The Invasion Angle..what could have been done

[Trent Valentine]

It feels like only yesterday that Vince McMahon did the unthinkable and bought WCW. Shane McMahon appeared on Nitro and announced he bought WCW right from under Vince's nose and proclaimed that WCW was going to declare war on the WWF. And so, Myself and every fan in existence were pretty much wetting themselves in anticipation, finally seeing WWF's best v.s WCW's best. We hoped to see many dream matches, Stone Cold v.s Goldberg, DDP v.s Triple H and much more.


...Man were we wrong.

WCW looked like nothing but a joke next to WWF. All the dream matches we hoped for were dashed against the rocks due to all the big time players such as Hulk Hogan, Scott Steiner, Goldberg, Kevin Nash and others
not appearing on WWF until their time warner contracts expired. Soon, ECW Joined the fray, making WCW looked stronger as both companies teamed up...only for Stephanie McMahon to be the owner of ECW. Making yet ANOTHER McMahon Family Feud. What we saw was nothing but a one sided battle for the Alliance. DDP who months before was main eventing with Big Poppa Pump, was pinned by The Sarataker. The Title division was a total mess, you had two world champions, two tag champions, to light weight champions, and three mid card champions (Intercontinental Title, U.S Title and European Title.)

Long Story Short, the final battle began, The Alliance v.s The WWF. At The Survivor Series, only one company will be left standing tall. Titles were to be Unified and the Main Event would see the culmination of everything. Team WWF consisted of The Rock, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane And The Big Show against Team Alliance, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Booker T, And Shane McMahon. The last two in the ring when the smoke was clear was Stone Cold and The Rock..When it should have been someone from WWF and WCW/ECW. The Rock won and The Alliance was nothing but a distant memory.

What started off as an excited angle..turned out to be a complete flop. What could have been done differently to salvage this struggling war?

[jobsquad]

The only thing they could do was bring in Goldberg to be part of WCW, and let him take Booker T's role in the whole thing. Then WCW could be the face, and WWF the heel like originally planned.

[Hugh Mungus]

Look at reality.

Besides Vince's historical reluctance to push wrestlers he didn't create, here's some other behind-the-scenes issues:

*DDP's not being in the best physical shape (compared to 97-98)
*Buff Bagwell killing WCW's chance to get over (you know, Shane Helms' water bottle, his mommy, Booker T, and faking his neck injury to get out of doing a job)

[fw91]

no alliance. each company keeps its on identity. Let Flair play the role of Shane as leader of the WCW and Heyman nautrally the leader of ECW. Austin and Angle never "jump ship" Bring in Golderg, the outsiders, hogan. Hard to figure who would play the heel, but it wouldve made for great t.v.

[Magician under the moonlight]

They should have waited a bit beforu having the storyline when they were sure to have all the major players from WCW in the company. Austin Test and Christian switching sides never made sense since they were specifically WWE guys. I know Austin was in WCW but he reached fame in WWE and he always said that being in WCW was his worst experience. THe demergers should have stayed with people who had a strong connecton with WCW.

Also, why was the WCW only involved in a WWE feud? It's like WCW did not care about losing their own title.and not even tried to get it back.

[Vampiro138]

1 - during the weekley brawls in the ring suddenly the nWo music hits and out come hogan, hall, and nash as raw goes off the air...

2 - keep ECW as a seperate stable...as like a civil war, wwf vs wcw vs ecw vs nWo...

3 - Raven should have just gone it alone not picking a side just out for his own agenda as he is more of a "loner" character...or meby do a new flock with him saying he dosent care about sides, the only side he has is his own side...thus raven would have probably gotten a good rub in the process which i know wouldnt happen in a million years in wwf but it more of what i would do...

4 - goldberg come out and defend wcw

5 - sting does the crow thing just watching the brawls happen eventually having a WM match against taker

[nealo]

it should of started with nWo invading WWF and eventually WWF stars invading WCW events and then end up in a survivor series of WCW vs WWF and a wrestlemania with all our dream matches eg Stone cold vs Goldberg, Undertaker vs Sting, etc.

