The First 10 Stables In Impact Wrestling History, Explained

Over its two-decade history, Impact Wrestling — formerly known as TNA — has enjoyed countless stables and factions over the years, including modern ones like Honor No More and Violent By Design to older ones like the Main Event Mafia, Fortune, and Aces & Eights. But let’s go back even further to take a look at Impact’s earliest days, back when it was an NWA-affiliated promotion with weekly pay-per-views instead of a TV show.

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Factions have existed in Impact from the very beginning, so let’s take a look at the first 10 to show up in the Impact Zone, the very first of which will likely shock pretty much everyone.

10 Flying Elvises

On its very first show, NWA-TNA (as it was known at the time) opened up with an X Division match featuring AJ Styles, Jerry Lynn, and Low Ki taking on what can be considered Impact’s very first stable: The Flying Elvises. Composed of Jimmy Yang (a.k.a. WWE’s Jimmy Wang Yang), Jorge Estrada, and future X Division Champion Sonny Siaki, The Flying Elvises were a goofy troupe of Elvis impersonators, and only stuck around as a group for a few months.

9 Disciples Of The New Church

Also debuting on the first weekly pay-per-view was The Disciples of The New Church, a cult-like heel faction led by Father James Mitchell. Including names like Brian Lee, Slash, and Tempest (a.k.a. Crowbar), the top guy of the group at first was arguably Malice, who was a finalist for the inaugural Gauntlet for the Gold match to determine a new NWA World Heavyweight Champion. Malice never won the belt, but Slash and Brian Lee did capture the NWA World Tag Team Championship.

8 Sports Entertainment Xtreme

Vince Russo was a head creative figure in the first couple of years of the company — he came up with the name TNA — and in true Vince Russo fashion, he had to not only become a regular on-screen character, but also have his own faction. That faction was Sports Entertainment Xtreme (or S.E.X. for short).

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With a ridiculously bloated lineup including everyone from the former Road Dogg to David Flair to Raven, S.E.X. was the average post-New World Order faction out to take over the company, complete with myriad heel turns and betrayals ad nauseum.

7 Triple X

Originally a subfaction of Sports Entertainment Xtreme, Triple X was a trio of Impact’s resident high flyers, Christopher Daniels, Low Ki, and Elix Skipper. Arguably the best thing to come out of S.E.X., Triple X put on a number of amazing tag team matches, including their Turning Point 2004 Six Sides of Steel Match against America’s Most Wanted — the one where Skipper walked across the top of the cage and executed a Hurricanrana. On top of that, they held the NWA World Tag Team Championship three times, defending them via the Freebird Rule.

6 The Gathering

Over the years, Raven has been a part of myriad groups, several of which were during his time in Impact. Following his stint in S.E.X., the first Raven-centric group to happen in Impact was The Gathering, where the iconic grungy cult leader was backed up by a young CM Punk, Julio Dinero, and Alexis Laree, who’d later be known as Mickie James. With The Gathering behind him, Raven was able to do something he was never able to do in WWE or WCW: enter the main event world title scene.

5 Lucha Invasion

Lucha libre legend Konnan had a couple of notable Impact factions in 3 Live Kru and LAX, but also has a forgotten one in his body of work. In the spring of 2003 — just before he formed 3LK — Konnan was feuding with Jerry Lynn over a perceived lack of respect for lucha libre on Lynn’s part. In response, Konnan brought in a bunch of luchadores to challenge him and/or interfere in Lynn’s matches. Referred to as the Lucha Invasion, this briefly existing group included Juventud Guerrera, Super Crazy, and The SAT (Joel and Jose Maximo), among others.

4 Red Shirt Security

Given the number of outrageous things that have happened in the Impact Zone, it’s easy to forget that the promotion had heel security guards back in the day. Composed of Legend (a.k.a. Joe E. Legend), Kevin Northcutt, and Ryan Wilson (later repackaged as Trytan), Red Shirt Security were loyal to Jeff Jarrett and Don Callis, and feuded with a babyface security group called Black Shirt Security.

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To the groups’ credit, however, Northcutt and Legend managed to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship from 3 Live Kru, holding the belts for seven days before dropping them to AJ Styles and Abyss.

3 Team Extreme

Not to be confused with WWE’s trio of The Hardy Boyz and Lita, Impact’s Team Extreme showed up a couple of years later, and featured Perry Saturn, The Sandman, Justin Credible, and New Jack. One of the earliest iterations of the many post-ECW factions composed of ECW Originals, Team Extreme mostly feuded with The Disciples of the New Church, and only lasted a few months. Ultimately this group would be overshadowed by future ECW stables, like Impact’s own EV 2.0.

2 Next Generation

Before Legacy, there was Next Generation. However, where WWE’s multi-generation heel faction boasted Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes, Next Generation — who were also heels — boasted David Flair, Erik Watts, and Brian Lawler. Sadly, all three members of Next Generation would go down in history as second-generation performers who paled in comparison to their accomplished fathers. The group lasted about a month or so, with Watts turning face and becoming an authority figure.

1 The New Franchise

After a stint in the New Church faction, Shane Douglas went his own way in 2003 to form his own group, known as The New Franchise. Joined by Traci Brooks, Douglas would act as a mentor to X Division wrestler Michael Shane — a real-life cousin of Shawn Michaels. Together, Douglas and Shane would compete in the tag team division, entering a tournament to capture the NWA World Tag Team Championship, only to be eliminated in the first round. However, after a few months the group would split up, with Douglas and Shane feuding.