It feels like it’s been third time lucky for Luke Gallows and his WWE career.
After stints as Festus in the late 2000s and then part of CM Punk’s Straight Edge Society, Gallows has now found fame in his own right alongside Karl Anderson as part of ‘The Club’.
Since returning to WWE with Anderson in 2016, the pair have become one Raw’s most prominent tag teams. Chalking up a Raw Tag Team Title reign and aliging with fellow former Bullet Club members from their time in Japan, AJ Styles and Finn Bálor. Now with WrestleMania on the horizon the 34 year-old has his sights set on recapturing tag team gold amongst a roster he calls the best he’s ever seen.
Luke we’re just five weeks away from WrestleMania, as someone who’s experienced a number of these events what is WrestleMania like for you?
It’s the biggest extravaganza in all of sports entertainment, pro wrestling, whatever you want to call it. It’s almost bigger than the entire industry because there’s so much crossover appeal – the entire entertainment world will be watching. It’s a thrill ride and such an adrenaline rush; it doesn’t get any higher than that. It means a lot to me and I can’t wait to be back at WrestleMania this year.
You were part of the ladder match last year that saw the return of the Hardy Boyz. Where does that rank in your WrestleMania moments?
The ladder match last year was a great moment, being in the ring with The Hardy Boyz after their return and hearing that pop and standing with my best pal in the ring, it was a great moment. I have tons that remember growing up and when I was in Japan, but personally that’s my favourite moment.
The Hardys return only added to what already is an impressive tag team roster in WWE. What do you make of the current crop of teams in WWE?
The tag team scene is probably hotter now than I’ve ever seen before in my career. I’ve been doing this a long time, this is my sixteenth year in the business, and I think we have some of the best tag teams that we’ve ever had. You can tell that by the matches; I think match quality in the tag team division – as well as in the singles division – is at an all-time high right now. It’s highly entertaining stuff, with great teams and makes for a very entertaining product.
We’ve seen you mix it up with a plethora of teams on Raw, but is there a pairing over on SmackDown you’d like to step in the ring with?
I love to get in the ring with The Usos again. We came into WWE and straight into a feud with The Usos, and we had some great matches with them. The tag team division on that side is very strong with The Bludgeon Brothers, The New Day, Gable and Benjamin, but The Usos are the team I’d like to mix it up with right now, they are a hot act.
What about going back in time, what legendary tag teams do you look up to?
There’s just so many! The obvious answer is The Road Warriors, The Steiner Brothers, The Headshrinkers, so many great teams that I grew up watching. The Brain Busters, The Rockers, just so many teams to go back and look at and see if we can take anything from them that we can use today. I’m definitely thankful for the forefathers of tag team wrestling.
Of course you and Karl Anderson are not just a tag team to most wrestling fans, but former members of the Bullet Club and now part of the Balor Club. Who else from the Bullet Club would you like to see in WWE?
I’d love to have Tama Tonga, Bad Luck Fale, and then Karl Anderson and I would both like to see The Young Bucks come over. The Bullet Club equals talent, and that’s undeniable, all around the world right now. You’ve got Finn Bálor, AJ Styles, Karl and myself competing in WWE and then the rest of the guys in different parts of the world. We’d welcome any member of the Bullet Club into the WWE Universe.
What do you think makes a good faction and do you think its time we saw that larger type group on WWE programming?
I think it’s good to have a little bit of everything in a faction. In The Bullet Club we had Bad Luck Fale, the big talking brute, we had Tama Tonga the son of Haku, and Karl Anderson who’s a great in-ring technician. You obviously had AJ Styles and Finn Bálor, two of the greatest in-ring performers of all time and then myself bringing in that tag team element to the group. We were well versed all the way through and it’s that diversity that matters. I would love to see something like it again. When we were doing the Bullet Club stuff, we all grew up as big fans of the nWo and watched them takeover WCW. I think it could very exciting again.
You had a moment to savor with another legendary group on Raw’s 25th anniversary show, what was it like sharing the ring with members of D-Generation X and Scott Hall?
It was a surreal moment! Karl, Finn and I was speaking beforehand and saying this is the reason we got into the business; this is why we do what we do. We grew up watching these guys, so to share the ring with them and them kind of pass the torch was a huge moment in our careers. Us throwing up the ‘Too Sweet’ was hugely symbolic, it was a special moment.
Are you hoping for another special moment at WrestleMania next month? What are The Club’s plans right now?
I think currently my favourite would be The Bar because they are the current Raw Tag Team Champions. We came into WrestleMania last year as Raw Tag Team Champions, so we’d like to do so again by facing The Bar, hitting the Magic Killer, 1-2-3 and then walking into WrestleMania s Tag Team Champions.
Finally, having returned to WWE nearly two years ago, how much are you enjoying being back the company in this role with Karl Anderson and The Club?
We’re enjoying being back, there’s no bigger platform, there’s not bigger stage in the entire world to show your craft as a sport-entertainer than in WWE. If you want to be a household name and be in the limelight you have to be in WWE and we’ve only scratched their surface of what’s to come from Karl and I.
