10 Greatest Ever Formations Of Wrestling Factions

3. Team ECW

D-Generation X
WWE.com

This list isn't about great factions, per se, but focussed on the most brilliant formations of a group. In that regard, the fleeting Team ECW of 2001 deserves praise.

In reality, the buzz served up by this formation was quelled by the time that 9 July '01 episode of Raw came to a close. But for a brief moment, fans thought they were in for something great.

To recap, Chris Jericho and Kane were defending the WWF's honour against WCW's Lance Storm and Mike Awesome. Shockingly, the (re)debuting Tommy Dreamer and Rob Van Dam came out of the crowd to attack Jericho and Kane, prompting a slew of WWF stars to rush to the rescue.

Then, there was the sudden realisation that the fix was in, as those would-be saviours joined Storm and Awesome as the penny dropped that each of Tazz, Raven, Rhyno, Justin Credible and the Dudley Boyz were all once top tier players for ECW.

As the perfect cherry on the top, Paul Heyman emerged from the commentary desk to announce he'd formed his own Team ECW that would decimate both the WWF and WCW.

At that precise moment, you had six former ECW World Champions (Tazz, Raven, Rhyno, Awesome, Dreamer, Credible), the greatest tag team in ECW history (the Dudley Boyz), the most popular star in ECW history (RVD), and one of the best in-ring workers in ECW history (Storm).

It's absolutely criminal, then, that later that night saw Stephanie McMahon revealed as the owner of ECW, merging the group with WCW to form the Alliance.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.