10 Short-Lived Wrestling Stables That Could Have Been Much Bigger

A great professional wrestling stable doesn’t always need time to establish itself as great, but time isn’t a bad thing, especially in pro wrestling. 

There have been plenty of stables who may made an impact by bagging gold, creating memorable moments or having awesome matches, but ultimately didn’t scratch the surface of what they could have done if allowed to flourish unburdened. 

Sometimes it was their own undoing, while other times outside forces were very much at play that led to these short tenures. 

These are 10 short-lived wrestling stables that could have been much bigger.

10. The Un-Americans

A trio of Canadians rallying against all things USA, the so-called Un-Americans of Lance Storm, Christian and Test moved from SmackDown to Raw and soon added Brit William Regal to their ranks. The quartet pushed the buttons of patriotic fans and wrestlers – including 'American Badass’ The Undertaker – generating a ton of heat in the process. 

Regrettably, some of the members’ refusal to comply with management’s wishes curtailed their advancement. Test and Christian balked at suggestions they get their hair cut in the style of Storm and Regal - even though both ended up cutting their long hair within a few months anyway. There have also been claims that Test, Christian, and Storm weren’t comfortable with the amount of hate they were on the receiving end of.

This meant the group was scrapped after just a few months, only being booked on TV as a stable from June to September 2002.

Post-split, Lance Storm and William Regal continued to team together until March 2003, Christian formed a partnership with Chris Jericho, and Test entered a feud and then tag team with Scott Steiner.

9. The League Of Nations

Another supergroup of foreign menaces, the League of Nations was certainly not lacking when it came to in-ring pedigree as Ireland’s Sheamus, the UK’s Wade Barrett, Bulgaria’s Rusev, and Mexico’s Alberto Del Rio joined forces on November 30, 2015. 

On paper, the League of Nations looked like a group that could rule the main event and while they did initially hold the WWE World Heavyweight Championship (with Sheamus) and United States Title (Del Rio), it became evident early on that their real purpose was to simply serve as a foil to Roman Reigns and get The Big Dog over. 

WWE desperately needed The Big Dog to be firing as the all-conquering babyface in the run up to WrestleMania 32, so the League of Nations were fed to him. Regrettably, it didn’t work as fans still rejected Roman’s push.

Even more regrettably, every member of the League of Nations was less over than they were before it formed when it was mercifully put out of its misery in April of 2016.  Sheamus, Rusev, Barrett and Del Rio have all since been outspoken in their disappointment and frustration with how badly the group was mishandled. 

Sheamus told Cultaholic in 2020:

"There was a lot of troubles with the group. It was four guys who were awesome. Like really really good individuals. And then we got put together, and the idea was Vince wants to get Roman going and Roman had kind of like that stigma and I'd been there before too. Like, oh he's being pushed. The machine is pushing him. Let's go against the grain and kind of two fingers up kind of thing like that. So, we were brought in and I think I'd taken the title off Roman already and I was doing these promos and then they put all of us together, and the first match we had was we worked together on Monday, SmackDown on the Tuesday, he beat all four of us in a Handicap match and it was just downhill from there. And it was just frustrating because a lot of us kind of did clash a bit.

"Everyone was just so frustrated the way we were going and there was a lot of egos in the group too that would just clash with each other because we weren't happy where we were. As individuals we were way stronger than we were as a team, but it just happens. Again, the whole point of that entire group, there's a reason behind everything WWE does, and the reason behind the League Of Nations group, it wasn't to build a League Of Nations, it was to push Roman, to get Roman going."

8. Team Angle

While recovering from injuries towards the end very end of 2002, WWE Champion Kurt Angle introduced two hot young prospects who could do his wrestling for him. Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin - in a spot originally earmarked for Charlie’s brother Russ, who sadly passed away a year prior - joined up with the Olympic gold medallist to form Team Angle. 

Managed by Paul Heyman, the three amateur standouts sadly only got to wrestle a trio of matches as a threesome because Angle suffered a broken neck during Team Angle’s Handicap Match against Brock Lesnar and Chris Benoit at No Way Out 2003.

