WWE and Factions/Stables (Why No More& Ones That Can Comeback)

[Meilichia]

I was just wondering why can't they put together good factions anymore? I mean the last half decent attempt was Evolution who really had no one to go against as another faction. I really like the idea of faction vs faction, however this has not really been done for a long time. I throughly enjoyed the DX/Nation rivalry or the corporation/DX/Ministry stuff, but they have nothing like that now.
The WWE roster is huge right now, and there is enough decent wrestlers in all brands who are not being utilized, who would work well in factions.
I am sure I must not be the only one who thinks WWE should work with the idea of creating a few stables to include the under used wrestlers they have.

 

[Shocky]

It's simple, the WWE creative team sucks ass, and has for a long time. Just reading some of the stuff that Inferno has wrote about Russo, I get angry. Russo, love him or hate him, always had something for everyone to do. Remember back to wrestlemania 14. There were 8 matches on the card, and all of them, all of them had at least a 4 week build up to them. Russo made sure that everyone on the roster had something to do.

Fast forward to today, we have constant reports of guys being gone for a while because, "Creative has nothing for them". Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you're responsible for creating and booking matches for only 60 guys on a roster, and you only have stuff for maybe 30 of them, why the fuck do you have a job. If I was only doing 50% of my job, I sure as hell would be fired on the spot.

The problem is, there are guys that have spots in the company that want their 20-30 minutes of air time a week. That leaves no room to develop anyone else. If singles wrestlers have a hard time getting over, then a faction is surely out of the question (even though some say that a faction can get over individual wrestlers with its name value).

For me, the answer is simple, the WWE creative team simply sucks ass and can't book good wrestling to save it's own ass. Too many yes men and not enough people willing to try something new. Which I don't blame them since Stephzilla is controlling the team with an Iron Fist. It's a shame too, because there is potential to have many factions.

 

[Papa Shango]

Well, I think the problem is that there are too many wrestlers that are being pushed as singles stars who aren't ready for it yet. So they may be put in tag teams, but they're very rarely good teams. A major problem, in my opinion, is that there just isn't much chemistry between superstars anymore. Although the Santino/Carlito team is promising. I think it'd be interesting to see what some people here on the site think would make a good faction or stable. Personally, I think if Kennedy were pushed to be a HHH-type, where he always seems to surround himself with protection(DX,McMahon-Helmsley Faction,Evolution), then he could do something entertaining with The Highlanders and Chuck Palumbo. Kennedy and Palumbo could have a good boss-lackey relationship, and the interactions between the four of them, with Kennedy and The Highlanders being slightly comic heels, and Palumbo as the straight man, would be hilarious. Kind of like when Team ECK (Edge,Christian, and Kurt Angle) started hanging around HHH. Classic!!

 

[Meilichia]

Yeah you are probably right, I mean wrestling has gone down hill since the writing team went down hill, but they occasionally pull something out of the bag, not often granted.
I know this is probably been put in other threads, but I really believe they could use a lot of younger talent such as MVP, Morrison, Cade, Murdock, Benjamin, both the Hardy's, Carlito, Santino, and even perhaps a few of the women to create a good stable, if they put them with a main card wrestler or a McMahon.
Stables are great for younger guys who want to make a name for themselves, it has worked for a lot of the big wrestlers we see today, I mean name a top guy in the WWE (past or present) who hasn't been part of some sort of team? It also opens up pushes for wrestlers who wouldn't normally get them, because they lack mic skills, or have a one dimensional character.
I think the reason the WWE is going so stale is because of the number of wrestlers who get the 20 to 30 minutes of air time, leaving other talented people out. A few decent stables is the way forward!

 

[Shocky]

Well you're getting a stable now with Edge and the Former Major Brothers. This should do wonders for the Major's. Edge has wanted a stable for a long time and has pushed for it, and he's gotten what he's wanted. If this succeeds, look for another member to be added. I suggest Morrison, and you can check that thread out in the ECW section. Morrison is just a perfect fit.

I could see the same thing happening on Raw if Edge has success with Orton. Orton, Cade and Murdoch would probably be a good Trio, and a great stable at pay per views teaming up with the Edge Heads to ensure that Team RKO retains the gold.

