Stables in wrestling have dated back to the very early beginnings with the Gold Dust Trio of "Strangler" Ed Lewis, Billy Sandow, and Joseph "Toots" Mondt. A wrestling stable is a group of three or more wrestlers that appear together as a part of a "team". Oftentimes these stables will include a manager, valet, or non-competitor who will usually be ring-side for their matches often helping them to win.
Stables, because their numerical advantage, are usually heelish in nature working to outnumber the babyface wrestler who has to face overcome insurmountable odds by not only facing his opponent but the other members of his opponent's stable.
10 Evolution
In the early 2000s, Triple H established himself as the top heel of Monday Night Raw as a part of the Evolution. Alongside the legendary Ric Flair, Triple H aligned himself with former Ohio Valley Wrestling talents Batista and the third generation wrestler Randy Orton. The stable helped Triple H win multiple WWE World Heavyweight title reigns, with Orton winning the Intercontinental title, and Batista and Flair winning the tag team titles.
The team began to splinter after Orton defeated Chris Benoit to win his first WWE Heavyweight title. Triple H regained the title at Unforgiven, with Batista and Flair interfering in the match to help Triple H. Batista then won the Royal Rumble and would challenge Triple H for the title at WrestleMania 21.
9 Corporate Ministry
During the late '90s, the WWE was dominated by a variety of different factions. Stables like DX, The Hart Foundation, Nation of Domination, The Truth Commission, Los Boricuas, as well as the Corporation and the Ministry of Darkness. The latter two of which merged to form the incredible Corporate Ministry stable.
The stable included the likes of Mr. McMahon, Shane McMahon, the Undertaker, Triple H, Chyna, Big Boss Man, and the legendary APA tag team of Bradshaw and Farooq. The Corporate Ministry was heavily involved in feuds between Mr. McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin, with McMahon eventually revealing himself to be the leader of the group which had previously been alluded to as the "higher power"
8 Radicalz
During the Monday Night Wars between WCW and WWE, wrestlers jumped ship from promotion to promotion. Despite WCW winning in the ratings, four top wrestlers jumped from the promotion to WWE. Despite just winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship Chris Benoit abruptly left the company alongside Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko, and Eddie Guerrero.
The four were sat at the front row of an episode of Raw Is War and interfered with a match between the New Age Outlaws and the team of Al Snow and Steve Blackman. It turns out that the group was invited by Mick Foley. The group would win multiple titles during their time in WWE.
7 D- Generation X
Like many stables, D-Generation X, or DX, had a few iterations. The first iteration was led by Shawn Michaels and included Triple H, Chyna, and Rick Rude. The group would later include Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, X-Pac, and briefly Mike Tyson. The stable would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2019.
The group is largely credited as having some of the best segments towards the end of the Monday Night Wars. More importantly, the group memorably turned up outside a stadium hosting WCW Nitro and staged a mock invasion. The group arrived on a jeep and spoke to fans waiting outside the arena.
6 CHAOS
For those who haven't watched Japanese wrestling, and New Japan Pro Wrestling in general, you may not be aware of the CHAOS faction. The faction is currently led by Kazuchika Okada, but also includes Rocky Romero, Will Ospreay, and Australians Robbie Eagles and Mikey Nicholls. Okada has dominated New Japan, holding the IWGP Heavyweight title 5-times from 2012 to 2020.
The group also included former IWGP champion Shinsuke Nakamura, and Gaijin wrestlers like Beretta, Brian Kendrick, Chuckie T, Davey Richards, Giant Bernard, Jay White, Karl Anderson, and Low Ki.
5 New World Order
The New World Order, or NWO, was the most powerful stable in WCW and is widely accredited from helped the promotion become the most must-see event on Monday evenings. Starting with the trio of Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Hulk Hogan. Nash and Hall were originally called The Outsiders, but after Hogan stated the trio was the "New World Order" of Wrestling that became the group's name.
Soon, the group began to involve more and more wrestlers, including several former WWE wrestlers like X-Pac, Ted DiBiase, Virgil, Curt Hennig, and Rick Rude. The group also spread to Japan and was split between NWO Hollywood and NWO Wolfpac. In 2002, Hogan, Hall, and Nash returned to WWE as the NWO.
4 Four Horsemen
Ric Flair is considered one of the biggest stars in professional wrestling and was generally seen as the NWA and WCW's answer to Hulk Hogan. During his many reigns as champion, Flair was often backed by a group of fellow wrestlers called the Four Horsemen. The original group consisted of Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Ole Anderson, and Arn Anderson with JJ Dillon serving as their manager. The group has been reformed several times, with Ric Flair always being a key member.
Not only has the Four Horsemen helped Flair to achieve his legendary career, but the group spawned the Xtreme Horsemen of MLW, the Four Horsewomen of UFC, and the Four Horsewomen in WWE which included Ric's daughter Charlotte.
3 Bullet Club
While NJPW's CHAOS stable may be the promotions biggest stable, its biggest rival has undoubtedly been the incredibly popular Bullet Club stable. Bullet Club was first started in 2013 by Prince Devit, who now wrestlers as Finn Balor in WWE. Balor was joined by Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, and Karl Anderson.
After Balor departed NJPW, Anderson, and AJ Styles led the faction. This was followed by the leadership of Kenny Omega before the stable broke apart and formed Bullet Club OG and Bullet Club Elite. The Bullet Club wasn't just a faction in New Japan but also appeared for promotions like CMLL, ROH, PWG, Rev Pro, as well as other smaller independent promotions. Former member Luke Gallows claimed on a podcast that NXT and AEW would not exist if not for the Bullet Club.
2 The Elite
The Elite undoubtedly started as a part of the Bullet Club stable, but split from the group and has become a thing all unto itself. The Elite includes Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks, Adam Page, and Cody Rhodes. The stable worked across a variety of promotions from 2016 to 2018. The group used YouTube, specifically the Being The Elite channel, to document their lives as wrestlers and grow their popularity.
The faction outgrew their former homes and launched their wrestling promotion, All Elite Wrestling in 2019. Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, and The Young Bucks are all listed as Executive Vice Presidents of the promotion and have been heavily involved in running the promotion. Not many factions have done that.
1 Fabulous Freebirds
How many wrestling stables have an industry-wide rule made after them? That certainly is the case when it comes to The Fabulous Freebirds. The group was made up of Michael Hayes, Buddy Roberts, Terry Gordy, and Jimmy Garvin. The group won various tag titles across several NWA affiliated promotions, especially World Class Championship Wrestling.
The group popularized stables in professional wrestling. The Freebird Rule allowed various members of the stable that held tag team belts to represent the team. Other teams to utilize the Freebird rules include the likes of the NWO Wolfpac, Demolition, and the New Day.