The Bloodline, Judgment Day and LWO Are Fueling Long Overdue Faction Revival in WWE

The Bloodline, The Judgment Day and LWO closed out Monday's Raw with a wild and chaotic brawl that would have looked right at home in mid-1990s WCW at the height of the NWO invasion.

It was intense and action-packed, but most importantly, the fans in North Little Rock, Arkansas came alive for the unpredictability of it all. It had, after all, been a while since WWE television went off the air with that sort of energy.

However, the chaotic buzz and change in tone are just two of the many benefits that a faction revival brings to WWE television and Triple H's creative efforts.

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'High Tides Raise All Ships'

The WWE chief content officer is a student of the game, with a keen eye on history and how he can utilize what worked then to better the product now.

Wrestling history is rich with great factions, including The Four Horsemen, The Dangerous Alliance, The Hart Foundation and even The Game's own group, D-Generation X.

In all four of those instances, there was a central star and guys who were added to the mix around them who would not only accentuate their leader but also benefit from the spotlight that would be on them by proxy.

Triple H understands that and has made it a point to bring it to his shows.

The Usos and Solo Sikoa are undeniably bigger stars for having been associated with The Bloodline alongside Roman Reigns. So much so that Triple H and WWE officials feel confident Jimmy, Jey and Solo can headline episodes of Raw and SmackDown, even without The Tribal Chief, and fans will still tune in.

The newly reintroduced LWO is led by WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio, amid a career renaissance of his own, and has become a vehicle for Santos Escobar, Cruz Del Toro, Joaquin Wilde and Zelina Vega to have a greater footprint on the broadcasts than before.

Then there is The Judgment Day, which is technically led by Finn Bálor but has become a launching point for the incredibly over Dominik Mysterio and Rhea Ripley.

It is the SmackDown women's champion who is likely to be the biggest star coming out of the group, but one would be hard-pressed to argue she did not find herself and the character that finally stuck with audiences after turning heel and joining the stable.

Triple H seemingly understands it is extremely difficult to make new stars in wrestling, so the best way to really get a name over with fans is to associate them with competitors and performers they already trust and care about.

It's working, too.

The April 14 episode of SmackDown saw Escobar battle Damian Priest in a singles match that ended up being as hot as anything on the show.

The crowd was genuinely into the Mexican beating the physically imposing Priest while popping for the brawl that took place between the other Superstars at ringside.

Both competitors are infinitely more over since linking up in a faction than they were as individual entities. In the cases of Escobar, Del Toro and Wilde, they needed the star power of Mysterio to be accepted by audiences.

Without it, no matter how talented they are, arguing that the match would have been as well-received as it was would be a losing battle.

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The Past is the Future

The upcoming WWE draft could well interrupt what Triple H has created with the three warring factions, but it has created a playbook of sorts for him to utilize.

We now know fans are still receptive to factions and that they are not a thing of the past.

When done right, packaged correctly and pushed as a force instead of just being a random group of names haphazardly thrown together, they can have a tremendous impact on the product.

The Nation of Domination in the 1990s may have been led by Faarooq, but it helped make stars out of Mark Henry, The Godfather, D'Lo Brown and more than anyone, The Rock.

D-Generation X was a star vehicle for Triple H, but the New Age Outlaws, X-Pac and Chyna also became significant parts of WWE shows as a result of their links to the stable.

The Nexus was a lazily assembled faction of development stars who all had promise in their own ways but were never allowed to establish themselves or their personalities.

The result was a faction that had major impact for a short time and spun off only one or two figures who would have quality runs in WWE.

It will be important for Triple H and his creative team to look back at what made the Nation and D-X special. Why did the Horsemen and Hart Foundation work as opposed to Los Boricuas and the original incarnation of the LWO in WCW?

The answer lies in the development of personalities and characters.

The Judgment Day works because of "Prison Dom" and the physically imposing and darkly alluring Ripley. The Bloodline is the centerpiece of one of the greatest storylines in WWE history and every single member of it, including the extraordinary Paul Heyman, has an immediately recognizable character.

The test for management will be further developing LWO as it takes on a greater on-screen presence and being sure to do so with any faction that may result from the draft.

If that happens, WWE will benefit from a roster of Superstars more over than they would have been on their own, more matches with meaning and the opportunity to intertwine stories and rivalries, as witnessed during Monday night's excellent episode of Raw.