A guy like MVP's character is a loner by nature in my opinion. I just can't see him doing well as a role player, and I don't think he's strong enough yet to lead a group of guys.

I suggest back a few months ago that Matt Hardy should return and lead a heel stable of guys that have been over looked. A stable of Matt, Jeff, Helms and Moore would be amazing in my opinion, but it would never happen.

 

[justinsayne]

Well you're getting a stable now with Edge and the Former Major Brothers. This should do wonders for the Major's. Edge has wanted a stable for a long time and has pushed for it, and he's gotten what he's wanted. If this succeeds, look for another member to be added. I suggest Morrison, and you can check that thread out in the ECW section. Morrison is just a perfect fit.

I could see the same thing happening on Raw if Edge has success with Orton. Orton, Cade and Murdoch would probably be a good Trio, and a great stable at pay per views teaming up with the Edge Heads to ensure that Team RKO retains the gold.

A guy like MVP's character is a loner by nature in my opinion. I just can't see him doing well as a role player, and I don't think he's strong enough yet to lead a group of guys.

I suggest back a few months ago that Matt Hardy should return and lead a heel stable of guys that have been over looked. A stable of Matt, Jeff, Helms and Moore would be amazing in my opinion, but it would never happen.

I think Helm would be a good fit for Edge's stable, I think it would be a good way to launch him to mid-card status, I could also see Chavo in there too, seeing as how you have the whole Vickie Guerrero connection with the Edge stable, though I don't really like the idea of him in there, just doesn't seem like he would fit IMO

As for them doing a stable on Raw surrounding Orton, I think that could work, you could stick Kennedy in their, and then put Cade & Murdoch in their as well, or Carlito & Santino either would probably work, also JBL getting a stable might be good too, though I think it would work better over on SD!, have Finley, MVP, and D&D in there, not a great faction but it would do the job I think

 

[tap-out]

Problem is that stables work well with unestablished wrestlers at the time. It will work for the majors because they have never really been established yet so this will be something for them to build off of. Now alot of you are mentioning guys like chavo and such. This won't work because these have guys have been around forever and nothing really happened with them

So yes stables need to be used with one main guy on the roster and then some new talents. And when doing a stable it should look like a stable. Theya ll should have some sort of matching attire and what not. It just builds to the beleivability of the stable.

 

[Italian MVP]

I think its because there are two many superstars being pushed as single competitors. You got guys like HHH And HBK hogging all the spotlight on RAW, that there would be no time for A stable. While i think on Smackdown stables would work and were seeing one now with the edge heads. I like stables as it gives young stars expsoure they need, such as the major brothers and this will only help them in the long run. WWE do need more stables but its just everyone is being developed as single stars that they dont have time to worry about stables, which sucks. And i do agree adding Morrison and Helms to the Edge heads would be good, as Morrison needs something to do other than be bogged down with Miz, and Helms finally deserves to be given the spotlight he always needed.

 

[Totox12]

It's true that the days of factions such as the corporate ministry and DX, have long gone and we will hardly ever see factions of that size again. However recent attempts go towards Edge here as we see the Major Brothers, Vickie Guerrero and Edge forming to be what looks to be a dominant force to control Smackdown into the new year. Another interesting duo is Carlito/Santino and Maria stable, it will be interesting to see where this goes but as for the amount of single wrestlers on the WWE roster at the moment and the main events dominated by people such as Triple H, Randy Orton, and Batista, we see lower card wrestlers such as Benjamin and Carlito get unused for what they are worth and can easily be worked into something. We often here scriptwriters not having anything to do with certain talent. A recent example of this is the boogeyman.

Factions always used to help portray and boost lower mid card wrestlers up to the public eye and then give them what they need to go on to be single wrestlers. An example of this was with Randy Orton coming through Evolution working with the best and becoming one of the company’s main strong heels to work with.

