP Heavyweight Title then I don’t know what they’re thinking because he’s a superstar. Him and AJ are the two best wrestlers in the world right now, and it’s scary because Kenny is more athletic than AJ, too. And he’s younger. So it’s like, I would to fantasy book those two in a singles match right now.
