I never liked NOD. I’d probably throw them on a top 25 somewhere for historical value but that’s about it.

I had New Day at #15. My list was very “stables I liked a lot” rather than looking at accomplishments or whatever. I had them around 8 or 9 but they kept falling down my list as I thought of more stables I liked.

And now that I’m looking at my list again I’m realizing I forgot The Undisputed Era so New Day would have fallen totally off my list had I remembered them.

11. The Corporation 

**48 points** 5 Lists

Active

1998 - 1999 

Members 

Vince McMahon 

Shane McMahon 

The Rock 

Big Bossman 

Chyna 

Ken Shamrock 

HHH 

Shawn Michaels 

Gerald Brisco 

Pat Patterson 

Mean Street Posse 

Test 

Kane 

The Big Show 

Sgt. Slaughter 

Notable Feuds 

Stone Cold Steve Austin 

Degeneration X 

Mankind 

The Ministry of Darkness 

Notable Matches 

The Rock vs Steve Austin (Wrestlemania 15)

The Corporation vs The Ministry (February 15th , 1999 MNR)

The Rock vs Mankind (January 4th , 1999 , MNR)

Championships 

3x WWF Champion 

1x WWF Intercontinental Champion 

1x WWF Tag Team Champion 

1x WWF Hardcore Champion

The Corporation was awesome in the sense that it was pretty much the updated version of The Heenan Family and was a great way to feed their red hot babyface Stone Cold - and no doubt it did it's job.

I had to dock it quite a few spots because it's always one of the most confusing times for me to remember in the WWF , with all the turns , the alignments with The Ministry and everything else I struggle to remember the beats without going back and refreshing my memory.

I don't think I voted for the Corporation, and I think it benefits more from the time period and its red hot foil than it deserves based on its components and booking. I feel like they got the formula figured out better by the time of the McMahon-Helmsley Regime.

I'll have to ponder a bit to come up with how I would've fine-tuned the Corporation.

Definitely would've tried to avoid the Corporate Ministry and Union.

Maybe just because I'm a fan of both guys, I would've tried to figure out a way to make Owen & Double J the Corporation's feature tag team as relatively clean-cut straight-laced suck-up ass-kiss guys who present that corporate image Vince desperately wanted as opposed to the crassness of Austin and DX.

May 26, 2019 14:52:27 GMT UT said:

The Corporation was awesome in the sense that it was pretty much the updated version of The Heenan Family and was a great way to feed their red hot babyface Stone Cold - and no doubt it did it's job.

I had to dock it quite a few spots because it's always one of the most confusing times for me to remember in the WWF , with all the turns , the alignments with The Ministry and everything else I struggle to remember the beats without going back and refreshing my memory.

I had the Corporation ranked 11 for pretty much the same reasons.

never thought of the corporation

I had the Corporation at a good spot. They were awesome.

They did their job well. Hated them with a passion growing up.

The Corporation missed my list. They, along with the Ministry & Corporate Ministry, were under consideration for the #15 spot, but I couldn't decide between the three, so I went in a completely different direction, shutting out the Corporation/Ministry constellation entirely. 

While The Corporation was important during a hot period, I wasn't really a fan of theirs, and I'll echo UT on how their whole run is a bit of a blur. I have trouble remember who was in, who did what when, etc. While I enjoyed that period in real time, I have a hard time recalling details from that era, and don't have a ton of nostalgia for that chaotic age in wrestling history. It's just not something I often go back and revisit, or even think much about.

Like I said, I also just wasn't a big Corporation fan. They always seemed like a random hodgepodge of wrestlers with little in common. That even makes sense given that they were basically mercenaries Vince brought in to serve a purpose, but they never felt like a true, cohesive stable to me.

As for the individual members, Vince was great. I liked The Rock (though a little less than before). And the MSP were gold. But most of the rest had go away heat with me- Bossman, Shamrock, Test, Shane, HHH....yuck! Big Show went from intriguing to boring within weeks.

I hated Bossman/Shamrock as the tag champs. It was so random and bad. They had nothing in common. It was also like one of those Marty Jannetty as IC Champ deals where rather than elevating the wrestler(s) it devalued the title. I'm just sitting over here like "The Twin Towers were never tag champs. Yet now old man Boss Man and boring Shamrock are? Nonsense! The WWF tag division ain't what it used to be...." 

Ultimately they were fine as a collection of warm bodies to serve as Austin (and Foley + Taker) foils but there are at least 15 better stables in wrestling history. Great theme though!

