When news broke that "Machine Gun" Karl Anderson was coming to thđe WWE, many expected him to drop his nickname and riâng name. That ended up not being the case, to the surprise of Anderson.
Ever since his exit from NewêŠ Japan Pro Wrestling earlier this year, Anderson has still had ties to the name and persona created there. From retaining his ring name, to 'The Club' spin-off of The Bullet Club. Anderson said on recently that he was ready for a change if needed.Â
âI figured when we took the opportunity to go to WWE that maybe there would be a name change," Anderson said. "If there was, then we were fine with it because, like, it was a chance, we thought, to just get as global as possible. In our defense, or in the positive way we look at it was that weâd done so much cool stuff and so much big stuff with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and we had gotten our names out there so much that the WWE decided that they didnâđźt have to change our names, and didnât want to change our names."
While AJ Styles and Karl Anderson only had to make miđnor tweaks, such as dropping nđicknames and no longer wearing Bullet Club attire, Luke Gallows dropped his "Doc" nickname that he'd adopted in TNA and NJPW. Either way, Anderson has a theory as to why bigger changes weren't made.
"Maybe we had so many fans that recognized us as Karl Anderson, AJ Styles, and Luke Gallows that itâd be kind of silly to change our names. Thatâs how I lookedàŒ at it,â Anderson said.
Anderson will now perform alongside Gallows on Raw, whilâe AJ Stâyles was drafted to Smackdown.
By Fightful Staff
