It was all good just a week ago for Edge.
He created the Judgment Day that brought Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley together after some struggles for them.
However, those two along with Finn Balor betrayed him on Monday’s edition of WWE Raw. It remains to be seen how they will fare from this change.
Some wrestling factions have had some amazing leaders, like Ric Flair for the Four Horsemen or Hollywood Hulk Hogan for the New World Order, but others have needed to switch things up.
That change may lead to massive success or complete downfall for the group as a whole.
With the recent Judgment Day adjustment in mind, here are three times changing the leader of a faction worked and three times it went terribly wrong.
6. Andrade El Idolo replaces Matt Hardy as the leader of AFO – went terribly
AEW is filled with many factions that feature great leaders.
From The Elite with Kenny Omega or the Chris Jericho-led Inner Circle and now Jericho Appreciation Society, the company usually knows who to put front and center.
When the Hardy Family Office was introduced as a unit, it seemed like a good role for the recently-turned-heel Matt Hardy.
With Private Party, The Butcher and The Blade as well as other bad guys behind him, the group was a nice way to enhance his Big Money Matt persona.
However, the inclusion of Andrade El Idolo as Matt’s business partner was never going to end well.
With Jeff Hardy set to debut and reunite The Hardys, it was an ideal time for Andrade to fully take over the stable, but it just hasn’t worked out well at all.
Andrade’s recent declaration of the AFO being a bunch of losers has put the nail in the coffin for a midcard heel faction that had promise.
5. Kenny Omega replaces AJ Styles as the leader of Bullet Club – worked
When AJ Styles took over the leadership position of Bullet Club from Prince Devitt, there were some question marks.
Styles has always been well suited as a high flying babyface, but he fit the Bullet Club leader role like a glove and became the first member to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
When it came time for the Phenomenal One to move on to WWE, the next head honcho was already in the waiting.
Kenny Omega had done everything he could in the junior heavyweight division and wanted to move up to heavyweight in a major way.
At New Years Dash 2016, he did just that by pinning IWGP Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura in tag team action and then betrayed AJ Styles with the One Winged Angel.
Along with the Young Bucks, Omega took over Bullet Club and took the faction to previously unreachable heights.
This was the era of Bullet Club that saw their popularity skyrocket with Omega becoming the first gaijin to win the G1 Climax Tournament and put on all-time classic series of matches with Kazuchika Okada.
4. EVIL takes the reigns of Bullet Club with Jay White away – went terribly
From one Bullet Club leader to another (sort of), we have EVIL.
“Switchblade” Jay White pulled off a miraculous take over of Bullet Club in 2018 and fit in the lineage of Prince Devitt, AJ Styles and Kenny Omega.
However, NJPW hit a bump in the road when Jay White left Japan during the pandemic in 2020.
To give Bullet Club some fresh blood, they had Los Ingobernables de Japon’s own EVIL betray his stablemates and join the group.
EVIL won the 2020 edition of the New Japan Cup Tournament and then beat his former LIJ leader Tetsuya Naito to win the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships at Dominion.
This shocking two-night angle put EVIL at the forefront of the company’s most popular and well known stable, but this sudden rise didn’t sit well with NJPW faithful.
The promotion hit a new low with EVIL in the main event and New Japan quickly changed course by having him drop the gold back to Naito and brought Jay White back to take back leadership of Bullet Club.
3. Triple H picks up the ball that Shawn Michaels dropped to take over D-Generation X – worked
D-Generation X quickly became the premier faction in WWE with Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Chyna and Rick Rude as a unit in 1997.
When Michaels dropped the WWE Championship to Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania 14, his recent back injury forced him into an early retirement.
Triple H took this as his opportunity to push DX forward and elevate himself in the process.
His promo on the Raw After Mania about HBK taking his ball and going home has been replayed for years since.
The future Game reintroduced the WWE fans to Sean Waltman. No longer 1-2-3 Kid, he was now X-Pac.
The two men along with Chyna would then go on to help Road Dogg Jesse James and “Bad Ass” Billy Gunn defeat Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie in a steel cage to reclaim the WWE Tag Team Titles.
Thus, the new DX was born.
The faction would invade WCW just a few weeks later and kickstart a feud with The Nation that allowed them to become the most popular stable in WWE history.
2. CM Punk replaces Wade Barrett as the leader of Nexus – went terribly
The Nexus probably had one of the most impactful debuts in the history of WWE Raw.
Their beatdown of John Cena, CM Punk and destruction of the entire Raw set has been talked about ever since.
Wade Barrett was the perfect leader where he was able to send the message that the group was trying to deliver with violence.
After they were unable to ever get a significant win or comeuppance on Cena throughout the rest of 2010, the group was dead-on-arrival heading into 2011.
To help alleviate the damage already done, WWE decided to put CM Punk in the leadership role.
Punk had previously created magic with his Straight Edge Society faction the year prior and returning from injury to oust Barrett in taking over Nexus should have worked.
However, it definitely didn’t. David Otunga, Husky Harris and the rest of the bunch either left to join Barrett in a spinoff faction known as The Corre or were nothing more than lackeys for Punk.
They made a dying stable even worse and soon Punk stripped himself of what was left on his way to starting the Summer of Punk in WWE.
1. The Rock takes over The Nation from Faarooq – worked
The Nation of Domination saw its start with Faarooq stripping himself of the “Roman gladitor” outfit for more traditional “Black Panther-esque” garb.
After just having actors in black suits representing the Nation, the group soon saw D-Lo Brown, Crush, Savio Vega and PG-13 join their cause.
This unit didn’t last long before Faarooq fired Crush and Vega to make a “Bigger, Badder, Better and Blacker” version of the stable.
Kama Mustafa and Ahmed Johnson were soon inducted, but an injury to Johnson led to Rocky Maivia becoming The Rock to join The Nation as well.
This started the meteoric rise for the third generation star.
The Rock became Intercontinental Champion and his ego started to become out of control.
He started to undermine Faarooq and sowed the seeds for a takeover.
This came to fruition on the Raw After WrestleMania 14 when the other members of The Nation turned on Faarooq.
The Nation became more powerful with The Rock at the helm and kickstarted a feud with DX that they are most known for.
This faction allowed The Rock’s charisma to be showcased and led to him becoming one of the biggest stars in WWE history, so for that reason alone, it is the best time that changing a leader worked out well.
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