The Master's Dojo: Famous Factions Part 3

Hello ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another edition of The Master’s Dojo!! This week, I’ll a quick draft recap and the return of Famous Factions!! Let’s get it on!!

I’ll start off by talking about the draft. This year’s draft and supplemental draft were very interesting. RAW picked up a lot of talent, notably the Unified Tag Team Champions (The Colons), Matt Hardy, U.S. Champion M.V.P., The Big Show and Triple H, as well as many more. Smackdown also picked up some superstars, such Y2J, Mr. Money in the Bank CM Punk, Kane, John Morrison and Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio. ECW even got a few stars, being Hurricane Helms, Ezekiel Jackson and Vladimir Kozlov. Both female titles changed brands. Both mid-level titles changed brands. Smackdown currently doesn’t have a World Champion (until CM Punk cashes in). Many Tag Teams were broken up (Miz and Morrison both switched brands [different brands], Festus left Jesse, Ryder and Hawkins were separated and TBK and Big Zeke were broken up). I can’t really judge if this was a good draft or a bad draft, I won’t be able to until we see how everything turns out with the new rosters.

Now on to the Famous Factions!! We’ll start off this time with The Nation of Domination. Over time, they had twelve members, the most successful obviously being The Rock (for a while in the stable, he was known as Rocky Maivia). The group originated in the United States Wrestling Association, but found much more success in the WWF. The heel group formed in WWF when Faarooq (Ron Simmons) and Clarence Mason aligned themselves. They were supposed to loosely resemble the Nation of Islam, and had pro-black themes. Over time, several wrestlers joined the Nation, such as Wolfie D, J.C. Ice, Savio Vega, Crush and D’Lo Brown. The trio of Faarooq, Vega and Crush often fought in 6-Man Tag Team Matches, most notably in Chicago Street Fight at WrestleMania 13. In 1997, Faarooq became angry at the group and fired everyone except D’Lo Brown. In June of 1997, Faarooq promised a “bigger and blacker” version of the Nation, and he brought in the Kama Mustafa (the Godfather) and Ahmed Johnson. Johnson left due to injury, and Faarooq also brought in Rocky Maivia. During a feud with DOA and the Legion of Doom, Rocky Maivia shortened his name to The Rock. At the D-Generation X PPV the Rock was given a title shot against now Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin, which was won by Stone Cold when he stunned the referee. Due to the controversy of the match, Austin had to defend his title against the Rock the next night on RAW, where instead of defending the title, Stone Cold forfeited. But when he handed the Rock the belt, Austin stunned him, then took the belt. The next week on RAW, The Nation came down to the ring and Rock demanded his belt, but Austin appeared on the Titantron standing on a bridge, and he threw the belt off the edge. In early 1998, Mark Henry turned on Ken Shamrock during a match with D’Lo and the Rock, and he joined the Nation of Domination. On March 30th, the Rock took control of the group, and they dropped “of Domination” from the name. During the Rock’s leadership, the group became “cool”, most notably Mustafa becoming the Godfather. On an April edition of RAW, Owen Hart turned heel and joined the Nation. D-Generation X and the Nation began a very memorable rivalry, with one of the most famous moments being when DX parodied the Nation in the ring on RAW (with the help of Jason Sensation). The two stables fought in many matches throughout the year. Towards the end of 1998 though, there were signs that the Nation was coming to an end. The Rock was becoming increasingly popular. Owen Hart left when he claimed there wasn’t enough room for him and Rock’s ego, and the Godfather left to go solo. The end of The Nation came when Brown and Henry assaulted the Rock in October of 1998.