 

[BlackHoleStar]

Am I the only one who remebers how ANNOYING the factions were around 1998-1999 after the big NWO boom? we had DX, The Nation, The ministry, the oddities, the corperation, the truth commision, the union, the deciples of apocolypse, los boricuas, later on the Radicalz...hell, the Brood were a faction IN A FACTION (the ministry) and god damn...that was just WWF - WCW had the thousand NWO splinter groups and the thousand "We're Takin' Over" ripoff groups. Now stables can be all well and great, but I'm glad we don't see them as much anymore. a stable every now and then would be good, but the way the current roster is set up is made to display the talents of singles, which is the reason why people feel the tag division is suffering. Trust me, It's just a change in format, and for me, a welcome one -you DO NOT want faction wars clogging up your screen every week. It WILL get annoying, as it did back in the attitude era.

 

[All-Missouri]

I don't really want to repeat what everyone says. I strongly agree with the idea of factions because it does set up for tons of possibilities that have been talked about already.

Even JR in his blogs discusses that he enjoys them in the business. However, over the years since the buyout of WCW, Vince has shown that he doesn't want any aspects of WCW in the WWE (with the exception of Bischoff) He may see factions as a WCW "thing" considering that while his promotion did in fact have factions, WCW went above and beyond with theirs. Just my two cents.

 

[Why Always Me]

I for one would love to see a faction war, like in 98 when you had DX vs. The Nation, that was perhaps my favourite feud ever.

The only thing is now, with the roster split over three shows, is there enough talent on one show to do that?

I mean, if the rosters were together, you could do it.

Here is how I would do it

Nation Type Faction

Mr Kennedy (The Rock)
Santino Morella (D'Lo Brown)
Carlito (Marc Henry - I know thats lame, just trying to draw a comparison)
Charlie Haas (Owen Hart - Owen joined after he was left on his own)
Shelton Benjamin, perhaps just to re-unite with Haas

DX Type Faction

Jeff Hardy (HHH)
Matt Hardy (X Pac)
CM Punk
London & Kendrick (Outlaws)

That is how I would have it, DX and the Nation were pretty evenly matched, Chyna used to batter Marc Henry, and if the brands were brought together they could fued for the I.C. Title, Tag Titles and another title, maybe the T.V. title, getting slightly hyperthetical now, but you get the point.

 

[thachozenonebx]

I had a discussion way back with a buddy of mine about this topic. WWE creative team is the WORST partially bc these guys arent wrestling guys they are network writers...which i guess is Vince way of kissing ass to the CW and USA networks. I am glad Edge has a faction.. I thought him and Orton needed one. I think edge shud add Helms when he gets healthy( he is underrated IMO) I think this can elavate the Major Bros..but i wish their named wasnt the edgehead..its kinda corny

Now on to Orton...i think orton shud ressurect..EVOLUTION but with a twist...i think Evolution shud be a group of ONLY 2nd or 3rd generation wrestlers...

Orton, Cody Rhodes, Maybe Carlito, and add the dibiase bros or maybe DH smith

 

[tartar13]

That is not a bad idea about the factions. I think that maybe a faction with m.v.p, mark henry,big daddy v,and matt striker or in tna a faction of petey williams,chris parks (abyss without the mask),bring back scott D'more as their voice.

 

[hubbsyo]

What about managers?? I mean, the manager is what can bring an awesome stable together. Get one of these limited-in-ring-ability "Divas" to get some guys working for her. Or give Striker full managerial status and have him take some people under him and try and assert some authority- which I think would be great because I think Striker is perfect for it. With the ECW/Smackdown pseudo-merger, I think the opportunity is perfect, and if they ever stop dicking around with this ridiculous and frankly offensive Vickie/Edge angle and put Teddy back where he belongs, a great feud could happen there with Striker getting support from Estrada to use his monsters to take out Smackdown stars. Get another Bobby Heenan in here and I think you'll see some awesome stable angles and feuds. OR... Flair as a manager for the new 4H??? I certainly hope not but if done JUST right, I could see it working...

 

[SergioGel]

Factions were great in the attitude era because they allowed for character development and exposure. Look at some of the big names today and notice how they stemmed from factions. HHH, Edge, Cage, Orton, Batista, and in the past guys could break off from the factions because they already had enough exposure to make it solo.
The tri-brand is getting rediculous. The talent WWE has is spread over three seperate shows and and rosters are too thin.
Nevermind factions - the WWE has a poor tag team divison solely because they have too thin rosters.

