During a live stream of the Talk’N Shop podcast, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson addressed their departure from WWE and they also confirmed that they have signed with Impact Wrestling.
Here are some notes from the podcast:
– They were not happy with the way they were used. Anderson said when they left New Japan to go to WWE, they were ready to leave New Japan because they wanted to be home with their families more and they wanted to be part of the American wrestling scene on TV. They almost signed with TNA around that time.
– Karl says that overall the WWE run was fun but around October of 2016, he went through a table with a pumpkin on his head and from that time they thought about September 2019 when their contracts would be complete.
– Karl said in January 2019, they were going to a house show and they messaged The Young Bucks when they first heard the AEW-launch rumors. Karl said they met with Matt and Nick Jackson at a mall. Karl said they had good times in WWE but some miserable comments and they knew they needed to leave. Gallows and Anderson said this was 10 months before Dynamite debuted. Karl said they met with Kenny Omega in Winnipeg, Canada later in the year. Gallows and Anderson said they were a bit nervous about jumping to AEW because they had yet to announce their TNT deal and WWE’s price kept going up around that time.
– Anderson remembers a June 2019 text from The Young Bucks with plans for Gallows and Anderson for the first Dynamite. Anderson says it’s one of the biggest regrets of his life that they didn’t get to debut on the first Dynamite. He says they succumbed to the money and failed promises given to them by WWE and they thought it would be their last contract and they would waive the WWE flag as high as they could.
– Anderson doesn’t think Vince McMahon knew about their history in New Japan and he probably just wanted AJ Styles. Gallows said he and Big Cass tried to pitch an idea to McMahon but their idea was used for someone else the following week.
– Anderson said AEW was offering good money to sign them and Impact Wrestling also offered a great deal for more money than what some people in WWE are making. Gallows and Anderson said they signed their new WWE contract before they got to meet Tony Khan.
– Anderson said that for 6 months they were telling The Bucks and Omega that they were going to AEW in 2019 and now they realize that they should have went there and they are glad that FTR got out of WWE on their own terms.
– Gallows said “The OC” name was a “Hunter thing.” Anderson said he doesn’t think Vince remembers that they were called “The Club” and Triple H said that Vince wanted something besides “The Club.”
– Anderson talks about getting a text right after they were named “The OC.” The next week they were being squashed by Ricochet in 2 seconds.
– Anderson remembers having a great talk with Paul Heyman around this time and he thought that Heyman was a big fan of him. Gallows said, “Paul Heyman loves your work.” Gallows said Heyman is “100 percent full of bullsh*t.”
– Anderson said that Heyman wanted them to get heat but first they needed to make the babyfaces.
– Rocky Romero was on and he confirmed that New Japan made Gallows and Anderson a good offer in 2019. Gallows and Anderson wanted to work for both NJPW and AEW but NJPW wanted to sign them to an exclusive deal but they ultimately agreed to let them also work for AEW.
– Romero said he got a text from The Young Bucks saying, “these motherfu**ers screwed us” when Gallows and Anderson turned down the AEW/NJPW deal so they could re-sign with WWE in 2019. Anderson and Gallows said they are good with The Bucks but not so much with the rest of AEW management.
– They talked about Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia last October. They won the Raw Tag Titles on that show and they lost them a month later. Anderson and Gallows said that the tag run was not something they asked for when they signed their WWE deals.
– Anderson says the first WWE show in Saudi Arabia was a brutally long flight but the food was good and the shows were good. He says they were treated well in the arena.
– They discussed the travel issues that happened during the November Saudi Arabia trip. Anderson remembers waiting to get on the plane and seeing Vince McMahon, Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar walking by to get on their own planes to leave. Around 1 am they were supposed to take off and then more time passes and they still haven’t left. Anderson said he heard that the guy who was supposed to fly the plane had to go home because he hadn’t gotten enough rest. They he heard about McMahon pulling the plug on the live feed and he heard this from someone on the WWE crew. Anderson then heard them say that everyone could get on the plane and they sat on the plane for another hour. Anderson says he asked Michael Hayes if they were in a hostage situation and Hayes said, “huh? I don’t know” before walking away. Anderson said that they got everyone off the plane and back to the hotel and the claim was that there was a mechanical issue. Anderson feels that something was done to the plane so that they couldn’t take off on time. Anderson said he feels that some “weird sh*t” went down due to politics. Anderson said there was a lot of tension amongst the wrestlers on the plane when they weren’t getting answers and people were very nervous.
– Anderson said AJ Styles was “so mad” when he hard that WrestleMania was being moved to the WWE Performance Center. Gallows said Styles thought that he would be able to send Taker out the right way but then they had to do the match without fans. Anderson felt bad for Drew McIntyre because he had to win the WWE Championship in an empty gym.
– Gallows remembers the video message that was sent to the talent before they announced the April releases. Gallows and Anderson were confident that they weren’t getting released.
– Prior to their release, Anderson remembers being called to Raw because Paul Heyman wanted McIntyre to stack pin both Anderson and Gallows at the same time. Heyman said that this would not hurt them in the long run. Gallows said Heyman is a “lining motherf**ker.”
– Anderson said that it was Mark Carrano who called him and Gallows to let them know that they were getting released.
– Anderson said he heard that he and Gallows were released because of Paul Heyman and AJ Styles asked if this was true and someone confirmed the story to him. AJ Styles said Vince McMahon confirmed that Gallows and Anderson were fired because of Heyman. Vince said Gallows and Anderson were not on the original list of people to get cut. Andreson said AJ went to Heyman and denied that he had anything to do with their firing and Heyman. Anderson says he thought he had a decent relationship with Heyman.
– Gallows felt bad about Gallows and Anderson being released and he was mad at Heyman and he left Raw because he realized that he couldn’t work with Heyman. Gallows and Anderson laughed at rumors that Styles was bullied off of Raw.
– Anderson believes that rumors on the money they signed for last year were swirling and some guys higher heard about it and probably didn’t like it and they probably planted seeds saying that they were making too much.
– Anderson said it would take a lot to accept an offer to return to WWE because he felt embarrassed by them announcing his release online.
– They thanked Impact Wrestling for coming back with the same offer that they offered them last year. Gallows said their Impact deal has a New Japan Pro Wrestling “carve out” and he’s waiting on the DocuSign from Rocky Romero. The deal with Impact is for 2 years. They plan on returning to New Japan and Impact will work around those dates. Gallows said that fans will not believe what Impact has planned for Slammiversary.
– They also discussed Talk’N Shop A Mania and they thanked Impact for working with them on that pay-per-view. The main event will be Chad 2 Badd vs. Sex Ferguson in a Boner Yard match. The event will air on every major pay-per-view provider and on FITE TV.
There was a lot more discussed. You can watch the entire stream below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5KM97k_ch0
