Following an emotional goodbye to both Korakuen Hall fans and his Bullet Club partners, four-time IWGP Tag Team Champion "Machine Gun" Karl Anderson has confirmed what has been rumored since early January: he's leaving the company to go to WWE. In a series of comments reported by Japanese pro wrestling blogger enuhito, Anderson corroborated the reports, saying that his next stop is WWE. By going there, Anderson hopes to "find who is" and "be a big star." The New Japan veteran also stated, "NJPW fans are the best in the world. I want to come back someday to get IWGP Heavyweight Championship." On January 5, news broke that New Japan stars Anderson, his partner Doc Gallows, former IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles, and NJPW native Shinsuke Nakamura had all given notice to the company with the intent of joining WWE. Styles finished up with New Japan that night, then debuted for WWE at the Royal Rumble. Nakamura's final NJPW show was on January 30, and he's since been announced as making his NXT debut on April 1 at TakeOver: Dallas. Anderson and Gallows both finished up with New Japan on February 20, saying their farewells at the company's "Honor Rising" event, held in cooperation with American independent league Ring of Honor. It is not known when they will report to WWE, if they will spend time in NXT, or if they will continue to be used as a tag team.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
