Sometimes it can be hard to keep a secret in pro wrestling. When Cody Rhodes returned to WWE to face Seth “Freakin” Rollins at Wrestlemania 38, almost everyone was in on that particular surprise. And now, history has repeated itself a little bit as New Japan Pro Wrestling officially revealed that “Machine Gun” Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows would be returning to the promotion to stand alongside The Young Bucks as they face off with the current crop of Bullet Club at NJPW Resurgence in Ontario, California on Friday, May 9, 2025. 

Shortly after the announcement was made on Wednesday evening via social media, That Hashtag Show had the pleasure of catching up with The Good Brothers to talk about their return to the ring, reuniting with their Biz Cliz brethren, and the daunting task of taking on David Finlay’s young and hungry War Dogs. Anderson and Gallows also reveal the truth about their most recent run in WWE, how they feel about their second release from the promotion, and the new mantra that has guided them through this period of time in their lives. Plus, the multi-time champions discuss their connection with their fans, the bright future for the many recently released talent, and a potentially looming war between the BC OGs and anyone standing in their way. 

Aside from being just too sweet, hopefully this interview will also show you the light. 

Previously in the Good Brother Universe…

THS: Gallows and Anderson have been through a lot lately. Your last televised match together was on NXT on September 29, 2024. After that Karl was sidelined with an injury, then you were both released from WWE earlier this year. But now, the Good Brothers have been resurrected. First question: How do you both feel physically and emotionally ahead of your return to the ring at NJPW Resurgence?

Karl Anderson: Physically? The best I’ve ever felt. Emotionally and personally? Easily the best I’ve ever felt. The last two and a half years with WWE were what they were. There’s no resentment or anything to talk about really at all. People have asked me that before and I don’t even. There’s nothing to say.

Doc Gallows: It was just a period in time. It’s over now, and we’re happy to move on.

Anderson: We enjoyed going to NXT and working with a lot of really young talent that watched us start the Bullet Club a decade ago or whatever. 

Gallows: More than that.

Anderson: Everything happened for a reason and it put us here. The excitement for May 9th, 2025 is what’s kept us just rocking for the last three months. 

Gallows: In 13 years together, I don’t think we’ve been in a better headspace. We’ve both been able to be at home and recover and get in great shape and just be. I feel more prepared than we’ve ever been and more excited. It really is ironic that New Japan’s show is titled Resurgence because it really is a resurgence of the Good Brothers. And we get to do it with two of our very best friends in the business, who we literally speak to in a group chat every single day, seven days a week. We’re big Young Bucks fans. I think a lot of people should be sending the Young Bucks thank you cards for what they’ve created and what they’ve done. And I think some people may have forgotten that, but we sure didn’t. And we’re going to have a party in the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.

THS: A Superkick Party maybe?

Anderson: Oh, brother, you know it! I’ll get my leg up and hit one. I think a big four-way superkick is coming.

A Changing of the Guard?

THS: In your return to New Japan, you’re teaming with The Young Bucks to take on the Bullet Club War Dogs. So I guess “Bullet Club 4 life” is no longer on the table when it comes to David Finlay and the latest iteration of Bullet Club?

Anderson: You know, I think Bullet Club is always 4 life. I think it’s always going to be a thing. And I just think this is a thing that we have to do now. I think we’re going to fight. We’re going to fight hard. We’re going to fight in Ontario, then we’re going to take a red eye directly to Maple Leaf Pro in Maple Leaf Gardens and fight them again. Will we end up hugging these guys in a month? Who knows? 

Gallows: Will the score be settled at the end of the weekend? I don’t know. There’s a lot of them and there’s four of us. This story could go on forever.

Anderson: They remind me a lot of ourselves when we were starting Bullet Club. You’re not scared of anything. You’re not scared to say anything. You’re ready to talk shit. Let’s go! They remind me a lot of us, and it’s right. That’s what makes [Resurgence] so exciting.

THS: Speaking of seeing yourselves in the new Bullet Club, from the inception of the group with Prince Devitt to AJ Styles to The Elite to now, Bullet Club has always been counterculture and counter authority in the world of professional wrestling. So are you and the Bucks surprised to hear that the War Dogs are ready to stand against the old guard of the faction?

Gallows: No, no, they have to be. They have to do that. They can talk whatever shit they want and say whatever they want, but they can’t take us coming back laying down because we’re not coming to give. We’re coming to fucking take. That’s the name of the game. There’s bad blood there. And will it remain bad? We’ll just find out. You either conform or you don’t. But the same old recipe applies here: It’s a Magic Killer, a 1-2-3, and we’re going to top it off with the Two Sweets. 

