The Greatest Pro Wrestling Stable Of All Time?

[Tommy!]

A favourite of mine is the NOD, I don't know what it is exactly but from the start right through to the dying days of the amazing Mizark and D-Lo team with the Rocks lead and everything else in-between I liked them. They weren't the best ever but I liked them.

 

I liked all the runs of the horsemen with the exception of the 93 set with Paul Roma in it.

 

The nwo goes without saying I think, just amazing at its best.

[EdgarTheSlouch]

A favourite of mine is the NOD, I don't know what it is exactly but from the start right through to the dying days of the amazing Mizark and D-Lo team with the Rocks lead and everything else in-between I liked them. They weren't the best ever but I liked them.

 

I liked all the runs of the horsemen with the exception of the 93 set with Paul Roma in it.

 

The nwo goes without saying I think, just amazing at its best.

 

Including 99/2000 and WWE NWO>?

[air_raid]

The nwo goes without saying I think, just amazing at its best.

 

Including 99/2000 and WWE NWO>?

 

Ummm...

 

The nwo goes without saying I think, just amazing at its best.

 

No, I don't think he meant those periods.

[TheBigBoot]

D-Generation X from the moment HBK left and X-Pac and The Outlaws joined. May not have had the impact of the nWo or The Horsemen, but there were the most entertaining as far as I'm concerned.

 

I think that's a valid point and for me in terms of pure fun I don't think anyone can top the original Freebirds, for largely the same reasons people liked DX - they were anti-authority punks who caused havoc everywhere they went. I liked that version of DX at the time as well and those factions really weren't a million miles in terms of attitude the only difference for me is that Gordy and (arguably) Buddy Jack were better workers than any DX member and Hayes was certainly a better promo guy (probably Top Ten of all time really) than them, much as I liked Road Dogg.

 

I think there are a few ways of looking at it: impact on the business is the obvious one (nWo, etc.), pure entertainment another (like if you really loved lWo or something even though they never really made a dent in the industry) but for me it's a combination of i. A bunch of people I enjoyed together; ii. People who had good chemistry together.

 

The Dangerous Alliance, The Hart Foundation and the first three incarnations of The Four Horsemen hit the first criteria best in terms of bringing together a bunch of guys I enjoyed. The actual formations of the first two, the choices of talent and their clear aims at the time were two of the best U.S. wrestling storylines I've ever seen and probably in the top three since I started watching regularly (early 1988) alongside the Mega-Powers split.

 

The Horsemen did that as well but in terms of having chemistry together I'd put them on a higher level at least in terms of promos. With the Horsemen I wasn't really watching them at that point and only got to know them through their later incarnations but seeing it in retrospect it still great fun to watch. I liked the way Flair, Arn, Tully and Dillon were so good together that you could alter the (Ole/Luger/Windham) fourth Horsemen spot and they really never skipped a beat until the later three moved 'Up North'. It's testament to how good they were that even though they had some of my favourite workers in their in later years, the Flair/Arn/Tully dynamic just worked so well for me that I can't get into the non-Blanchard versions as much. Flair was always the star and Arn was always the Enforcer but I think he and Dillon were more important to the group than a lot of people realise.

 

If it is Greatest Stable in terms of having in-ring chemistry I'd go for The Fabulous Freebirds or Kae En Tai partly because I loved the dynamic of having Terry Gordy/Dick Togo as the heavy hitter guy with the big finish.

 

The other three were good in that respect as well, although IIRC for the most part they seemed to stick to singles/tag/six-man matches rather than having all faction members involved as a unit at the same time. When they did it was great however (see: WrestleWar '92; IYH: Canadian Stampede).

 

The only bad thing about this thread is that I was looking forward to SmackDown! (which has been good all year) tonight but it made me realise there aren't any wrestlers around, at least on the mainstream level as cool as Rude, Bret, Flair, Austin, Tully, Double A, Pillman, Hayes, B.J. Roberts, Gordy, Togo, X-Pac, Dogg and Barry Windham anymore.

[The Gaffer]

No love for The X-Factor?

 

It's the nWo and DX all the way for me. I respect the greatness of the Horsemen and the Hart Foundation but watching them back on DVD doesn't do them justice compared to being a fanatic kid who was watching every week when the nWo and DX were kicking ass in their respective heydays.

[Jetta's G-string]

Evolution for me, cool as fuck

[hbk4life]

The original NWO. They were just awesome, i'd look forward to seeing what they'd do every week, it was a great time to be a wrestling fan. I miss those days.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

DX in 1998/99 were brilliant. Triple H, Chyna, The New Age Outlaws and X-Pac were all so popular with the fans and were great for so many different reasons. They all looked great together and everyone wanted to hang out with them or be them, which is perfect for a gang in wrestling. They were legit draws as well. They'd sell out house shows if they were on top against someone.

