The Godfather Believes Attitude Era Heel Stable Would Be Babyfaces Today
The Nation of Domination left its footprint in the archives of pro wrestling after being a dominant stable in the early part of WWE's Attitude Era.
With Faarooq as their first leader, the most famous iteration of Nation of Domination was a heel faction that also included members Ahmed Johnson, Kama (later, The Godfather), Mark Henry, D-Lo Brown, and The Rock. While on "The A2theK Wrestling Show", former Intercontinental Champion and WWE Hall of Famer The Godfather discussed whether or not The Nation of Domination would've been heels in wrestling today.
"We didn't know the significance of it when we were doing it, you know, and how later on in life, it would be kind of important," Godfather stated. "Dude, we were just having fun. It was good guys. We were heels. I mean, what's funny is if we did that today, we'd probably be babyfaces, we probably wouldn't be heels."
The first, and less famous, Nation of Domination was around from 1996 until 1997, a faction that was formed by Faarooq, where he commonly teamed with Savio Vega and Crush. After kicking the two of them out, a new Nation of Domination was formed where Faarooq promised to deliver a 'Bigger, badder, better, and blacker' version of the original group. The new group featured members Johnson, Kama, Henry, Brown, and The Rock.
This group stayed together as a serious unit from 1997 until 1998, when The Rock took over as leader, changing the name of the faction in the process to The Nation. The Nation featured members The Rock, Owen Hart, D-Lo Brown, Mark Henry, and The Godfather, who was previously known as Kama in the Nation of Domination. The group didn't even last until the end of the year, however, due to The Rock becoming more and more popular with the WWE fanbase despite the reactions he was receiving during his initial babyface run.
The Rock ended up becoming one of the most successful wrestlers inside and outside of the ring. Inside the ring, The Rock has won 10 World Championships in WWE, five Tag Team Championships, and 2 Intercontinental Championships. Outside of the squared circle, The Rock has found a massive amount of success in Hollywood, being featured in multiple top films and has even had a show made about his life as a child known as, "Young Rock."
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