AEW Wanted THIS WWE Main-Eventer To Appear On Dynamite's Debut Episode
Now THIS would have been one hell of an angle.
The Young Bucks were guests on Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows' Talk'n Shop Podcast recently, speaking with their former Bullet Club compatriots about all kinds of topics - including their original plans for Dynamite's debut episode.
Per Matt Jackson, AEW had planned on running a big angle with Gallows, Anderson, and one other name they used to run with in New Japan (h/t transcriptions: Wrestling Inc.):-
"People don’t realize that when we were pitching to have you guys come in, it wasn’t just going to be the two of you, it was going to be another person who I won’t name, but another Bullet Club person who you may not want to talk about."
Deduction naturally leads to AJ Styles here. 'The Phenomenal One' was Bullet Club's defacto co-leader alongside Anderson from late 2013 until he departed the promotion for WWE in early 2016, leaving Kenny Omega to take control of the mega-faction. Anderson and Gallows joined their friend in the world's biggest promotion soon after.
Jackson went on, describing the pitched debut angle in detail:-
"When we were originally going to do Dynamite, we were going to debut at Madison Square Garden. After the match, three of you, not just the two of you, the three of you were going to jump the guardrail and we were going to have like a Bullet Club reunion. We were gonna throw up the too sweet and then the three of you were going to jump us and make us bloody and destroy us and then we were going to be off to the races. And it obviously didn’t work out. I remember the first guy in this conversation we’re talking about right now, he buzzed us and he’s like ‘I just got too good of an offer, and I would have never got the offer without your guys offer, so I just wanted to say thank you.’"
Dynamite's debut episode went down on 2 October 2019. Six months prior, Styles signed a bumper new WWE contract with a significant payrise, calling it his last deal in professional wrestling.
Gallows and Anderson had previously been in negotiations with AEW before deciding to re-sign with WWE in 2019. They were eventually let go from Vince McMahon's company in April 2020 and have since found a new home in Impact Wrestling, where they enjoy a more prominent role.