[Sam Punk]

1. They shouldn't have rushed it.
2. They should have made WCW look like a threat.

I don't buy the excuse about them not having the big names. They had Booker T and DDP who were roughly on the level of Hall/Nash. Put Austin with them in the Hogan role and it would have been fine. Besides, according to Vince, nobody watched WCW. So you could have made these guys look like a huge threat and the crowd wouldn't know any better. Vince just wouldn't let his guys look weak at all. It was completely one sided and couldn't end fast enough.

[biggdeez40]

This is how I did the scenerio in EWR and was going to do in SvR 10 if I could have.

1. Pay Sting whatever and have him stalk the Undertaker (not his wife). Crow Sting vs Undertaker would be huge IMO.

2. Invasion PPV WWF (Austin, Rock, Angle, Taker, Kane) vs WCW (Sting, Booker, DDP, Jericho, Big Show). No ECW just yet. Austin turns on WWF but does not join alliance. He remains a loner, tweener character like Sting in 96/97. He hates WCW but is mad at WWF fans for booing him when he joined Vince and now they are booing him because he won't side with Vince.
In weeks leading up have Jericho try to get on team WWF but Austin and Angle refuse because he is not been a world champion. They recruit Show instead, who turns on them. They then finally turn to Jericho, who also betrays them. Desperate, Vince brings back the suspended Rock.

3. Have ECW reform in late July in Philly as its own entity. No alliance. I'm OK with Stephanie as the owner as long as Heyman is the "leader". Same with Shane as owner of WCW, just bring in Flair as the WCW "leader". I don't mind this angle starting as a McMahon civil war as long as they are kept in the background. In fact, have Linda try to reunite the family. Maybe she works out a deal giving WCW control of Smackdown and ECW control of Heat thinking this will end the civil war. When it doesn't she decides to destroy everything and brings in Bischoff and the nWo.

4. Rock wins WCW title from Booker and is ambushed by Goldberg. Rock slowly begins his heel turn so that Wrestlemania vs Hogan he is full blown heel.

5. In May when they have to drop the WWF name have some kayfabe explanation where WWF and WCW merge under the WWE banner.

Those are the main points. I wouldn't have any group be full out heel or full out face. Kind of like the Hart situation in 97, let the fans side with whatever group they chose.

[Andrew is Good]

Jim Cornette did a really good job in rebooking the Invasion angle in the Guest Booker DVD.

Some points made were to payout the big contracts of many wrestlers signed with Time Warner. Maybe instead of starting up a football league or opening up a resturant that would eventually fail, they might have some extra cash.

He also made this great analogy which sums up why it was going to fail no matter what. The alien spaceship comes down, the doors open up, and out pops Marvin the Martian with his cosmic raygun. Are you scared of that invader?

[Magician under the moonlight]

Feb 14, 2010 21:31:04 GMT -5 Andrew is Good said:

Jim Cornette did a really good job in rebooking the Invasion angle in the Guest Booker DVD.

Some points made were to payout the big contracts of many wrestlers signed with Time Warner. Maybe instead of starting up a football league or opening up a resturant that would eventually fail, they might have some extra cash.

He also made this great analogy which sums up why it was going to fail no matter what. The alien spaceship comes down, the doors open up, and out pops Marvin the Martian with his cosmic raygun. Are you scared of that invader?

WWE had a restaurant? I knew the XFL was in the same year though.

[Mayonnaise]

Feb 14, 2010 22:20:37 GMT -5 Magician under the moonlight said:

WWE had a restaurant? I knew the XFL was in the same year though.

WWF New York. Only WWE didn't have it planned. Someone else had licensed the WWF name to start a series of places like the Hard Rock with the first being in New York but, after getting the build, advertising it and hiring people the guy decided to back out of the deal and WWE went and took it over to avoid the bad pub that would have resulted if it was just dropped.