Anderson: I love it. I love that they’re pissed off that we’re coming. Why would they be happy that we’re back? 

Gallows: They shouldn’t be happy.

Anderson: In 2013 when we started the Bullet Club, I would hear that new foreigners were coming in, so I was like, “Who the fuck are they? Why are they coming?” The focus of New Japan Pro Wrestling needs to be me, Gallows, The Young Bucks, Prince Devitt, Tama Tonga, and Fale. I was angry when other people came in, so I understand where they’re coming from, and I actually got respect for it. But yeah, again, us being Gallows and Anderson, we still don’t care what anybody thinks about us or says about us. 

Gallows: Zero fucks given, man. 

Anderson: If you take shit personally, you’re not going to get anywhere ever again anyway. So, this is going to be a war and I’m pretty pumped about it, man.

THS: You said it. “War.” As you mentioned, it was announced that the Good Brothers would be facing David Finlay and Drilla Maloney of the War Dogs at Scott D’Amore’s Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling in Canada. Rather than just one battle in New Japan, are these matches the opening salvos of an all-out war between Bullet Club past and present? And if so, will you be targeting any other BC factions out there like Jay White’s Bang Bang Gang or the remnants of the TNA contingent?

Anderson: With Gallows and Anderson, we’ve always just said we signed this contract and we’re here for this long and we made this amount of money. We’ve always just been real up front with what our contract situation is. And I think this time we’re going to keep that very, very, very, very, very, very close to the heart. I would say this: We’ve signed up with New Japan Pro Wrestling. How long it’s going to be? How many dates is it going to be? We’re just going to keep that all right here. But you’re going to see a lot of us in New Japan Pro Wrestling. You’re going to see us in… Uh… I can’t even say! [laughs] You’re going to see us all over the world! 

Gallows: New Japan Pro Wrestling is a priority. We have people from every inch of the business reaching out. It’s a beautiful feeling. The repented Good Brothers. The resurgence. But keep your eyes open! There’s more to professional wrestling than just corporate wrestling. [My] hat says, “Show me the light.” That is the mission we are on, whether it be the Bullet Club War Dogs or any other faction anywhere in the world. We’re coming to not only kick your ass, but to spotlight you and to show that you don’t have to be under one banner. You don’t have to be told what to do by a corporation that isn’t a professional wrestling company anymore to be a part of this. There’s a whole big world out there and we’re going to expose it.

The Falcon Has Landed In The Nest

THS: I want to talk about your fan-favorite podcast “Talk’n Shop” for a second. First, there are very few wrestlers that have a relationship with their fans like you two. In fact, I believe my friends Ray Kennedy and Colin Shawcross (who also go by Tex and Rex) joined you for this week’s Boozin’ With The Boys. 

Gallows: They’re my bastard sons! I love those two guys. 

THS: Exactly! That connection right there. Why is it so important to you to stay so connected with your fans and often give them unprecedented access to you and your corner of professional wrestling.

Gallows: It’s funny. A lot of people like to have that wall between [us and fans] but we call it our Falcon’s Nest, our Patreon group. But it’s not a fan club. It’s a club where we all hang out and we enjoy those people. They’ve evolved from our fans into our friends. And it’s a safe place for us to go and say some shit that we can’t necessarily say publicly and everybody shares. We know those people now and that’s been a lot of fun. 

Anderson: You know, we had “Boozin’ With The Boys” last night and basically it all came out now that I don’t drink anymore. My fan base, who I probably built via drinking, has still accepted that fact. They’re just like like my best buddy Gallows. I don’t drink. He doesn’t say, “You gotta drink this beer, man.” We’re grown men. And we’ve evolved to we’ve changed a lot, too. But at the same point, we still have the same dudes. We just love to have fun. We’re still the same dudes that want to enjoy life and have a good time. And that’s a lot what our Patreon is. There’s a whole fan base of people that don’t like us. 

Gallows: That’s part of being a public figure.

Anderson: This is a great example! Guys like Gabe Kidd, right? He talks a lot of shit and people love that. And that’s kind of what I did. But then all of a sudden, people didn’t like it. You’re going to piss off a lot of people when you take this stance to go this way. And so there’s people that don’t like us and there’s people that do love us. But the ones that love us, they’ve supported us through a lot of shit and they’ve supported us going through a lot of different companies and to have the backing that we have, it’s pretty damn cool, man. 

Gallows: It’s like Robert Earl Keen said, “The road goes on forever and the party never ends.”

