The First 10 Stables In WCW History, Explained

You gotta have factions, pal; every fan knows this. They’ve been around the industry for decades and there have been factions or stables of all kinds. WCW had plenty of them as well. Some of which went down as some of the greatest in the history of our great sport (say it like Schiavone).

From the early days of WCW until the end of the promotion, there were several pretty memorable factions and stables. There were also some infamous ones. But no matter the level, they all succeeded in getting over in one way or another.

10 The Four Horsemen

JJ Dillon And The Four Horsemen Cropped-1

In the mid-eighties. Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, and The Anderson brothers held all the gold in WCW. After laying waste to several of their mutual enemies, Arn Anderson delivered a promo, intimating that no one has seen this level of destruction since the days of The Four Horsemen. The symbol of excellence was born that night and ever since, no matter who was part of the unit, when The Horsemen arrived, opponents knew to respect them all.

9 The Fabulous Freebirds

Arriving from Mid-South and World Class, Michael PS Hayes, Bam Bam Terry Gordy, and Buddy Jack Roberts; The Fabulous Freebirds were the first band of cool rebel heels. When they arrived in WCW, the team changed a bit - Jimmy Jam Garvin and the masked Badstreet and managers Diamond Dallas Page and Oliver Humperdink were swapped in.

The team went on to win the United States, Six Men, and World Tag Team Championship throughout their run.

8 J-Tex Corporation

The wrestling world lost a true genius when Gary Hart had passed away. It's also a bit of a minor tragedy that he never got to work on either the main stage of WWE or WCW when the company got really hot in the late nineties. Hart did manage wrestlers in early days of WCW, though. His stable was The J-Tex Corporation, getting its name from Japan and Texas, where prominent members The Great Muta and Terry Funk hailed from. In addition to those two legends, Dick Slater and The Dragonmaster, Kazuo Sakurada, rounded out the group. They headlined the first ever Halloween Havoc in the Thunderdome Steel Cage Match, when Muta and Funk took on Sting and Ric Flair.

7 The York Foundation

Terri Boatright got started in her career as a makeup lady for the Turner owned CNN, and it was just a matter of time before WCW found her. She came in and was christened Alexandra York, head of The York Foundation. Taking some of WCW’s best in-ring babyface technicians and turning them heel - each of them adopting proper names (ie: Terry Taylor turning into Terrance Taylor). She carried around a computer that reportedly had the statistics needed to win ever single match.

6 The Dangerous Alliance

Paul Heyman Advises The Dangerous Alliance Cropped

Other than The Four Horsemen, one of the best pre-nWo factions in WCW history was The Dangerous Alliance. Paul E. Dangerously was stirring the pot vehemently with one goal in mind - to bankrupt all of WCW. To accomplish that he put together an alliance featuring Rick Rude, Madusa, Bobby Eaton, Larry Zybysko, Arn Anderson and a young up-and-comer Stunning Steve Austin. Combined, the team was part of one of the most exciting WarGames matches ever. But they also did exactly what a faction was supposed to do - make sure everyone in it gets elevated.

5 Three Faces Of Fear / The Dungeon Of Doom / The Alliance To End Hulkamania

Once Hulk Hogan came to town, Kevin Sullivan had been driven insane (which really wasn’t a far ride). He couldn’t handle his brother Evad being a Hulkamaniac and brought together several different factions to try and take Hogan out. The first was The Three Faces Of Fear - featured The Shark (Earthquake), who had once come very close to ending Hulkamania, and The Butcher (Brutus Beefcake), who knew Hogan better than anybody. When that group failed, he formed The Dungeon Of Doom; a huge collection of monsters. They didn’t do much either except try to hug Hogan to death. The Dungeon would pair up with The Horsemen to form The Alliance To End Hulkamania. Their biggest attempt was the Triple Doomsday Cage at Uncensored 1996. Sullivan’s quest was largely unsuccessful.

4 The Stud Stable

Col. Robert Parker came to WCW and immediately formed The Stud Stable. With Meng as his bodyguard, Parker culled together a new version of the group he formed in Smoky Mountain Wrestling. The team consisted of Bunkhouse Buck and Terry Funk. When they tried to get Dustin Rhodes to join him, The Natural teamed up with Arn Anderson to fight back. That didn’t go well at all, and when Double A turned on Rhodes (which always happened), Dusty joined his son to feud with them. Parker was also responsible for the breakup of The Hollywood Blonds, coercing Stunning Steve to leave the tag team and join his stable.

3 Raven’s Flock

In ECW, Raven became a legend, thanks to mind-bending promos. Flanking him were always the Nest - made up of Stevie Richards, Blue Meanie, Nova, and occasionally Cactus Jack. They didn’t all follow him to WCW though, just Richards. Eventually Saturn did too. Soon Scotty Riggs, Kanyon, and a debuting Billy Kidman would fall under Raven’s pull. The Man From The Bowery was able to capture the US Title during the group’s run. It would be Perry Saturn who got sick of Raven’s banter that would defeat him, forcing The Flock to disband.

2 NWO

With all due respect to the factions and stables that came before it - there’s WCW prior to May 27, 1996, and then there’s WCW after Scott Hall walked out on Nitro. The nWo felt real, dangerous and cool - over 20 years later and the t-shirt is one of the bestsellers throughout the history of the wrestling industry.

Once Hulk Hogan dropped the big leg on The Macho Man at Bash at the Beach 1996, and revealed himself as the third man, the nWo became the hottest thing in professional wrestling.

1 The Wolfpac

Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, X-Pac, and Konnan were clearly the coolest members of the nWo, The Wolfpac. But the group became an official faction when there was a schism within the New World Order when Nash and Hogan stopped getting along. X-Pac was already back in WWE, but K-Dog remained and joined up with Nash and Randy Savage defected from the black and white faction. Soon big names like Lex Luger and even Sting would join up with the Wolfpac.