 

[Meilichia]

Well I think the thin rosters have a lot to do with the three brands, and bad selection for these three brands, fair enough each brand has the mid carders, a few tag teams and the main guys, but at the moment all three brands have way too many main card guys and this leaves the other areas completely lacking. Taking a few of the main event wrestlers into factions, joined with a tag team, a mid carder , and possibly a manager, would mean they could stop the three brands rubbish. Having the talent completely separated just limits them to storylines and rivalries. In my opinion they should scrap the three brands, have only one title, as the main title as this would give having a title more credibility, maybe using the ecw championship as the hardcore belt, but obviously more importance than the old hardcore belt, and with having factions and three shows a week in my opinion there wouldn't be too many people for the same brand.

 

[NYSandman]

DX
NWO
4 Horsemen

Let's take these 3. These 3 factions, especially the NWO, did so much, and were together for so long, that do you think any new faction can even come close?

It takes time to build a faction, and it also takes a lot of time to get fans to see these factions as one entity, rather than individual wrestlers. There was no Scott Hall, Nash or Hogan, there was the NWO.

WWE seems very, VERY impatient these days, and I guess they just don't want to take the time to slowly build a faction, the way it should be done.

And, again, any new faction will have to try to live up to the great groups of old. WWE just won't spend the time.

I would like to see some new stables, though.

 

[thecruiser]

There are several reasons why factions aren't utilized any more. One idea is that in-between segments are too long. Opening segments in the WWE used to be a 5 minute main event build-up/re-cap of the previous week. Now its Vince, Triple H, Randy Orton, Shawn Michaels, Hornswoggle, Khali, Batista, (etc, etc) doing 20 minute promos and restricting time for the interviews and matches, and not leaving any time for extra segments.

Another is that only a few people can be in a faction (unless you are 1998-99 nWo). The purpose of a faction is to get one or two specific people to get over with the help of credible and established workers, while at the same time burying the other, weaker workers with less of a push. (Hogan got Nash, Hall, and Sting HUGELY over with the nWo, Rick Rude and Shawn Michaels got Chyna and Triple H over in D-Generation X, Trips and Flair got Batista and Orton over in Evolution). With the burying of less-established workers, you are risking destroying the career of a potential future star.

Also, while factions are almost always guarenteed to be popular with the fans, thats not always the case (in the case of the Spirit Squad, no established stars helped them).

Finally, the WWE is split into THREE brands. The only way a modern faction could REALLY work would be to have inter-brand members who the creative team wants to eventually be over with the fans. For example, a great faction would be headed by Triple H (main event champ), followed by Elijah Burke and MVP as the tag team with potential main event status (tag champs), and Ken Kennedy as the one considered next-in-line to Trips' throne (US or IC champ). However, they would have to dominate TV time, which wouldn't help anybody else get over. With all these factors, stables and factions wouldn't work in today's wrestling business.

 

[SergioGel]

I agree that factions help get those over who are involved in the faction, but i disagree that they limit tv-time for others. the faction needs people to feud with and there is no reason why the opposition cannot get pushes. even creating 2 factions would be a nice change in storyline from the current trends and push guys. I would love to see some ECW guys come into storylines with stables featuring an established WWE star

 

[kieran_devlin]

What stables could be made from the current roster of the wwe this could be a guy from all shows in a stable.

It could be an old stable thats getting reformed or remade.

IT has to be the correct time for them to return so no DX as they allways do 1 off things now.


Personaly i have 3 ideas that i think would work and be good.
I need help on the first one tho.

1. A new APA well since JBL is on RAW i think they should reunite, its about time ron did something okay if hes really old he could just be a manager and mentor figure. I think it needs a new guy or 2 new guys. Like a A team Farooq/Ron Simmons and Bradshaw and the new guys in a team. Just who to include is a mystery to me.

2. A new Corporation only members id know who to include are Batista as a heel Umaga as the muscle Dreamer and WGTT now known as the Corporations Tag Team or summit like that.

