Impact Wrestling: Top five factions in history

4. Fortune

When Ric Flair joined Impact Wrestling in 2010, he had big plans for the company, one of those was creating a new version of the faction he made famous – the Four Horseman.

Initially called ‘Team Flair’,  The Nature Boy announced plans to bring a modern-day Horseman to Impact but the member had to prove themselves by winning a series of matches.

Flair recruited AJ Styles as Fortune’s first member – then he added Beer Money, Frankie Kazarian, Christopher Daniels, Rob Terry, Douglas Williams, and Matt Morgan. During the formation of the group – The Nature Boy likened AJ Styles to Arn Anderson, Frankie Kazarian to Barry Windham, and Beer Money to Ole Anderson and Tully Blanchard. This was high praise indeed and it was clear Flair wanted to get his new faction over and give them the chance to go to the next level.

As factions were the hottest thing in Impact Wrestling at the time, it was clear Fortune would have issues with other groups – namely EV 2.0 and Immortal. They beat the former, in a 10 man tag team match, at 2010 Turning Point and the latter in a six-man tag team match, at 2011 Hardcore Justice.

Fortune was positioned at the top of the card and won six championships together, the highest honor going to James Storm, who won the World Heavyweight Title twice.

While re-creating something from the past doesn’t always work out, Fortune did what it intended to do. It gave exposure to the future of the company and gave AJ Styles the invaluable experience of working with a legend like Ric Flair.