On The October 10 episode of WWE Raw, The OC (Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows) returned to WWE after they were released back in April 2020.
Anderson & Gallows were outspoken regarding their WWE release and noted that they were never likely to return. Plans changed.
Speaking on WWE After The Bell, Anderson & Gallows discussed their decision to return to the company.
"We had gone back and forth with Uncle Allen [AJ Styles] before the regime change, but we weren't talking about anything. We had done the two years at IMPACT and were thankful to them, it was a great two years there, but we wanted to recharge our batteries and hit Japan pretty hard. We were like, 'let's take this time and go to Japan through the New Year and then make a decision on what we want to do.' We're in Dallas, doing our last match with the Motor City Machine Guns and we get a text, 'Hey guys, can we talk?' Well, shit, here we go. Maybe we should text back. It was a text from Triple H, but we didn't know if this was something we could do or wanted to do or what was going to come out of it after what happened the last time. We got on the phone and could feel the new vibe and how positive everything was. One thing led to another from there," said Gallows.
Gallows & Anderson signed with IMPACT after their WWE release and made appearances on AEW TV and NJPW STRONG. They had been working NJPW events in Japan once travel opened up again.
Anderson said, "We always had a good relationship with Triple H. He was our guy when our contract was coming up at the end of 2019 and it was Hunter who we talked with and ended up signing a new deal. We had a good relationship. That's why, when we got released, I held some angst if we'd ever go back or ever speak again. We didn't talk to Triple H for two and a half years. There was one text in July 2021, Gallows sent a selfie of me and him drinking beer to Triple H saying, 'Hope you're doing well baby boy.' Three days later, I'm like, 'Did Hunter ever text you back?' 'No.' A day later, 'Hunter wrote back and said I hope you're doing well.' Besides that, we didn't speak at all. We were just getting home from an IMPACT weekend, it was our final weekend, we get home, do a FaceTime with Hunter, we talked and asked how the families were. We got asked if we wanted to come back, talked through our issues, and said, 'that was then, this is now, let's push forward and go.' That was it. Getting chills now thinking about it because I didn't think we'd ever have that talk. Not just the business talk, but to get the personal talk out. It was nice to get all that on the table, and now we're going forward. We still had to go back to Japan, we had a 10-day tour, I had a singles match with (Hiroshi) Tanahashi, then go to England for New Japan. Nobody knew we had planned to do October in New York City."
Anderson is still the reigning NEVER Openweight Champion in NJPW and was scheduled to defend the title on November 5, but was double booked as he wrestled at WWE Crown Jewel. He has said that he'll defend the title on his time.
The OC gained a new member on Monday's WWE Raw when Mia Yim joined the group to help with their Rhea Ripley problem.
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