Stables are back in WWE. A classic wrestling gimmick in order to prolong storylines, group together some brilliant talent and mainly create havoc throughout a promotion – and they are back in WWE.
And it’s just brilliant.
A key ingredient to the hay days of the Attitude Era was the stable (also known as faction). Now I understand that the Attitude Era was then and this is now but every WWE fan that is above the age of 24 (the majority of their audience) still compares and contrasts everything to the attitude era – nay – they even secretly wish it was still happening.
There’s an old adage that says, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” which is true. But you can’t deny natural evolution which the movement out of the Attitude Era and into the Social or Reality Era was. However this doesn’t mean that we have to deny everything that the attitude era did.
For the last seven years WWE has dwindled in and out of direction – it has made some terrible talent and creative choices but it was a necessary evil in order to get to the brink of this era I think we are about to experience now. WWE could be slowly crawling back to the greatness of before.
I’m not saying copy it. I’m saying use it, change it, and evolve it – a lesson that WWE is starting to learn and this is no more evident than the return of the Stable.
Back in the late 90s and early 00s there were some fantastic Stables. I remember the Dudley Boyz (with Spike Dudley), Right To Censor, Kaientai, D-Generation X, The Corporation, Evolution, The Four Horsemen, The Nation of Donination, The Hart Foundation and the New World Order. Looking through that list we all have memories of fantastic matches, moments or WWE folk lore that they are all responsible for. But we can also see that each stable probably surpassed the sum of its parts.
For example, X-Pac of D-Generation X (he was also in the Million Dollar Corporation as 1-2-3 Kidd and the New World Order as Syxx-Pac). The Stable made him. He was a good professional wrestler but he was nothing brilliant until he surrounded himself with a Stable. The same can be said of The Godfather of Right To Censor or Test of The Corporation and even Spike Dudley of the Dudley Boyz.
The same thing is starting to occur now and it is exciting. The Dudley Boyz are back (I refer to my previous article for LWOS) which is a sign that WWE want to point certain superstars in certain direction. There are far more run of the mill wrestlers on the roster now than there are absolute Superstars and placing them in a Stable will help them find their fans.
Just look at New Day. The fantastic New Day. Big E was on the brink of putting us to sleep every time he competed. Kofi Kingston we all know was a great Tag Team wrestler from when he teamed up with Evan Bourne but in singles he wasn’t anything to write home about. Now New Day are by far one of the shining lights of WWE at the moment and there is just no way that the three of them working individaully would have as big an impact. Three brains are often better than one.
They have ‘Stableized’ the Diva division as well. Every pun intended. Yes the names are awful but the work they are producing is better than their individual ability. Alicia Fox would by no means get anywhere near the amount of matches she is in at the moment if she wasn’t in Team Bella. Becky Lynch would have had a much longer road to stardom on the main roster if she was not in Team PCB.
Then if we look over the last few years, we have had The Shield who look like they may be making a 2.0 return. The Wyatts, again having their stable built up by the debut of Braun Strowman and potentially having sister Abigail bought into the mix. They work well in NXT too. The previous Tag Team Champions were a killer Stable with Alexa Bliss being the x-factor (and not the stable) to Blake and Murphy’s reign.
It’s a format that works and a format that can allow even the most mediocre of stars a route to fame, fortune and the WWE Hall of Fame. It’s a great way of getting very stagnant Superstars a spark which may ignite them into something special. The more the merrier – I can see no downside. It’s great for creative, it’s great for in-ring performance, it is a staple of the wrestling industry. It’s what WWE have missed over the last few years and it should be a staple ingredient of WWE for a long time to come.
