Backstage at One Night Stand, Randy Orton encouraged Batista to reform Evolution.

He said: “You remember back in the day, Evolution right? You and me only dreamt of being on top in this business. Now we’re on top and not only that but we’ve got an opportunity tonight to take out Triple H and Shawn Michaels. You know there’s a draft in the next few weeks? There’s a chance we could end up on the same show as those guys. Imagine if we got the band back together. We wouldn’t be followers, we’d be leaders.”

Orton’s statement reminded me of the days Evolution ran roughshod on Raw, trying to take out all that lay in their path to ensure Triple H held on to his precious World Heavyweight Championship.

Sure, this particular embodiment wouldn’t include The Game, but it would still be exciting. Very much reminiscent of the Four Horsemen, which Evolution member Ric Flair was a part of, Evolution stopped at nothing to get what they wanted. The group made you want to punch your fist through a television screen each time they issued another beat down.

But what stables are there in WWE right now? Not many. WWE needs to get more wrestlers together so it can initiate exciting feuds throughout its roster.

Stables can bring a company success in many different ways. The groups each gave birth to a host of singles feuds and made televised wrestling unpredictable as you never knew who would confront who next.

Back in the day, groups like the Nation of Domination, D Generation X and the Corporation battled over then WWF supremacy. For example, The Rock battled with Ron Simmons over leadership of the Nation, while the Corporation merged with the Ministry of Darkness to give us the Corporate Ministry and many intriguing championship moments.

Even further back, you had the likes of the Hart Foundation, the Powers of Pain and the Bobby Heenan Family. The Hart Foundation, which carried on from the mid eighties through to the mid nineties, helped the careers of Bret and Owen Hart tremendously. Stables have proven that they can both entertain and intrigue fans everywhere and should be a necessity in today’s WWE.

Today, the most high profile group is La Familia, consisting of Edge, Zack Ryder, Curt Hawkins, Chavo Guerrero, Bam Neely and Vickie Guerrero. Members of the gang helped Edge lift the World Heavyweight Championship in his TLC match with The Undertaker at One Night Stand by attacking The Deadman to prevent him climbing the ladder and grabbing the gold.

The group has certainly succeeded in giving Edge heel heat, but does he need any more?

It has also been a bit repetitive as the group have mainly intervened in The Undertaker’s matches en masse. If another stable could step up to the plate to feud with La Familia, they may become more exciting. Evolution did get a tad tiresome for the same reason. Both were united in helping one man retain gold. If they could unite in a common goal of destroying another faction, it would bring more identification to each wrestler involved.

But there is an argument that WWE is managing just fine without groups. There have been some red hot feuds recently. Triple H has completed an engaging stretch with Randy Orton over the WWE Championship, while Edge and Undertaker always delivered on the Smackdown side of things.

The war of words between Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels and Batista has developed fantastically well and enabled some fantastic bouts. Recent pay per views have been more than exciting too. Why fix what isn’t broken? Factions may distract singles wrestlers from championship goals and deprive fans of potentially amazing match ups.

It has been rumoured WWE are considering bringing in a heel stable consisting of second generation wrestlers. The likes of Cody Rhodes, DH Smith, Afa Anoai Junior and Ted DiBiase Junior are all slanted to be a part.

This may only be good news for WWE, but they may need to battle other groups if they are to be successful.

David Bridson
david@wwepreview.com