WWE News: NJPW Stars AJ Styles, Doc Gallows, And Karl Anderson Have Reportedly Signed With WWE

In what can only be seen as a massive story, it appears that NJPW may be losing some of it’s biggest stars very very soon. It has been rumored for months that people such as AJ Styles would be leaving NJPW when his contract came up. The rumor mill also stated that he would be jumping to WWE whenever he left Japan. While this was all just simply seen as a rumor before, it is now potentially happening for real.

According to MLW Radio, Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, and AJ Styles all handed in their resignations to NJPW booker Gedo on Monday The group had to renew their deals with NJPW if they planned to stay on after the Wrestle Kingdom 10 event, where AJ Styles lost his title match to IWGP Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura.

According to The Wrestling Observer, AJ Styles had been working without a contract and simply wanted to finish out his run with NJPW at the Wrestle Kingdom event. Gallows and Anderson reportedly just had their deals expire recently and chose not to renew their deals as all three are now apparently headed to WWE. There has been an interest in The Bullet Club for months, but more specifically AJ Styles considering he is the major star of the group.

Anderson apparently was close to signing with TNA Wrestling at one point, and was ready to be part of the new-look TNA brand on Pop TV. However, WWE apparently was able to secure him before he signed on with TNA.

The Observer claims all three have reportedly signed a tentative deal. Of course, this is pending any physicals, which none have reportedly done at this point for WWE. They are also going to be honoring the rest of their Ring of Honor commitments, which means it could be the last anyone sees of this particular Bullet Club for a while on the independent scene. That means we won’t see any of them until February at the earliest most likely.

The idea for the group right now is to have them join WWE NXT as they start up their new touring schedule this year. WWE plans to have NXT tour a great deal this year, as well as in 2017. They need top names to help sell tickets. Having a big group the independent fans know of can surely be a draw in any town across the United States.

The current plan is to have them part of the roster before the big WWE NXT special in Dallas right before WrestleMania 32. This might allow us to see a dream match of Finn Balor vs AJ Styles for example, which would be the ideal main event for the special that we all want to see. The reported main event as of a few weeks ago was set to be Sami Zayn/Finn Balor, but due to the new signings this obviously changes plans up a bit.

It was uncertain if WWE would be able to secure people like AJ Styles. Styles was saying he wanted a light schedule going into this year and coming off of a recent back injury, it would make sense to have something that wouldn’t do too much harm to his body. However, Styles said that he would be interesting in joining WWE if they made a good offer and if the deal was good for his family. WWE apparently came through with that.

Triple H has been trying to sign a lot of people across the world for the NXT brand, but he had to wait and sign most of them when their deals came up where they currently worked. This is why people like AJ Styles had been rumored for so long but just now seemingly made the jump. If the story is true that all three have signed, it would possibly be NXT’s biggest signing to date.

[Image via ROH Wrestling]