5 Spooky Factions You Forgot About

 

Being that it is October which mean's it's spooky season, I thought it would be good to highlight some spooky factions most people don't remember. Now, supernatural spooky and gothic characters in pro wrestling are often very hard to present, especially the more the presentation veers into the supernatural. As such, the results are often like 75/15, for every Undertaker, Bray Wyatt, and PCO that succeed, there are several more that are fail to register with crowds. 

If spooky individuals are hard to present, imagine just how hard it is to market a group of them. There is a reason why only a few like The Brood have succeeded. I started thinking about spooky factions that faltered through the years and disappeared from memory banks. With that here are 5 "spooky" factions you probably forgot about.

5. Three Faces Of Fear

Kind of a precursor to the "spooky" but campy faction Dungeon Of Doom, the Three Faces Of Fear featured Kevin Sullivan, Avalanche (John Tenta), and The Butcher (Brutus Beefcake). The trio had one goal and one goal only in WCW, destroy Hulkamania. Hey this was 1994, so the camp was elevated of the charts. The group lasted about a year, before calling it quits after not succeeding in their quest and going their separate ways. Leading the door open for Sullivan to create the Dungeon Of Doom which they would all eventually be apart of.

4. Disciples Of The New Church

In 2002 as TNA was building their roster and trying to find their way as a organization, they did what most start-up's do, throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. With that they took the ultra talented yet highly underrated Father James Mitchell, gave him a microphone and paired him with guys like Brian Lee, The Wall, and Crowbar, Sinn (Kizarny in WWE) and Vampiro later joined the ranks. The stable lasted a year but was more known as being a mid-card act of "monsters". A by-product of being in TNA during it's early year. 

3. Serontonin

Raven is a damn good wrestler, one of the best promo men ever, and excelled at the role of a cult leader. So it was no surprise in the fall of 2006 during a run in TNA, he spearheaded a new faction Serontonin. This go-round he led three members of the roster who at the time had no direction. Frank Kazarian who name was shortened to Kaz, Matt Bentley who became Martyr, and Johnny Devine who became Havok. They all dressed in gothic attire and carried kendo sticks to the ring. 

While Raven normally made appearances after matches to "punish" them with his kendo stick whether they won or lost. It was wild time in TNA and this faction quickly went nowhere in a matter of months, before disbanding in the summer of 2007.

2. The Menagerie

The Menagerie in TNA were kind of a odd group to quantify, they were presented more as circus act freaks more than a spooky bunch. The group was founded in 2014 under the leadership of Knux (Mike Knox) who needed to do some "soul searching" and went back to his roots of the carnival his father ran. Soon he bought some compadres to TNA, Rebel, Crazzy Steve, and The Freak (Rob Terry). They were treated as carnies and kind of erred on the campy carnival side. However, the presentation of Crazzy Steve and The Freak always gave off eerie vibes. The group didn't amount to much and was gone as a unit a year later.

1. Dark Carnival

In the fall of 1999, Raven and Vampiro aligned with rap duo ICP (Insane Clown Posse) by their side. Known as Dead Pool the group was kind of gaining traction until Marvel slapped them with an injuction for copyrigh infringement and  Raven abruptly left WCW in the middle of the angle after an open invite from Eric Bischoff to leave. The group seemingly disappeared until the following summer, when Vampiro and ICP reunited and bought wrestling legend The Great Muta along for the ride. They experienced some success through the summer, and after a lengthy and punishing feud against The Demon. He soon joined their ranks, and the group didn't have much success afterwards disbanding by the fall of 2000.

I personally really enjoyed the Dark Carnival and their theme song Take It . They had potential to do more in a more focused WCW, but we all know how that went.