The Good Brothers at turning point of their careers
(Thumbnail photo above courtesy IMPACT Wrestling)
By Mike Pankow
November 11, 2020
After becoming free agents in April, Karl Anderson and “The Big LG” Doc Gallows didn’t take long to find a new wrestling home.
The Good Brothers signed a multiyear deal with IMPACT Wrestling and debuted with the company around Slammiversary in June.
It didn’t take Anderson and Gallows long to ascend to the top tier of the company’s tag team division.
Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows are prepared for their IMPACT World Tag Team Championship match at Turning Point this Saturday night (Photo courtesy IMPACT Wrestling)
After being unsuccessful in winning the IMPACT Wrestling World Tag Team Championships in a four-team match at Bound For Glory last month, The Good Brothers now have better odds this Saturday night at Turning Point when they challenge The North for the titles. Turning Point will air live at 8 p.m. Eastern (7 p.m. Central) on Saturday night on the IMPACT Plus app as one of the company’s premier special attractions.
“It gets thrown around a lot, but the credentials are real, we are the best tag team in the world,” Gallows said. “It’s time to step up and show out. It’s a big opportunity for them, even as champions, to get in the ring with us on a stage like that.”
Ethan Page and Josh Alexander have been the standard bearers of IMPACT’s tag division for much of the last couple of years, including a yearlong reign that ended just after Slammiversary when the returning Motor City Machine Guns knocked them off for the titles.
The North regained the championships at BFG, defeating the Machine Guns (who were shorthanded after Alex Shelley was attacked before the bell and was rendered out of the match, leaving Chris Sabin to fight alone), Ace Austin & Madman Fulton and The Good Brothers. The Good Brothers didn’t lose the decision in that match, so that left them with an opportunity for this match at Turning Point. Members of each team faced one another over the last two weeks of IMPACT on AXS, further fueling the fire.
It will be a great clash of styles between The Good Brothers and The North, who have looked even better in recent weeks as both Page and Alexander dropped weight and look more chiseled than before.
“We wanted (to wrestle) The North for a very long time,” Anderson said. “We’ve heard a lot about them, so when we got to opportunity to step in the ring with them, we realized they were good. They’re underrated.”
Meanwhile, The Good Brothers are hungry too, as they covet the IMPACT tag team titles.
“The IMPACT Tag Team Championship is something we’ve wanted to hold for a long time,” Anderson said. “In our mind, it’s like completing the cycle. We’ve had the (WWE) titles, we’ve had the IWGP Japan titles, and now we want these. This is a big match for us, and we’re pumped up about it.”
For Gallows, it’s a return to a company, where he started to mold his character. He was brought in as the Director of Chaos for Aces & Eights, a faction that eventually was led by IMPACT Wrestling Hall of Famer Bully Ray.
“It was an exciting time,” Gallows said. “ ‘Sons of Anarchy’ was a hot show. I got there and there was Sting and Hulk Hogan, guys I really grew up on. You get in there and watch how they did business and working with those guys. I had a singles match with Sting on pay-per-view when I was in my 20s. It was a huge deal for me. I had a lot of fun.”
Anderson and Gallows have had success all over the world, including for many years in Japan as part of The Bullet Club.
Anderson arrived in Japan before Gallows, but he had some inside information from a friend about the country, which helped him acclimate quickly.
“I was really good friends with Rocky (Romero) for a long time and he taught me a lot about the culture and what it was like over there,” Anderson said. “I finally got the opportunity to go there and I became a massive star there. There’s nothing like being in Japan.”
Karl Anderson delivers a spinebuster to Ace Austin during the four-way tag team at Bound For Glory last month. (Photo courtesy IMPACT Wrestling)
Gallows enjoyed his run over there as well.
“Every American-born professional wrestler’s bucket list is a Japan run – a New Japan run,” Gallows said. “There’s nothing like it. It’s my favorite time of my whole career.”
After a few years with WWE following their return to the United States, The Good Brothers are feeling more like their old ass-kicking selves again with IMPACT.
“We played a character for a few years and we kind of lost our sense of self a little bit,” Gallows said. “We’re getting back to the Gallows and Anderson that were box-office attractions and that’s what is important to us.”
Even though they play the parts of badasses extremely well, it doesn’t mean they don’t have a “sports entertainment” side to them. That side of The Good Brothers will be on full display during Talk ’N Shop A Mania 2, which will air on pay-per-view and on FITE this Friday night at 10 p.m. Eastern (9 p.m. Central).
“It’s an alternate universe,” Gallows said. “It allows us to enjoy what we grew up on, what we love about professional wrestling – the good, the bad, the ugly, satire, parody.”
Anderson added: “If you know Gallows and Anderson personally, you know that we like to have fun, we like to tell stories and we like to make people laugh.”
For The Good Brothers, their run of success won’t end with just winning the tag team championships. They want to be part of IMPACT for the long haul and eventually help the company to have working relationships in Japan.
“I want to be there for a decade,” Anderson said. “We’re working on a deal that signs us through 2030. We want to change the whole game. We want to be with IMPACT Wrestling for a long time. We want to take IMPACT into the next millennium and have IMPACT and New Japan work together. That’s our main goal right now.”
Listen to the full interview with The Good Brothers (with a cameo from Rocky Romero) right now on Episode 43 of the Windy City Slam Podcast: https://bit.ly/3kdVues or download and listen from wherever you get your podcasts.
TURNING POINT PRIMER
Saturday, Nov. 14, 8 p.m. (ET), 7 p.m. (CT), IMPACT Plus app (IMPACT Plus is $7.99/month)
IMPACT World Championship: Rich Swann (c) vs. Sami Callihan
IMPACT Knockouts Championship (No DQ): Su Yung (c) vs. Deonna Purrazzo
IMPACT Tag Team Championship: The North (c) vs. The Good Brothers
IMPACT X Division Championship: Rohit Raju (c) vs. TBA
Moose vs. Willie Mack
Brian Myers vs. Swoggle
Tenille Dashwood & Jordynne Grace vs. Rosemary & Taya Valkyrie
Eddie Edwards vs. Daivari
Chris Sabin & James Storm vs. Team XXXL (Acey Romero & Larry D)
Catch Windy City Slam editor Mike Pankow talking local and national pro wrestling every week with Chris Lanuti on The Windy City Slam Podcast, broadcasting live on the Podbean at noon every Monday with the podcast available Monday evenings/Tuesday mornings wherever you download podcasts or at https://windycityslam.podbean.com/.
We are looking for guests to appear on the Windy City Slam Podcast! Please contact Mike at mikepankow@windycityslam.com, message him on Facebook or DM him on Twitter.