I had NOD at 10 and the Corporation at 8. I may have overrated them a little but I just liked the idea behind both of them. NOD gave wrestlers of color strong characters that should be taken seriously, a strong contrast to the faction they nosed ahead of. The Corporation was Vince stock piling guys to go after Austin, Foley, Taker etc. I liked NOD right up until Owen joined thme out of the blue and DX ripping them which was DX's finest hour. It helped turn Ron Simmons back into a bad ass attacking Ahmed Johnson and taking him out with various injuries and made the Rock a major player. Vince using his influence on the roster just fed into that perception we all have of him and added a touch of realism. They were hard to rank though due to the member changes and merger with the Ministry Of Darkness.

Back to Right To Censor...

My initial response was intended as a lark and was a copy+paste job of the Charles Wright thread. I've never focused on how Right To Censor played out and after jogging my memory I feel it's worth touching on.

The whole gimmick started when Stevie Richards would cock-block the crowd at various stages of the show. Jerry Lawler and Double Ho Seven would be having a match to determine which one of their valets would be forced to take off their top and Stevie would come out with a towel and cover up the winner. Or the Dudley Boyz would be setting up for their trademark table spot and Stevie would take the table away. It was very much a scattergun approach to the character before he found his first rival in the Godfather.

The Godfather was the first wrestler to confront Richards over his behaviour, but before he could get his hands on Stevie, Bull Buchanan attacked the Godfather from behind. Around this time, the WWE had this booking philosphy where they would pit big hosses with experienced hosses like The Big Bossman and The Undertaker. I'd like to consider them work experience hosses and the crew included The Big Show, Test, Prince Albert and Bull Buchanan. Anyways, Bull had just finished up his run with Bossman and was set to take on the Godfather in a High Stakes match.

If there was one highlight of RTC's run, it's that they got the fans to care about a Godfather and Buchanan match. That in of itself has to be considered a miracle and fans were crushed that one of their fan favourites was humbled in such a fashion.

Over the following few months, the Godfather, Val Venis and Ivory would all join and that's around the time they settled into their groove. I thought Val Venis' induction in the group was actually well done. The group announced he had joined the group because he'd clearly toned down the pornstar gimmick in recent months. Val initially played coy until he was 'abducted' and brainwashed into becoming their latest member.

When Ivory joined, that's when the dynamic of the group really shifted. She became the dominant personality of the group and was responsible for their biggest program against Chyna. On paper, it was actually a nice score for Right To Censor. Chyna was still one of the biggest stars on the roster and it was a testament to the group that they were over enough that a squash match would be Wrestlemania worthy. In fact, it was arguably the most over Women's match since Wendi Richter took on the Fabulous Moolah at the inaugural Wrestlemania. The issue was that the match was based on a clear lie. They tried to run an injury angle where the RTC broke Chyna's neck and they treated it like a shoot, but the fans just didn't buy it. In a lot of ways, it was old hat and after the incidents with Owen Hart and Droz almost felt like it was done in bad taste. The other problem was that Chyna didn't last much longer in the WWF, so this big squash match that was supposed to relaunch her character stands out as a waste of time on arguably the greatest PPV of all-time.

The men had their own problems. Their planned Wrestlemania match against Jerry Lawler and the APA hit a snag when Lawler and the Kat left the company, leaving them without an angle. The WWF scrambled and eventually brought in the other colour commentator, Tazz, to fill the void but it just wasn't the same. Lawler was there from the very beginning, had been bad-mouthing Right To Censor on commentary in every segment (and was fantastic) and the storyline with the Kat gave the match a sense of purpose. Without all that, they just had a stock standard television six man tag and like the Chyna match, it was the most forgettable part of a legendary show.

From there, RTC went on a losing streak before The Undertaker eventually put them out of their misery winning a 4-1 handicap match. Months later, Stevie would try to exact his revenge by bringing in Kronik and the less said about that the better.

The Right To Censor was one of those groups that had a couple of good ideas, but never really amounted to much. I feel their legacy depends on how much you enjoyed Ivory as a character and there was just something about her that didn't resonate. The idea of Venis and the Godfather turning their backs on the fans was interesting character development, but ultimately it just stripped both guys of their greatest asset. Without the Godfather persona, Wright became one of the least interesting workers to watch and his tag matches alongside Buchanan were usually the lowlights of the show. Considering how strong the tag team division was around that time, it was a shame the last few months were spent on them. Finally, the idea of Stevie Richards, one of the most promising wrestlers of the 90s, getting his own stable and program sounded interesting. However, injuries prevented him from being in the ring and he basically became a glorified manager. Of all the mainstays, Ivory was the most dominant personality and women's wrestling in the early 2000s wasn't anything like it is today. Unless you could hit a couple of hurracaranas or were willing to debase yourself, there wasn't a lot of room for women's wrestling.

