Karl Anderson’s return to WWE in 2022 should have been a straightforward homecoming. Instead, according to Anderson himself, it triggered a reaction serious enough to include actual death threats.
Speaking with LNG Productions ahead of the upcoming “Diary of a G1 Finalist” series, Anderson looked back on November 2022, an unusual stretch of his career the series plans to revisit.
At the time, Anderson was still NJPW’s NEVER Openweight Champion, but that didn’t stop him from signing with WWE and immediately returning alongside Luke Gallows to reunite with AJ Styles.
As a NEVER Openweight Champion, I signed with WWE, and everybody just—I mean, I got death threats.
The situation briefly created real scheduling chaos: Anderson had been set to defend the NEVER Openweight title against Hikuleo at NJPW’s Battle Autumn on November 5, the same day WWE had him booked for Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia, where The O.C. accompanied Styles against The Judgment Day.
Anderson ultimately held onto the NJPW title throughout the overlap before eventually returning to Japan and dropping it to Tama Tonga at Wrestle Kingdom 17 that January.
