There have been a lot of attempts in the last decade to form some supergroup in wrestling. Whether it’s just a trio of guys or some massive pack, factions have worked well in wrestling to elevate some guys up. A few have been better than others. Fans may have disliked the Authority, but at least they pushed storylines. The same went for TNA and Immortal. Sadly, too many factions have been formed that made little real impact and even hurt the standing of the guys in them. For every stable that becomes a massive mainstream hit and sells merchandise, there’s another whose t-shirts the company couldn’t give away.
It’s easy to simply look at WWE and TNA but the last decade has seen scores of factions in ROH and overseas as well. Many do a fantastic job turning no-names into stars and making them enormous deals for fans. Others succeed in dominating a promotion to be major deals. Then there are others who sink fast and become absolute jokes. A few fall apart under their own weight, while others were bad ideas to begin with. Here are the 5 best and 5 worst factions wrestling has presented in the last decade to show not every group succeeds as well as others.
10 WORST: 3MB
Given that two of these guys went on to become world champions, this stable’s failure is even more epic. Heath Slater, Drew McIntyre, and Jinder Mahal were all struggling in the mid-card, so WWE put them together as a “Three Man Band.” Doing very bad air guitar moves, the trio were little more than fodder for others, including being destroyed by Brock Lesnar.
They made no impact before Mahal and McIntyre were released in 2014. Both would later return with McIntyre NXT champ and Mahal WWE champ while Slater had some tag title runs. Yet this is a Band reunion few are asking for.
9 BEST: Los Ingobernables
They may not get much press in the U.S., but Los Ignorernables has been the hottest faction Mexican wrestling has seen in years. Since 2014, this group has dominated CMLL and AULL with multiple title reigns. They’ve also expanded to ROH and NJPW, which has its own separate chapter of the stable.
La Mascara was the leader, but Rush has taken over and arguably the best heel headliners in his nation. Any faction that can dominate for years on separate sides of the globe has to rank as one of the best of the last decade.
8 WORST: The Social Outcasts
Sometimes, tossing a bunch of guys together into a team works out. This was not one of those times. Formed in 2016, the Social Outcasts comprised of Heath Slater, Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel, and Adam Rose. All four complained of their poor treatment and going into fights while using social media to their advantage.
Rose was soon let go over some legal issues to leave the rest of the group weaker. Their wins were few and far between, and the group was disbanded in just a few months. It looks like they were real outcasts for the fans.
7 BEST: The Shield
The massive solo success of its three members proves how effective the Shield was. Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, and Dean Ambrose were the first big NXT guys to make a splash on the main roster and did so in grand fashion. Rollins and Reigns were tag champions while Ambrose was U.S. champ, and the trio crushed everyone in their path.
They did split, but it led to the great moment of Money in the Bank 2016, where all three held the WWE title in the same night. Their later reunions were terrific as this faction helped form the modern WWE main event scene.
6 WORST: The Cosmic Wasteland
With a last name like that, it’s no surprise this turned out to be bad. Cody Rhodes had been a great talent in WWE, but rather than push him as a top heel, they saddled him with the horrible Stardust character. In late 2015, he was paired with the Ascension, who rank high on the lists of “NXT stars turned main roster duds.”
It looked like they were joined up solely for the makeup they all wore. You could count on one hand the number of victories they had as they just didn’t stand out. Little wonder Cody left WWE not long after this.
5 BEST: The Bullet Club
It’s gone through numerous members and iterations, but the Bullet Club has to rank as one of the most prominent stables of the last decade. Just look at a list of its members: Finn Balor, AJ Styles, Adam Cole, Kenny Omega, Marty Scrull, Gallows and Anderson, the Young Bucks, and several of Japan’s top young stars.
Whether in Japan, ROH, or the indies, the Club has excelled in dominating the wrestling scene and providing fans with incredible matches. The Club is still going strong overseas and made its mark on the wrestling scene.
4 WORST: The League of Nations
This should have worked. Sheamus, Alberto del Rio, Rusev, and Wade Barrett were all imposing heels, so coming together as a group should have made a formidable stable. For some reason, the quartet never clicked as a unit. Their interviews were rough, and they came off more as hired thugs than a faction standing on their own.
It didn’t help when at Mania they got destroyed by Stone Cold, HBK, and Mick Foley. Then Barrett got hurt and eventually released, and the whole group disbanded fast. None of them worked out, and this League was a waste of cool theme song.
3 BEST: The New Day
In 2014, Kofi Kingston and Big E were both lost in the mid-card and likely to be fired from WWE. They were tossed with Xavier Woods, and their “heel gospel group” act didn’t click. But the New Day soon transformed into one of the most dominant teams in WWE history. They set the record for the longest tag title reign ever and have scored more belts since.
Fans have loved their wild antics and pushing them on. The topper was how Kofi used the popularity to become WWE champion. Five years is a long time for a wrestling faction to last, but the New Day continues to shine.
2 WORST: Aces & Eights
There was a kernel of a decent idea in Aces & Eights. A massive pack of motorcycle-themed wrestlers trying to bring chaos to TNA could have worked. The problem was that the group was too large and mostly filled with bad workers. The reveal of Bully Ray as the leader sparked it a bit, and Bully was good as the heel champion.
But the storyline dragged on far too long and adding Ken Anderson while dropping Garett Bischoff didn’t work. The whole thing died with a whimper to close out a faction weak even by TNA standards.
1 BEST: The Undisputed Era
The Undisputed Era are the kings of NXT. After years together on the indie circuit, Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, and Bobby Fish joined NXT in 2017 and have dominated the brand ever since. The Era kicked it up when Roderick Strong turned heel to join them and make them even better.
They’ve competed in every WWE War Games, and currently, Cole is NXT champion, Strong the North American champ and O’Reilly and Fish have the tag titles. Not since Evolution or the Four Horsemen has a quartet had such control over their brand and genuinely “shocked the system.”