"Unfortunately, in this match is when I broke my neck. Did you see earlier in the show where I had Brock in a chokehold? Well, we did that at the pay-per-view, and he ran across the ring and went to turn his back so I’d hit the turnbuckle, but we didn’t make it all the way around, and I hit sideways, and my neck whiplashed. My neck snapped, and I cracked four vertebrae in my neck. I was supposed to win at WrestleMania, but because I broke my neck, I had to give up the title," Angle said on his podcast (H/T WrestleZone).

"It was a pretty damn good match. I’m not going to lie to you. I don’t remember a lot because I was so concerned about my neck. My arm went numb, and I couldn’t raise my arm much. It ultimately blocked off my nerve. My nerve got blocked, and I couldn’t use my arm. I went to the gym the next day, and I couldn’t curl five pounds, man. My other arm, I was doing the regular weight. This arm, I couldn’t curl five pounds. It was that bad."

Angle remained on TV until WrestleMania 19 when he dropped the WWE Championship to Brock Lesnar in the main event at Safeco Field. Haas and Benjamin stuck around on TV featured in the WWE Tag Team Title picture on SmackDown with a portrait of Angle. The faction came to an end, though, when Angle returned from injury in the Summer of 2003 and promptly fired Haas and Benjamin after they went on a losing streak. 

Angle has since bemoaned the group being split so soon, saying as much on his own podcast in 2024 (H/T EWrestlingNews): 

"It was my fault. I broke my neck. And when I came back, they were like, ‘Hey, we need to change stuff up, and we’re gonna have you face Charlie and Shelton.’ And it was like, ‘Wait a minute, we just started this.’ Like, we only went for what six months before they kind of split us up? Maybe seven months? It wasn’t long at all, and it could have been really, really good. I mean, we could have had one of the greatest factions in history. I mean, this thing was special. We had something really cool going on. And it just sucks that I got injured. And that’s the reason why."

7. The Hart Foundation

There have been various iterations and takes on the Hart Foundation tag team and stable, but the 1997 version was phenomenal and is fondly remembered as one of the greatest stables in wrestling history. They could have been that much greater had the five members been together longer than just a few short months, however. 

Heels in America and babyfaces everywhere else, Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Jim Neidhart, the British Bulldog and Brian Pillman talked the talked and walked the walked during one of the most intriguing WWE storylines ever. Their time as a faction peaked at Canadian Stampede where, in front of a feverish crowd in Calgary, the Hart Foundation got the better of Steve Austin’s squad in a blistering main event. 

It was, regrettably, the only time the five men teamed on television. Pillman would pass away just a few months later, before the events of the Montreal Screwjob brought about the end of the faction as everyone but Owen Hart exited WWE in the aftermath.

6. The Latino World Order

Tired of being disrespected by WCW management, Eddie Guerrero began to band the rest of the hardworking yet under-appreciated luchadores together to rail against the system starting in October of 1998, with Eddie dubbing his group the Latino World Order. 

He soon had the support of the majority of luchadores with the exception of Rey Mysterio, who refused to join the stable. This led to a programme between the LWO and Rey Rey as the stable tried to recruit him, with Mysterio eventually being forced to join after losing to Eddie.

The stable wasn’t around for much longer, however, as Eddie Guerrero was involved in a life-threatening car accident on New Year’s Day 1999. Without him around to guide them, the Latino World Order voluntarily agreed to disband and join the rest of WCW in fighting the nWo, ending their union after just four months. 

The LWO has since been revived on WWE TV with Rey Mysterio as the leader of the faction since 2023. 

5. King Booker's Court

After six years in WWE, Booker T finally received the push he deserved in the company in the Summer of 2006 as he won King of the Ring and then defeated Rey Mysterio to win the World Heavyweight Championship. 

Ruling over SmackDown, King Booker was flanked by Queen Sharmell and they got the gimmick over, only adding to it with the addition of ‘Sir Regal’ William Regal and ‘Sir Finlay’ following a ludicrous knighting ceremony on the August 25, 2006 episode of SmackDown which also served as the official formation of King Booker’s Court. 

