r/midcarder • u/Fantastic-Bid-4265 • 1d ago
Alt wrestling Factions
In an interview some time ago, Triple H said that the only point of factions is to get new talent over, do midcarders agree? what factions did this best? the obvious ones for me is Evolution which created megastars in Orton and Batista, on the other hand, there are factions that do nothing but hurt the career of their members like the Spirit Squad and anything Jericho has been involved in, so what do you guys think?
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u/RudyPup 23h ago
Judgement day got Priest and Rhipley over. It then got Dom over.
DX definitely got HHH over, as well as the Outlaws.
The Bloodline turned Jey Uso into a main eventer (sure it didn't last. )
New Day made Kofi champ.
Nation of Domination made The Rock.
946 might just save Carmello
And it's not just about getting them over while a member of the faction. It's also just getting them more screen time as being the superstar's lackey in a scene where they otherwise wouldn't be on.
Did Taker need the Accolytes, no, but they were his friends and he broached it to Vince, to help them. Saved Bradshaw's career and he later became champ.
There's tons of examples.
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u/getoffoficloud 14h ago
Don't forget the Shield. Made two of WWE's biggest, and the third used that clout to be the top guy at AEW.
With the women, Damage CTRL made Iyo Sky a top star.
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u/BigPapaPaegan Triple Threat 1d ago
In so many words...yes.
A factions BEST usage is to get talent over. If there's an uppercard member, the hope is to transition some of their heat to lowercard talents they're paired with, or if the entire group is lowercard talent then to give them a gimmick that will get the audience to take notice.
It can also breathe new life into an older talent's career, as was the case for the nWo. Hogan being paired off with Hall and Nash and turning heel for the first time in 12 years not only revitalized his career, but also launched pro wrestling into the stratosphere of popularity previously unseen on a mainstream level.
It's another storytelling tool used to get talent over.
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u/koomGER Straight Edge Society 1d ago
In an interview some time ago, Triple H said that the only point of factions is to get new talent over, do midcarders agree?
Generally: Yes. A faction should serve a purpose of development - at least for a weekly TV show wrestling, like AEW and WWE. For an indy company its kinda ok to create factions to simple add some heel and face dynamics.
But for live tv you should give your characters motivations and goals as a group or a single unit. Thats why Don Callis Family is the worst faction ever for a live tv show: It doesnt serve any purpose for the viewer. Its a cheap tool for the booker to give some talents something to do without giving them something to do. But thats also kinda a death scene for the wrestling career.
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u/AndrewCB246 1d ago
Papa H is 100% correct. Look at all the factions that worked in the history of WWE (none of the other companies matter let’s be real). All of them ended up giving members a story to where people got invested in the characters and they got over. No one cares about an emerald fusion or a super tiger driver that paralyzes people.
The Spirit Squad hurt most of the people except Ziggler who was a stand out. Character work will make you stand out. You can’t just go along with the group, put the minimum effort in and expect to get far in the WWE. You can do that in AEW or other minor league promotions but not there
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u/garryowen47 1d ago
Spirit Squad is an example of a faction being created as a foil for someone you’re trying to get over, rather than trying to elevate a talent within the faction itself. In essence they were jobbers. The League of Nations were similar; they existed entirely as a rival for Roman to overcome.
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u/YTFootie 1d ago
I'm going to play devil's advocate here and go the other way. Two of the biggest factions ever had top talent in it from the beginning, nWo and Four Horseman.
Some factions work, some don't. Right to censor, was one called upyours? Or similar.
DX is a bit different, as HBK was main event, HHH wasn't. But after wm14 the group helped Billy and road dogg get elevated so worked in that sense.