10 Short-Lived Wrestling Stables You've Already Forgotten

6. Cosmic Wasteland

John Cena Big E CM Punk
WWE.com

Cult favourites during a particularly strange period in Cody Rhodes' professional life, the Cosmic Wasteland was effectively an acknowledgement from the company that they'd managed to fail two acts at the same time.

The Ascension had long been decimated literally and figuratively by WWE's main roster booking by the time they came together with the equally adrift Stardust to form a group that may as well have been called "Space Sh*t" for all the sense it made.

The three of them had painted faces and a confusing lexicon, but this was neither the experimental WWE of the 1980s nor even the desperate one of the mid-1990s. As a company, the place was comfortable, and the whole gimmick registered as nothing more than pithy comedy bit as a result. Very little of the scripting made sense anyway, but WWE almost never booked them in programmes worth investing in, and Cody's departure in 2016 brought the stupid experiment to an abrupt halt.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett