Matt Jackson Reveals How Much They Made On Bullet Club Merchandise, Cody On Being Hesitant Joining
As previously noted, current IWGP Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho spoke with The Elite [thee, thee Elite] aboard Chris Jericho's Rock 'N' Wrestling Rager At Sea for a recent edition of Talk Is Jericho. During the interview, IWGP United States Champion Cody [Rhodes] talked about how he joined The Bullet Club. Additionally, IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega and Matt Jackson explained why The Elite have distanced themselves from The Biz Cliz.
According to Cody, Rocky Romero pitched Cody joining The Bullet Club. 'The American Nightmare' shared that he was familiar with Bullet Club at the time and it stopped being a parody of nWo or DX. By that point, Bullet Club had more longevity and produced more quality matches than those factions.
"Rocky's kind of like a liaison for talent relations or whatever it may be and he just called me up and he asked, 'do you want to be part of The Bullet Club?'" Cody continued, "and I'm very familiar with The Bullet Club because it is right at the point where The Bullet Club is overtaking the crowds, the coolness, and all the stuff you're seeing I would say, 'out in the wild,' not at [pro] wrestling events, The Bullet Club hoodies and all this cool stuff, and 'too sweet', and it's shifting from a parody of the nWo/DX to 'oh no, this has lasted longer, had more quality matches over time, and it's thriving still."
Cody admitted that he was reluctant to join The Bullet Club because he was not the worker of the caliber of Omega or The Young Bucks. Moreover, 'The Grandson Of A Plumber' went against the advice of all of his friends in pro wrestling to join the original BC.
"It was this real tough decision [to join Bullet Club] because here these guys are, Matt and Nick [Jackson] are the best tag team in the world and then they're probably going to be the best tag team of all time. And Kenny, at the time, everyone in the group is a next level performer, and I'm a? what's the term? I guess I'm more like a character performer, so I was really nervous to make that decision because I leave WWE, I don't want any association with tags, I don't want any association with a group or a faction because in Legacy, I was just like, Brandi [Rhodes] used to call me 'RKO bump guy' because [Randy Orton] would do an RKO and I would take a bump." Cody added, "so I thought real hard about it and everyone I asked, everyone I crowdsourced because we all have our wrestling friends that when we think of something we ask them, everyone I crowdsourced said, 'don't do it, don't do it.' But I just had this kind of gut feeling, which is the key to wrestling." Cody added, "like, a gut feeling that I know this is going to work."
As we previously reported, The Elite announced they would no longer be part of The Bullet Club. With that said, Omega declared that he did not wish the announcement to be overly negative. 'The Best Bout Machine' wished The Bullet Club OGs the best of luck and divulged that the decision to part ways was made as it became clear that The Elite's objectives no longer aligned with the rest of The Bullet Club.
"We [very] much support The Bullet Club and what they're doing moving forward," Omega said. "It's just that our goals and what we have in mind for the [professional wrestling] business and us moving forward, it just doesn't really align with what The Bullet Club OGs are doing. We take a lot of extra time, for example, to do the Being The Elite show, we really feel that it is important for us to give back to you fans and to appear on cool things like the Chris Jericho cruise. Whereas, The Bullet Club OGs, they prioritize the other aspects and elements of professional wrestling and they'd rather not do the extra stuff, which is fine. It's okay to punch the clock. It's okay to just show up and do your job. It's just that we always felt that if we had this incredible feedback, this incredible support from all you people, just showing up to do a show, just showing up to do a match, it isn't enough.
"If you guys are willing to bring us into your life, if you guys are willing to spend your hard earned money, make your vacation this Chris Jericho cruise? this is your vacation time, guys, and you've chosen to spend it on a wrestling cruise. The least we can do is give our free time back and make your experience that much better. That [has] always been The Elite's mission statement. Unfortunately, that wasn't what The Bullet Club was about lately, so it's probably best for us to part ways and do things on our own." Omega noted, "as time goes by, the wheels have kind of spun out of control and The Bullet Club is something that I can't even really recognize and relate to anymore. But, The Elite, the best friends that I have in the business and in my personal life, these are guys that I can still talk to as friends and as family, and that goes both ways for these guys as well. So I'd rather make these statements and change the business with The Elite and with you guys as well rather than try to adhere to what Switchblade, and Gedo, and The Tongans would like to do."
Jackson took a financial perspective on the decision to separate from Bullet Club, saying The Young Bucks make no money from Bullet Club merch and that it is time to do something new and fresh and to finally make some money off of their t-shirts.
"I was going to mention, in a business sense, my family is out there in the crowd right here and every time they slap that skull logo on a t-shirt, I make about $0!" Jackson stated, "and do you know what? You're still supporting a good cause, and I'll never forget it, and you guys made The Bullet Club shirt the most famous shirt probably in the history of [pro] wrestling. Honestly, it's up there, right? It's up there with Austin 3:16. It's up there with the nWo. And I'll never forget it. The Bullet Club is the best thing of our career, but it's time to do something new, something fresh, and to look out for ourselves, and to look out for our families, and make a little bit of money on those t-shirts, for the love of God!"
Too sweet. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Talk Is Jericho