3. A new nation of domination stable, Farooq as leader, Big Daddy V and Mark Henry as the muscles or fatso tag, MVP as the technical guy to replace D Lo, Shelton Benjamin and Burke also i would put in possibly T Lo as the GM that spys on the WWE managment or helps the Ministry out, he does this for himself but make him a tweener not a full heel as he wouldnt suit a full heel like he was doing this for his own reasons. Maybe include bobby Lashley but hed have to heel i could see him doing heel stuff like stealing a guys car or beating guys up backstage.

 

[justinsayne]

I don't think I would try and re-make any old stable's, instead I would like to see fresh new stables, one I have been thinking about for Raw would be JBL, Orton, Kennedy, Hass & Dykstra (JBL would some how arrange for Dykstra to be traded from SD! to RAW), this is how I see each persons role in the stable

JBL-basically a manager/leader, but also part time wrestler, sorta like Flair was in Evolution

Orton- The ME/Championship guy, the guy who's going after the title and top full time wrestler in the group

Kennedy- The mid-card championship guy, he would be the one chasing the IC title, and the #2 guy to Orton, kinda like his sidekick

Hass & Dykstra- the tag team of the group, obviously these two would be put together as a tag team by JBL, and would be there to help Orton & Kennedy win their singles titles

I think overall this stable could work for awhile, I could see a storyline somewhere along the way where JBL leads all of these guys to titles, having all the gold in one group, he would then cut some sort of promo stating something like "he who has the gold has the power", and then that would lead him lobbying and campaigning for the RAW GM position, so he could have total power, IDK if that makes any sense, it sounded better in my head

 

[Papa Shango]

That actually sounds pretty good to me. Dunno if I would have Haas in their though. He's the only one out of that group that doesn't have a personality. I would maybe put Morrison or Matt Striker in there.
I definately think that Striker should be in some sort of stable. He's got big Daddy V, why not add a few more to the mix. I just don't know who. Mark Henry, I suppose, and maybe Nunzio. I could see some funny stuff going on between Nunzio and Striker.

 

[b0bby]

I would like to see a Upper Card superstar create a stable and boost himself up into the main event picture.

for example get someone like Mr Kennedy, MVP or even Chavo Guerro start up a heel stable with a up and coming tag team and another up and comer or a big man.

 

[kieran_devlin]

I don't think I would try and re-make any old stable's, instead I would like to see fresh new stables, one I have been thinking about for Raw would be JBL, Orton, Kennedy, Hass & Dykstra (JBL would some how arrange for Dykstra to be traded from SD! to RAW), this is how I see each persons role in the stable

JBL-basically a manager/leader, but also part time wrestler, sorta like Flair was in Evolution

Orton- The ME/Championship guy, the guy who's going after the title and top full time wrestler in the group

Kennedy- The mid-card championship guy, he would be the one chasing the IC title, and the #2 guy to Orton, kinda like his sidekick

Hass & Dykstra- the tag team of the group, obviously these two would be put together as a tag team by JBL, and would be there to help Orton & Kennedy win their singles titles

I think overall this stable could work for awhile, I could see a storyline somewhere along the way where JBL leads all of these guys to titles, having all the gold in one group, he would then cut some sort of promo stating something like "he who has the gold has the power", and then that would lead him lobbying and campaigning for the RAW GM position, so he could have total power, IDK if that makes any sense, it sounded better in my head

so basicaly a new Team Angle kinda except replace all the wrestlers

BTW thanks mods for combining the threads!!!

i think a new corporation could work have an A Team lead by Vince Mc Mahon
and a B Team lead by Shane o Mac have anyone in it a real mix of talents but after about a year have them feud like b Team got pissed at being called second rate and combine the 2 teams but obv drop some guys but using this feud as a way to push them

Id also have a new team called the WWE Militia basically these guys thats really love the WWE and USA hardcore style and bring out flags and shit they could get amajor heel heat in europe mexico ect and get over in some places of USA
Cena and JBL could be in it and make it a heel team but heel in the way that even heels hate it