Bullet Club has finally run out of ammo in its chamber

Depending on who you ask, New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Bullet Club faction has been on borrowed time for quite a while.

Many will argue its height was when Finn Balor/Prince Devitt and AJ Styles successively led the faction in its earliest days, with Styles at the time leading it to relevancy with his IWGP title reign. Others might counter that and say the height was when it was led by Kenny Omega and anchored by the Young Bucks in conjunction with Omega’s feud with Kazuchika Okada. And then amid all of that some — very few — would argue that Cody Rhodes joining was when it was its most mainstream. That dovetailed into the original All In, the Elite’s departure and the rise of Jay White as the group’s fourth leader.

In the past I’ve made it pretty known that White is one of my favourite active wrestlers to watch, so I might be a bit biased when it comes to his run with the core group. With that in perspective, I think his run was arguably the most complete with clear peaks and valleys, title reigns to establish himself, and a final IWGP run with a defining win over Okada at Dominion 2022 to truly arrive. His version of Bullet Club, while leaning into the nostalgia of Balor/Devitt’s original vision, was the last time the group had a real high. And much of that for me had to do with White’s ability to adapt and carry different types of stories anchored by his own character flaws as much as his aggressive cutthroat nature.

The “Rebel” Era

White’s departure from NJPW for AEW and the subsequent rise of David Finlay as Gedo’s handpicked fifth leader has always felt forced. As much as the Finlay-led faction has had great matches within the NJPW bubble against a litany of competitors — the Bullet Club vs. United Empire cage match springs to mind — where the original groups, and ones like White’s forged their own identities and were defined by the leader’s charisma and actions, Finlay’s group of War Dogs has never quite peaked in the same way.

If we’re being honest, if you’re going to take time to watch a NJPW show and have a choice between watching only one Bullet Club match on a NJPW card, who are you really going to watch between Finlay and Gabe Kidd? Finlay, who is a good wrestler, solid promo but is more or less a rushed tribute to the past, or Kidd whose hard-nosed wrestling style and unpredictable nature just make for a more entertaining watch for 10-30 minutes at a time depending on what he’s doing? In my opinion Kidd is just better on all aspects of the report card, and the entire time that Shibata’s students — Kidd, Clark Conners and formerly the retired Alex Coughlin — have been in the group they have overshadowed the leader.

Measuring Finlay’s Bullet Club Against the Past

It isn’t as though Finlay’s run hasn’t been good on its own merits, but when you consider the above and match his group against the versions that were led by the OGs, fantastic wrestlers like Styles and Omega, and then someone like White whose combination of wrestling skills and charisma are not easily matched, the comparisons are not kind. Additionally when you consider as a NJPW fan that he’s not a believable threat to the IWGP title, it’s a strike against his value and as leader the group suffers for it. Where the previous put their mark on the group and made it their own, while Finlay has followed that tradition it has felt inorganic and tonally off. Where others made their impact very quickly with IWGP title contentions or victories, two years in that doesn’t seem realistic for Finlay.

That doesn’t appear to be changing any time soon with recent events. Earlier this month at NJPW’s Dominion 2025 show Evil’s House of Torture subgroup formally left Bullet Club, siphoned off some of its OG members like Chase Owens and Fale, and left the defeated Finlay with Gedo — who is probably orchestrating this whole thing — and the other War Dog members. This is what the group has been reduced to — a Civil War-type feud with a former subgroup led by a guy named after a perception of someone’s actions (Evil) that when I last checked, no one particularly enjoys watching. Where Balor, Omega, Styles and White all fought Okada, and either wrestled for or won the IWGP championship, Finlay’s iteration is caught in average feuds while he as leader is overshadowed by people like Kidd.

All things being fair, maybe the separation between House of Torture and mainline Bullet Club was necessary to reset the faction and focus on the core group. It definitely needs to refocus. Maybe there are other things in the works with new (or old) blood coming in, and perhaps Kidd’s growing following can’t be ignored, but generally you can argue this Bullet Club lacks a true identity and purpose. It doesn’t have a point to prove anymore, it doesn’t aspire necessarily to be among the elite, nor does it have villainous designs on glory by any means.

This group came together out of the belief they had more to offer and took offense to being afterthoughts on New Japan Strong. While that does nod toward the original formation of the group, that piece of the plot has been lost for some time and holistically you can argue that despite Kidd’s success and the group’s handful of title runs, it hasn’t completely met its own challenge.

Last Group Standing

For almost the entirety of its existence Bullet Club has at a minimum been a top 3 faction whose stories incorporate into the NJPW landscape as the main heel-ish faction against other core groups like Chaos or LiJ. That was usually built off the antagonism between the leaders of those factions. Compare that to present day in a vacuum where NJPW’s list of stables is now without Chaos and LiJ, and is rounded out by House of Torture, Just __ Guys, the Zack Sabre-led TMDK, the Ospreay-less United Empire and then the general roster.

In a landscape where the opportunity exists to assert itself as the main group as the most tenured stable, in a series of events over the last year that has seen Naito get one last kick at the can, Zack Sabre claim IWGP title gold, Jon Moxley receive a short run on top, Finlay’s group has failed to assert itself. The company would seemingly rather experiment with Hirooki Goto as IWGP champion — which is turning out nicely — than push Finlay into that top shelf role. Even Kidd is considered more valuable and currently holds the Global Championship.

Some viewers have called for the group to dissolve in the past, and we might be at that moment unless Bullet Club can reload and reinvent itself. This current version lacks an identity that can be held up to its history, and in light of the group’s standing in a barren landscape of stables it should be dominating, it would seem the only value in the absence of a resurgence within the group is to just keep printing t-shirts for merch sales.

Perhaps that’s the legacy of the Elite, but decidedly so it’s counter to the essence of what the group was when it was at its best. And at the moment, it’s a far cry from the versions fronted by the first four leaders, and perhaps it’s time to bid the t-shirt faction an all-too bittersweet adieu.