THS: Seeing how you guys interact with your fans or how Matt Cardona and Brian Myers interact with their fans, I feel like that would be a foreign concept to the wrestlers that we grew up watching, right? But it’s great to see that kind of connection. 

Gallows: It’s evolving. It’s evolving and it goes back to talking about the passion, like our passion as pro wrestlers. Like the true, honest Good Brothers fans have a passion not just for us, but for the wrestling business as a whole. They love it. We do stuff that other people wouldn’t do. We’re on that “Boozin’ With The Boys” last night and I sent an invite to a couple of guys that I thought it would be cool for them to pop in. Adam Bomb was a surprise guest. Headbanger Mosh was a surprise guest. We had a bunch of TNA guys roll through. And we’re talking to the fans and interacting with them and it’s fun. It feels like we’re all sitting in a big room talking about the one thing that we all have in common that we all know and love, and about what’s coming up, what’s going forward, what we’re doing next. We’re respecting the past with those guys. And it’s a community, man. “Talk’n Shop” is a community and we love that.

THS: Secondly, you teased on social media that you would be revealing all on “Talk’n Shop” eventually. Not to assume, but presumably that means speaking about your second departure from WWE. You haven’t shied away from it in this conversation, but I’m wondering, since WWE typically doesn’t let go of people who are injured, how frustrating was that whole situation for you? And was there anything that you think could have gone differently that could have resulted in you both sticking around?

Anderson: I’m glad you asked this. I’ve said this before now in a previous interview: I’m not a super religious guy, but I was throwing vibrations and prayers and hopes out there anyway because we wanted to change.

Gallows: We couldn’t have felt more stagnant, I think is a good way to put it. 

Anderson: We signed back with WWE in 2022. In 2025, it wasn’t the same WWE that we’d signed back with, right? And so we were like, “What are we going to do? What’s next? This clearly isn’t where we need to be.” And so getting that call, it was beyond a blessing and beyond what we wanted and needed. [With the] “revealing all” stuff, I hope people understand Gallows and Anderson enough at this point that a lot of times, we do just say things to get people rocking a little bit. But there’s really nothing to say. There’s nothing to talk about. I think through various interviews through the next year, I’m sure I’ll say some clickbait here and there just to get some shit talked, but I don’t have any bad things to say. I have nothing. I don’t hold anything against them. It was all beyond a blessing. And to be here, right now, talking to you, it was meant to be. I can’t express the gratitude I have for it.

A Future For Good Sisters

THS: With this most recent round of WWE releases, it seems like the women’s tag team division took a huge hit. And as experts in tag team wrestling, do you think that WWE has a focus or a direction for the women’s tag team division? And what improvements would you like to see there going forward? 

Gallows: This has been a 25-year conversation since I was a kid about [how] the WWE has never focused heavily on tag teams. I think that probably goes back to Vince Senior thinking that the big box office attraction was one-on-one. And I’m not saying that that’s wrong, but I mean, I think we’ve proven around the world that tag team wrestling is a draw. It can be a draw and good women’s tag team wrestling is just so different from what you saw 20 years ago. Not since the Jumping Bomb Angels have you seen women performers as athletic and as well-rounded in tag team wrestling as you do today. I just think that, if it’s not going to be in WWE, there’s a whole big world out there. And we got the “Show Me The Light” hats on right now. We want to expose that and we want people to see that there are alternatives and there are places to see what you love. And if the corporate wrestling version isn’t necessarily giving it to you, look at these other options.

And I think a lot of these ladies are going to land. They’re going to land on their feet and they’re going to do great things. And that that excites us because we’ve always kind of felt like we do better on the outside anyway, and then we kind of get sucked back in. And that’s not a negative, but I really hope that I see a lot of these released people take the bull by the horns. Matt Cardona loves to tweet about it when people get released and give them good advice, but the advice is true. You have several options. You can lay down and take it. You can coast and get a couple of paydays and do a couple of signings. Or you can go fucking nuts and explode and say this is how talented I am, this is what I can do, and here I come to do it. And I really hope that I see, you know, the men and the women, tag team, single, whatever. I hope I see them all explode on the scene. I hope I see them in packed arenas and I really think that we’re going to. 

Anderson: It’s a good answer. We’re not privileged enough to know what the WWE booking or writers have in in store for the WWE women’s tag team division. I have no idea at all. I know that the talent is there to have a great women’s tag team division. It just depends on what TKO wants. 

Gallows: It’s a corporate structure now, man. So it’s not always going to be just wrestling booking and that’s what people have to understand. As big and great as WWE is and as big and great as it’s become and what it’s done for the exposure of professional wrestling and the crossover, it’s all great, but you’re not going to see as much of your niche stuff. It’s a corporate world out there. That’s why there’s alternatives.