[Magician under the moonlight]

Feb 14, 2010 22:34:34 GMT -5 Mayonnaise said:

Feb 14, 2010 22:20:37 GMT -5 Magician under the moonlight said:

WWE had a restaurant? I knew the XFL was in the same year though.

WWF New York. Only WWE didn't have it planned. Someone else had licensed the WWF name to start a series of places like the Hard Rock with the first being in New York but, after getting the build, advertising it and hiring people the guy decided to back out of the deal and WWE went and took it over to avoid the bad pub that would have resulted if it was just dropped.

Oh I remember now. I never really knew WWF New York was a restaurant. Gess it just shows that WWE can't do anything not wrestling related.

[Trent Valentine]

Feb 14, 2010 23:31:39 GMT -5 Magician under the moonlight said:

Feb 14, 2010 22:34:34 GMT -5 Mayonnaise said:

WWF New York. Only WWE didn't have it planned. Someone else had licensed the WWF name to start a series of places like the Hard Rock with the first being in New York but, after getting the build, advertising it and hiring people the guy decided to back out of the deal and WWE went and took it over to avoid the bad pub that would have resulted if it was just dropped.

Oh I remember now. I never really knew WWF New York was a restaurant. Gess it just shows that WWE can't do anything not wrestling related.

It was pretty much a bar and grill, and a place for WWF Stars (Usually Jobbers) to make appearances for some low level storyline. For a while, Sunday Night Heat was hosted there.

[Magician under the moonlight]

Feb 15, 2010 0:07:11 GMT -5 Trent Valentine said:

Feb 14, 2010 23:31:39 GMT -5 Magician under the moonlight said:

Oh I remember now. I never really knew WWF New York was a restaurant. Gess it just shows that WWE can't do anything not wrestling related.

It was pretty much a bar and grill, and a place for WWF Stars (Usually Jobbers) to make appearances for some low level storyline. For a while, Sunday Night Heat was hosted there.

I know! Too bad I only remembered the Kat appearances for some reason. I only watched Sunday night Heat occasionally back then but did not remember much of it.

[MichaelMartini]

Feb 14, 2010 19:49:03 GMT -5 Magician under the moonlight said:

They should have waited a bit beforu having the storyline when they were sure to have all the major players from WCW in the company.

This is the only thing they had to do right here. Only a year later they wound up having all the major players aside from Sting.

[Stab Sword]

1. No alliance. Keep ECW as the rebels

2. At the Invasion PPV, the main event is Team WWF (Stone Cold, Angle, Jericho, Undertaker and Kane) vs. Team WCW (Shane McMahon, DDP, Flair, Goldberg and Booker T). Leading up, Austin gets beaten down only for Angle to save him every time. Austin starts doubting himself and Vince begs Austin to become the old Stone Cold. Austin doesn't show up, forcing Vince to put himself in Austin's place. The match turns into a clusterf*@k with run in after run in. Austin's music hits, Vince smiles, Austin gives him a stunner and Shane pins him. Shane shakes Austin's hand and Stone Cold gives Shane a stunner. Paul Heyman leaves the broadcast booth, picks up the mic and says "This invasion is about to be taken to...THE...EXTREME!!!111" Lights go out, come back on and RVD, Sabu, Sandman and Dreamer all clear house followed by the Dudleys, Taz and the Impact Players. Heyman takes a spray can and sprays ECW on the WWF title

3. WCW wins the Survivor Series winner takes Smackdown and becomes WCW Smackdown, which becomes the base for WCW and for WWF and ECW invaders.

4. WWF loses all their titles but the IC title. Angle wins Royal Rumble, HHH comes back the next night to hopefully be the WWF's final hope

5. HHH comes back and says he's not part of ECW or WCW...or WWF. He brings out Shawn Michaels and X-Pac and say they have friends in the back. Scott Hall and Kevin Nash come out and say that Vince payed them off to go to WCW and run the company out of business which they did and Vince never hired them again or payed them and now they want payback on Vince and the WWF, ruin WCW again and beat down ECW for kicks. They say the Kliq is back and the origianl bad boys are in town. They then reveal t-shirts that say...NWO

6. The NWO randomly beat down WWF, WCW and ECW stars with Hall and Nash winning the ECW Tag Team titles and X-Pac winning the Cruiserweight Title. Angle vs. Austin is set for Wrestlemania but HHH gets put into the match. Other matches for WM are Undertaker vs. Goldberg, Dudleys vs. Edge and Christian vs. Hardyz (now WCW) vs. Hall and Nash in a TLC match.

