Is the Bullet Club becoming the NWO?
We here at KliqPod may be breaking the fourth wall here and how dare we identify the Bullet Club for who they are by comparing them to a stable that arguably built and destroyed one of the more popular wrestling companies in WCW. No, we aren't insinuating that is the case here but when you look at the Bullet Club as a whole there are some striking similarities to the path these two stables have taken. Below are the more glaring identifying resemblances between the Bullet Club and the NWO.
Similar Talent in Numbers
Certainly, talent like Finn Balor and AJ Styles won't fit into this conversation. There are a fair amount of transitional wrestlers that went from the Bullet Club to WWE, Balor or at the time Prince Devitt owning the title of creator and AJ leading the group for roughly two years post-inception of Finn Balor in WWE. Really, the height of popularity for the group being Kenny Omega's reign at the top with the Young Bucks following with tenure.
The makeup of the group really didn't change that of what you would consider in the NWO. The Bullet Club never grew to the same size and never embodied the adage of "join or be destroyed", which may be the winning formula for B.C. and the possible downfall for the NWO, but let us take a look at three key players in the Bullet Club at its height of popularity, Omega and the Bucks.
I can confidently say that Kenny Omega is no Hulk Hogan and the Bucks are no Scott Hall or Kevin Nash, take that as you will, but the core makeup of the Bullet Club is very similar to that of the NWO. The talent that truly matters, in this case, are the architects, those who begin and continue to build towards whatever the end will be for the Bullet Club. I truly believe that it was not intended to look that way...but it does.
Merchandise Kings
While the NWO had the backing of Ted Turner's chequebook and WCW's full buy-in for the stable, it really was the delivery, the shock of the formation of the NWO that had people believing and jumping on the bandwagon. In 1997, the NWO merchandise sold over $16 Million, that is just 1997 and doesn't include overall sales which likely spiked with NWO Wolfpack and the reintroduction of the stable in WWE. That is information we all knew by omission, just look around at WWE events today, you can pick out at least 50 people in the crowd today with NWO shirts.
What is more impressive to me is how the Bullet Club became the merchandise king of this generation. A tweet from One Hour Tees (Pro Wrestling Tees) on November 31st, 2017 stated an exact number of sales per month.
By that math and taking the number of sales per month to this day based on their popularity, that is about $1.3 Million in t-shirt sales alone over the course of one year, by themselves. That is an insane number! Also, there really wasnt much you could do with the NWO logo. It was what it was, simple and badass, but the Bullet Club constantly rolls with the new times and continues to create clever and amazing designs based off the original. The fact that both stables are still profiting off merchandise shows a major similarity to the two.
The Split
Not all things great can last an eternity and that proved to be the case with the original Bullet Club makeup. With the additions of Adam Page, Cody Rhodes, and Marty Scurll, departures such as Adam Cole the shift of power started to dilute the core being of the group. While Cody's leadership introduction was much welcome and really the only credit I will give his entire career, this created the concept of The Elite and the Bullet Club Civil War in 2018.
Cody's reign at the helm of the Bullet Club was a much-needed break for Omega to excel once again in singles competition without the necessity of the Bucks being by his side, but then all those unique teams within the Bullet Club started taking sides...similar to NWO Hollywood, and NWO Wolfpack.
The concern, in this case, is the factual lineage of the NWO split may have been the cracks forming within the stable. Eventually, the NWO had to split, they had accrued so much talent that the only way someone was on TV is if you sent out everyone to beat up Disco Inferno or Prince Iaukea. At this point simply a reformation of The Elite and the Bullet Club would create the same effect as the NWO did which did no one or WCW any favors. Naturally, the next step is the dissolving of the Bullet Club.
In Conclusion
Assuming the Bullet Club disbands one thing is certain, you won't see a total destruction of each individual. Certainly, all members of the Bullet Club past or present have shined on their own. They have in the past and they will in the future, but as for the allure of the Bullet Club and what it brought to each individual, I am not sure you can get that back once it is over. Now that guys like Omega and the Bucks have set the bar so high in NJPW and ROH, creating a new stable post Bullet Club would only be a shadow of their former selves.
The evidence is pretty stacked against the Bullet Club, there are some fairly glaring similarities to each other and the direction they are going. I certainly hope this isn't the end of The Elite, The OG's, The Bullet Club, but if we are travelling down that path, it was one hell of a ride and one that cannot be replicated or duplicated.
What do you think? Comment below.