Stables are a fundamental piece of wrestling storytelling. Despite rumors that Vince McMahon is reticent about having too many factions, groups like The Heenan Family, D-generation X, Evolution, and The Shield have left an indelible mark on WWE mythology.
Not every stable represents a success story, though. For every breakaway group that anchors great angles and sets up Hall of Fame careers, there are those groups that don’t connect with fans, lack chemistry, suffer from bad creative decisions, or fall victim to injuries. This article takes a look back at ten WWE stables that failed and where the members have gone since.
10 The Two Man Power Trip
There’s a sense in which it’s hard to call The Two Man Power Trip a failure. A newly heel Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H in his prime, with Vince McMahon’s backing, was a potent combination.
However, before they could see their story through to any sort of completion — let alone the rumored climax of Triple H turning face to challenge Austin at WrestleMania X8 — The Game got injured. The trouble with a faction featuring only two active wrestlers is, if one goes down, the group is basically over. WWE pivoted to the Austin-led Alliance. Austin would go on to a couple more years as a featured talent before settling into his role as an ambassador and strong interviewer. Triple H, of course, carried on in the ring for a longer time, while also going on to his executive role.
9 The Corre
WWE splintered The Nexus in early 2011, with some of the original members and some new ones coalescing behind new leader CM Punk on Raw. Meanwhile, Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, and Heath Slater formed The Corre on SmackDown and recruited Ezekiel Jackson as their great big heater. The Corre more or less peaked in a Royal Rumble confrontation with their sibling group, and accomplished little of consequence as a unit.
Slater was the last Corre member left standing in WWE before his recent release. Barrett has continued in wrestling, but mostly only in speaking roles, while Jackson carried with short stints working for a variety of smaller promotions. Gabriel has been the steadiest in-ring worker, carrying forward with runs in TNA, Lucha Underground, NWA, and Impact Wrestling as PJ Black.
8 Team BAD
When WWE called up Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, and Sasha Banks to the main roster, they made the questionable choice to put them and most of the existing capable female talent into factions. Included among them was Team Beautiful and Dangerous, otherwise known as Team BAD.
Sasha Banks, Naomi, and Tamina felt thrown together. They were never meaningfully in the title mix and would eventually dissolve. The faction did offer something of a platform to introduce Banks on the main roster. That said, she would do much better on her own as a face character and more recently as a heel teamed with Bayley. Naomi would have a good run that included a SmackDown Women’s Championship win at WrestleMania 33, while Tamina has mostly been cast as an ineffectual monster heel.
7 The Spirit Squad
The idea of pushing a group of five young wrestlers as male cheerleaders does not exactly sound like a recipe for success. While The Spirit Squad did win the tag titles and even main evented a PPV opposite DX, in retrospect, they tend to feel like a joke that underserved the talents involved.
Out of the group, Kenny looked to be the breakout star, but he only had a middling solo run shortly after the group disbanded. He and Mikey have worked as a tag team on smaller stages a fair bit over the years to follow. Dolph Ziggler was the lone member to hang around WWE, emerging as a perennial upper card guy.
6 X-Factor
X-Factor featured X-Pac in a leadership role, teamed with A-Train and Justin Credible. While the group was full of talent, they were lacking a believable upper card guy and got lost in the shuffle as WWE transitioned to the Alliance angle.
Credible’s in-ring career would continue for over a decade to follow, mostly on smaller stages, though he did get a short run in WWE’s ECW. A-Train made the transition to a key role as the lead trainer at the WWE Performance Center. Meanwhile, after a tumultuous past, Sean Waltman’s life seems to have settled. He has most recently shown up on WWE television in cameos with DX and the nWo, including a Hall of Fame induction with the former and a planned induction with the latter at WrestleMania 36 that was derailed by COVID-19.
5 3MB
3MB was a very unusual stable if only for it spotlighting three guys once WWE seemed to have higher hopes for but had been reduced to comedy acts. While Heath Slater actually seemed suited for this type of role, Jinder Mahal and especially Drew McIntyre felt like they were taking a step back.
It’s remarkable to see where the members of the group have ended up. Slater was the only member continuously employed until 2020, marking a highly respectable decade long run with the company. By contrast, both Mahal and McIntyre went away, bettered themselves, and came back to beat the odds and wind up WWE Champions.
4 The Welcoming Committee
The Welcoming Committee was a thrown-together band of heels from the women’s division of SmackDown. Natalya, Carmella, Tamina, and Lana were resident talents of the blue brand who set forth to bully incoming faces from Raw and NXT. With little cohesion and no one the company was pushing, the group accomplished little.
All four women remained employed with WWE, though. While Tamina has mostly stayed in a supporting role, Natalya subsequently had her day in the sun with a SmackDown Women’s Championship reign, and Carmella would go on to become the first Ms. Money in the Bank. Lana has remained in reasonably prominent roles, though still primarily as a manager rather than a wrestler.
3 The League Of Nations
The League of Nations featured four heels, all past their WWE peaks, bound by the fact that they weren’t born in the US. Sheamus got a brief WWE Championship reign out of it, while the group beat New Day at WrestleMania 32. Otherwise, though, The League of Nations lacked direction and disappointed.
It wasn’t shocking that Wade Barrett and Alberto Del Rio were gone from WWE not too long after it, though they have continued their careers in different ways on smaller stages. Rusev lasted in WWE longer, but despite the popularity of his Rusev Day gimmick, WWE never got behind him again before releasing him earlier this year. Sheamus is the last man standing in WWE.
2 Vince’s Devils
Candice Michelle and Torrie Wilson represented a certain brand of women’s wrestler in WWE that had little in-ring ability. It made a fair degree of sense to put them together with Victoria, an uber-talented workhorse who could carry the load for the group in matches.
The group was silly and ineffectual, particularly for its flirtatious interactions with Vince McMahon that lent them their name. Victoria carried on wrestling at a high level, most notably for Impact Wrestling. Wilson got out of wrestling but found success as a fitness guru and garnered a Hall of Fame induction last year. Michelle too has left wrestling and is running her own online business.
1 Tons Of Funk
Tons of Funk saw Brodus Clay rally Lord Tensai and The Funkadactyls into a fun-loving four-person unit. The group accomplished little in their run before Clay turned heel on them.
Clay goes down as a big man who never realized his potential in the WWE system, though he’d continue to work at a high level for smaller promotions. Tensai went on to become the head trainer at WWE’s Performance Center, while Naomi has improved upon her standing as a featured wrestler in the women’s division. Cameron hung around WWE for a couple of years after this group dissolved, but never got to do much in WWE. She has taken a stab at a music career outside the wrestling business.