The Club (professional wrestling)

The Club is a villianous professional wrestling stable performing in WWE, composed of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson on Raw, and AJ Styles on SmackDown.^[5] Originally all together as a trio, they debuted on the May 2, 2016, episode of Raw,^[5] but made their official television debut as "The Club" on May 9.^[4]

The stable draws inspiration from another professional wrestling group primarily active in the Japanese New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) promotion and the American Ring of Honor (ROH) promotion, known as "Bullet Club", in which Styles, Anderson and Gallows are all previous members of, with Styles and Anderson also former leaders.^[6][7][8] All three departed NJPW and ROH in 2016 for WWE; Styles in January and Anderson and Gallows in April.^[9]

History

Formation

Gallows wrestled for WWE before 2016, portraying several characters: the Impostor Kane, Festus, and Luke Gallows as part of The Straight Edge Society before WWE released him in 2010.^[11][12]

In January 2016, on WWE.com, it was announced that A.J. Styles, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows were in talks to debut/return in WWE, leaving NJPW.^[13][14] After weeks of speculation,^[9] on January 20, 2016, it was confirmed that Styles had signed with WWE.^[15] Styles made his WWE pay-per-view debut on January 24, 2016, at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view during the Royal Rumble match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, entering at number three.^[16][17]

On the April 11, 2016, episode of Raw, Anderson and Gallows (who returned to his Luke Gallows ring name) made their debut for WWE, attacking The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso).^[18]

Feud with The Bloodline

On the following week's Raw, WWE began teasing an alliance between Anderson and Gallows and their former Bullet Club stablemate AJ Styles when, after meeting Styles in a backstage interview, Anderson and Gallows attacked his Payback opponent Roman Reigns in the ring, however, Styles did not seem pleased with the attack.^[18] Anderson and Gallows wrestled their first WWE match on the April 25 Raw, defeating The Usos.^[20] Over the next weeks, Anderson and Gallows continued teasing an uneasy alliance with Styles, while having several face offs with The Usos and Reigns, including at Payback, where the two failed in their attempt to help Styles capture the WWE World Heavyweight Championship from Reigns.^[21]

This led to a feud between the trio of Anderson, Gallows and Styles and the trio of Reigns and The Usos; after Styles' trio beat Reigns' trio on the May 2 Raw, Anderson and Gallows wanted Styles to hit Reigns with a chair, but Styles refused, resulting in The Usos attacking Styles from behind with a chair, and Styles retaliating with the chair, but ultimately, Reigns established his dominance by executing a powerbomb on Styles through the announce table.^[4] On the same week's SmackDown, the two trios had a rematch where Reigns pinned Anderson for Anderson's first WWE loss.^[22] On the next week's Raw, with Anderson, Gallows and Styles now named as "The Club", Reigns and The Usos beat them in a six-man elimination tag team match: Jey Uso, then Anderson, Jimmy Uso, and Gallows were pinned, and finally Styles was disqualified when Anderson interfered to prevent Reigns repeating his announce table powerbomb on Styles.^[4] On the May 12 SmackDown, The Usos defeated Anderson and Gallows via disqualification, but Anderson and Gallows came up top in the post-match brawl with neither Reigns nor Styles appearing to help.^[23] On the May 16 episode of Raw, The Usos defeated Anderson and Gallows via pinfall.^[24] At Extreme Rules, Gallows and Anderson defeated The Usos in a tornado tag team match, whilst later in the night Styles lost to Reigns in an Extreme Rules match.^[25] The next night on Raw, Styles told Gallows and Anderson that they should go their separate ways and remain friends, but Anderson and Gallows refused and ended their friendship with Styles.^[26]

Feud with John Cena and Styles' championship success

On the May 30 Memorial Day episode of Raw, John Cena returned from his injury, and was confronted by Styles, who welcomed him back, and were then interrupted by Gallows and Anderson, who proclaimed they would beat them up. Once Gallows and Anderson reached the ring, Styles turned heel and the trio ganged up on Cena, with Styles brutally attacking Cena several times, effectively reuniting The Club.^[27] This set up a match between Styles and Cena at Money in the Bank, while Gallows and Anderson would start pursuing the WWE Tag Team Championship.^[28] At the event, Gallows and Anderson were unsuccessful in winning the WWE Tag Team Championship against Enzo Amore and Big Cass, The New Day, and The Vaudevillains for the WWE Tag Team Championship, but Styles defeated Cena in a singles match, after Anderson and Gallows attacked Cena while the referee was knocked out, allowing Styles to pin Cena for the win.^[29] On the July 4 episode of Raw, The Club would attack Cena again as Styles stated that they would "beat up John Cena", but were stopped by Enzo and Big Cass, thus leading to a six-man tag team match between the two teams at Battleground.^[30]

The Club was "separated" in the 2016 WWE draft, when Styles was drafted to SmackDown, while Anderson and Gallows were drafted to Raw, resulting in Battleground being The Club's final night as a trio where they lost to John Cena, Enzo Amore and Big Cass.^[31][32] On July 21, Styles stated on his Twitter account that The Club was not disbanded, but that it was instead getting "expanded", thus he is still considered a member of The Club despite operating separately from Anderson and Gallows.^[33][34] At SummerSlam, the trio briefly reunited in a backstage segment, including an appearance by former Bullet Club leader Finn Bálor.^[35] At the same event, Styles defeated Cena in a clean finish,^[36] while Gallows and Anderson ended in a disqualification win over The New Day when Anderson was attacked by the returning Big E.^[37] Due to his victory at SummerSlam, Styles immediately re-entered the now renamed WWE World Championship picture and received another opportunity at the title at Backlash against champion Dean Ambrose, where Styles defeated Ambrose to become the WWE World Champion for the first time in his career.^[38] Gallows and Anderson received two more shots at the newly renamed Raw Tag Team Championship, first on September 25 at Clash of Champions and then the following night on Raw, but were both times defeated by members of The New Day.^[39][40] Meanwhile, Styles was successful in retaing the WWE World Championship on the September 27 episode of SmackDown against Ambrose,^[41] and on October 9 at No Mercy against both Ambrose and Cena.^[42]

In wrestling

Anderson and Gallows' Magic Killer

Styles' Styles Clash

• Double-team finishing moves
  • Anderson and Gallows
    • Magic Killer^[2][3] (Aided snap swinging neckbreaker)^{[43][44][45][46]}
• Double-team signature moves
  • Anderson and Gallows
    • Boot of Doom (Fireman's carry flapjack (Gallows) and Running single leg front dropkick (Anderson) combination^{[47][48][49][50]}
• Anderson's finishing moves
  • Rocket Kick (Running single leg front dropkick)^[51]
• Gallows' finishing moves
  • Gallows Pole^[52] (Chokebomb)^[53]
• Styles' finishing moves
  • Calf Crusher^[54]
  • Phenomenal Forearm^[1][55] (Springboard forearm smash)^[56]
  • Styles Clash^[1] (Belly-to-back inverted mat slam,^[57] sometimes from the second rope)^[58]
• Entrance music
  • "Omen in the Sky" by CFO$ (Anderson and Gallows) (April 11, 2016 – present)^[59]
  • "Phenomenal" by CFO$ (Styles) (April 25, 2016 – present)^[60]

Championships and accomplishments

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • Ranked Styles No. 4 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2016^[61]
  • Ranked Gallows No. 65 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2016^[61]
  • Ranked Anderson No. 69 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2016^[61]
• WWE
  • WWE World Championship (1 time, current) – Styles^[62]

See also

• Bullet Club
• Gallows and Anderson

References