Any time a Bullet Club member’s contract comes up, the speculation starts, and the question gets asked, would The Bullet Club work in WWE? The Bullet Club is a mainstay faction in New Japan wrestling and has been since 2013. The Bullet Club has included the likes Finn Balor (formerly Prince Devitt), AJ Styles, Adam Cole, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson. All of which are now under WWE contracts.
My prediction is that by mid-2019 Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes, and the Young Bucks will all be in WWE. The rumor on the street is that The Young Buck’s contracts are up in November, Cody’s is up at the end of the year, and the golden goose Kenny Omega’s contract expires at the end of January. Recently, Hangman Page was offered a WWE contract but turned it down in favor of staying with the group. I have not heard any rumbling on the status of Marty Scurll’s contract so if you have any insight let me know in the comments below.
I know there are other members of Bullet Club but I am going to focus only on the above mentioned guys because I believe they are the most likely to end up in WWE. However, I have to say that I honestly do not see WWE sweeping all these guys up at once. A few of the members have said that they will only make a move if it is together. We will see when the checks start getting written that things change.
Unless the WWE can come up with some sort of invasion angle that doesn’t suck then I do not see it working. Remember the WCW invasion? How about the first NXT invasion? Large factions just aren’t in the WWE’s wheelhouse. Trim that group down to 3 or 4 and then the Bullet Club in WWE might fit a little better. Certainly, the WWE cannot call them Bullet Club, but they could get a licensing deal with the Bucks to use The Elite.
Say WWE brings in The Bucks, Cody, and Omega and calls them The Elite. That too me, makes the most sense. All four are ready for either Raw or Smackdown right away. Page & Scurll probably need a little “WWE tuning” in NXT before they appear on the main roster. Scurll has arguably one of the best entrances in all of wrestling & it would be interesting to see how it looks at Full Sail.
Omega is the easiest plug & play guy, next would be Cody. The Bucks on the other hand might have a tougher time. Not because of talent but because they are a tag team and WWE doesn’t go all in on tag teams (see what I did there?). I could see the Bucks getting off to a hot start only to be relegated to comedy skits with New Day within 6 months. Don’t get me wrong, those comedy skits would be tremendous but that isn’t the optimal position they would hope for.
Kenny Omega is the leader of The Bullet Club and (hold your breath marks) one of the top 5 wrestlers in the world. Omega is primed for an AJ Styles type run in the WWE. That means a contract between 1.5 to 2.5 million a year peak with a downside of around 450 to 600 thousand per year. My guess is that his downside in WWE would be more than his current max in NJPW. People can say Omega isn’t about money and I get it. However, as the great Million Dollar Man would say, “everybody has a price” Omega included.
Cody already knows the WWE style and has improved on every facet of his game. I will say that it is a lock that at some point Cody will make a return. He is a WWE baby. My guess is that Cody’s career in professional wrestling will not be complete until he has a big WWE run. When Cody left, he wasn’t ready, but now he is.
The Bullet Club as a whole may never be all in the WWE together. I will stick to my guns. Omega, Cody and the Bucks will be in WWE by the close of 2019. Even if they only have a 1 or 2 year run and return to Japan the exposure they will receive in WWE will be worth it. I know, I can hear you now. They sold 10 thousand tickets at All In, their shirts are selling at Hot Topic, blah blah blah. Don’t be a mark, the WWE TV and marketing machine will make these guys twice the stars they are now.
With WWE signing two one-billion-dollar TV deals there is a 99% chance that some of these guys end up going. The smart money is on The Elite and Cody. The fact that they sold out All In in such an impressive fashion makes them more attractive to WWE. 2019 will be an extremely interesting year in the crazy world of professional err sports entertainment. Either way, Bullet Club’s fine.
Give me a follow on twitter!
