Best faction of all time and why??

[Vintage Punk]

This is sort of a tough question as we all have our own opinions. Having said that my answer would probably be the NWO. Not talking about when it got stale and overdone, but in the beginning. Now of course this is my opinion and here is why. I had started watching wrestling in 1989 and to be honest, didn't know much about WCW at all. I only watched WWF because they had PPVs you could rent at the video store, had the characters I knew like Hogan, Warrior, Demolition, Andre, Savage, Undertaker, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, etc. Because of this I didn't get to watch or experience The 4 Horseman in their prime or even after that.

In the mid 90's Bret, Shawn, Taker, Diesel, and Razor were my favorites because they were in WWF and I had grown up a bit in those few years from 1989 and outgrew some of the stuff Hogan and Warrior had kept doing. This was before Bret went heel, before Austin, and before DX. Hogan, Warrior, and Savage were all gone to WCW but I had no idea where to see WCW at because they weren't big on the cable stations I had. Then Diesel and Razor left and WWF was getting somewhat stale for that period around mid 1996. Then one day during that summer, I remember flipping through the channels and found, I believe TNT or TBS, and I saw the first or earlier version of the NWO. It was Hogan, Razor who they called Scott Hall, Diesel who they called Kevin Nash, Ted Dibiase, Giant, Virgil who they called Vincent, and I believe 1-2-3 kid who they called Syxx. I remember thinking WTF they look badass! They were taking over the commentary and jumping wrestlers/spray painting and just creating havoc all while wearing badass looking t-shirts with cool music! I had never seen anything like it because all I knew was WWF and as for factions, they only ever really had duos or tag teams before then unless you include Survivor Series teams with special names. I was hooked on it and began watching that as well as WWF too. But for a long while before Austin came along and DX and the Rock, WCW and NWO were the thing to watch for me.

So to me they were the best faction and I wish they would've stayed the same without so many members and the Wolfpac and all that stuff. I mean I'd pop when someone would jump ship to them like most but it was just never the same as that group. Later they became stale and overdone like I said and DX was fresh. Never reallly cared for Nation of Domination other than I did like the Rock. On a side note actually while on the subject of factions, to me, an underrated faction that could've been truly great to me was the Hart Foundation. Me being a Bret fan and how they carried themselves snatching up all the gold during summer of 97 and being family was sweet. They are a what could have been faction if not for the deaths of Pillman and Owen, and departures of Bret, Anvil, and Bulldog to WCW who misused them terribly.

So anyways, NWO for the faction, the wrestlers in it, and impact on wrestling were the faction for me back then and were the best. Curious to hear your stories of who and why...

 

[enviousdominous]

I'm just gonna' share a picture and explain after those viewing have taken in its awesomeness:

Spoiler

Team Angle, they were a faction of insanely precise technicians. In their heyday, they were untouchable. There were people like Rey Mysterio, Billy Kidman, Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker, <omitted by Titansports>, Eddie Guerrero, The Big Show, and John Cena trying and failing to take their gold.

Team Angle in their prime were more than capable of decisively crushing any of history's greatest factions. It would be great to have seen them take on The Von Erichs, or The Bolsheviks, or The Machines, or The Four Horseman. They were an essential asset of the WWE during a time when the Smackdown brand needed all the help it could get to stay relevant, and they raised the bar for prowrestlers of any brand.

 

[CrunKSinatrA]

The NWO is probably the best ever. Can't argue with results, impact, and Hollywood Hulk Hogan.

Helping WCW overtake the WWE as the number 1 wrestling company in the country is their greatest accomplishment.

Only other stables that may be in the running would be Evolution or DX.

Evolution had 4 multiple time heavyweight champions and all 4 were legit main eventers.

DX also had a significant impact on the industry could be in the running for GOAT stable.

HHH and HBK speak for themselves, and Chyna was a game changer at the time.

Even all the historical members with Rick Rude, the New Age Outlaws, and Xpac hold their weight.

Xpac was the best light heavyweight/cruiserweight in the US for a good while.

One stable that never gets any attention and is severally underrated would be WWE's Camp Cornette.

