10 Best Spinoff Factions In Wrestling History
It's rare, but sometimes lightning can strike a stable twice.
Reboots and spin-offs are a tricky thing at the best of times. For every Fraser or Better Call Saul, there’s a Joey or a Heroes Reborn - and wrestling is no different.
I mean, how many times is Vince McMahon going to dress up random characters as the Road Warriors and expect them to get little more than a big fat “meh” out of the crowd? If you can’t bring it back how it was, simply dragging and dropping a gimmick or a familiar name onto something doesn’t make it immediately cool.
It’s hard work taking something that fans adore and either reviving it from the dead or transforming it whilst it's still with us. It has to give us those warm feelings, but must be different enough to cut its own path forward - otherwise, what was the point? We might as well go back and watch old tapes.
Many wrestling teams and stables are born from previous alliances coming together again or bigger groups splintering into smaller fractions. Whilst the vast majority of these kinds of groups struggle, there is a handful that we can look at as the blueprint on how to make it work. The following groups are the best examples of that.
10. The Radicalz
Long-time real life friends Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn, Shane Douglas and Chris Benoit were tired of not getting their time in the spotlight in WCW. This was both a story shown on screen as they formed The Revolution in 1999 but also the truth behind the scenes. That frustration was certainly at a tipping point because whilst The Revolution was televised (eh? eh??) it was not for very long.
In January 2000, a year after establishing The Revolution, Benoit, Saturn and Malenko were seen in the crowd at WWF Raw is War alongside fellow WCW star Eddie Guerrero. It was a shocking image for wrestling fans at the time and one that is included in every nostalgic look-back at the Monday Night War.
After involving themselves in a match, the Radicalz soon found themselves part of Vinny Mac’s fed’ as legitimate competitors. It was a great get for the WWF; a group of unbelievably talented workers, several of which would go on to hold gold in the company, and an excellent way to introduce new talent jumping from the sinking ship of their competitors.
Whilst The Radicalz may not have been greater than than sum of its parts, it holds the distinction of bringing those parts to the WWF in a big way.