Regal and Finlay provided Booker with insurance to ensure he maintained his spot as World Heavyweight Champion against the likes of Batista, John Cena, and Bobby Lashley. As well as doing some of Booker’s dirty work, Regal also added to the act with his incessant cries of ‘All Hail King Booker!’ as the champ made his entrance. 

Despite their obvious chemistry, King Booker’s Court would only last until the No Mercy pay-per-view in October, where Finlay was one of the challengers for Booker’s title and a fed-up Regal punched out Booker backstage. King Booker would then lose the big gold belt to Batista at Survivor Series. 

4. Cosmic Wasteland

As they hopelessly floundered in mid-card purgatory, Stardust and The Ascension came together in a bid to reverse their fortunes in the Autumn of 2015. Visually striking, the group known as Cosmic Wasteland had the potential to be so much more than fodder, if given the chance. 

Konnor and Viktor had once been a force to be reckoned with in NXT and served as imposing backup for Cody Rhodes’ alter-ego. Rhodes, for his part, was never fully comfortable behind the face paint, but he threw himself into angles, promos and matches as the psychotic supervillain

Aside from standing around and scouting people from ringside, what Cosmic Wasteland did more than anything else was lose matches, as they were clearly just there to put others over. The idea of the faction was barely developed and neither the fans nor the performers had any reason to care. It was a true disservice to the three of them. 

Cosmic Wasteland predictably fizzled out and Rhodes, correctly sensing there were more opportunities for him outside of WWE, asked for and received his release following WrestleMania 32. 

3. The Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven line-up was star studded as the group contained Ric Flair, the Steiner Brothers, Lex Luger, Road Warrior Animal, Jeff Jarrett and Buff Bagwell. They were formed and led by on-screen WCW CEO Flair at the company’s Sin pay-per-view in January of 2001. 

With their main focus being keeping the WCW World Heavyweight Title around the waist of Big Poppa Pump, the Magnificent Seven was really the company’s last big idea before shutting down. In the weeks leading up to WCW being bought by Vince McMahon, one of their major angles saw members of the Magnificent Seven being attacked one by one by a mystery assailant. 

Fans never got the payoff as the storyline was abandoned when the sale went through. WCW was dreadful in those final months, but the Magnificent Seven at least brought some intrigue and star power to a rapidly-diminishing product. 

2. Team Lesnar

The group of Brock Lesnar, Big Show, Nathan Jones, Matt Morgan and A-Train joined forces ahead of WWE Survivor Series 2003, with the five-strong crew of monsters being put together by SmackDown General Manager Paul Heyman in the Autumn of 2003, essentially to help protect the interests of The Next Big Thing, who was reigning as WWE Champion at the time. 

On sheer mass alone, the group were one of the most impressive in wrestling history. In the ring, however, they had a couple of glaring weaknesses in Nathan Jones and Matt Morgan. The group was soon no more after their loss at Survivor Series 2003 to Team Angle (not the same one as earlier in this list) as Jones quit WWE during a tour of Australia. Morgan, meanwhile, remained on TV before he was sent back to OVW for further training. 

1. The Radicalz

When Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit and Perry Saturn collectively decided to jump ship from WCW to WWE in January of 2000, WCW’s loss was very much WWE’s gain. The Radicalz instantly made an impact upon their arrival but, overall, their run as a group failed to live up to initial expectations. 

The injury Eddie suffered during his very first WWE match didn’t help matters, but it didn’t take WWE too long to splinter the group as Benoit and Guerrero were pushed as singles stars, while Malenko and Saturn teamed together. The Radicalz reformed towards the end of the year but didn’t really accomplish much and were mired in the mid-card before splitting up and fighting amongst themselves once again. 

Fans will rightly praise the talents of the individuals and how incredible the surprise debut was as a moment.  However, as a stable, the Radicalz were capable of doing much, much more.