WWE Rumors: Company Reportedly Planning To Launch New Version Of 1990s Faction On ‘Monday Night Raw’

Since May, one of the key mid-card storylines on Monday Night Raw centered on MVP and his plans to form a new stable, which originally included Australian wrestlers Brendan Vink and Shane Thorne, but was recently whittled down to just him and Bobby Lashley. With Shelton Benjamin joining the group on this week’s episode of the show, it appears that this faction will be modeled after one of WWE’s more notable stables of the 1990s — the Nation of Domination, or NOD for short.

As explained by WrestlingNews.co on Tuesday, original Nation of Domination leader Ron Simmons (aka Faarooq) appeared in a backstage segment on this week’s Raw, speaking to MVP and Lashley and advising them there’s a “better way” of doing things. This appeared to be the Hall of Famer’s way of warning the two veteran performers not to make the same mistakes he did when he was leading his former faction.

Commenting on this segment, Dave Meltzer explained on Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE has apparently been planning to revive the classic stable, which — in multiple incarnations in the late 1990s — was exclusively made up of Black wrestlers working a militant gimmick.

“There was an idea. I don’t know if it was dropped [but] originally it was going to be on the show for a revamping of the Nation of Domination and Ron Simmons was going to be part of that angle but they dropped that angle for this show. They may be building to it later [or] they may have dropped it completely. But they had brought him in for that angle so therefore, that’s why he was on television.”

Citing its own sources, WrestlingNews.co wrote that the intended plan was to create a faction that combined elements of both the NOD and the Beat Down Clan — an Impact Wrestling stable that also featured MVP and Lashley.

Previous reports have suggested that a few other wrestlers could end up joining the group as MVP continues to recruit new members. Most rumors have pointed to United States Champion Apollo Crews turning heel and aligning with his erstwhile rival for the title. However, he has been absent from television since late June, with rumors suggesting that he might have been one of the many WWE performers to test positive for COVID-19 last month, per Forbes.

In addition to Crews, Cedric Alexander and Ricochet were also recruited by MVP to join the supposed NOD reboot but ultimately turned down his offer, as noted by Bleacher Report.