Top 10 Greatest Factions in WWE

Shortly after Faarooq arrived in WWE in 1996, he formed an early incarnation of the group with manager Clarence Mason based on the Nation of Islam and the Black Panther Party. A revolutionary idea at the time, the group drew incredible heat from the fans and soon expanded by adding D’Lo Brown, The Godfather and a young lad by the name of Rocky Maivia – otherwise known as The Rock. Clearly the most charismatic member of the group, The Rock would soon replace Faarooq as The Nation’s leader, and the radical religious and political themes were removed to make way for a cooler, more Attitude Era-style.

This mysterious family from the backwoods of Florida originated in WWE’s developmental branch, NXT, before quickly making the jump to the main roster in 2013. Comprised of leader Bray Wyatt and the doubly-fearsome Eric Rowan and Luke Harper, The Wyatt family terrorized big names such as Kane, Daniel Bryan and John Cena on their way to gaining tremendous fan support based on their eerie, cell-phone fuelled entrance. The group would shortly disband in 2014 only to reconvene a year later with the behemoth Braun Strowman in their midst. Stronger than ever, the group frightened many a top star in WWE until the 2016 draft eventually split them up again – Never truly living to their potential.

The Attitude Era was an exciting, albeit strange time in WWE’s history and nowhere is this more glaring than when examining The Ministry of Darkness. Created by The Undertaker and Paul Bearer in 1998, the group employed satanic themes and rituals such as crucifixions, burials, abductions and hangings and generally seemed to thrive off controversy – and driving television censors mad, no doubt! Bearer and The Undertaker would recruit The Acolytes (in Faarooq and Bradshaw), Mideon and Mabel, as well as the newcomers The Brood, which included Edge and Christian. The Undertaker would even go as far as to team with Shane McMahon to form the Corporate Ministry in an attempt to take ownership of the WWE…

Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods have worked their butts off on their way to becoming one of the most charismatic acts in WWE after fans initially rejected their pairing. After a heel turn in 2015, the group started to receive praise for their tremendous ability to entertain and play off the crowd, and even won Rolling Stone’s “WWE Wrestler of the Year” award in a collective effort that same year. Employing the “Free Bird Rule,” where members switch in and out of tag team competition, the group are already four-time tag champions and hold the longest reign with those belts at nearly 490 days, because “New … Day Rocks. New … Day Rocks!”

“You’re either with us or you’re against us,” went the motto of Nexus leader Wade Barrett. After winning Season 1 of NXT, Barrett appeared on Raw with eight other NXT wrestlers as they vowed to secure WWE contracts for all their members. With John Cena as their main target, The Nexus sought WWE’s best talent in an effort to prove they belonged on the main roster. Barrett would later be kicked out of The Nexus for losing a #1 Contender’s Match and CM Punk briefly led the group under the name The New Nexus until disbanding in 2011.

Wrestling’s past, present and future all in one WWE faction. Evolution was one of the most decorated stables in wrestling history during their peak in 2003, with Ric Flair and Batista holding the Raw tag team belts, Randy Orton being the Intercontinental Champion and, of course, Triple H being the World Heavyweight champ. The level of talent within the group is perhaps unequalled, and the sheer amount of championships held between the four men is staggering – hell, just Flair’s numbers alone are enough! Though the faction was short lived, the system of Flair as the group’s mentor and Triple H as the leader proved to be the group’s greatest strength.

There’s no chance in hell this faction wouldn’t appear on our list. One of the great heel groups of all time, this McMahon-led faction was famous for being the group that tried to stop the “Bionic Redneck” in “Stone Cold” Steve Austin at the height of his powers. Made up of WWE head-office members Vince McMahon, Gerald Brisco, Pat Patterson, Shane McMahon and then WWE Commissioner Sargent Slaughter, the group become synonymous with greedy corporate attitudes and corrupt authoritarian methods as they dominated the WWE and moulded their “Crown Jewel” in The Rock.

The pride of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, The Hart Foundation stretches back to 1985 in WWE when Bret Hart and Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart teamed up – with then manager Jimmy Hart – to dominate the tag team division. It’s best known iteration, however, is sometimes known as The New Hart Foundation and was formed in 1997 with original members Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart joined by Owen Hart, The British Bulldog and family friend Brian Pillman. The group detested the path WWE was heading down at the time, mainly the disrespectful attitudes of Steve Austin and Degeneration X, and sought to return Canadian values to not only wrestling, but America as a whole.

Easily the most successful faction in the later eras of WWE wrestling, The Shield debuted at Survivor Series 2012 – infamously emerging from the crowd – to viscously attack Ryback in a triple-threat match involving CM Punk and John Cena. Leaving the announcers and audience stunned, The Shield’s impact would only increase over the years, as they’d go undefeated for much of their first year on the main roster, hold multiple championships (including the tag belts and US Championship), and earn victories over Evolution and The Authority. After going their separate ways in 2014, Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns have all held the WWE Championship at one point – all three in the same night, actually.

DX appeared at a time when the WWE were fighting for their lives in a ratings war against WCW, and the infamous group held nothing back in their efforts to push the boundaries of primetime TV, which gained them an enormous following and eventually, with the help of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, helped swing the ratings in WWE’s favour. First consisting of Shawn Michaels, Triple H and Chyna, DX gained public favour battling the Hart Foundation with their potty humour and rebellious antics. After Michaels “lost his smile” and stepped away from wrestling, the group actually further thrived under the leadership of Triple H and added members X-Pac and The New Age Outlaws.