Jun 2, 2019 2:03:43 GMT thereallt said:

The Shield was my #7. Easily the best stable of the last 10 years or so. I disagree about putting under the Gang War stable though, the only stable from that era I had higher was DX. I definitely have the Shield higher than Los Boriquas or The Disciples of Apocalypse, or any other such nonsense. I have them over the NOD as well.

I couldn't put them in my top 5 though. As much fun as they were to watch, their historical impact is really limited.

To clarify,  I meant the attitude era stables that made my list. It's a no brainer that they place ahead of DOA, Los Boriquas etc. NOD was a contributor that made the Attitude Era what it was and their reality driven concept made a bigger impression on me.

Jun 2, 2019 3:25:15 GMT UT said:

I don’t understand how one could say their historical impact is limited. They’ve feuded (and dominated) two of the factions to make this list - including the 7th greatest faction of all time according to PW.

All three members became grand slam champions. That’s impact.

They were consistently the best performers on damn near every show they were on. Huge impact.

They may not have changed the business in ways factions yet to come have but they made a ton of impact on the business during their time together.

When I judge impact kayfabe stuff like being booked to win titles and having great matches on the card is farthest from my mind. If I had been a regular viewer of the Bullet Club they would have placed well ahead of them based on their merch being the most visible stuff of the last 15 years and getting more people in North America invested in New Japan. It just didn't seem fair for me to rank them since I have seen very little of their stuff.

4. D-Generation X 

Years Active 

1997-2000 

2006-2007 

1st Incarnation 

Shawn Michaels 

Triple H 

Chyna 

Rick Rude 

2nd Incarnation 

Triple H 

Chyna 

X-Pac 

Road Dogg 

Billy Gunn 

3rd Incarnation 

HHH 

Shawn Michaels 

Notable Feuds 

Nation of Domination 

Undertaker 

Steve Austin 

The Corporation 

The McMahons 

Notable Moments

Formation of the DX Army (MNR , 3/3/1998)

DX Invades WCW (MNR , 4/27/1998)

DX Impersonates NOD (MNR , 7/5/1998)

DX Reunites (MNR , 6/19/2006)

I had DX at #2 , I am a #WWFLoyalist (🤯) so I put them ahead of some other groups who made a bigger impact. I think people on the internet tend to be a little hard on them to counteract the WWE's love affair with them and overrating them against other iconic factions.

My favorite version by far is the DX Army that was formed the night after WM14 , that to me still feels like the truest version of DX and includes all of their top moments. I don't even know if the other two prominent versions are ever that close.

Their theme is one of my favorites of all time also and I marked out like a little bitch when they reunited in 2006. Just hearing the music was awesome and while the run had some big ups and really big downs - it was a fun nostalgia trip where it genuinely looked like the guys were having fun again. It could have been booked better and made more of an impact but whatever - it worked for what I needed it to work for. Also the skits where Shawn was just walking around super kicking dudes is one of the most overlooked funniest shit ever.

DX was #4 on my list so obviously I think this rank is perfect for them. They were THE defining stable for the WWE during one of it's hottest periods. It doesn't get much better than that.

ARE YOU READY?!

Fuck yes I am.

DX was my #1 and to copy what many say; with a bullet!

They were the coolest fucking group I ever seen. Like UT said, I too am a WWE loyalist. This was the coolest stable of all time. So catchy. So cool. So fucking awesome. Everything they did was must watch and edgy and this was the peak of my WWE love. The Attitude Era was SCSA and DX for me. As much as I liked HBK in it, my favorite was the second one.

And if you ain’t down with that, I got two words for ya;

SUCK IT!

I enjoyed their matches, but there was nothing interesting about The Shield. They were Nexus 3.0 who turned out to be mercenaries for HHH, is there a bigger turn-off in Pro Wrestling?

D-Generation X was a cool imitation of the nWo that lost it's luster once they tried to push it's members as singles. By seperating the talent, it exposed just how limited the group was and the constant face-heel turns didn't help the group much at all. The D-X reunion is the real sticking point and they made Raw unwatchable around that time.

Jun 2, 2019 16:08:19 GMT Big Pete said:

I enjoyed their matches, but there was nothing interesting about The Shield. They were Nexus 3.0 who turned out to be mercenaries for HHH, is there a bigger turn-off in Pro Wrestling?

D-Generation X was a cool imitation of the nWo that lost it's luster once they tried to push it's members as singles. By seperating the talent, it exposed just how limited the group was and the constant face-heel turns didn't help the group much at all. The D-X reunion is the real sticking point and they made Raw unwatchable around that time.