7. HHH wins WCW title, Hall and Nash retain tag Titles and Justin Credible joins winning the Intercontinental title as well as DDP joining. WWF, WCW and ECW form the Alliance and everything leads to Survivor Series 2002 with a winner takes all Alliance vs. NWO, War Games match

Allinace (Austin, Dreamer, Jericho, Lesnar, Flair and Booker T)

NWO (HHH, HBK, Nash, X-Pac, DDP, Credible) (figure hall is fired by then)

Alliance wins but HHH is still WCW champ, HBK steals WWF title and Nash steals ECW title and use to to get contracts.

WWF, WCW and ECW all become part of World Wrestling Entertainment as a three brand company

[Zen411]

I think the WWE was afraid to really push the WCW guys because they didn't want them to look better than the WWE guys. The creative team and writers were used to working with the WWE talent and had no idea what to do with the WCW talent.

They should have kept the two sides separate while they built up the WCW characters to WWE fans. They should have waited to pull the trigger on the feud until they could sign guys like Flair, Hogan, Hall and Nash, Goldberg.

The matches between WWE and WCW guys should have only taken place on PPV, not on Raws and Smackdowns.

ECW should have stayed separate.

[biggdeez40]

I disagree with those who say they should have waited. The longer you wait the less relevant WCW becomes. I don't think the fan interest would be that big if WCW had been off tv for a year or so as alot of fans tend to have short term memories. There's no reason to wait anyway as they had plenty of money to bring in whoever they wanted to. As I have in my earlier scenario the only ones they really needed to bring in right away that they didn't were Sting and Goldberg. Pick up those two contracts and WCW has instant credibility. They were homegrown WCW only talents who even the most hardcore of WWF fans would have to admit were on par with the WWF top guys. Those two could have easily held the interest in the Invasion storyline until you could bring in the Flair, the nWo, Bischoff, Mysterio, Steiner, etc. The returns of Triple H, Benoit, Guerrero and the brand split could have easily been tied in to the Invasion. They just ended the storyline too soon.

[Magician under the moonlight]

Feb 15, 2010 11:52:13 GMT -5 biggdeez40 said:

I disagree with those who say they should have waited. The longer you wait the less relevant WCW becomes. I don't think the fan interest would be that big if WCW had been off tv for a year or so as alot of fans tend to have short term memories. There's no reason to wait anyway as they had plenty of money to bring in whoever they wanted to. As I have in my earlier scenario the only ones they really needed to bring in right away that they didn't were Sting and Goldberg. Pick up those two contracts and WCW has instant credibility. They were homegrown WCW only talents who even the most hardcore of WWF fans would have to admit were on par with the WWF top guys. Those two could have easily held the interest in the Invasion storyline until you could bring in the Flair, the nWo, Bischoff, Mysterio, Steiner, etc. The returns of Triple H, Benoit, Guerrero and the brand split could have easily been tied in to the Invasion. They just ended the storyline too soon.

I still would have rather have them wait until they got some of the major players. You saw what happened when they rushed it. It was a total mess and the storyline was more concentrated on the Macmahon feud then the actual invasion.Plus the major players in the Allian were mostly WWE guys who not only deflected, but had no connections with WCW. So basically this wasn't what the fans thought about when it came to WWE vs WCW and this whole thing was crapped on altogether.

Also the reason why they ended it early is because the storyline was not getting the ratings that WWE was hoping for. If they did wait, they would have had the NWO and Ric Flair in the storyline. but it was already too late. It was better to do it now than later before WWE found more ways to downgrade WCW.