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Back during the Attitude Era and the Monday Night Wars, there was a plethora of factions in both WWF/WWE and WCW. There were many memorable groups like D-Generation X, the Ministry, the NWO, the Hart Foundation, the Nation of Domination and the Triple Threat. While the success of each group varied greatly, the fact still remains that those groups often either ruled their respective promotions at one point or catapulted one or two members to Superstardom.
In today's WWE, there aren't many factions on the main roster. While even four years ago we primarily had the the Shield and the Wyatt Family, now we have the OC and the New Day. The days of managers and several factions are long gone but both could help the WWE and any other promotion.
There are many promotions throughout the world but not every promotion can boast having a great faction. While the OC just reformed and all recently held gold, the Good Brothers have already lost the titles. So do they still belong in the conversation of one of the ten best factions in the game today?
#10 Major League Wrestling - Contra Unit
The 'heeliest' of the heels, Contra Unit formed earlier this year but has already attacked practically everyone in Major League Wrestling. While Simon Gotch has been with the promotion and is known to most audiences due to his time in WWE as a Vaudevillian, the other two members aren't as well known. That was until Jacob Fatu showed the world what he could do.
Josef Samael, the one holding the cigar in the picture, is perfectly fine in his role, but this group is clearly a vehicle to push Fatu to the top. It's already happened. After targeting then MLW Heavyweight Champion Tom Lawlor, Fatu beat the Champ in under ten minutes and currently holds the title.
He's a shorter, stouter version of guys like the Usos and Roman Reigns, but he's a high-flyer like the Usos. Fatu jumps all over the ring and and his moonsault is more effective due to his size. While most groups talk about taking over their promotions, Contra Unit has done just that as the "Global Dealers of Violence".
#9 New Japan Pro Wrestling - Suzuki-gun
Like most groups, Suzuki-gun has undergone few changes this year. No longer appearing for the company is Davey Boy Smith, Jr. and Takashi Iizuka retired earlier this year. That has allowed Lance Archer to shine in singles action as he was one of the breakout stars of the G1 Climax.
The leader of the faction, Minoru Suzuki, looks and walks around like a madman and that carries over to his matches. He's routinely challenged for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and has won the Intercontinental Championship and Never Openweight titles.
Archer has been a tag team specialist, having won the IWGP Tag Team belts three times with Smith, Jr. Other prominent members like Taka Michinoku, Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr. are always lurking around. Sabre Jr. is the most recent addition to the group and is widely regarded as one of the best technical wrestlers in the world. Taichi has won the Never Openweight title twice and is a two-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion.
While a lot of groups in NJPW have started out as heels but soon became faces due to overwhelming crowd adulation, Suzuki-gun has maintained it's destructive status as heels in Japan.
#8 Ring of Honor - Villain Enterprises
Villain Enterprises is helmed by the Villain, Marty Scurll. He's too darn popular to be fully considered a heel, so it's hard to get them 100% over as the bad guys. Once the Elite left ROH and NJPW, Scurll was the lone member of the group to still be under contract.
As ROH lost a good chunk of its roster this year, they filled the gaps in with Mark Haskins, Tracy Williams, Bandido, Rush, Dragon Lee and the likes of PCO and Brody Lee. PCO and Lee were prominent all over the U.S. and PCO has seen a career renaissance at 50 that most wrestlers never get to experience.
His high-flying and death-defying move set have endeared him to the crowd, and outside of Scurll, he might be the most-over member of the group. Flip Gordon recently joined them after rejecting an offer to join Lifeblood. The group has already won numerous titles from the ROH Tag Titles to the NWA Tag Team titles to the ROH Six-Man Tag Team belts. They might have only been formed this year, but they're hugely popular.
#7 WWE - The OC
AJ Styles is one of my favorite wrestlers of all time and he's managed to avoid the perilous booking of several former TNA/Impact stars like Eric Young, EC3 and Samoa Joe. While Joe has at least a US Championship reign on his resume, he is traditionally used as a stepping stone for others. He's come up short in all of his bids for major titles and his first-round loss to Cedric Alexander in the King of the Ring tournament saw him put over the younger Alexander.
The Phenomenal One had been one of the longer-reigning Champs in modern history and was the focal point of SmackDown before the Superstar Shake-Up. He moved to RAW after WrestleMania 35 and immediately produced a great match with Seth Rollins over the Universal Championship.
Gallows and Anderson had been treading water for the last year, but once they resigned with WWE and realigned with Styles, things started to pick up. They feuded with Ricochet which led to Styles picking up the US Championship.