I’ve never seen you this wrong about something before , that’s interesting.

Like everyone, I tried to get invested in the mystery. It turns out there was nothing there, they were generic mercenaries called on by HHH. Vince had Bossman, HHH needed three of him to keep everyone in check and get some stars while he was at it.

There are a lot of things that have not aged well from the Attitude Era. Even a lot of Rock's stuff (he was my boy at the time) is really cringey to sit through these days. But I think DX, in both its Shawn and Hunter led incarnations, might be the worst. Juvenile humour that is not even well delivered. DX-era Triple H really does come across as the least cool guy imaginable. As bad as the material was, the others at least managed to pull it off better.

I did not see the nWo in real time, apart from snippets in 98 and 99. When I was watching the WWF back then, I did not know about the Kliq and the connection between the groups. For those that did, I completely understand how poorly DX could have come across by comparison.

Today, you can watch those classic nWo moments and see why people thought they were cool. For DX, it can be hard to see why anyone out of high school would've thought them cool.

Wow, I guess I'll interrupt the piling on as much as I don't want to, but I'm happy with this placement. They did continue the snowball rolling downhill after the Tyson stuff and WM14 crowning with X-Pac returning the following night. Their parodies of NOD and the McMahons did actually make me laugh and they were often one of the more quoted acts of the Attitude Era. I had them at 5. Being the equals of Austin and the nWo though they were not as much as WWE wants to push that narrative.

Don't get me wrong, if I'd submitted a list, they'd have been near the top. One of the most important factions ever. They were the top heel act for one of the most important shows in wrestling history, Mania XIV. That show may have been all about Austin and Tyson, but HBK was the champ and Tyson joined DX in the build. Then post-Mania in 1998, they were super over as faces and culturally significant (kids doing crotch chops and telling people to Suck It all over the place). DX/Nation is an iconic factions feud. They just don't hold up is all.

Jun 2, 2019 22:59:55 GMT Strobe said:

Don't get me wrong, if I'd submitted a list, they'd have been near the top. One of the most important factions ever. They were the top heel act for one of the most important shows in wrestling history, Mania XIV. That show may have been all about Austin and Tyson, but HBK was the champ and Tyson joined DX in the build. Then post-Mania in 1998, they were super over as faces and culturally significant (kids doing crotch chops and telling people to Suck It all over the place). DX/Nation is an iconic factions feud. They just don't hold up is all.

A lot of things from the late 90s don't.

Pocket chains, for starters.

Jun 2, 2019 23:17:43 GMT 🤯 said:

Jun 2, 2019 22:59:55 GMT Strobe said:

Don't get me wrong, if I'd submitted a list, they'd have been near the top. One of the most important factions ever. They were the top heel act for one of the most important shows in wrestling history, Mania XIV. That show may have been all about Austin and Tyson, but HBK was the champ and Tyson joined DX in the build. Then post-Mania in 1998, they were super over as faces and culturally significant (kids doing crotch chops and telling people to Suck It all over the place). DX/Nation is an iconic factions feud. They just don't hold up is all.

A lot of things from the late 90s don't.

Pocket chains, for starters.

Yeah but pogs do. I play pogs on the daily yo!

Pogs will never go outta style. They're trading cards that you can throw.

Jun 2, 2019 23:30:17 GMT UT said:

Jun 2, 2019 23:17:43 GMT 🤯 said:

A lot of things from the late 90s don't.

Pocket chains, for starters.

Yeah but pogs do. I play pogs on the daily yo!

Specifically why I excluded pigs from my post.

But I'm including frosted tips.

Really upsetting to hear people shit on DX. Jeff spitefully not putting them on the list cost them their rightful spot in the top 2.

It didn’t cost them #2 , maybe #3.

The DX backlash is a little overboard but I blame the WWE for most of it. A natural over correction by the internet’s IMO.

Well, let’s find out what group got the unrightful 3 spot then!

Count me in the DX fan camp, I guess.

I hated original DX the way I was supposed to. So obnoxious and gay in the late 90s way. I just wanted Austin, or Taker, or Foley, or Owen -or anyone really- to murder those assholes.

Rick Rude jumping ship while a part of their group made them feel somewhat relevant to the MNW escapades. Their involvement around the Screw Job earned them nuclear heat. Their bullshit with the European title switch added to the heat but also maybe killed that title. So they were coming into early 1998 as public enemy number one. The stuff with linking Tyson up with them had me in a rabid fervor to see Austin open up a stone cold can of whoop ass on all involved. As a result, fucking LOVED WrestleMania XIV. Did the Austin swagger walk all over the house for like an hour after watching.