They had one really solid line up. Yokozuna and Vader were 2 monster heel main eventers, and Owen with the Bulldog were a solid tag team. Plus Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji as managers.

Does Mick Foley count as a stable?

Technically, he has Cactus Jack, Dude Love, and Mankind all under his wing.

I guess Mankind was the only Heavyweight Champion out of the 3. But the others were still awesome characters.

 

[FromGlasgow]

I have to go with the NWO, It was the reason I looked forward to friday nights so much, I know its monday nitro but it was shown 4 days later here in the UK, Mainly when it first started the anticipation of who would join next or what they would do next was great.
If judged on personal favourite, After that it would maybe be the Hart Foundation and the Freebirds.

 

[The Samoan Heritage]

Main Event Mafia

IMO, the most underrated faction of all time. These guys belong up their with the Von Erichs, DX, NWO, Evolution, and the 4-horse men.
Just the idea of the group alone was excellent. A group consisting of all former world champions. They were the elite of the elite.
They may not have had the impact on wrestling history that some of the others had, but as for overall success, Main Event Mafia belongs at the top.

They were dominant and easily the peak of TNA's growth to success.

 

[tdmoon]

Obvious answer here is the Four Horsemen(at least any version which included Flair, Blanchard and Arn).

Don't get me wrong, the NWO deserves a ton of credit for bringing in new fans and giving the business a big kick in the ass, but it got watered down so quickly. Within months of forming, the group became home to mid-carders and jobbers. The Horsemen, on the other hand, were all champions and the promotion and top titles revolved around them for nearly five years. JJ Dillon's crew kept their membership elite, while the NWO got to the point where it seemingly included half of the WCW roster. Another advantage for the Horsemen is that even though they usually held most of the belts, they still managed to make their opponents look good. By contrast, the NWO steamrolled the WCW roster and made them look like jokes. Add in the fact that the Horsemen were better by far both in the ring and on the mic, and the comparison isn't even close. Really, the only faction I see as anywhere close to the Four Horsemen would be The Freebirds.

I'm sticking with my pick of the Horsemen as the top faction ever, but want to toss in one more that I think deserves a mention.

It wasn't on as big a stage as the rest of these, but any consideration for Jimmy Hart's First Family? They played a pivotal role in the Andy Kaufman angle, a ground-breaking one for wrestling that had national exposure. It was a revolving door of wrestlers, but take a gander at some of the talent Hart employed, at least briefly:

Ox Baker
King Kong Bundy
Dennis Condrey
Bobby Eaton
Wayne Ferris(Honky Tonk Man)
"Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert
Austin Idol
Kamala
Andy Kaufman
Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart
Lanny Poffo
Tommy Rich
Rick Rude
Randy Savage
The Iron Sheik
Kevin Sullivan
Koko B. Ware

As I said, I don't see them being number one but thought they should at least get a bit of recognition. There are four former World Champions in there along with assorted midcard and tag title holders. They drew some huge crowds to the territory and kept it hot for a long time.

 

[ilapierre]

New World Order. Hands down. A better question would be who was the best faction excluding the NWO. Because that could go so many different ways. DX Hart Foundation Evolution. 4 Horsemen Main Event Mafia The Nexus (just kidding).