The team of Gallows and Anderson did win the RAW Tag Team titles in a triple threat contest in late July, but they've already lost them to Rollins and Braun Strowman. I'd have ranked them higher if Gallows and Anderson were treated as more of a threat, but they haven't been.
#6 Impact Wrestling - OVE
The Impact version of OVE originally started as the tag team of Dave and Jake Crist. They were initially faces and won the Impact Tag Team titles. They've had fantastic matches with the likes of the Lucha Brothers, LAX, and the Rascalz. But once Sami Callihan joined the group and became the leader, things have picked up for the boys from Ohio.
They immediately became the big heel group in the company, and have been causing trouble for everyone in their path since 2017. The group recently added Madman Fulton to the mix, making the faction even more formidable than before. He's treated as an unhinged monster who is locked up until it's time for him to destroy someone.
Even Callihan's feud with Tessa Blanchard has helped to propel both wrestlers to the top of Impact. Each member of OVE has had a part in that feud. The group was even involved in one of the more prominent botches of recent memory when Callihan hit Eddie Edwards with a bat that accidentally fractured Edwards' orbital bone.
If you're looking for some bad guys to hate, OVE does the job perfectly. From Jake Crist acting like the "Mini-Draw" and becoming the X Division Champ to Dave Crist looking at most things during their promos as insane, OVE is a group that would fit in any promotion.
#5 New Japan Pro Wrestling - Los Ingobernables de Japon
The faction in Japan is actually an offshoot of the main group that started out in CMLL. Heading that group were Rush, La Sombra (Andrade in WWE) and La Mascara. Once Tetsuya Naito participated in CMLL, he brought the attitude and style of the faction to NJPW. He desperately needed a change in character and forming a Japanese offshoot of LI helped to salvage his career in NJPW.
As is the case with most heel factions, they become so popular with the crowd that they become faces by default. It happened with D Generation-X, the NWO and the Shield. Naito is the leader and has held the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. He's also held the Intercontinental Championship.
Evil and Sanada are one of the best tag teams in the world, and Sanada has pushed current Champ Okada to the limit on many occasions. Bushi and Shingo Tagaki also make up the group.
Having a faction with multiple players across multiple divisions works in NJPW due to the varied amount of titles in the promotion. At various points, members have held the Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles, the Six-Man titles, the Never Openweight Championship, and the Intercontinental Championship. It's hard to be a truly hated group in today's professional wrestling, and even though that's exactly how LIJ started, they are among the most beloved performers in NJPW.
#4 New Japan Pro Wrestling - Chaos
Initially started nearly ten years ago by the likes of Toru Yano, Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii, Gedo and Jado, Chaos went from having one huge star as its leader in Nakamura to having Kazuchika Okada take over leadership of the group.
While Nakamura moved on to the WWE, Yano, Ishii, Hirooki Goto and Okada have kept the group alive and well. Okada is the current golden boy in NJPW, having five IWGP Heavyweight Championship reigns, including the fourth reign of nearly two years. The belt was out of his possession but he quickly regained it in April of this year.
Ishii is a contender for just about every title while Yano is the epitome of comedic wrestling despite having a legit amateur wrestling background. Yoshi-Hashi has been with the group for most of his NJPW career but one addition over the last few years has stood out.
Will Ospreay was a well-known star before he joined NJPW but his time in the company, and as a member of Chaos, has seen him catapult into becoming one of the top ten wrestlers in the world. His entire run in the Junior Heavyweight Division has been amazing as have his matches this year in the G1 Climax.
He's battled Okada on occasion but has always remained loyal to the group. Once Roppongi Vice disbanded, Rocky Romero became a part-time performer and a part-time manager for Sho and Yoh, otherwise known as Roppongi 3K.
Chaos is the faction that has been around the longest in NJPW but I have them ranked below the Bullet Club mainly due to the Bullet Club having a more global reach than Chaos does. While Chaos is popular all around the world, you're more likely to find more Bullet Club shirts than Chaos shirts at any wrestling event. Chaos also doesn't have any off-shoot factions in other companies like the Bullet Club has in the OC in WWE.
#3 New Japan Pro Wrestling - The Bullet Club
If this was the Bullet Club of a few years ago, then it would arguably be in the top spot. But even though they have seen a fair share of comings and goings, the group continues to evolve. It has launched former leaders Finn Balor, AJ Styles and Kenny Omega to Superstardom and has also included members like Cody, the Young Bucks, Adam Cole, Hangman Page, Cody Hall and Marty Scurll.