I don't have an issue with RTC existing. Even if the stable somehow managed to be worse, I can at least admire the effort to do something with these characters. So many guys in the WWE nowadays are taking up precious television time and they're never in a position to make you feel one way or another. Even if it's a bad gimmick like The Fat Chick Thriller, as bad as it was for Awesome, at least it was a gimmick and gave Mike something to bite into so he could have better screen presence. Similarly, I appreciate the attempt to do something different with the Godfather, it just didn't work out.

10. The Heenan Family 

Active 

1974 - 1993 

AWA Members 

Blackjack Lanza 

Blackjack Mulligan 

Bobby Duncum 

Ken Patera 

Mr. Saito 

Nick Bockwinkel

Ray Stevens 

Stan Hansen 

Super Destroyer Mark II

NWA Members 

Austin Idol 

Blackjack Lanza 

Bobby Jaggers 

Ernie Ladd 

Karl Kox 

Masked Superstar 

Professor Toru Tanaka 

Ron Bass

WWF Members 

Adrian Adonis 

André the Giant 

The Barbarian 

Big John Studd 

The Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard) 

Buddy Rose 

The Brooklyn Brawler 

The Colossal Connection (André the Giant and Haku) 

Harley Race 

Hercules 

The Islanders (Haku and Tama) 

Ken Patera 

King Kong Bundy 

The Missing Link 

Mr. Perfect 

Paul Orndorff 

The Red Rooster 

Ric Flair 

Rick Rude 

Sivi Afi

WAAAYYY too low. The Heenan Family was #3 on my list. Just look at the list of stars that have been part of this stable. It's literally a who's who of pro-wrestling. There is no way in blue hell there are 9 pro-wrestling factions better than the Heenan Family.

It's insane. Obvious way before I started becoming a fan, but it spreads across 3 feds!

Someone give me a history lesson:

Did the Heenan Family ever pull together and actually act like a collective unit similar to how Four Horsemen, DX, Evolution, etc. did? Or was it always more of just an assorted gaggle of heel characters merely loosely united by Brain's management?

May 27, 2019 17:56:15 GMT 🤯 said:

Someone give me a history lesson:

Did the Heenan Family ever pull together and actually act like a collective unit similar to how Four Horsemen, DX, Evolution, etc. did? Or was it always more of just an assorted gaggle of heel characters merely loosely united by Brain's management?

Never all at once....they would have overrun any fed they were in if they had done that.   But 4-5 of them at a time would team up regularly.   Especially common during Survivor Series and The Royal Rumble.

I had the Heenan family at 6. On paper that is a staggering amount of star power, they just didn't act as a cohesive unit enough to break into the top 5. Heenan throwing the majority of those guys at Hogan does in retrospect make him Hogan's best rival though. Heenan of course was brilliant at enhancing some of these guys through interviews but watching him keep pace with the likes of Bockwinkle an Flair showed his true greatness, he was never out of place.

Awesome profile photo btw.

Yeah count me in with a few others , I ranked them out of respect and for the fact they were revolutionary to me in being the first real babyface feeder system , and of course Heenan is one of the greatest talents of all time.

However they get docked because they were never really a fully functioning cohesive unit like other factions became afterwards. I mean I get why they couldn't be because the sheer volume and star power would have been too much in one place but at the same time - factions greatest attribute is strength in numbers and winning with the odds game.

Wow. This faction completely slipped my mind and it’s a damn shame. I would have definitely ranked them in my top 10. Not sure where exactly.

It’s funny because after reading you guys post about these factions, I kind of wish I could re-do my list. Heenan Family for Heenan vs Hogan deserves to be somewhere in the top 5-7 tbh.

May 27, 2019 17:56:15 GMT 🤯 said:

Did the Heenan Family ever pull together and actually act like a collective unit similar to how Four Horsemen, DX, Evolution, etc. did? 

Very rarely.

May 27, 2019 21:15:39 GMT UT said:

However they get docked because they were never really a fully functioning cohesive unit like other factions became afterwards. 

This.

Blame me for the Heenan Family being so "low." I did remember them, and considered 'em....for about 5 seconds before moving on to the next candidate.

