11 Worst Spinoff Factions In Wrestling History

8. The Yamazaki Corporation

It’s agreed by many The Four Horsemen are the apex of wrestling factions, inspiring future grapplers like Steve Austin, Triple H and FTR to actually become pro wrestlers. The Yamazaki Corporation on the other hand inspired no one.

The Four Horsemen morphed into The Yamazaki Corporation in the late ‘80s due to circumstances behind the scenes, with Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard quitting the NWA for the WWF, and J.J. Dillon later jumping ship there too to work as a front office executive.

The Road Warriors and Nikita Koloff were just some of the names suggested to fill the sizable gaps in the Horsemen but WCW went a different route. Old school wrestler George Scott was brought in to lead WCW creatively around this period, with him instead choosing to bring in his close friend Hiro Matsuda to manage the group, under the pretence Hiro bought out the remaining Horsemen contracts for Ric Flair and Barry Windham whilst representing a Japanese company called the Yamazaki Corporation. The idea was to play off Japan’s economic growth and buying sprees of American owned businesses and draw heat that way.

In their short run they brought in Barry’s younger brother Kendall Windham, Butch Reed and Michael Hayes as members, but they just couldn’t capture a shred of the magic the Horsemen could and did.