What If? – The Bullet Club: Civil War

For many years now, I have heard rumblings of a rouge group over in Japan called the “Bullet Club.” These guys ran roughshot over New Japan Pro Wrestling, ushering in a new era unlike anything they had ever seen before. It was originally started by a wrestler named Prince Devitt (later known by WWE fans as “The Demon” Finn Balor). Aligning himself with Karl Anderson, Tama Tonga and King Fale, they took over and took down all opposers. Over the past three years since forming, the group has seen leaders such as Devitt, AJ Styles, and Kenny Omega, all ruthless and willing to do whatever it takes to establish the Bullet Club’s dominance. Soon, up and coming wrestlers such as the Young Bucks and Adam Cole from Ring Of Honor joined the group and has had either past or current members in every major wrestling promotion today. You could say that what began in Japan has spread in ways that dwarf even the growth of the NWO back in the WCW days.
With their underground popularity, a question has raised in my mind. Possibly the biggest question in pro wrestling, possibly in all of sports period. That question is simply “what if?” What if the best of the best faced off to establish who the true best of the best was? Now I know some members of the Bullet Club have faced each other in some form or another in the past, but i’m not asking what would happen if one member fought another, but rather what if we saw an all out war? What if, by some happenstance, all members of the Bullet Club, past and present found themselves under one roof? Whether is be WWE, TNA, ROH, or NJPW, if they could all be in the same building together, what kind of chaos would that cause? Now it’s certainly possible that they all would just have one massive reunion and dominate whatever promotion they were in and rule with an iron fist, but what if there was a power struggle? What if AJ Styles wanted revenge on Kenny Omega? What if Finn Balor decided he wanted his club back? What if Adam Cole decided they were all unfit and he was the new leader? If done properly, this would be the greatest storyline in the history of professional wrestling! It should be noted that for this article, I’m going to assume all join the WWE for convince.
This war could easily be started with a reunion, as all, or most, members join one organization, there would be cause for a celebration! They would talk of a new beginning, a formation that was meant to own pro wrestling, no one would stand in their way without being crushed, and they would make plenty of examples out of those who would try. While some would see this as dangerous as the nwo started this way and slowly drifted into nonsense that turned the fans sour to the idea. However, the devil is in the details as to why this would be different.
While the NWO was built around three people and even though they had their splits and feuds, it was hard for them to take sides. With this feud, all members of the Bullet Club would face an “if  you’re not with us, you’re against us” mentality from it’s four prospective leaders. The best part, we wouldn’t know who was going to join who? at first glance it would seem like Gallows and Anderson would join AJ Styles due to their WWE relationship, but what about when they turned on him for Kenny Omega? Would Finn Balor have the allegiance of the founding members? Would Adam Cole’s dissention cause the Young Bucks to turn on Omega? There is so much potential for endless possible stories, all with amazing stars capable of selling any possible outcome, keeping the fans wondering what will happen next!
This could all culminate with a grand matchup at a Survivor Series, either with each side choosing teams and having a survivor series matchup for the controlling stake in Bullet Club, or a fatal 4-way elimination match between the perspective leaders to determine who will be the one to unite and lead this glorious faction into the future.
This could lead to one of two possible outcomes: resolution or disintegration. On one hand, the final deciding match happens, there is one leader and the others either fall in line or move on to other promotions with the true victors continue with their conquest of the WWE. We may see others join and leave over time, but there will always be one Bullet Club no matter what. This would work for a while, just as the NWO and DX did, but eventually, like all things, they would disseminate and either break up from being stale or simply losing too many members. One would hope they would go out on top, and not suffer the same fate of the NWO where people just simply did not care anymore, but in wrestling, history has an unfortunate way of repeating itself.
The other possible conclusion would be disintegration. What if they simply cannot coexist any longer, and have to break up altogether, thus ending a great war and a potentially great storyline? It doesn’t have to end as many groups do, with no real resolution, they just simply go their separate ways, but rather they all come together, decide that this war has taken too much of a tole on one another and decide rather than tear down the foundation that the Bullet Club was built on in the first place, to simply say goodbye and remember the good times while forgetting the bad. This could lead to future storylines with other members against each other or forming new teams. Both solutions could be set up very well and see them end it on their terms rather than having some outside force destroy and bury them (*cough John Cena *cough). While teams would certainly try to stop them from taking over, they could be booked as the Nexus should have, as Anderson and Gallows should have, and be dominant and vicious.
Now I realize that this idea is far to grand for any promotion to undertake, and even if they signed these wrestlers to temporary deals like they have with the cruiserweight classic and other tournaments, many would likely be stalwarts and you’d never have the full weight of the club in one promotion. The most likely scenario would be a grand cross-promotion between everyone that has members in it, and while this would make an almost certainly endless amount of money for everyone involved, there are too many egos involved to work coherently and consistently. Still… the idea sends shivers down my spine, as it should all of you as well!
So this part I call for audience participation, how would you book teams? Who would win and be the sole leader of the Bullet Club? Would there even be a Bullet Club by the end? You be the writing staff! I encourage you all to read more about the Bullet Club and watch old videos on YouTube or any other outlet where you could find them, the idea is unique and despite their connections with the NWO, they are still very original and full of amazing talent that isn’t showcased in the WWE right now.