While the group eventually fractured into the Elite and the Firing Squad, led by GOD and Bad Luck Fale, it has continued to recruit prominent members. Taiji Ishimori has joined the group and Jay White has taken over leadership. More recently, after returning to NJPW right before the G1 Climax, Kenta became the newest member of the faction.
Omega, Styles and White have all held the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and the members of the group are always in the hunt for titles. The Guerillas of Destiny are one of the best teams in the world and as long as they are in the company, the Bullet Club will live on. They did get to the point of "cool heel" territory, but once GOD reshuffled the deck, it has become a heel group again.
#2 NXT - The Undisputed Era
Chances are that if any members of the Undisputed Era are booked for a match on a TakeOver card, it will likely be in the running for the match of the night. Such is the talent and chemistry that all four members share with each other. They can thank their tenure together in ROH for that whether they were teaming with each other or against each other.
The funny part is that of the four members, Roderick Strong was the first member to debut for NXT but the last member to join the group. Their individual matches were great enough to prove their prowess in the industry but they've also competed in both WarGames matches.
Adam Cole alone has recently competed in some of the best matches of the last few years, from the inaugural ladder match for the North American Championship to each of his title matches with Johnny Gargano. Any pairing of Bobby Fish, Kyle O'Reilly, and Strong is always a sure bet for magic in the ring. They've been together for almost two years and are likely sticking around to anchor NXT since it's moving to the USA.
Honorable mentions:
There are many other good factions in pro wrestling. SCU has been a staple in both ROH and now AEW. They are respected veterans who are good on the mic and in the ring. Christopher Daniels finally won the ROH World title two years ago after having never won it.
Still a part of ROH is the Kingdom. While I'm not personally a huge fan of any of the members, Matt Taven has remained loyal to the company for over seven years. The first iteration was better as it included Mike Bennett, Maria Kanellis and Cole. Taven is clearly the top member of that group. It has held the ROH Six-Man Tag Team titles and Taven is the current ROH World Champion.
The Hart Foundation and the Dynasty have primarily been battling each other over the last year in MLW. The Hart Foundation initially came across as cocky heels late last year, but like other groups including the NWO and the Bullet Club, they were so popular that the became de facto faced. Teddy Hart's in-ring game and the contributions of Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Brian Pillman Jr. have made them a top group in MLW.
Hart has held the Middleweight Championship since late last year whereas the group also won the Tag Team titles from the Lucha Brothers. In turn, they dropped the belts to the Dynasty, headed by MJF. The shelf life of that group might be shorter than many other factions due to AEW's show starting on October 2nd. He'll likely have to finish up with MLW before that happens.
Alexander Hammerstone is someone that Vince McMahon would love in the WWE and he's the promotion's current Openweight Champ. The Rascalz, like OVE, all came from Combat Zone Wrestling. They've put on some insane matches and their promos are entertaining if you liked That 70s Show. They're all pretty young but have a bright future in the industry.
Lifeblood was formed earlier this year by Juice Robinson. He felt that ROH had lost some of what it was founded on, including respect for the ring and the opponent. He's been mainly involved in NJPW but Williams, Haskins and Bandido have routinely stolen the show in most of their matches.
Promociones Dorado is a focal point of MLW but it was at its height with Low Ki as both a member and MLW Champion. It's still going strong with L.A. Park, El Hijo de L.A. Park and Ricky Martinez, but it isn't as formidable.
Imperium was primarily formed around Walter after he became the NXT UK Champion. He was treated like a big deal as he was the one to end Pete Dunne's record-setting title reign. Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel are an underrated tag team and it's a little surprising that they haven't had a tag title shot. And Alexander Wolfe left one faction in Sanity for another one.
#1 WWE - The New Day
The New Day has been a faction for over five years and was usually a fixture of mainly the tag team division. They had multiple title reigns and were usually parts of great bouts with the Bar, the Usos and even more recently, the Planet's Champions and Heavy Machinery.
Things really picked up this year as Kofi Kingston became a permanent main-eventer by winning the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35. It justified 11 years of hard work and opportunities that were not given to him. He has proven to be among the top ten wrestlers in the world.
But it doesn't stop there. Can you name a group in wresting today where any one of its members could be considered one of the top mic workers in the company? Whether it's Big E, Xavier Woods or Kingston, all three members keep the crowd entertained and are intelligent and hilarious. At the moment, they are all holding gold.
Being a good faction doesn't just mean being great in the ring. It also means cutting believable and engaging promos. The New Day checks both of those boxes. It's taken some time, but they are the best faction in the world in the biggest promotion in the world.
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