Hiroshi Tanahashi Claims Bullet Club Is “The Most Important Faction Of The Last 20 Years”
Bullet Club is getting praise from an unlikely person: New Japan’s former ace, Hiroshi Tanahashi.
Tanahashi knows full well how important stables and factions are; after all, he and his fellow NJPW cohorts have been deadlocked in faction warfare for years. Almost everyone in New Japan is assigned/part of one faction or another.
And while NJPW’s roster has had some groups that’ve wrestled in New Japan for a long time or have achieved great success, none have been as important as the Bullet Club…at least according to Tanahashi.
In a piece for New Japan’s official website, Tanahashi praised Bullet Club for their longevity and how they’ve managed to maintain such a loyal fanbase. Even as the group changed members, split into subfactions, and collapsed onto itself in some ways, the Bullet Club remains an important and beloved faction.
“That was the core four, Devitt, Fale, Anderson and Tama Tonga. I think from there it’s no exaggeration to say that Bullet Club is the most important faction of the last twenty years at least.
Wherever you go overseas you still see fans in Bullet Club shirts, and all those people in the top slot over the years, [Prince] Devitt to AJ [Styles] to Kenny Omega to Jay White are really best of the best.”
Hiroshi Tanahashi’s next scheduled big match will be on January 4th, 2023 at Wrestle Kingdom 17. On that show, Tanahashi will team with Shota Umino and KEIJI MUTO against Los Ignobernables de Japón’s Tetsuya Naito, Bushi, and former Muto pupil SANADA.
h/t 411Mania for the transcription