Tama Tonga going over a number of topics.
At NJPW's G1 Special show in San Francisco, Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa decided to separate themselves from the mainstream version of Bullet Club when they attacked The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega after Kenny retained his IWGP Heavyweight Championship in a bout against Cody. After finishing the job on Omega and The Bucks in the ring, Tama, Tanga Loa and their father former WWF Tag Team Champion King Haku laid waste to other members of Bullet Club who tried to come to the aid of Omega, Matt and Nick.
Prior to the events mentioned above, Tama Tonga was interviewed by Emily Pratt of UPROXX and during the interview Tama discussed how Bullet Club got started. The original members of the group were Matt Bloom, Finn Balor, Karl Anderson, Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga. It was not long before Luke Gallows and The Young Bucks joined and Tama went on to explain the rest of the history.
"There was a small foreigner group in Japan. There was Giant Bernard – he went as Tensai and is now coaching in NXT – he was there in Japan, and then Prince Devitt came, Finn Balor came, Karl Anderson came, so that was three, out of the whole entire Japanese company." Tama continued, "Then I came in with Fale, and we were always hanging with each other because, you know, when you speak English in a foreign country… we just gravitated to each other in the locker room because we could have conversations. I think our booker saw that, how our chemistry together was just growing… and Prince Devitt, they were moving him to the front, so they said, hey, we need a group name.
"I think he and Fale came up with – I think the first one Prince Devitt came up with was Bullet Brigade, and then Fale was like, 'I don’t like the sound of that bro.' So Fale came up with 'club' because in New Zealand everything is a club, and that’s more of a fraternity, so that’s how… them two came up with the name, and then we all just put in the main core four: Prince Devitt, and then Fale was his bodyguard, and then Karl Anderson and me. I was kind of like Karl Anderson’s wing man coming up together. He was my senpai and I followed him, so with him joining it was the four of us, May something in 2013, and that’s how it started." Tama Tonga shared.
Now that Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa are known as the "Firing Squad" version of Bullet Club, it is all a matter of adding the numbers to their group. Along with Fale who was in the original Bullet Club with Tama Tonga, one individual who Tama recently brought into Bullet Club has not had the opportunity to choose who he will be siding with and that man is former IMPACT X Division Champion Taiji Ishimori.
"I’ve known him for a while." Tama said of Ishimori. "I’ve wrestled against him, and… I think he’s an incredible talent, and… with the Bucks moving up to heavyweight, we need some more junior weights. So I admire his hard work and his commitment to working out. I think that’s what impressed me the most. That’s what I was trying to convey to people. To get your body that jacked is not an easy thing… [and] he can do that with wrestling. So that’s what I’m looking for moving forward you know, blue collar. Guys that can outwork anybody. We need to fill up our junior weight class here in our club, in our clubhouse."
The full interview can be read by clicking here, and for more details on Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa stepping back from the spotlighted version of Bullet Club, click here.
