30 Day Wrestling challenge - Day 6 Favourite Faction

Apr 24, 20205 min read

A faction—a collection of three or more people who have high aspirations for championship gold. They watch each other's backs, avenge their members' misfortunes and conspire to get the best opportunities.

But who are our favourites?

DANIEL WILDASH - BULLET CLUB

My favourite faction of all time has to be Bullet Club. The faction that has seen so many members come and go it reminds me of Watford FC during the 2012-2013 season.

My favourite period of Bullet Club has to be during AJ's leader reign between 2014-2016 which you could easily say was Bullet Clubs most powerful reign over NJPW/ROH.

AJ and Young Bucks both had world class matches during that time frame and held titles, Double J became a member for a short time and one of my personal all time faves, Kenny Omega, joined and was ripping up the Super Junior division wrestling great matches with Kushida.

From the outlandish promos to their simple dominance as a faction, BC were unstoppable. Even now with wrestlers such as Jay White and El Phantasmo, BC are still a force to be reckoned with...

BRUM - BRUDERSCHAFT DES KREUZES

Chikara does heel stables better than anyone and their magnus opus is the BDK.

I was originally going to go for The Flood (who were even more nWo like than BDK) purely because of the debut of Deucalion, which is up there with the best monster debuts ever.

However, if you're nominating a Chikara stable, anyone but the Bruderschaft feels like heresy.

Their origin story is a thing of beauty. What started off as a tale surrounding an unstoppable submission move, evolved into an Indiana Jones style romp about a magical amulet, and ended in the debut of a killer faction.

The faction itself was full of my fave wrestlers at the time: Claudio Castagnoli, Tim Donst, Sara Del Rey, Pinkie Sanchez, and Lince Dorado when he was good.

And you can't have a cool stable without a great hero on the other side. BDK gave us the thug tecnico of all thug tecnicos, Eddie Kingston.

With Claudio's jump to the WWE, things fizzled out a bit but that first year was a lot of fun.

In the Isolation Era, I would recommend investing in Chikarotopia (Chikara's on demand service). They are split into seasons so you have a lot of natural starting points, and if you just want good mad wrestling, The King of Trios tourney is always a hoot.

DOM VAN DAM - THE EMBASSY

What do you know about shrimp cocktail my friend? huh?

2005-2006 were probably my favourite years in wrestling, even though they were my least favourite for the WWE. Luckily for me though, the combination of disillusionment with the WWE product and free time in my university years, allowed plenty of opportunities for me to consume all of the Ring of Honor product that I could get my hands on.

ROH was entering a transitional period where they had to deal with TNA pulling a lot of their talent from shows and the WWE signing away several of the stars they created. Later in the decade a new generation of stars would lead ROH to a period they called Faction Warfare, but during 2005-6 that path was laid by The Embassy.

Aside from losing talent, the biggest challenge facing any independent wrestling company is creating characters that the audience will actively dislike and root against. Sure there are plenty of “cool heels” around and to be honest, at times, The Embassy could have been considered cucumber boys (as in “cool as A...”).

Primary member, Alex Shelley, was so bohemian with his blonde fringe, innovative wrestling and his kayfabe bending promos. Similarly, the mouthpiece, Prince Nana, could be downright hilarious and was so good at playing his character that it was hard to dislike him. But all of this, even the Kanye West entrance music, was superseded by “The Crown Jewel” Jimmy Rave (everybody).

Jimmy Rave was the best heel in wrestling. From the toilet paper and human footstool for his entrance, to his cowardly, methodical and cold-blooded style in the squared circle; Jimmy Rave took The Embassy from what could have been a comedy act and made them a legitimate backbone for ROH during this transitional time.

Outside of these 3 were a cavalcade of what must have been 20 other members over the years, but my favourite incarnation of this cornerstone of ROH will always be the 4 man team you’d see in the Steel Cage Warfare Match at the end of 2005: Nana, Rave, Shelley and Abyss.

The Embassy forever! Huh?

ROSS CASEY - THE SHIELD

For me, The Shield absolutely saved WWE for many years creatively and for in-ring quality. Arriving in late 2012 a year after the infamous pipebomb promo from CM Punk, the WWE was missing something to captivate its audience and The Shield duly provided it.

I was aware of Seth from his NXT run, as we were lucky enough to have the brand broadcast on Sky Sports even back then and had only heard great things about Dean Ambrose from his FCW days. Roman Reigns was an anomaly to me, but he looked fucking awesome.

As the heel 'Hounds of Justice' the trio provided amazing promos shot in an interesting way, their entrance was fresh and their matches, whether singles, tags or six mans provided so much excitement that it was little surprise that all three held top tier status throughout virtually their entire run.

I absolutely adored the initial heel turn from Seth, it was brilliant TV and I certainly didn't see it coming, which made it all the better for me. Yes, some of their single feuds against one-another got a bit silly, but whilst they were The Shield in that initial run, they were pure fire.

They managed to recapture the magic in short spells in their face run, which is hard to do in my opinion and the fact Vince gave them a proper send off - despite Dean moving to AEW - is testament to how well they are thought of.

Add in the pure emotion of the RAW where Roman came clean about his illness and his boys were on the ramp to support him and to me, you have the greatest faction in wrestling history.

Their reputation remains untarnished, something not many factions can claim. Believe that.

30 DAY CHALLENGE

DAY 1 - FAVOURITE MALE WRESTLER

DAY 2 - FAVOURITE FEMALE WRESTLER

DAY 3 - FAVOURITE MOMENT YOU'VE SEEN LIVE

DAY 4 - FAVOURITE TAG TEAM

DAY 5 - YOUR FIRST WRESTLING MEMORY

DAY 6 - FAVOURITE FACTION

DAY 7 - FAVOURITE PROMOTION

DAY 8 - FAVOURITE MANAGER

DAY 9 - FAVOURITE COMMENTARY TEAM

DAY 10 - FAVOURITE ENTRANCE THEME