Ok, the next stable I’ll be covering is a more recent stable, yet very memorable, Evolution. The members of this well-known stable were Randy Orton, Ric Flair, Batista and Triple H. The faction started in 2003, after a period of time when Flair was the manager of Triple H and Batista. Randy Orton joined in when Triple H started feuding with Scott Steiner. The group officially formed as Evolution in early February. Early on in Evolution’s history, members of the group were feuding with Shawn Michaels (Flair and Orton) and with Goldberg (Triple H). This was occurring while Batista was injured. During his feud, Triple H put out a $100,000 bounty for anyone who took out Goldberg. Batista returned and attacked Goldberg and collected the bounty. At Survivor Series, Randy Orton competed in the Team Austin vs. Team Bischoff, in which he was the sole survivor. Later that same night, despite numerous interferences, Triple H could not beat Goldberg for the World Heavyweight Championship. However, while at the height of their power, Evolution held the Intercontinental (Randy Orton), World Tag Team (Batista and Ric Flair) and World Heavyweight Championships. For a little while, Flair and Batista exchanged the titles with Rob Van Dam and Booker T. At WrestleMania XX, Evolution (comprised of Flair, Batista and Orton) defeated Rock ‘n Sock (The Rock and Mick Foley) in a handicap match. In the main event, the other member of Evolution, Triple H, was in a Triple Threat match for the WHC, which he and HBK lost to Chris Benoit. At Backlash, Orton defended his Intercontinental Title and Triple H lost again to Benoit in a Triple Threat. Later that year, while still champion, Benoit teamed with Edge and they won the Tag Team titles from Evolution. At Vengeance, Triple H lost to Benoit due to accidental interference from Eugene, and on the same night, Edge beat Orton for the Intercontinental Title. On a July episode of RAW, Triple H was given one last chance at the WHC in an Iron Man Match, which once again, thanks to Eugene, he lost. Earlier in the evening, Orton won a Number 1 contenders match for the WHC, which he won, and he faced Benoit at Summerslam, and he won. The next night on RAW, Benoit got a rematch, and Orton won again. Evolution came out and seemed to celebrate, when in fact, they came to pummel Orton and kick him out of the group. Triple H then defeated Orton for the title at Unforgiven. The title was defended at New Year’s Revolution, where Triple H won. Orton soon became the #1 contender and received a title shot at WreslteMania. Even though Triple H asked him not to, Batista entered the Royal Rumble at number 28 and was victorious. At the contract signing, Flair and Helmsley asked Batista to challenge for the WWE Title, not the WHC, but Batista attacked Evolution, thus leaving the group, and he signed the WHC contract. Batista beat Triple H for the title at WreslteMania 21, and defended at Backlash and Vengeance. For a while, Triple H took time off and Flair turned face. They reunited in a Tag Team match at WWE RAW Homecoming, where Hunter attacked Flair, once again turning heel and officially ending Evolution.

Ok, now for the final stable/faction this week, The Alliance!! This was more of an organization, but still. The stable was basically a stable created to fill the Invasion storyline after WWF bought WCW and ECW went out of business. Now, for a few years now, WCW had been on a downhill slide and they couldn’t recover. Due to a lawsuit involving WWF and WCW over Scott Hall’s character, WWF got the right of first refusal if WCW ever was being liquidated. Nitro (WCW’s Monday night show) had its final show, the first half was full of matches, and the second hour was a simulcast with RAW. The final match was Ric Flair vs. Sting (which coincidentally was the main event of the first Nitro). Towards the show’s end, Shane McMahon appeared on Nitro, and announced that he had “bought WCW from under his father’s nose”. After WrestleMania X7 (which was just 6 days away), a major, yet highly criticized storyline was formed. For months after the acquisition, WCW wrestlers constantly invaded WWF shows. The official start of the Invasion was when Booker T Scissor Kicked Vince, then escaped through the crowd with Shane. On July 9th on RAW, Kane and Jericho took on Mike Awesome and Lance Storm in a tag team match. Towards the end of the match, Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer came down to the ring and attacked the WWF stars, and the ECW stars working for WWF joined in. After the mayhem, Heyman walked away from the announce table and announced that the invasion had been taken to the extreme. Later, there was a 10 on 10 match, between 10 ECW wrestlers and a team of 5 WCW and 5 WWF wrestlers. Eventually, ECW took out WWF and then the WCW guys came out to congratulate ECW, and Shane announced that the new owner of ECW was none other than Vince’s daughter, Stephanie. Now, after WreslteMania, Stone Cold had turned heel, and was no longer that loveable, beer-swilling redneck, but instead a guy who was being all nice and cheery towards Vince. On Smackdown, Vince told Stone Cold that he needed “the old Austin” to lead them into the PPV. Austin just turned away and left, but did return next week on RAW while all the wrestlers were brawling, and in the ring he delivered stunners to most of the opponents who were in the ring. At the InVasion PPV, Stone Cold turned his back on WWF by helping the WCW/ECW team win. He said the Alliance appreciated him, and that was why he joined. On the July 30th RAW, the Rock returned. After Rock Bottoming both of the McMahon men, the Rock announced that “Finally, the Rock, has come back…to the WWF!!” At Summerslam, the Rock defeated Booker T for the WCW title, and Austin defeated Angle for the WWF title. At Unforgiven, the Rock and Jericho began a long lasting feud. On an October addition of RAW, Kurt Angle defected to the Alliance from the WWF. The beginning of the end was when Vince claimed a member of the Alliance would join WWF, and claimed that it would be Stone Cold, and that caused unrest in the Alliance locker room. Vince proposed a Winner-Take-All Traditional Survivor Series match at Survivor Series, 5 Alliance members vs. 5 WWF members. Shane McMahon, Booker T, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam and Stone Cold vs. Big Show, Kane, Jericho, Undertaker and the Rock. The match ended after Austin stunned Rock, but there was no ref. Austin tried to drag the ref over, but Kurt Angle showed up and picked up a title belt. Everyone thought he’d be going at the Rock, but he hit Austin and Rock followed with a Rock Bottom. The Invasion storyline had ended and the Alliance disbanded.

Well everybody, thanks for tuning into another issue of The Master’s Dojo. Until next time, I am the Master of Puppets, the Dojo is closed and I AM OUT!!!