THS: Speaking of your time in WWE, you initiated Mia Yim into The OC during your feud with Judgement Day. STARDOM’s Thekla is also associated with the War Dogs. With so many incredible women in the world of wrestling today, could we see any more Good Sisters added to the ranks of Bullet Club in the near future?

Gallows: Absolutely. One thing that we pride ourselves on is we love the creative side and we definitely think we have an eye for talent. We have our own wrestling promotion in Georgia that we haven’t talked about in years. But, I mean, we just we had an incredible women’s match. A girl named Kelsey Heather just defeated Jazzy Yang, Jimmy Wang Yang’s daughter, and won our women’s title. It’s exciting and people love to see it. And it was one of the best reactions of the entire night when that title switch happened. So I’m I’m fully on board with seeing it. I want to see more of it. I think it’s great. 

Anderson: There’s so much there’s so much that we like. There’s so much worldwide talent and worldwide stuff. You got Qatar, Abu Dhabi, India, Japan…

Gallows: We’re going to Puerto Rico before the end of the month. There’s just so much to see and there’s so much to do. And we’re bringing our cameras with us this time because we want to share the journey with the world. Tune into that Talk’n Shop YouTube channel because you’re going to see some really cool shit and you’re going to see us everywhere… It’s going to be us on our travels… And we’re going to show you what we’re doing. We’re going to not only go to these places to perform, but to show the world that they’re there and to pay attention. I think that’s cool.

I Can See The Light

THS: “Show them the light” has come up a few times in this interview. It also came up in the video package officially announcing your return to NJPW. Can you shed some light on this new mantra of yours? It seems to be so much more than just a gimmick. 

Gallows: It’s [definitely] more than a gimmick. We talked about this before the media day started. We said we don’t have to speak in character today because what we’re saying and what would be perceived as our gimmick is our real-life feeling. When we talk about the corporate wrestling, you don’t have to be chained down by that. And that’s why it’s so freeing to be in New Japan Pro Wrestling, which is a place that’s always expressed itself in its own way and a place that’s truly let us express ourselves in our own way. They’re not saying you guys are this and you need to act like this and you need to do this. There’s no more of that in the Good Brother universe. You’re getting us in our truest form. We’re repented. We’re sitting here wearing our white. Show me the light! It’s time.

And it starts in Ontario, California [at the] Toyota Arena. There’s still tickets available at Ticketmaster.com. You can watch it from anywhere in the world on New Japan World. If you haven’t seen that, tune in. I’ve been watching it for three months in my basement gym while I’m down there training. If you’re not in tune with New Japan Pro Wrestling, it’s time to get in tune with it. And like you said, we’re going to carry it on through the weekend. We’ll be at Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling on Saturday night, May 10th. That’s available on Triller TV. We’ll be at the historic Maple Leaf Gardens. It’s almost sold out. If you’re in the Toronto area, though, try to grab them and grab them now because I don’t know if they’ll be left when it’s bell time. 

Anderson: It’s just showing people the light. Everyone grows up watching and they want to be in the WWE. Hopefully there’s kids now that are watching who want to be in AEW. There’s kids that grew up wanting to be in be in TNA. But I understand that everyone wants to be in WWE right at some point. It’s some kids from our generation, that’s what they want. But we just want to show them, man, I’m telling you, you can make a living. You can. You can have a lot of fun and there’s a lot of shit out there, man. We’re going to show them the light, man.

THS: Finally, as a tag team, the Good Brothers have done it all. You win championships wherever you go. You create history-making moments wherever you go. Regardless of the War Dogs’ attitude towards you, you’re well-traveled and respected veterans. But what are some goals that “Big LG” Doc Gallows and “Machine Gun” Karl Anderson have in their sights at this stage in their careers?

Gallows: It’s a rebirth. Resurgence, like I said, is a great name for it because you’re going to see a new side of us that’s 100% us in our truest, purest, cleanest headspace form. The most motivated that we’ve ever been. It’s fun at this stage in your career to have a chip on your shoulder and not be in coast mode. That happens to people. It has not happened to us. The last eight months have done nothing but ignite a fire deep down inside of us, and our creative juices are flowing and it’s just time to fucking go. 

Anderson: That’s it. That’s perfect. I could sit here and say, “I want to be this champion. I want to be that champion.” I want us to come in wherever we end up, wherever we end up going all the time, I want people to see that we’re there and we’re coming in to not just lay down and take whatever we get. [We’re] coming in to take over wherever we’re walking into.

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