After being shockingly released from WWE in April of 2020 – a release that foreshadowed dozens and dozens more over the forthcoming months – “Machine Gun” Karl Anderson and Doc/Luke Gallows had to go it on their own, released back onto the indies for the first time since they began working together in New Japan as members of the Bullet Club.

Stopping by Out of Character with Ryan Satin to discuss being released from WWE mere months after agreeing to new, lucrative, long-term contracts with the promotion, KA admitted that his release left him both angry and sad, but in the end, the Good Brothers used it to make themselves far more in-demand in the future.

“When we were released by WWE in April 2020, I think it caught us by surprise. So being an emotional and fiery person that wants the best out of his profession, there were feelings of angst and anger about it. I wasn't sure that we'd come back either, and so that's why we made sure for those two years that we were gone, we hit it hard, and we didn't take any breaks. I was almost busier than a lot of people in the industry for those couple of years.”

Though the Good Brothers did a lot during their time away, wrestling for Impact, AEW, New Japan, and indie feds the world over while moonlighting with Kenny Omega, the Bullet Club, and even running their own PPV series Talk ‘N Shop A Mania, in the end, when the opportunity came up to return to WWE, the duo had to take it into consideration, as they wanted to prove they are among the best tag teams in professional wrestling.

“[It] feels like as the more that we were gone, the more we started feeling like some conversations started happening. Then some of the angst goes away, and you start to realize that may have been the passion we have inside of us anyway just to be the best. Next thing you know, it's two years later after being released, and it was just time.”

Have the Good Brothers accomplished that goal since returning to WWE? No, with just 13 tag team matches on their resume over the last 10 months – zero of which came for a championship – it's hard to argue that Anderson and Gallows should be in the conversation for the top tag team in the world, but hey, who knows, now that AJ Styles is back, maybe that will change?

Karl Anderson reveals how the Good Brothers got back into the WWE Universe

So, after such an awkward end for their previous run in the WWE Universe – to put it nicely – how did Karl Anderson and the “Big LG” make their way back to the WWE Universe?

“We got a couple texts, a couple texts sent back, then we got a call from Triple H, and it was right around the time our Impact contract was finishing,” Karl Anderson said. “We sat down and fixed it and figured it out. I'm happy that it happened, that it worked out, and everything's going really well right now.”

Would it have been easy for the Good Brothers to have simply put WWE on their permanent you-know-what list, refusing to ever work for The Fed again and talking trash on the promotion to anyone willing to listen? Most definitely, there are more than a few former WWE Superstars who have followed that exact path, and they are doing just fine in their new roles. For Gallows and Anderson, however, being afforded a chance to earn life-changing money while getting to remain in the States more often than not was worth transitioning from focal points and tag team champions of Impact to AJ Styles' muscle in WWE, especially since the man who ultimately fired them in 2020 – Vince McMahon or Paul Heyman, depending on who you ask – is no longer calling the shots.

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