 

The Hart Foundation was just a brilliant concept. To get all the family together to fight against the same thing after years of feuding was something special. It might be taken for granted now, but the whole idea of being a heel in one country and a face everywhere else was novel at the time. Some of the reactions were out of this world, from a popularity and a hatred point of view.

 

But for me the New World Order remains the best stable for me. I was only just watching the other night, an episode of Nitro where Sting is in the ring and he has Hogan shit scared, so the nWo come down as back up. You had Hogan, Hall, Nash, Savage, X-Pac, Bischoff, Muta and Chono all stalking Sting to attack him. Some massive names their. It had so much star power at the time. The interviews, the promo videos, the logo, the imagary was unlike anything seen at the time. It was a massive success in Japan and the US as well. It was amazing to see the angle unfold as each week passed.

[CleetusVanDamme]

 

 

Deserves some love too. Cracking stable.

[Richie Freebird]

No love for the dungeon of doom boys? Obviously not the single greatest faction ever but worth a mention due to providing some gripping feuds and mini feuds in the early days of Nitrto.

 

Ah, Nitro. How I miss you girl.

[PowerButchi]

 

Just super!

[sgmilne]

The Hart Foundation for me.

 

As a stable they were more believable than others because of their real life connection to each other.

[air_raid]

 

Needs more Meng.

[TheBigBoot]

Now if it was the Memphis version of Jimmy Hart's First Family I'd agree.

 

Never thought of groups like that or the Heenan Family when I responded to this but if they count then I'd add both to my list: in terms of individual talent you really can't beat those groups even if someone like Heenan's Family didn't work as a team as much as say Kae En Tai or DX. Throw in Devastation Incorporated and J-Tex Corporation as well. Cracking manager led stables.

 

That bit mentioned earlier about nWo 2000 and WWE nWo that and some of the other WCW stuff just put me off them in the same way I could understand the multiple Horsemen incarnations doing that for some but for me they never did. Even at his worst in-ring or nuttiest on the mike WCW Flair was always entertaining (I actually agree with Cleetus about Magnificent Seven being good and a lot of that was nutty Flair) to me and didn't stop being so until he went back to WWF/E. I wouldn't argue against the nWo's commercial success, but in terms of personal favourites I just got bored with them after a while which is the only reason I didn't list them.

 

There were certain things I loved about them. I agree with Ian about the logo and theme music, both of which may be the best (or near it) I've seen/heard in wrestling. Those black and white promos are some of my favourite things from 90's wrestling. The first few months were some of my favourite TV at the time.

 

In terms of point i. ("A bunch of people I enjoyed together") above they fit the bill: Randy Savage was probably my favourite wrestler at that point, Curt Hennig is another guy there isn't anyone right now as cool as, probably one of the bigger marks on here for Giant/Show, I've called Bossman "the most underrated wrestler ever" in the past, X-Pac I talked about above, Vicious & Delicious were a cool Power & Glory style heel team (and in fact I preferred them to The Outsiders), etc.

 

I just gradually got bored of it to the extent I got bored with it and wouldn't really fancy watching it back. I'll always be a WCW fan but by '97 I was way more into The Hart Foundation/Steve Austin feud.

 

I think I liked them more as a 'concept' than in practice.

[Magnum]

Although I love the Horsemen and Evolution, it's the nWo for me. I don't think any stable has ever had the aura and ability to dominate a show they had in the first couple of years. Despite the later flop reboots involving the likes of Horace Hogan and the Harris Brothers, the aura still remained to the extent that it created an incredible buzz when their arrival in the WWF was announced. It fucked up because of the refusal to let the nWo actually act like the nWo.

 

Also, I think I'm in the minority here, but my favourite version of DX was the late 99-200 heel incarnation. I've always preferred heel stables, and I'd been waiting to see a real heel version of DX since they abruptly turned face a couple of weeks after X-Pac and the Outlaws first joined. Maybe I think differently to most on this topic because I was a huge HHH fan during his initial world title push while most were saying he bored them, but I loved angles like interrupting Steph's wedding, breaking Test's nose every week, the X-Pac/Torrie Christmas story, and the semi-corporate DX that emerged during the McMahon/Helmsley era. They probably had more individual star power during the babyface run, but I preferred them as Triple H's attack dogs. I thought they got the balance right between knowing the hierarchy of the stable without turning the lower members into complete bitches like Legacy.

 

The Corporation would be in here too if it ever had a consistent lineup. Vince, Rock and Shamrock were generally great in the roles they played, but you can see Russo's ADHD booking in the constant turns and recruitment in and out of the corporation - pretty much exactly the same way he's fannied about with the Immortal/Fourtune heel/face lines over the last few months.