On paper they look mighty with more than they enough big names to make anyone's list. They were also anchored by an all time great manager. And they earn bonus points for providing Hogan with some of his greatest rivals during the 80s wrestling boom.

But the lack of cohesion was a big sticking point with me. In WWF I can count the number of times they all (or even mostly) came together on one hand. It was always more of a loose alliance tied together through Heenan than a fully functioning stable a la The Horsemen. Plus the randomness of it all (what do Rick Rude & The Brooklyn Brawler have in common? Hercules & Race? Barbarian & Perfect?) makes them look like the Corporation of the 80s. The Corp didn't make my list. Neither did the Heenan Family.

*I also don't know enough about the AWA & NWA (which I never even knew existed!) versions to help or hurt their cause. Plus I forgot all about the AWA version when coming up with my list.

Heenan did tours of Georgia in around 1979 I think. Georgia also tried out Bret Hart around that time as well

9. The Bullet Club 

Years Active 

2013 - Present 

Leaders 

Prince Devitt (1st)

Karl Anderson (2nd)

AJ Styles (3rd)

Kenny Omega (4th)

Other Members 

Cody Hall 

Cody Rhodes 

Adam Cole 

Chase Owens 

Jeff Jarrett 

Matt Jackson 

Nick Jackson 

Marty Scurll 

Tama Tonga 

Bad Luck Fale 

Hangman Page 

Doc Gallows 

Leo Tonga 

Taiji Ishimori 

Tanga Roa 

Yujiro Takahashi 
Rey Bucanero 
Robbie Eagles
Jay White 
Jado 
Gedo 
Hikuleo 
El Phantasmo 

Notable Matches 

AJ Styles vs Minoru Suzuki (2014)

Kenny Omega vs Okada (2017)

Golden Loves vs The Young Bucks (NJPW Strong Style)

I know next to nothing of The Bullet Club so I'm sure I screwed a bunch of things up , nor do I have a lot to add aside from other I heard here on PW. Love AJ and Finn Balor though so that's cool.

May 28, 2019 13:48:44 GMT UT said:

I know next to nothing of The Bullet Club so I'm sure I screwed a bunch of things up , nor do I have a lot to add aside from other I heard here on PW. Love AJ and Finn Balor though so that's cool.

Love that you snuck Double J in as a member!

Wiki listed him , what do I know any better? :lol:

Double J was a member when GFW formed a relationship with NJPW around 2014/15. They actually aired the 2015 WK in English, which was really when I saw NJPW gain traction despite what Jericho says.

The Bullet Club during their time were the biggest stable in the world and there's no denying that AJ Styles, Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks were having some of the best matches year in, year out. It was like they took the idea of the kliq, let the fans in on the joke and combined the work-rate of the IV Horsemen to send it over the edge. The stable got so popular, they were able to launch their own promotion based off of it and they've drawn 10,000+ seat crowds when it was supposed to be impossible.

If you look at the standard bearers of what modern wrestling is all about, then you really don't have to look further than the Bullet Club/The Elite. They represent this generation's view on Pro Wrestling and it isn't good for this guy who's been brainwashed by every shoot interview, but I can respect it.

I considered The Heenan Family more of a loose alliance than a faction so they didn't make my list.

Hard to deny an impact when Hot Topic is selling your gear.

Course it is a good logo...

I've only been watching Bullet Club since 2015 or so, the latter days of AJ's time as the leader. Bullet Club to me was pretty hit and miss from then until now. Gallows and Anderson were a great pair, and AJ was a great leader, but they didn't feel especially cohesive. Kenny on top was even worse from a cohesion point of view, and personally I didn't care for the Bullet Club Civil War storyline which eventually lead to Kenny/Bucks/Cody leaving the stable. But at least they put into storyline what was always clear: Kenny Omega isn't a good fit for Bullet Club. After that Bullet Club was in a poor state, with Tama Tonga being their top guy, but a recent resurgence has made them a compelling, cohesive stable in my eyes, more so than they have been for a long time.

Tama Tonga brought in NOAH star Ishimori under a new guise as Bone Soldier, and he's been killing it. Robbie Eagles shortly followed. Then Jay White shocked the world by becoming the new Bullet Club leader, then he went on a tear, even winning the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. White's presence boosted Bullet Club's stock significantly, and the stable saw a return to their roots, a bunch of asshole gaijins who don't give a fuck and will cheat as much as they like. Recently El Fantasmo joined, a perfect fit.

As a whole, Bullet Club's significance in modern pro-wrestling has been huge. A few decades down the line I reckon we'll be looking back at Bullet Club as one of the most influential stables in history.