Only redeeming thing about early DX was their theme song, which I loved. And I might be the only Chris Warren Band fan in existence.

Then I suddenly switched gears post Mania to loving DX with the addition of the New Age Outlaws and surprise return of Waltman. I was all-in on X-Pac in real time, even before the epiphany moment of realizing he was one in the same as my old long lost beloved 1-2-3 Kid.

The Nation feud was great IMO for helping to spotlight talent, and the Rock/HHH feud was the last great IC title feud for a looong stretch. But aside from the Nation, DX kinda struggled for lack of opponents in 1998. Especially the NAOs. I think this is what birthed the bad idea of trying to split them up.

Loved X-Pac and Kane in 1999, but DX mostly struggled otherwise. HHH needed to move on...

Shit brb

Jun 3, 2019 1:15:53 GMT jTjohncenaGOAT said:

Jun 3, 2019 0:39:41 GMT KING KID said:

Really upsetting to hear people shit on DX. Jeff spitefully not putting them on the list cost them their rightful spot in the top 2.

There was no criteria. As stated, I picked teams based off of how they impacted wrestling for me. Same way I vote on every list. And dX almost ruined wrestling for me. It’s not an over correction. It’s not a retrospect. In real time, I almost quit watching WWE entirely and they were the reason why. Sorry I just don’t see it.

Didn’t mean an over correction by you specifically but in general. I also try and vote the same way , hence The Shield being my #1.

I went with my head over my heart to put DX at #3. Pretty sure this means I am permanently banned from Canada.

Like a lot of you guys, I was a WWF loyalist. Yet I was also a Hart Foundation fanatic. Wrestling was never more "real" to me than in 1997. It was Serious Business. So I hated DX (and Austin) with a burning passion. They had white-hot heat with me. I literally would have rooted for Los Boricuas or DOA over DX. They were the worst, most obnoxious assholes on the planet.

Also like a lot of you guys, whenever I think DX it's not the Michaels version that pops into my head, but the HHH/XPac/Outlaws/Chyna version. I still hated their guts, mind you, but....slightly less. I even liked the occasional DX segment once in a blue moon! XPac's return shoot, the Nitro invasion, and the Nation parody come to mind. OK, so it's still not a lot, but 3 > 0. So, yay?

Even though I couldn't stand them, I lean more towards WWF's version of events than that of the revisionist historians on the internet. To hear some people tell it, DX was barely more over, or more important, than the bloody Union. Umm....were these people even watching when DX were getting monster pops every night and moving a ton of merchandise during arguably the hottest period in wrestling history? Plus, as Strobe said, the crotch chop and "Suck It!" seeped into popular culture. Can confirm my classmates and coworkers were forever doing the crotch chop and "Suck It!", though all my close friends were thankfully fellow DX dislikers, meaning I had very good taste in the late 90s when it came to selecting friends. Anyway, DX also had a lot of memorable moments, a decent amount of memorable matches, and a ton of memorable feuds. From a personal standpoint, they filled a valuable role as the guys I loved to hate. 

The one time I was regrettably (and very briefly) a true blue DX fan was during the early stage of their 2006 comeback. For a very strange minute there I got weirdly nostalgic for an act I had always loathed. I even watched their return match at Vengeance 2006 live on PPV! Which almost never happened after Backlash 2004. The match (they squashed the mighty Spirit Squad ) and the show sucked. I was done with DX then and there. The next few months were brutal with DX being as obnoxious as ever. It turned me off both guys again after I came back around on them in 04-05. Then HHH got hurt and HBK instantly became great again without the DX anchor weighing him down.

Final Thoughts: DX was so not my cup of tea they might as well have been carrot juice, but I can respect their importance in wrestling history. They were a red hot act during the big 90s boom. Got over as both faces and heels. Gave future legend HHH a big time boost. Also helped out the Outlaws, Pac, and maybe Chyna. 

Oh, one last thing.....anybody else ever forget about being Rick Rude in DX? I do all the time. Also, anybody else think late 90s Rick Rude was a terrible fit for DX? Did then. Still do now. It seemed so random and counterproductive to bring back an "old" guy who was last seen in WWF 7 years earlier. Kind of killed the whole "edgy youngsters" vibe. He was like the team dad.....A team dad who had zero chemistry with his "sons." Even as a DX hating WWF fanatic I wasn't sad to see DX or my beloved WWF lose the 250 pound mustachioed bag of luggage that was "old" Rick Rude. 

