Bullet Club T-Shirt Gym Workout Japan Pro Wrestling MMA WWE UFC Fight Mens Top (Black, M)

Product Information

Despite their founder and leader’s departure, Bullet Club is still going strong today! These stories may also interest you:

So, in the blink of an eye, Devitt had his new ring name that he would wrestle under for the next eight years in Japan.And I was like, ‘Okay, cool.’ I had no choice, you know? But I guess in the week they mulled it over and said, ‘Oh well, he’s only 24. He’s not old enough to be a king yet. He’s only a mere prince,’ ya know? And that’s how the name came about. Just in the blink of an eye." Devitt went on to win the Best of the Super Juniors, defeating Kenny Omega in the semi-finals and Alex Shelley in the final to win the tournament, with a great deal of interference and help from the other members of Bullet Club. Initially, it was me and Ferg (Devitt), and the idea was for me to help make him legit as a heavyweight. When he turned [on Apollo 55 partner Ryusuke Taguchi], it just exploded, and we knew we were onto something.

He gained a lot of notoriety as a singles competitor throughout 2012, with high-profile wins against Shinsuke Nakamura and Hiroshi Tanahashi, reaching the finals in the G1 Climax. DEVITT: We’d be on these six- to eight-hour bus rides on the New Japan tour bus, going from Tokyo to Osaka or Kyushu, and absolutely going insane on the bus and trying to think of ways to entertain ourselves. We went through this phase of quoting all the Attitude Era stuff.

Finn Balor on NJPW Hazing and the Often Disgusting Dojo Initiation Process

The team found instant success by Prince Devitt entering the Best of the Super Juniors tournament soon after their formation. With the team using their bond to assist each other out in matches, it helped Devitt cheat his way through the tournament — much to the dismay of the Japanese fans not as accustomed to these kinds of heel tactics.

Soon, he had a shot at this glory in a match with Hiroshi Tanahashi, the ace of the company, but lost in what turned out to be a rather one-sided match. The characteristically sportsman-like and noble Prince Devitt refused to shake Tanahashi’s hand and began acting more arrogant and heelish in the weeks after the match. Devitt explains on Talk Is Jericho, "I was a full young boy. I would be woken up at 7.30. We’d have to clean the toilets, go out, clean the ring, sweep the streets, hose it down because of all the cat pee on the street outside. After winning the Super Juniors Tournament, Devitt challenged Tanahashi to a match at Dominion, NJPW’s second-biggest show of the year, in an attempt to defeat the opponent he couldn’t beat before forming Bullet Club. This was a chance for IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Devitt to take on once again a Heavyweight, something that rarely ever happened in the company. Devitt recalls, "We were the only people who were really working proper heel. I went from being this super straight-laced babyface doing all these high-spots and dives to like, I completely changed my offense to eye-pokes, nut-shots, and I wouldn’t do any of the fancy stuff anymore.It changed everything. Before, nobody really took notice of us. But when we got this chance, we knew we had to take it, and we had to make people hate us. A lot of people don’t like being hated but look, figure it out, man. You’re either cheered and remembered, or you’re hated and remembered. We understood the situation." I remember coming up with this name, Bullet Club, thinking that’s kinda cool. I was trying to tie everyone’s characters together. Tama Tonga (real name Alipate Aloisio Leone) grew up in the wrestling business as the adopted son of the Legendary WCW and WWF talent King Haku. Still, he never actually started wrestling until he was 25, after spending six years serving in the United States Air Force.