10 Best Wrestling Factions of All-Time
Ever since one late night watching Ric Flair scream bloody murder in the locker room after Dusty Rhodes attacked one of his Four Horsemen riding buddies, I’ve been hooked on the idea of wrestling factions. After all, how many times have you watched a guy get beat down by 3-4 guys and wonder why no one in the back comes out to help? It makes sense for guys to unite over common goals (titles, power, money, women, etc.) and do whatever it takes to accomplish their objectives.
WWE recently released a Blu-Ray entitled “Greatest Wrestling Factions,” but decided not to chump out and not rate them maybe out of fear of irate wrestling fanboys?
Fortunately, I have no such concerns so I’m breaking it down and ranking the Top 10 wrestling factions of all-time. With so many options, I had to establish a criterion:
1) Those up for consideration had to have a group name [which knocked out the Road Warriors/Super Powers alliance]
2) The faction had to regularly compete in matches together [eliminating The Heenan Family, which only united for Survivor Series matches]
3) Titles helped, but length of reign played just as significant a factor as how many titles were won.
4) The amount of time the faction stayed together and its impact on the promotion weighed heavily.
5) I had to have watched a number of their matches [apologies to any of the ROH factions I’ve only heard great things about but sadly have yet to watch. Ditto for New Japan’s Bullet Club]
Now, with that out of the way. On to the list!
memories.. wrestling on saturday before I got a job and become 100% obsessed with girls… then Nitro hit and girls were into wrestling at a all time high. It was literally water cooler talk on the bus ride Tuesday Morning. I still say ric flair for me is the greatest has he never had hogans muscle or early world wide sucess, but he was hell of a character. I mean even though I look back at it I probably wouldnt like the horsemen now and they were good villians. They kind of represent the good ol boy faction to a tee. But rick was great showman and it never got old when he blew his top and start screaming like he at a church revival. But yeah as a whole what NWO did for the “sport” cant be denied. Honestly they brought me back in. I havent been quite invested since early mid 00’s when all the legends just really couldnt perform that often as they did a decade ago. Plus all the new wrestler look like steroid using meatheads off the bat with boring or strange personas. Other than the rock stone cold and jericho. I kind of stop caring when they slowed down. Now I probably would go to a show but I cant follow it anymore. By the way I know you did review on the 2K wwe wrestling game. Is it worth getting. Sometimes I like to have a good wrestling game on deck as I no longer watch the shows.
Found it ;-)
Was getting a million spam comments so had to tighten the filters. Now I just need to make sure this doesn’t impact my regular commentators.
I’d consider them more of the 1% than the good ol boys. I like how they portrayed themselves as better than anyone else, but in the end they were the biggest thugs in the promotion.
I’m still amazed how many people left wrestling after Stone Cold and The Rock departed. Jericho had an all-time great feud with Shawn Michaels back in 2008. It had a great old school feel to it and they had some great matches as well. I’d highly recommend checking out that storyline, which got its start from HBK vs Ric Flair at Wrestlemania. It was the last great multi-layered angle from WWE until this recent Daniel Bryan storyline.
I really enjoyed the game and would recommend especially for old-school fans who will get a kick out of playing through all the memorable matches. The gameplay is kinda how it’s always been, but the legends make it worthwhile.
i left a comment but I guess i didnt save it or something. dammit. anywhy WOOOO!
That’s odd. Lemme check the spam folder.
they were the rich good ol boys… they exist trust me arn anderson looks like he is a foreman on some site or construction company. yet did get the message across of being better everyone. thats why sting made such a rival with him. young energetic hero vs the pompus rich ladies man. its just was hard to not like ric though
I started regularly watching NWA in late 87 right before Starrcade and I very quickly became a massive Sting fan thanks to his feud with the Horsemen.
now the free birds were definitely of the lynard skynard set lol. they were unforgettable but i i wanted to always lose. hell bam bam ran his mouth as much as p.s
Yeah he did, but he could back it up like few could back then!
that good ol mid south and nwa. makes me wish rick ross would quit rapping and become kamla.. and that shit was un pc. Its amazing how some things just wouldnt fly now
LOL.
That’s at least one of the few examples where wrestling is better today than back in the glory days.
p.s was called prissy sissy when they teased him i think lol or pms
Great list and plenty if memories of when wrestling was at its best (The Attitude Era). The only faction close today is the one you mentioned, The Shield, and they’ve self-destructed too!
Ben, if I wrote that list today I’d have swapped The Bullet Club in for The Shield. I’ve gotten hooked on watching their matches since they formed last year. Thanks for reading man!