The famed Attitude Era of World Wrestling Entertainment boasted a number of memorable stables featuring future Hall of Famers including D-Generation X, The Ministry of Darkness, and The Nation of Domination. But there are also a number of lesser-known factions that fans may remember from the era, including the biker-themed Disciples of Apocalypse, composed of Crush, Chainz, Skull, and 8-Ball.
Nicknamed DOA, the group existed from 1997 to 1999, so fans might not know much about the group. Let’s rectify that and cover everything that fans should know about Disciples of Apocalypse, including their origins and their most famous rivalry, which encompassed multiple factions.
10 Started With Crush’s Repackaging
Disciples of Apocalypse’s biker theme actually dates back to before the group even formed. In 1995, after a surprise return in the Royal Rumble, Crush — a.k.a. Brian Adams — was arrested in his home state of Hawaii for buying steroids and carrying an illegal gun. Following a public firing and a very real imprisonment, Crush was welcomed back into the WWE fold in 1996, but under a new gimmick as an ex-con biker, with Clarence Mason as his attorney/manager.
9 Spun Out of Crush’s Ousting From The Nation
Before long, Crush and Clarence Mason joined up with Faarooq, Savio Vega, and a host of others to form a heel faction called the Nation of Domination. While the group did indeed prove to be a formidable force as they feuded with the Legion of Doom and Ahmed Johnson, eventually tensions between Crush and Savio Vega would cost Faarooq a huge match against the Undertaker, resulting in Faarooq firing nearly the entire Nation, with the only remaining members being himself and D’Lo Brown.
8 Gang Wars
Following the mass-ousting of the major of the Nation, Crush formed his own faction in response, the Disciples of Apocalypse, with Skull, 8-Ball and their real-life cousin Chainz. Meanwhile, Savio Vega formed his own group, the all Puerto Rican Los Boricuas, while Faarooq replenished the Nation with several black wrestlers.
With two splinter groups formed in the ashes of the Nation of Domination shakeup, a full-on racially charged gang war among the three groups ensued in an angle commonly referred to as Gang Wars.
7 Gang Wars Ended In A Triple Threat
Over the three months that followed, the Nation of Domination, Los Boricuas, and Disciples of Apocalypse had a number of clashes and skirmishes, including at SummerSlam and Friday Night’s Main Event. The angle would only end when the three leaders — Faarooq, Savio Vega, and Crush — had a final showdown at Ground Zero: In Your House in September 1997 in the form of a triple threat match. After an 11-minute bout, Savio Vega would ultimately win the Gang War by pinning Crush while Faarooq was incapacitated.
6 Feuded With Other Groups As Well
Disciples of Apocalypse’s exploits weren’t just limited to warring with the two above factions. Rather, they fought with various other groups, including the Truth Commission as led by the Jackyl (a.k.a. Don Callis) followed by Jackyl’s following group, the Oddities. They also had several shots at tag team gold, albeit unsuccessful ones, taking on the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express for the NWA World Tag Team Title during the NWA invasion angle and challenging the New Age Outlaws for the WWE tag belts on three televised occasions.
5 Crush Quit WWE Over The Montreal Screwjob
The original lineup of Disciples of Apocalypse would last until the fall of 1997, with Crush departing the company over something unrelated to his aforementioned trouble with the law. Rather, it was the infamous Montreal Screwjob that did it for Crush. While he wasn’t involved in the incident, he objected to the decision to legitimately screw Bret Hart out of the championship, and opted to jump ship to rival WCW, which was beating WWE in the ratings anyway.
4 Came Out On Custom Motorcycles
As one might expect from a biker themed faction, Disciples of Apocalypse regularly came to the ring riding on motorcycles, much like the Undertaker would shortly after DOA broke up. Whenever they came out, commentators would note that DOA were riding custom bikes from the Titan Motorcycle Company.
Because Titan Sports was the name of Vince McMahon’s company that owned WWE, one might assume that Titan Motorcycle Company was related, but it actually was not. Founded in the mid-1990s and lasting until the 2000s, Titan was known for being the first company to mass-produce custom bikes.
3 Chainz Took Over Leadership After Crush
Crush’s departure from DOA and WWE at large did not spell the end for the faction. Instead, leadership was taken over by Chainz — a.k.a. Brian Lee, who famously portrayed the impostor Undertaker — while Crush was written off of television due to a kayfabe injury from Kane. From there, Chainz functioned as the singles wrestler of the group while Skull and 8-Ball were the designated tag team, though as a trio they’d have clashes with Los Boricuas and the Nation again, as well as D-Generation X and the Truth Commission.
2 Managed By Paul Ellering
The year 1998 saw legendary manager Paul Ellering return to WWE to reunite with the Legion of Doom, who at that point had been repackaged as LOD 2000. But their reunion wouldn’t last for long, as Ellering would ditch Hawk, Animal, and Droz to manage Disciples of Apocalypse instead. A feud between the two groups ensued with several matches on Raw, but Ellering struggled to work heel against his long-time clients, and ended up returning to managing LOD.
1 Skull & 8-Ball Have Been Accused Of Being Nazi Sympathizers
There has been a long-time association of biker gangs with white supremacist movements, and such association ended up following two members of Disciples of Apocalypse after their 1999 departure from WWE. Outside of WWE, twins Skull and 8-Ball are known as Don and Ron Harris, respectively, and have been accused of being Nazi sympathizers in recent years due to both of them having covered-up SS tattoos and Don Harris infamously wearing an SS T-shirt on one of Impact Wrestling’s early weekly pay-per-views. In the late 2010s, the Harris Twins’ company Aro Lucha publicly addressed the allegations, claiming that the imagery was employed in the interest of keeping kayfabe.