10 Failed Attempts To Recreate Great Wrestling Stables

Stables have been a prominent part of wrestling history since the territorial days of the National Wrestling Alliance.

Traditionally a gathering of heels, united in their pursuit of bringing down a babyface, the archetype was firmly established in Memphis with Jimmy Hart's First Family's feud with Jerry Lawler, and later the Freebirds' attack on the Von Erich family unit in Dallas.

However, it was the Four Horseman, thanks to their hostile takeover of all the NWA championships in the mid 1980s, who would charter the course for stables going forward.

Like all wrestling angles, stables come and go to make way for new feuds and characters. Over time, injuries and contract disputes water down popular contingents and even the most over of stables eventually fade away, confined to wrestling nostalgia.

Whether due to prosaic booking or a public clamouring for their return, almost all successful stables have at one time been brought back into wrestling's infinite continuum.

Some were a welcome sight upon their return, whilst others spectacularly failed to capture the imagination of their first run.

Here's ten piss poor attempts to resuscitate popular stables.

Creativity was never WCW's strong suit, so in hindsight, Raven shouldn't have expected much in the way of inventiveness when he left ECW to join the high-flying Atlanta company in 1997.

In ECW, Raven was the leader of his own stable, the Nest, a waif and stray assemblage of lackeys, henchmen and paramours, who assisted Raven in his feuds and title wins.

Debuting in the crowd in WCW in late 1997, the nihilistic Raven recruited a new 'flock' of followers to do his bidding for him while he misanthropically watched on from the sidelines.

The angle was well recieved by fans and appeared to be picking up steam as Raven was joined by fellow ECW alumni Perry Saturn and Stevie Richards - and then it went to s**t.

Readily admitting he didn't understand the Raven character, Eric Bischoff had little interest in the flock or its leader and the company's booking soon began to reflect its lack of) vision.

After being joined by recovering heroin addict Kidman, the flock quickly became a gang of jabronis, including wrestlers WCW had been trying and failing to get over for years ,such as Van Hammer, Ron Reese and Scotty Riggs.

By 1998, WCW had disbanded the group and by 1999, Raven was back in ECW.