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. And then there’s the added bonus of completing the storyline cycle by having members depart and ultimately feud with their former allies. Throughout wrestling, there have been some legendary factions, and I’d argue that post-1983, if a wrestler wasn’t in a faction at some point, they weren’t ever going to be main-event players.
WWE recently released a Blu-Ray entitled Greatest Wrestling Factions but decided 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 5 wrestling factions of all time.
5. The Hart Foundation
Roster at its peak: Bret “Hitman” Hart, Owen Hart, “The British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith, Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart, and “Flyin” Brian Pillman
Best match: vs. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Ken Shamrock, Golddust, and The Legion of Doom at In Your House: Canadian Stampede. Watch this to see the last great triumphant moment for The Hart Family and one of those most unique crowds in a wrestling match.
Growing more disgusted with the American wrestling fans who cheered for the same villains he dedicated his career to defeating, Bret Hart embodied the famous line from The Dark Knight where “you either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain.” Turning on the American fans, Hart ended his years-long feud with his brother Owen and brother-in-law Davey Boy Smith to stop the menace of “Stone Cold” for good. Austin proved a stronger opponent than expected, so Hart recruited his former partner Neidhart and longtime family friend Brian Pillman to join the crusade. And even when Bret was injured and had to play Professor X, it led to a fun cat-and-mouse angle with Austin. The Hart Foundation is the most unique faction I’ve seen because of the brilliant angle where they respected the non-American fans, who treated them like conquering heroes, while they would be lustily booed out of the building anywhere in America. That hatred only intensified as the Harts captured the world title, tag title, intercontinental title, and European title to hold all the available WWF titles at the time.
Of the numerous reasons to hate the Montreal Screwjob, you can add being deprived more matches with the Hart Foundation and The Nation of Domination and the surging D-Generation X. There’s tons of “what ifs?” you could take from it, but just from a purely wrestling standpoint, faction fans really lost out when Vince screwed Bret.
4. The Dangerous Alliance
Roster at its peak: “Ravishing” Rick Rude, “Stunning” Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Larry Zbysko, “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton, Madusa, and Paul E. Dangerously
Best match: vs. Sting’s Squadron (Sting, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, Nikita Koloff, Barry Windham, and Dustin Rhodes) at WrestleWar (May 17, 1992). Watch this to witness a WCW classic.
After being fired as an announcer, Paul E. Dangerously vowed revenge on WCW for humiliating him. To accomplish that goal, he was going to destroy WCW’s heroes starting with the franchise and U.S. champion Sting. Dangerously assembled a faction that featured WCW’s brightest stars in what you could consider a precursor to Evolution with Zbysko and Eaton representing the past, Anderson and Rude representing the present, and Austin representing the future.
The D.A. was one of the most reliable factions from a wrestling standpoint, as well as every member could have at least a three-star match against practically anyone on WCW’s roster en route to their blow-off match against Sting’s Squadron in War Games, which remains one of my all-time favorite matches. Had Rude held the WCW world title for the length of his U.S. title reign and Austin, in turn, was the U.S. champ during the D.A.’s heyday, they would no question be in the Top 3.
3. D-Generation X
Roster at its peak: Triple H, Billy Gunn, Road Dogg, X-Pac, and Chyna
Best match: vs. The Rock, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Kane, and Shane McMahon <Elimination Match> – Smackdown. Watch this to see an Attitude Era street fight featuring some of that era’s biggest stars.
This was the result I found most surprising as I worked on the list, but there’s no denying DX’s influence on not just WWF/WWE, but on wrestling in general. Founding members Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna (with an assist from Rick Rude) embodied the Attitude Era before it even had a name and held the world and European titles before Michaels got injured, leading Triple H to form the classic version of the faction.
There, they quickly got into a Turf War with The Nation of Domination leading to great matches showcasing the WWF’s future Hall of Famers. They advanced to battling The Corporation before betrayals split the team. As Triple H began ascending to world champion, he realized he was too hasty in leaving his allies, and the group reformed and became the dominant force in the WWF as the backbone of the McMahon-Helmsley-era with Triple H as the world champ and The New Age Outlaws as the tag champs.
And when that version disbanded, Triple H had another DX revival with Michaels that went on to capture the world tag team titles and become a strong force in the late 2000s WWE in feuds against the McMahons, The Spirit Squad, and Rated RKO.
2. The Four Horsemen
Roster at its peak: Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, and Barry Windham (with J.J. Dillon)
Best match: vs. The Road Warriors, Paul Ellering, Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff at The Great American Bash (July 4, 1987). Watch this to see one of the greatest matches in NWA history, with a rabid audience demanding Horsemen blood.
The epitome of a faction and the one that influenced every one that followed it. Built on the premise of power, money, and women, the Horsemen were so hated because they represented everything the majority of the fans in the mid-’80s could never attain on their own, and they constantly bragged about their wardrobe, jets, women, and how none of the heroes in the NWA could take their titles. No matter if it was Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, The Road Warriors, Ronnie Garvin, Lex Luger, and Sting, setbacks were a mere blip for the Horsemen who set the standard for faction excellence. And they weren’t afraid of getting real dirty, like attacking opponents in dressing rooms or parking lots and breaking rivals’ hands to get an advantage, either making them braggarts who could back up their actions in and out of the ring as needed.
While the best roster wasn’t around for long (thanks to NWA execs foolishly opting not to pay Anderson and Blanchard what they were worth), it is so highly regarded because it clearly represented their motto of being the best thing (in wrestling) going today.
1. New World Order
Roster at its peak: “Hollywood” Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, The Giant, Ted DiBiase, Syxx, Vincent, n.W.o. Sting, Michael Wallstreet, Big Bubba, Buff Bagwell, and Scott Norton
Best match: World War 3 (Nov. 24, 1996). Watch this to see how a faction should handle battle royals!
I probably flip-flopped between the n.W.o. and the Four Horsemen a few dozen times, but ultimately the n.W.o. won out for nearly accomplishing what the Horsemen could never manage — it almost ran the WWE out of business and made wrestling cool on a mainstream level. Part gang, part dominate promotion at all costs, the n.W.o. was all about making being the bad guy cool. I know my roster misses out on worthwhile future additions like Curt Hennig and “Macho Man” Randy Savage, but I loved the imposing visual of The Giant and Nash bookending Hogan, Hall, and Syxx, and their reign of terror was at its peak when they took over Nitro and left everyone in their wake. The early incarnation of the group fully understood the gang/faction mentality of everyone watching each other’s back as best seen in their World War 3 match. Yes, the whole thing went on forever and soon everyone and their mother became a member of the n.W.o., but for those first few months were really too sweet.
Curious about who just missed the cut? Check out my full Top 10 list here.