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

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." 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.I remember coming up with this name, Bullet Club, thinking that’s kinda cool. I was trying to tie everyone’s characters together.

Devitt and Karl really helped us grow as wrestlers to teach us the American style and still the Japanese style. We became really, really close, where we were drinking together, eating together every day, and working together.Anderson mentions the rapid sell-outs also on the Steve Austin Show. "That first shirt they came out with when they sold like eight-thousand in two hours, I said, ‘What’s going on, man? What’s going on?’ That’s when I knew something really got cool. I felt it.