10 Best Wrestling Stables Of All Time
1. The Four Horsemen
The nWo may have upset the pro wrestling stable paradigm, but it was Four Horsemen who created the mold in the first place. In 1985, NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair, United States Champion Tully Blanchard, and National Tag Team Champions Arn and Ole Anderson formed an alliance, with Arn soon comparing the group to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The name stuck.
The group's mission statement was simple - they'd work hard to be the best in the sport and enjoy the fruits of their labor. The four men (and manager J.J. Dillon) did whatever it took to defeat and humiliate their competition, and the money they won from being the best went toward a lifestyle that the best deserved - fine suits, fast cars, and private jets. The Four Horsemen's definition of greatness became the standard for excellence in pro wrestling.
The group went through many permutations over the course of the next decade and a half, but Flair was always at the helm and Arn Anderson was always beside him. Even though men like Paul Roma and Steve McMichael eventually became Horsemen, diluting the brand, there was always something special about being a part of the group. And even though The Horsemen suffered humiliation and betrayal at the hands of Curt Hennig and the nWo, the amazing reaction that the returned Flair and the reunited Horsemen got when they came together in 1998 proved that the group was as current as anything in wrestling.
There were stables in professional wrestling before The Four Horsemen, but the group's dynamic, camaraderie, and status changed the way factions in the sport were perceived. Their influence is clearly visible in nearly every grouping in the sport since their arrival, and their success speaks for itself.