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Factions disbanded
The Firm: What a weird journey this group had. Formed for no real reason, helped out MJF a couple of times, feuded with with the Hardy Party, then Stockley went off to be an authority figure in ROH and Ethan Page got contracted to Matt Hardy. The Gunn Club always felt half in/out of the group before they sided with Bullet Club Gold. Hopefully each member can find success away from the group. Big Bill is off to a solid start getting good crowd reactions from his appearances.
Factions on Hold
Trustbusters: They haven't been featured on AEW programming in a long while and only sporadically show up on ROH shows. Ari Davari can be seen more frequently with the Varsity Athletes and he's supposed to be the founder of the Trustbusters.
Wingmen: Haven't done anything of note in a long while.
Top Flight: Action Andretti, AR Fox, and Darius Martin could be a solid group but they're not getting a lot of AEW TV time. They certainly aren't getting it as a faction.
Rankings:
#16 Spanish Announce Project (no change): I was tempted to add them to the "on hold" group but I do enjoy waiting for that elusive win. Technically they're up 2 spots since there are less factions in this month's installment but last place is last place. Strength: 0%
#15 Varsity Athletes (no change): They're more involved with ROH of late. Still a functioning unit though so this keeps them out of the "on hold" category. Strength: 34.1%
#14 Los Faccion Ingobernables (no change)- What a tumultuous few weeks this group has had. Rumors regarding Rush's contract status are swirling, while Andrade is back on AEW television. Despite the roster page listing him as a member, I need to see more from Andrade to factor his stats into this group. Just having Jose accompany him to the ring would be enough. Strength: 36%
#13 QTV (down 3 spots): I don't think any group misses a former member the way that QTV misses Powerhouse Hobbs. Strength: 42.9%
#12 Triple J (no change) I want to see more of Satnam Singh! The Royal Rampage would have been a perfect chance for him to show off. Give me a Big Bill/Singh stare down! Strength: 52.4%
#11 JAS (no change) Lots of losses (including Hager losing his hat) has this group falling down the list. I doubt they get through the rest of the year together. Strength: 52.9%
#10 Hardy Party (down 5 spots)- It was fun when Hook made a brief run with Hardy's group. Now, like his FTW reign, those days are in the past. Strength: 53.2%
#9 Mogul Embassy (down one spot)- Swerve Strickland feels like's he's one step away from doing something big in an AEW ring. Whether that be a championship win, a era defining promo, or something else remains to be seen. Strength: 56.1%
#8 Dark Order (up one spot): Until they recruit a new member, purpose is still an N/A. Recent heel turn is a new development but it hasn't done much to increase my interest in the group. Evil Uno deserves a character in the Fight Forever game. Strength: 74.5%
#7 The Elite (down one spot): The blood and guts win was a big one, but this list isn't what groups have done lately. It's cumulative over the course of the year and the Elite have no championships and several factions with better win percentages. Strength: 64.4%
#6 Bullet Club Gold (previously un-ranked): Entered the AEW factions in a big way. Had a potential TV match of the year with FTR and they're just getting started. Wouldn't be surprised if Bullet Club Gold was one of the teams in next year's Blood and Guts. Strength: 71.4%
#5 The Acclaimed (up 2 spots)- This may be the last time that we get The Acclaimed in the faction rankings as Billy Gunn left his boots in the ring after their loss to the House of Black on the most recent episode of Collision. Who would have guessed that the last man standing from DX would have been Mr. Ass? He's had a remarkable career. He didn't get a send off like Sting will, but in his own way just the simple act of taking off his footwear spoke volumes. Strength: 82.8%
#4 Blackpool Combat Club (no change)- Where does this group go post Blood and Guts? They got rejected by both PAC and Takeshita, which doesn't bode well for any future membership drives. Like JAS, the clock may be ticking on this group's lifespan.
Strength: 74.7%
Attainment: Claudio Castagoli (ROH World)
#3 Outcasts (no change)- If Jaime Hayter is healthy by All In, the reign of Toni Storm will definitely be threatened. If Hayter, isn't cleared however this wouldn't be the worse thing and Storm has made a good heel champion. Ruby Soho has also been doing solid work.
Strength: 75.4%
Attainment: Toni Storm (AEW Women's Championship)
#2 Best Friends (no change)- Speaking off All In, I think the best place for Orange Cassidy to loose the International Championship will be London. An International setting to cap of a great championship reign. Even if Cassidy losses his title, the Best Friends will still have a high attainment score thanks to Statlander and her TBS Championship.
Attainment: Orange Cassidy (AEW International), Kris Statlander (TBS Championship)
#1 House of Black (no change)- Good thing they recently defended their trios titles on Collision as it had been several weeks since a title defense. I was tempted to drop them in the rankings just as a matter of atrophy.
Strength: 85.7%
Attainment: House of Black (Trios Championship)
Looking at the top four teams you'll notice that there has been no change in the top entries since the last installment of these rankings. Has the faction landscape of AEW grown stale? Many fans felt that the Acclaimed should have won the trios belts from the House of Black. Personally I hope for bigger and better things from Rush and the rest of LFI. Bullet Club Gold could be seizing on the fan's desire for something new. I have no doubt that next six weeks are going to have lots of shakeups in our rankings as both All In and All Out will present opportunities for many workers within AEW. If we come back in September and we have the same top four teams, it will then be fair to classify things as stagnant. We will see what the rest of Summer brings.
Strength Graph
Things have gone very south for QTV with the lose of Hobbs. Likewise for Hardy Party with the loss of Hook. Triple J posted nice gains around Double or Nothing and then leveled out. Spanish Announce Project remains the bottom line.
How Rankings are Determined:
Strength: For the win-loss records this year I am tracking all win/losses on my own. For supplemental research I use cagematch.net. Win's and losses are a team effort, if the Elite win a trios match, that counts as 3 wins towards the team. If Kenny Omega wins a singles match, that counts as one. 100%-80% gets a "high", 79%-60% gets a "mid", while anything lower gets a "N/I" (needs improvement).
Cohesion: Ability of a group to work together. If they can avoid tripping over each other or hitting each other with moves they will score higher. Points will be lost if cracks are starting to form within the group. Cohesion will be lost if a member starts working outside the group. This category is fairly subjective.
Purpose: Even if not expressly stated, most groups have some form of a "mission statement". This could range from winning championships to simply the love of violence.
Attainment: The ability to win championships. Currently there are championships from AEW, ROH, and NJPW in play although titles from Impact and AAA have also been featured in the past. I will only count belts that have been featured on camera on AEW programing. Non AEW titles will not be given the same prestige as official AEW titles.
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