In pro wrestling, when a faction comes to dominate the ring, three outcomes are possible. The faction sways the audience and rules as a personality cult, another faction rises up to bring the cult down, or the whole company collapses under its weight.
Hmmmm, OK, as a big pro wrestling fan, (I like to fancy myself as FSTDT’s resident wrestling expert, in fact, LOL)….I don’t think that quite checks out. The example of a “wrestling faction dominating the ring” that first comes to my mind is the WCW’s “nWo” or “New World Order” faction in the late ’90s. Did they really “sway the audience and rule as a personality cult”? Well, maybe. They were pretty much the central focus of WCW’s big storylines, at least in their initial incarnation. But that “initial incarnation” was always positioned as the heels, the “bad guys.” Yeah, they did get their share of cheers, but there was always a lot of their fans rooting for them to get to their comeuppance as well.
Did another faction rise up to bring them down? Well, OK, not really. There were certainly attempts, like the WCW stalwarts The Four Horsemen, but they never really did, and the nWo’s first offshoot, or splinter group, if you will, the “Wolfpack”….who eventually rejoined with the original nWo in what in my opinion was one of the most anticlimactic ends to a storyline EVER.
BUT, the last point is the fun one, I think, lol. Did WCW “collapse under its own weight”? FUCK YES they did (and famously got bought out by Vince McMahon’s WWE for pennies on the dollar!), and while their handling of the nWo ain’t the only reason for that, it’s at least PARTLY to blame!