5 Greatest Factions in Pro Wrestling.
From time to time, a group of wrestlers get together to try to dominate the wrestling world.......but honestly a lot of these fall flat or dont gather any real power or championships or longevity.
However the few that do, they become legendary......so which of these factions rose to legendary status, and who is the best of the best? Well keep reading to find out.
First off, a couple of runners up:
Nation of Domination: Fans have fond memories of this groups second and third incarnations and its one of the few groups people want to see a modern version of.....but the problem was, they basically didnt achieve anything of note, even with some title reigns
Corporation: Basically these guys only existed so Austin could hit people other than McMahon. Later they did help elevate the rock to super-stardom, and they did pretty well title wise...but the problem is, except for the Rock all the major members of this group never actually went anywhere in their careers, and could have been interchangeable (and were as the groups lineup changed) with anyone else.
The Minstry: pretty much the same issue as the corporation. They looked dark and evil as shit....but really didn't do much of note and except for taker the membership could have been anyone.
Nexus: The poster children for what could have been with better booking and writing. They started as the hottest thing wrestling had seen in at least a decade.....then got fed to Super Cena and basically never mattered again.
Now with those out of the way the top 5 greatest Factions in Pro Wrestling.
#5 Shield
In many respects there has never been anything like the Shield in WWE history, a group of "rookies" who banded together and basically became the most popular act the WWE had in just a hand full of months.
Consider they were given a near 6 month undefeated run....which ended via disqualification not pin or submission. Then every single member of the group got a title in the same night.....and went on from there to main eventing PPV's which ended with two 6 man matches against the legendary evolution....which had reunited just to take them down.
Then of course the Chair shot heard around the world as Seth Rollins sold out to the Authority, betrayed his team mates, and ended the group......right at the hight of their popularity.
Which is part of the reason they made this list. Fans would LOVE to see the Shield back together, they never got their full fix. Consider its been over a year since they broke up, and all 3 are still riding the wave of popularity they got as the shield.
Thats a year after they broke up and the fans still went nuts, just in case it was real.
And hell, as individuals, 2 of these guys are former US champions, 2 are former Tag Champs, a Former IC champ, 2 Money In the Bank Winners, a Royal Rumble Winner, and 2 of them hold 4 WWE World Champions runs between them.
EDIT: So yea about 40 minutes after I posted this, Seth Rollins beat Roman Reigns for his second WWE title reign, only to be immediately defeated by Dean Ambrose for the WWE title. So yea, that above paragraph should now end "and all 3 of the hold 6 WWE World Championships runs between them".
And really, these guys probibly have a decade left on their careers so WHEN this group gets back together (Cause lets be honest, at some point in the next 10 years they will) watch them shoot even higher up this rank.
So a lot of people might say the n.W.o deserves to be at the top of this list.....but then the question must be asked, which version of the n.W.o.? The original 3? how about when it went up to 7? Or what about the n.W.o Wolfpac? n.W.o. Hollywood? n.W.o. Reunion? n.W.o. B-Team? n.W.o. 2000?
Seriously at one point their was near 30 guys in the n.W.o.,.....the group got too damn big, theres a reason I had to use their logo and not a group photo for them.
So while the group WAS revoultionary. was the first realy shot in the monday night war, and was definitely the most popular thing in wrestling in 1996 and 1997....the truth is it was pushed well past its expiration date and way too over extended. Basically it got too overplayed to be any higher on this list than it is
Seriously at one point their was near 30 guys in the n.W.o.,.....the group got too damn big, theres a reason I had to use their logo and not a group photo for them.
So while the group WAS revoultionary. was the first realy shot in the monday night war, and was definitely the most popular thing in wrestling in 1996 and 1997....the truth is it was pushed well past its expiration date and way too over extended. Basically it got too overplayed to be any higher on this list than it is
With all due respect to Shawn Michaels and Rick Rude, it was the second incarnation of DX, the "DX Army" that became the epoch of the group. You had Chyna, the most popular woman wrestler of the time (and maybe ever), HHH who would become a legend and major star because of this group, and one of the best tag teams of all times in the New Age Outlaws, plus X-pac and his unexpected popularity and long running storyline and tag team with Kane, and you have a major faction on your hands.
Hell at one point these guys (with Stephanie McMahon replacing Chyna) were given the on screen roles of running the whole damn company.
And while the nWo might have been the first shot of the Monday Night War by WCW, this was WWF's counter attack....and they took their role literally. All other success of the faction aside they would make this list simply for the time they literally took the war to WCW
And credit where its due, the 3rd and final version of the group, with HHH and Shawn Michaels in the 2000's also pretty memorable, albeit a bit different since due to Michaels religious awakening they had to tone down the sexual humor for a more silly side.
Still if anyone thinks DX, any of the incarnations dont deserve a spot on this list:
The ORIGINAL faction. The first faction to really get over. EVERY OTHER group on this list, or ever pretty much owes their existence to these guys. They are also one of the longest lasting factions in history, they got started in 1985, and wrapped it up in 1999.
So why arnt they number 1? well this is another example of longevity working against you.
In some respects there are two different incarnations of the Horsemen,
The original group (above) lasted from 1985 to 1989, featuring Arn Anderson, Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, and a changing 4th member (Ole Anderson, Lex Luger or Barry Windham) and manager JJ Dillion, and it was this group (with Windham in the 4th slot) that got inducted into the hall of fame, and this group in which the horsemen had their greatest success and popularity.
Then you had the version of the group that resurfaced in 1995 (below), with Chris Benoit joining Arn Anderson and Ric Flair as the 3rd major member and NFL Champion Steve McMichael taking the 4th spot (although this group also included brief stints by Brian Pillman, Curt Hennig and Dean Malenko in the 4th spot).
This version of the group didnt achieve anywhere near the popularity of the original, despite arguably being the more talents version with Benoit taking over from Blachard. WCW had a bad habit of treating this version of the group like an after thought...they would show up for a few months in major storylines, then vanish for a while, then back, then vanish.
So while I actually like this version more, the bad booking really hurt the groups legacy overall.
It also didnt help that in between the two major incarnations there were a couple of brief (lasting 1 year or less) attempts to restart the group that went nowhere (despite featuring talent like Sting)
All in all the Horsemen are legendary....and had they closed up shop in 89, they would likely have top slot.
Ironically it's WWE's successor to the Horsemen that take the top spot. Originally the idea had been to bring the Horsemen to WWE, but that idea was replaced with a newer concept, take the top star of the past (Ric Flair, 16 time world champion) the top guy of the present day (Triple H) and the guy you wanted to be the next big star (Randy Orton) toss an enforcer in (Batista) the mix and you had the Evolution of the business.
And its hard to argue with Evolution success, they are one of the only factions in history (along with original horsemen) to hold all the titles available to them at one time. And Randy Ortons run with the intercontinental title still has to be seen as one of the best (his feud with Mick Foley specifically) with that belt.
Also all 4 members of evolution are now big stars in the industry (even if two of them have since retired), in fact between the 4 of them they have held 58 world championships. No other faction in HISTORY comes close to that number (except maybe if you added up the 50+ members of the nWo)as far as their members eventual or previous sucess....and except for Flair the other 3 owe all or most (in HHH's case) of their title runs to the popularity they got while members of this group.
Factions are supposed to exist to make stars, and Evolution is one of the only factions to make a star out of all of its members who werent already stars.
Now that said, its unsure to me how long Evolution will remain on top. Like Evolution the SHIELD made stars out of all of its members, and should they ever get another run (like the other groups on this list got) its possible they might overtake them someday.
But for now, Evolution truly is the best of all time.
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