Wrestling was at its peak when the NWO was at theirs. The NWO to wrestling was what Nirvana was to rock music in 1991. They were a revolution. Hogan was the GOAT and was the ultimate heel. Hall and Nash were monsters who dominated the tag team division. They were also hilarious and cool af. I love things that historically make sense and the whole NWO angle made a lot more sense to me than Waylon Mercy or Duke Drose or The Godwins. With Hogan being phased out of WWF it was easy to believe that he secretly wanted revenge so he went to WCW. Fans liked him there but not as much as the WWF. So he turned on them and recruited WWF's next big stars to help take down both WWF and WCW. Bischoff being the NWO mastermind brought into play this new concept of a heel boss. And Bischoff really played the part of 'jerk' to a tee because in real life he was one! Hogan hogged the world title, just like before. He and Savage had their ups and downs just like they had before. Their never ending friendship/feud was so real and just fueled that angle. Fans could feel for Savage who always played second fiddle to Hogan and could never take him down. Savage was my favourite and I think most of us fans wanted to see Savage FINALLY beat Hogan and some of us even wanted to see Savage take over the NWO and kick Hogan out. And of course Sting was always the 'favourite' in WCW so it made sense that Sting stalked Hogan for a full year during the NWO reign of terror. Wrestling made sense again like it had in the late 80s early 90s but now we were witness to dream matches that couldn't have happened before between the two companies. We had WWF alumni Hogan, Savage, Elizabeth, Rude, Henning, Dibiase Virgil combining with WWF's clique and some of the younger future stars like Bagwell and Konan. Giant reminded us of Andre. It made perfect sense that these guys were trying to hold onto their spot at the top.
And the NWO was so dominant and revolutionary. 4 Horsemen and DX just never even come close to having the same sort of effect on the business. I'm not even sure it's fair to even compare because DX and Horsemen were like 5 man teams. The NWO grew to have 15 to 20 members at any given point. It was more like a company instead of a faction.

 

[King Patrick Star]

Maybe not the best, but my top 5 favorite factions of all time are:

Four Horsemen - They are the original Championship Stable. There may have been stables before them, but I consider the Horsemen to be the standard when it comes to team greatness. This is the formula to a great Professional Sports Wrestling Stable. All you need is the Tag Team, the Mid-Carder, and the Main Eventer, nothing more, nothing less.

New World Oder - If the Four Horsemen were the perfect formula for the perfect stable, then the New World Order is the perfect formula for the perfect brand extension. They took half of the roster, and made them &#8220;cool&#8221; by association. Yes it grew into something uncontrollable, but in a controlled way. The nWo could have been used better towards the end, but why stop when you&#8217;re at the top. Hindsight is 20 / 20.

D-Generation X - If you take everything that worked with the Horsemen, add everything that worked with the nWo, and subtract everything that didn&#8217;t work with both, you have D-Generation X. They had the entitled attitude with the Championship Title Belts to back it up. They had the right amount of members at all the right times. DX had it all, and could have lasted for as long as they wanted. If you break it down, they actually lasted for more than one generation.

Evolution - The Past, the Present, and the Future of Greatness. Sure during their run, you really didn&#8217;t know for sure that Orton and Batista were going to eventually become a World Champions, but Flair and Helmsley did. This is another example of taking what worked in the past with great stables, and applying it to today. This was a great mix of getting the rub from the past, keeping the present relevant, and making the future bright.

Main Event Mafia - Now, this can be looked at as a shortcut, by just gathering World Champions, and putting every Championship Title Belt in a company in every member, but that&#8217;s not how I viewed the Main Event Mafia. I saw this as an opportunity to use the Legends they had available and put them in a position to help elevate anyone who got in their way...and it worked collectively. I always said that the M. E. Mob was all about &#8220;M. E.&#8221; when in fact, they were actually what was best for business for the entire company and the industry. I would love to see John Cena and Randy Orton form a Two-Man Power Trip with HHH, and build the WWE&#8217;s version of the M. E. Mob from there.

Honorable mention goes to Legacy. They could have been more, and there are more than enough SuperStars today that could reform the Stable of the Children of Legends. I&#8217;m thinking Charlotte Flair, Curtis Axel, and Bo Dallas for starters.

 

[relentless1]

nWo hands down. No other faction had a bigger impact on the sport by a long shot. They eclipsed both WCW and the WWF at their peak which is an accomplishment no other faction can ever claim. 4 Horsemen were great and a close second as far as great factions go all around but I still see people wearing nWo shirts on the street every now and again and I see other random strangers on the street throw up the too sweet gesture towards them. Now say what you will about watered down but THATS a lasting impact.

 

[BigSexyHBK]

NWO and DX will always be the two best factions of all time but you have to give the edge to NWO because of how they changed the wrestling business. There probably wouldn't be a DX if it wasn't for Hall and Nash going to WCW.