Wrestling Stables

Over the years there have been several wrestling stables, factions, armies and families.

For the wrestling fan, it is rare that there is not a wrestling stable in any given organization. For the unlearned in the lingo a stable is a group of wrestlers that have formed to run roughshod or to dominate. Over the years we have seen Gary Hart's Army, Skandor Akbar's Army, the Hart Foundation, The Fabulous Freebirds, the Four Horsemen, NWO, Team Canada just to name a few.

Most probably would not remember Gary Hart or Skandor Akbar's groups, but I would almost bet the average wrestling fan has heard of the Four Horsemen and NWO. The Horsemen were a dominate force in the now defunct WCW/NWA. That group originally consisted of Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard and Ole Anderson. Of course the Nature Boy was the NWA world champion and Tully and Arn held various tag team and singles championships during their dominance. They feuded with Dusty Rhodes, Sting and others. There were other members of the Horsemen, but the original group was the elite.

The NWO began when Scott Hall came onto the Nitro set and confronted Eric Bischoff and the other announcers stating that the big guy would be here soon. A couple of weeks later out comes Kevin Nash. Together they formed the Outsiders. At the PPV Hulk Hogan came out to "save the day" in typical Hogan style, but lo and behold he was the ring leader and turned heel. Spray painting NWO on the back of their slain opponents.

This obviously created a ratings bonanza for the WCW program. The NWO began to recruit other members and at one time had the former X pac who was renamed Syxx, Scott Norton, Scott Steiner Bret Hart came on board and there were others. This group seemed unstoppable.

Several years ago we had Evolution in WWE, consisting of Ric Flair, Triple H, Randy Orton and Batista. It represented the past (Flair), the present (Triple H), and the future (Orton) of wrestling, Batista was the enforcer. Randy Orton captured the WWE championship and with Triple H's thirst for gold, it didn't set well. Orton was ousted and after that the group basically disassembled. Flair has moved on to another promotion, Orton has become one of the top stars of the WWE, Batista has captured a few world championships and Triple H is on the injured reserve for now.

In the WWE up until a few weeks ago they had the stable known as Legacy, made up of Cody Rhodes, Ted Dibiase Jr. and led by Randy Orton. In the last month, that has ended and all have gone on to separate paths in pursuits of wrestling glory. The biggest thing currently to a stable in the WWE is The Hart Dynasty, David Hart Smith, Tyson Kidd and Natalya Neidhart. I would not actually call them a stable, but merely a tag team, but they are the unifed tag team champions.

TNA recently had the Main Event Mafia, consisting of former world champions, Kurt Angle, Sting, Scott Steiner, Booker T, and Kevin Nash. It lasted for about a year, but now that stable has folded. A short lived stable in TNA was the World Elite, consisting of Eric Young, Brutus Magnus, Rob Terry and Doug Williams. They were a decent stable, but they have imploded as well with Magnus practically non existent, Rob Terry as the Global champion, and Doug Williams recently holding the X division title.

There will be others in the wrestling future and some will make an impact while others will barely stir the dust so to speak. I'm just excited to continue watching and seeing how all this transpires.