10 WWE Stables You Totally Don't Remember
6. The NWA
The National Wrestling Alliance dates back to the 1940s, and is the longest-running professional wrestling organisation in the world. Any wrestling historian knows and understands the NWA’s historical significance, but they were in a shambles by the 1990s. WWE, WCW, and ECW broke away from the territorial system and struck-out on their own, reaching great new heights in the process, but effectively devastating the NWA.
The Alliance was in ruins by 1997, but they struck a deal with WWE to increase their visibility and try to re-establish themselves on a national scale. The arrangement saw the NWA’s champions regularly appear on Raw in a move that’d boost the NWA’s exposure, and give WWE some much-needed depth across the roster that was practically hemorrhaging talent to WCW.
Things didn’t quite work-out, however, and WWE’s NWA faction was a rank failure, and the progressively laconic Barry Windham and badly ageing Rock & Roll Express failed to click with WWE’s audiences. Not even legendary mouthpiece Jim Cornette could get the unit over, and the NWA stable’s end came shortly after the New Midnight Express (“Bombastic Bob” Holly and “Bodacious Bart” Gunn… yes, really) lost to the New Age Outlaws at King of the Ring ‘98.
The NWA invasion failed on every every conceivable level, despite involving talented guys like Cornette and NWA Champion Dan Severn.