wrestling / Columns

The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 Short-Term Stables

September 21, 2015 | Posted by Mike Chin

Wrestling has its iconic stables. The Four Horsemen. The Dangerous Alliance. The NWO and DX. But for each of these groups that went through multiple incarnations with legacies that stretched across years and many-a-main event angle, there are others with far shorter stories that nonetheless had a major impact, or at least exhibited tremendous potential over a far more concise period.

This week’s column is dedicated to ranking the top seven short-term stables, arbitrarily defined as groups of wrestlers that stuck together as a coherent unit for at least one month but less than one year, only had one incarnation, and featured at least three active in-ring performers. Based on my own limited knowledge of wrestling abroad, I have also limited this list to stables based in North America.

#7. The Revolution

The Revolution was a pretty great concept for a stable in the latter days of WCW that, like so many decent ideas, wound up convoluted, confused, and ultimately dismissed. The core group consisited of Shane Douglas, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn, working a worked-shoot-ish gimmick as under-appreciated stars looking for a break. Think of it as a slightly more subtle, focused, talent-filled and manageable take on The New Blood stable that would follow. They also benefited from the correct face-heel alignment, as up and coming stars who were also good guys. Over the course of a half-year together, Benoit racked up new TV and US title reigns, and the group ended up taking on a vaguely anti-American slant, bringing in Asya to join their ranks and feuding with The Filthy Animals.

In many ways, I rank this stable based on potential—that given the talent involved, and particularly Benoit and Malenko in their primes, they could have been a pretty iconic group. As it stands, they toiled in the mid-card before three out of four of them defected to the WWF with Eddie Guerrero as The Radicalz, leaving behind the legacy of a stable hardly anyone remembers in any meaningful way.

#6. The Jersey Triad

The Jersey Triad featured the charismatic Diamond Dallas Page fresh off his first world title reign; Kanyon—an underrated mechanic with a flashy side; and one of the greatest superheavyweights of all time, just a bit past his prime, in Bam Bam Bigelow.

They united under a common banner in WCW in 1999, promptly won the tag titles, and went on to defend them under the somehow historically valid Freebirds rule in which any two out of three of them could represent the team. Together, the group was brash, easy to dislike, and had three component pieces who teamed up to entertain a wrestling audience by just about any measure available. Just the same, WCW was what it was. While the group got a few months as a unit to feud with Raven and Perry Saturn, then Chris Benoit and Saturn, they ultimately fell to Harlem Heat before going their separate ways and ultimately feuding with one another

#5. The Three Faces of Fear

The Three Faces of Fear may be best remembered as a forerunner to the Dungeon of Doom—a group of misfit, vaguely mystical heels whose primary binding factor was a distaste for Hulk Hogan. The group never accomplished all that much—racking up zero title reigns and, when you get down to it, markedly few victories of note. Just the same, in an era when WCW was desperately scraping to recreate the magic of 1980s Hulkamania, I’d argue this was about as close and fun as they ever got before scrapping nostalgia and starting a revolution via the nWo).

The Three Faces of Fear were Kevin Sullivan, Avalanche (John Tenta), and The Butcher (newly heel Brutus Beefcake, after turning on Hogan). Together, they had Sullivan as a more demonic poor man’s Bobby Heenan-style manager/wrestler, Avalanche as monster heel, and The Butcher as an admittedly fresh challenger for Hogan’s title, albeit the fact that I don’t think anyone imagined he’d ever actually beat The Hulkster. Avalanche had some good matches with Sting, Sullivan delivered some good promos, and this may be the only group on this countdown that—at four months together—more or less realized its full potential and split at the right time.

#4. The Brood

The Brood was Gangrel’s stable. The stable that gave rise to two of the greatest tag teams of all time. The stable that offered a platform for four budding stars who would all go on to world title reigns. And it was all built around Gangrel.

The stable’s only non-world champion. Likely the only member of the crew who will never enter the Hall of Fame.

I’m not including this entry to bash Gangrel, though, but rather to laud how much it did for Edge and Christian—his original compatriots under brood banner who rose through a ring of fire on the stage with him for one of the coolest entrances wrestling has ever seen, and who desceneded from the celining to aid Gangrel in hanging The Big Boss Man in one of WresteMania’s hokier moments. The pair were unproven young talents who got instant attention as part of Gangrel’s tribe before striking out on their own. After they left him, The Hardy Boyz took up a similar spot for a brief period of time as Gangrel’s henchmen, before they, too, split off.

The Brood was, in many ways, a key transition point from WWF’s cartoonier times to more realistic storylines. Yes, the vampire character who spit blood was absurd, but he was also portrayed as violent and dark—the stuff of horror rather than pure camp, designed to appeal to the slightly older demographic than the company’s previously kid-focused enterprise. It was a group with a lot of promise and deceptively high historical importance for vaulting, Edge, Christian, and The Hardys into the public eye.

#3. The Union

The Union was a short-lived face stable that fit perfectly in the WWF landscape in 1999. Otherwise known by the acronym UPYOURS (Union of People You OUghta Respect, Shane/Son) the crew consisted of upper mid-card talents who had been cast out of the Corporate Ministry mix, featuring Mankind, Ken Shamrock, Test, The Big Show, and Vince McMahon. In a time when stables were all the rage in the WWF, this was the most prominent pure face example that gave the good guys a united front after The Corporation and The Ministry merged.

Various permutations of the group did battle with The Corporate Ministry’s mid-card crew, including The Big Boss Man and Viscera, and they made the best us of 2x4s in a wrestling ring this side of Jim Duggan. This stable certainly had legs and could have run longer, but just as wrestlers banding together in stables was in vogue, so too was short-attention-span booking that saw the group quietly dissolve after a month for the individual talents to pursue individual programs moving forward.

#2. The Ministry of Darkness

There’s little question that The Undertaker is one of wrestling’s most beloved and best respected icons. People remember the zombie-esque monster heel that he debuted as and the lovable force of justice he evolved into. Opinions diverge on the biker iteration of the character—if showing his human side helped modernize the character and keep it relevant, or if it was a grave misstep damaged his mystique. His hybrid work thereafter—a marginally humanized version of The Dead Man—is probably the most acclaimed work of the man’s career.

And then there’s the in-between space that happened early in The Attitude Era. Before ‘Taker started riding to the ring under the banner of a Kid Rock or Limp Bizkit anthem. After he turned back to the dark side. That’s when he formed a Ministry.

The Undertaker and his antics like converting Mabel to his cult, or kidnapping and trying to marry Stephanie McMahon were at once a bit corny and hard to swallow, but also portrayed with such conviction that it was hard not to get wrapped up in the story and, for at least a second, think to yourself that something truly horrible might happen.

‘Taker has made a career off of committing to character, and it’s too often forgotten what a hellacious character he played as the head of The Ministry of Darkness, backed by The Acolytes (evil muscle-bound guardians before they evolved into beer-swigging ruffians), Mideon, Viscera, and later on The Brood. The gothic collective wove a complex story, warring with fellow heels from The Corporation, and pursuing an often muddled mix of championship glory and some semblance of control of the WWF, which ultimately led to the group merging with The Corporation to make even more trouble for the promotion’s face contingent.

#1. The Hart Foundation

By spring 1997, Bret Hart’s act as the noble, traditionalist hero had not only grown stale, but felt actively anachronistic at the dawn of the Attitude Era. Thus, it was breath of fresh air when the WWF embraced its changing dynamics and The Hitman turned heel.

Sweeter yet was the choice to surround Hart with family. Estranged brother Owen, who had turned heel three years ahead of him. Brothers in law, Davey Boy Smith and Jim Neidhart. Newly arrived, albeit unrelated, Brian Pillman. Together, these guys formed a heel super group anchored by the supreme in-ring talents of the Hart brothers, and propelled by their ongoing rivalries with guys like Steve Austin, The Undertaker, and Shawn Michaels.

The Hart Foundation only remained a unit for seven months, but it’s notable that Bret held the WWF Championship for the last three months of that period, in addition to Owen and The British Bulldog largely dominating the rest of the title scene, winning Intercontinental, European, and Tag Team Championships.

All the more interesting, The Hart Foundation enjoyed one of the most unique face-heel alignments of any stable, anytime—the top heels in the United States, the top faces north of the Canadian border. The WWF made outstanding use of this dynamic, wandering back and forth across the border, highlighted by a surreal and masterfully executed Canadian Stampede show, headlined by an epic ten-man tag match in which the Foundation stood strong.

Pillman would pass away from a heart condition that October. The remaining Hart Foundation’s run as a unit would come to an abrupt and painfully early end that November when Bret signed with WCW and suffered the brunt of The Montreal Screw Job on his way out the door. Neidhart and Smith would ultimately follow The Hitman to ignominious runs in WCW; Owen was left holding the bag in the WWF only to tragically pass away live in front of the fans six months later.

Thus, it simply wasn’t in the cards for The Hart Foundation to thrive in the long term. Just the same, in the time that they did have, they earn my pick for the greatest short-term wrestling stable of all time.

Which short-term stables would you add to the countdown? Let us know what you think in the comments section.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.