Karl Anderson discusses changing stance on returning to WWE, things he said after release were out of anger & passion

Photo Courtesy: WWE

Anderson looks back on the chat he and Luke Gallows had with Paul Levesque. 

It is coming up on a full year since The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows) made their returns to WWE to reunite with A.J. Styles as The OC. In April 2020, Gallows and Anderson were a part of WWE’s mass releases

After their exits, Anderson was asked if he would go back to the company and he noted, ‘Absolutely f*cking not.’ He was invited onto Ryan Satin’s Out of Character podcast and explained what made him change his stance.

He explained that the release caught him by surprise. Anderson said he’s an emotional and fiery person and a lot of the things he said post-release were out of anger, passion and angst. Regarding their conversations with Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque about coming back, Anderson said sometimes you have to man up. 

So let’s say this, when we (Good Brothers) were released by the WWE in April of 2020 and I think it caught us by surprise and so, being an emotional and fiery person that wants the best out of his profession, there was feelings of anger and angst about it, and I wasn’t sure that we’d come back either and so that’s why we made sure that for those two years that we were gone, we hit it hard and we didn’t take any breaks and I was almost busier than a lot of people in the industry for those couple years and feels the more that we were gone, the more we started to feel some conversations started happening and some of the angst goes away and then you start to realize that some of that might’ve just been the passion that we have inside of us anyway just to be the best and so, next thing you know, it’s two years later after being released, and it was just time. We got a couple texts, a couple texts sent back. Then we got a couple from Triple H and it was like right around the time our IMPACT contract was finishing and we sat down and we fixed it and figured it out. I’m happy that it happened, I’m happy it worked out and everything is going really well right now. 

Sometimes you gotta man up. Maybe I said some things and absolutely said some things that I think were said out of passion. When you’re angry about something or if you’re worked up about something, you’re gonna say what you feel and say what you think might be right or might not be right but, who knows what was going on behind the scenes that time? Who knows what’s going on behind the scenes now sometimes? I don’t know all that stuff and who knows who’s calling the shots at certain points at that time in 2020 so, I’m just glad that we were able to work it out, fix it and just be men and move on. 

Although he is in a traditional two-man team with Gallows, Anderson is interested in a singles run. He said Gallows can be the heater and Styles can be world champion. Anderson is pushing for a singles run. 

Yeah (I’m interested in a singles run). I don’t know why I wasn’t in the Money in the Bank match. I’m down. Let’s get this rocking. AJ’s the world champion, (Luke) Gallows can be the heater and throw me in the Ladder match babe. I’m dying for it. I think it’s just more about timing and just kind of waiting for the right story and yeah, I’m pushing for it, I hope for it.

Joining The O.C. after their comeback was Mia Yim. The group is currently featured on the SmackDown brand. Anderson heaped praise onto Mia and called her the equalizer. Initially, he did not know how she would fit in the group but adds that it’s great having her around and she has a big upside. Anderson is ready for The O.C. to get rocking. 

I always thought Mia (Yim) looks great, is a good wrestler, she’s done her thing, she’s been around but we never talked. It was just like a quick, ‘Hello’ and never hung out. I didn’t know her well. ‘Yeah, she’s gonna be in The O.C.’ and we were all kind of like, ‘Well, I mean, okay.’ I don’t know how it’s gonna work and then now that we’ve been around her and it’s like, whoa dude, how did we miss this? She’s such a good sister, not to be a pun or whatever but she really is. She’s so cool, she fits in so well, she’s so easy to work with and I think she’s got such an upside. There’s so much there that hasn’t even been — with The O.C. now, there’s so much to it with A.J. now just coming back, there’s so much that we can finally start doing and it’s like, we’re all kind of itching. Let’s get us rocking, you know? 

She’s the equalizer of the group and I think she adds such a cool element because everyone’s seen A.J. Styles, they’ve seen The Good Brothers with AJ. They know what we have and then it just adds a whole other really cool element. She really is so cool and she’s so nice and she’s got that visual charisma that the WWE really hasn’t got the chance to see yet because I think she was in NXT before and I think her only chance up on Raw before was with that group, she had a mask on or something (RETRIBUTION). So I think it’s good that she can be her now. We’re itching to get The O.C. moving. 

The O.C. have been going back and forth with Karrion Kross and Scarlett. Anderson went one-on-one with Kross on the 7/28 SmackDown and scheduled for this week’s show is the third singles bout between Styles and Kross.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Out of Character with Ryan Satin with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.

About Andrew Thompson 9791 Articles
A Washington D.C. native and graduate of Norfolk State University, Andrew Thompson has been covering wrestling since 2017.