When Cody Rhodes and AJ Styles were announced for a match at WWE Backlash, with the latter winning the honor via a mini tournament after WrestleMania 40, fans were stoked as all get out to see a Bullet Club battle between two of the faction's great success stories.

Now granted, it's not like WWE hasn't leaned into the Bullet Club before, with Styles and the original leader of the faction, Finn Balor, leaning into the lineage of the faction via the “Balor Club” and The OC, but those efforts largely came under Vince McMahon who wanted to pretend there weren't any other major promotions outside of WWE. With Paul “Triple H” Levesque now in place as WWE's CCO and Michael Cole making it a personal mission to mention one indie element per show like he's got a Cagematch daily wrestler calendar, the promotion could fully lean into the history of the angle and make something magical, right?

Well, unfortunately for Cole, sometimes absolute power corrupts absolutely, and, in a classic example of someone flying a bit too close to the sun, WWE's lead commentator declared on the Backlash broadcast that this was a battle of former Bullet Club leaders, which is a pretty incredible statement to hear on a WWE broadcast, even if it is downright incorrect on every level.

You see, there are five recognized leaders of the Bullet Club proper: Prince Devitt – Finn Balor – AJ Styles, Kenny Omega, “Switchblade” Jay White, and David Finlay, who currently leaders the faction he calls his WarDogs. Granted, there are a few sub-factions and offshoots of the group, with White still leading a version of the faction as Bullet Club Gold – the Bang Bang Gang, if you will – in AEW and Evil splitting off the faction to form the House of Torture in NJPW, but one person who was never a recognized leader fo the faction is Rhodes, who joined up with the group in 2016, stuck in the offshoot of the NJPW group, The Elite, and ultimately left that faction behind, too, in order to return to WWE.

So where, you may ask, did Cole get this idea from? Well, it might be from a Ring of Honor promo from back when Rhodes was feuding with Omega ahead of their match at Supercard Of Honor XII, where the “American Nightmare” declared that “Perception is no longer reality. Reality is reality. And the reality is I am the leader of Bullet Club, and I am the hero of this story.” While this comment was meant to be somewhat hyperbolic, or at least not taken seriously, as Rhodes was turning heel against Omega, that nuance was apparently lost on Cole, who took it as legit sans the necessary context needed to tell the proper storyline.

Does this really matter? Eh, not really, but then again, it is notable because in this new era of WWE, where the promotion is willing to talk about indie promotions, making sure announcers have their facts right is paramount, as an improper reference is far less effective than no reference at all.

Cody Rhodes is proud of his efforts in Bullet Club.

Speaking of Cody Rhodes' legacy in Bullet Club, the “American Nightmare” was recently asked about his time in New Japan's most famous faction in an interview with SHAK Wrestling, and let it be known that while he's no longer a member of Bullet Club or The Elite, he's proud of everything they accomplished together.

“I think as I grow old, I’ll probably wax poetic and grow even fonder of the things I was able to be part of, the people I was able to team with,” Cody Rhodes explained via 411 Mania. “When we were a group, the Bullet Club, The Elite, the idea was change the world and we really did actually change at least our world and like you said, it’s so healthy now. I think all of us are very careful to talk about it because nobody wants to look like they’re saying, hey, it was all me. But the reality is I can name — it’s about eight people and if one of them wasn’t there, it wouldn’t have happened, an alternative wouldn’t exist. It wouldn’t have springboard me into this position I am now. None of it would have happened. It was all these factors and the biggest factor being the fans themselves. So, I just hope people remember it. Selfishly — I joke about this with Matt (Jackson) and Nick (Jackson) all the time — selfishly, you want more people to remember it was something that we did but, I’m just happy to see an industry that I grew up watching through the good times and the bad times is now as popular as it ever was and I appreciate you saying that.”

In the grand scheme of things, Rhodes' time in Bullet Club wasn't nearly as impactful as Styles, Balor, or even fellow former members of The Elite save maybe “Hangman” Adam Page, but in the end, it is a part of his legacy, and it's cool to see WWE lean into that fact at this stage of his career, even if they occasionally get the facts wrong.