10 New Era Superstars who had to come up the hard way

8. Karl Anderson

   

   ‘Machine Gun’ Anderson has been wrecking through the current tag team division.

An experienced performer, Anderson is most famous for his stint as one of the founding members of the NJPW stable “The Bullet Club”. Karl Anderson coming over to Japan, though, it is a different story altogether.

Starting from scratch after a concussion put him out of training, Anderson went on to lose his professional wrestling debut at the Northern Wrestling Federation, Cincinnati. However, he had secured the NWF Championship by the summer of 2005. Moving on to the New Wrestling Alliance, Anderson was noticed by Dave Marquez of NJPW Dojo, culminating in a talent exchange between the NWA and NJPW. In between this, “Machine Gun” Anderson, as he came to be packaged had prevailed upon promotions such as the Professional Wrestling Guerrilla and Ring of Honor, despite not winning any significant championships. By the time he boarded his flight to Japan, he was broke and looking for a fresh chapter in his wrestling career.

In NJPW, Anderson eventually rose past mid card ranks by winning the IWGP Tag Team Championship with Giant Bernard as the team Bad Intentions and reigning for a record setting 564 days. An established heel, Karl had been floundering between stables before forming the tag team. However, with Bernard leaving NJPW for WWE, the team was disbanded and Anderson embarked upon a singles career with mediocre results. Respite came when he joined Prince Devitt, Tama Tonga and Bad Luck Fale in attacking his opponent after losing a match, thus instituting the Bullet Club. Another tag team venture with Bullet Club member Doc Gallows would see them secure the championship and hold it for one full year.