Baker laying down the DX gospel.

100% on Rude being a stupid fit too.

I've seen a few posts mentioning Tyson in passing, he above all else should get the credit for turning the WWF's ship around. So few people point that out though. He brought both Austin and DX to a new level. He will always be on my short list of greatest non wrestlers of all time.

Predictions
1. IV Horsemen
2. nWo
3. The Hart Foundation

The Hart Foundation > The Nation of Domination ergo 97 DX > 98 DX. Arguably the greatest heel faction the WWF came up with and really set the scene for the Attitude Era to boil over.

No other stable has made a bigger impact than the nWo. They changed the way wrestlers were portrayed on television and instantly made the WCW product worth caring about.

IV Horsemen were the most successful 'super group' in the business and despite WCW's best efforts to bury them around the nWo era, still remained incredibly over. They designed the blueprint for what every heel faction should do and to this day we're still seeing copy-cats.

Stables I Listed That Won't Make It
Raven's Nest
The Dudleys
The Straight Edge Society
Triple Threat
Latino World Order

Jun 3, 2019 4:08:02 GMT Big Pete said:

Predictions
1. IV Horsemen
2. nWo
3. The Hart Foundation

The Hart Foundation > The Nation of Domination ergo 97 DX > 98 DX. Arguably the greatest heel faction the WWF came up with and really set the scene for the Attitude Era to boil over.

No other stable has made a bigger impact than the nWo. They changed the way wrestlers were portrayed on television and instantly made the WCW product worth caring about.

IV Horsemen were the most successful 'super group' in the business and despite WCW's best efforts to bury them around the nWo era, still remained incredibly over. They designed the blueprint for what every heel faction should do and to this day we're still seeing copy-cats.

Stables I Listed That Won't Make It
Raven's Nest
The Dudleys
The Straight Edge Society
Triple Threat
Latino World Order

My misses were The Triple Threat, The Ministry Of Darkness, The First Family (Jimmy Hart's Memphis and WWF guys) and The Main Event Mafia.

The First Family (Jimmy Hart's Memphis and WWF guys)

What do you have against Hugh Morrus and Brian Knobbs? :lol:

Jun 3, 2019 1:14:31 GMT KING KID said:

Well, let’s find out what group got the unrightful 3 spot then!

My guess is The Hart Foundation, who I have no problem finishing over DX even though I personally voted DX higher.   But the Hart Foundation was great in it's own right.

Jun 3, 2019 3:25:43 GMT Shootist said:

I've seen a few posts mentioning Tyson in passing, he above all else should get the credit for turning the WWF's ship around. So few people point that out though. He brought both Austin and DX to a new level. He will always be on my short list of greatest non wrestlers of all time.

No question. The business that Mania XIV did doesn't really get brought up enough. We just say it was big, it was important, and move on.

It did 730k PPV buys. No show had done half that number since Mania X 4 years prior. The only shows that had done half that number since SummerSlam 1991 (the last non-Mania show to do more than 365k), 6 and a half years prior, were Manias VIII, IX and X. The 1998 Rumble actually did the highest number since Mania X, with 350k buys, so the company was definitely well on the right track (and had been for all of 97 really), but that Mania number was phenomenal. Even outdid the Sting/Hogan Starrcade number from three months prior.

Vince spent a lot of money on a few dates with Tyson and it was well worth it. His importance cannot be understated. I always liked how the match graphic was designed to show it as well. Put together like it was a three-way. Tyson right in the middle of the shot. He wasn't in the background. No indicator that he was outside enforcer.

3. The Hart Foundation 

Active 

March 31st 1997 - November 9th , 1997 

Members 

Bret Hart 

Owen Hart 

Jim Neidhart 

Davey Boy Smith 

Brian Pillman 

Notable Feuds 

Stone Cold Steve Austin 

D-Generation X

Notable Matches 

The Hart Foundation vs Steve Austin , LOD , Goldust & Ken Shamrock (IYH: Canadien Stampede)

Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels (Montreal Screwjob)

Owen Hart & British Bulldog vs Steve Austin & Shawn Michaels (MNR: 5/26/97)

Championships & Accolades 

- 1x WWF Champion 

- 2x WWF Intercontinental Champion 

- 1x WWF European Champion 

- 1x WWF Tag Team Champions 

- 1997 WON Feud of the Year (vs Stone Cold)

Just imagine if Pillman hadn't been injured and on drugs (and consequently OD'd), and if the Harts had somehow hung around post-Montreal...

The Foundation could've been even more epic than it already was.