Former-GHC Heavyweight Champion KENTA joined Bullet Club on Monday. Set to team with YOSHI-HASHI & Tomohiro Ishii against Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa at the 29th annual G1 Climax finals in Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, Japan, but avoided a tag near the end of the match, and then struck Ishii with a Busaiku Knee and a Go To Sleep, allowing Tama Tonga to slide onto Ishii for the pinfall victory.
After the match, KENTA was attacked by longtime friend Katsuyori Shibata. Tama, Tanga, Fale, as well as Jado, distracted Shibata long enough for KENTA to hit him with Shibata’s own Penalty Kick. KENTA then sat in Shibata’s traditional cross-legged style on top of the former NJPW wrestler, Two Sweeting with Tama Tonga to make him officially Bullet Club’s newest member.
.@KENTAG2S HAS JOINED THE BULLET CLUB!!! #g129 #NJPW https://t.co/d63mH2znnl pic.twitter.com/XbDcaIPi5H
— Italo Santana (@BulletClubIta) August 12, 2019
KENTA has forsaken a friendship that goes back decades, and battered an injured friend. Katsuyori Shibata has not wrestled since April of 2017, when he suffered a thought-to-be career-ending head injury in a match against Kazuchika Okada. He has made sporadic returns to support his friends, including introducing KENTA at Dominion. It is unknown if this significant in-ring beating is the beginning of his return to active competition. Both men had been working hard in the NJPW LA Dojo, along with Hirooki Goto, training the LA Dojo standouts Clark Connors & Karl Fredericks. Connors and Fredericks tried to break up the fight between KENTA and Shibata but were quickly dispatched.
UPDATE: KENTA came to the ring with Bullet Club, accompanying “Switchblade” Jay White to the ring for his G1 Climax final match against Kota Ibushi.
