Aftermath of the Invasion storyline

[Perfect Timing]

Few questions. I was watching back then but it's been so long..I was thinking today how it all played out at the end.

When Angle turned on the Alliance was the reason explained the next night? was he a mole?

How did the fans accept Austin as a face again the next night when his character had been a mess?

[H-Virus]

Austin went back to being the most over guy in the company as if the entire Invasion storyline had never happened.

Kurt Angle got dual ass-rippings from Edge and the Rock for basically putting himself in a no-lose situation; either he stayed with the Alliance and was a hero for helping them win, or he turned on the Alliance and was a hero for saving WWE.

Basically the two of them double-turned before the Raw after SS was over.

[Citizen Snips Has Left]

Don't forget that everyone in The Alliance, except for Test, was fired after losing at Survivor Series. Then they just started coming back one by one a week later, and then they just dropped it and they all came back.

6 months or so later, the nWo would disband when Vince McMahon cut a promo saying they were gone and we'd never see them again.

And yet this is still better writing than a lot of the current product.

[hassanchop]

Mick Foley told Vince he was quitting whatever result may be while they were on the plane. It's been long but what was Mick's reason again?

[thechase]

Jul 28, 2019 10:17:06 GMT -5 hassanchop said:

Mick Foley told Vince he was quitting whatever result may be while they were on the plane. It's been long but what was Mick's reason again?

That was a bit of a worked shoot at the time, Foley was legit pissed at Vince, I think he wrote about it in one of his books

[adamclark52]

If I remember right the Raw the night after Survivor Series BOOM, Austin was a face.

I think Vince turned heel again the next night and I know Flair came in to be co-owner of the WWE, so Austin’s turning probably played in to that.

[mrbananagrabber]

I remember being pissed at the laziness of it all; like “no, no..don’t just do the reset button like all of this never happened.” And that’s exactly what they did. Absolute bullshit.

[4real]

I’m probably in the minority but at the time I just didn’t like Angle as a face and Austin as the heel. I never bought it. Angle was a wimpy nerd and Austin was a badass so I never liked their alignments. I was happy it went back after Survivor Series.

[adamclark52]

Jul 28, 2019 19:11:58 GMT -5 4real said:

I’m probably in the minority but at the time I just didn’t like Angle as a face and Austin as the heel. I never bought it. Angle was a wimpy nerd and Austin was a badass so I never liked their alignments. I was happy it went back after Survivor Series.

I could never buy in to Angle as the leader of the WWF, but with the Rock gone what other choices did they have? The Undertaker, I guess. I’m sure it would have been Triple H if he wasn’t hurt.

[RI Richmark]

Jul 28, 2019 10:16:50 GMT -5 Citizen Snips Has Left said:

Don't forget that everyone in The Alliance, except for Test, was fired after losing at Survivor Series. Then they just started coming back one by one a week later, and then they just dropped it and they all came back.

I believe the remaining members of the Alliance were Test (after winning the battle royal), Christian, RVD, and the Dudleys (as they held WWF titles). William Regal was rehired that night after literally kissing Vince's ass. Vince used them as his new flunkies for a couple of weeks before it was dropped and everyone went their seprate ways.

Vince then rehired Booker T and teamed him with a retuning Big Bossman (now dressing like his Big Bubba Rogers gimmick) as his new flunkies for a couple weeks before this too was dropped.

Ric Flair rehired The Hurricane because "The WWF needed a Superhero."

DDP was rehired after winning a match.

Lance Storm had to take a job as a janitor at WWF New York but he was eventually rehired after winning a match.

The rest of the Alliance just worked house shows but returned to tv to fill out the rosters after the original brand split.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Jul 28, 2019 21:23:22 GMT -5 RI Richmark said:

Vince then rehired Booker T and teamed him with a retuning Big Bossman (now dressing like his Big Bubba Rogers gimmick) as his new flunkies for a couple weeks before this too was dropped.

IIRC, Ray Traylor got hit with the name shortening device that we see a lot of in the modern era, as he was simply known as "Boss Man" in 2002. Apparently, he was no longer big.

[RI Richmark]

Jul 28, 2019 16:32:41 GMT -5 adamclark52 said:

I know Flair came in to be co-owner of the WWE,

And this is the thing that blows my mind. Flair, the wrestler most identified with WCW (along with Sting) finally makes his appearance the night AFTER the invasion ended. In the following two years Hogan, Hall, Nash, Steiner, Mysterio, Goldberg and even Bischoff would come in. If Vince brought most of those men for the invasion in the first place maybe it wouldn't have been such a colossal failure.

[RI Richmark]

Jul 28, 2019 21:29:32 GMT -5 Oh Cry Me a Screwball said:

Jul 28, 2019 21:23:22 GMT -5 RI Richmark said:

Vince then rehired Booker T and teamed him with a retuning Big Bossman (now dressing like his Big Bubba Rogers gimmick) as his new flunkies for a couple weeks before this too was dropped.

IIRC, Ray Traylor got hit with the name shortening device that we see a lot of in the modern era, as he was simply known as "Boss Man" in 2002. Apparently, he was no longer big.

I got a feeling they wanted to do the Big Bubba Rogers gimmick but couldn't use the name because of Bubba Ray Dudley, so they put him in a suit but kept the Bossman name. He'd eventually would go back to the SWAT gear.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Jul 28, 2019 21:40:18 GMT -5 RI Richmark said:

Jul 28, 2019 16:32:41 GMT -5 adamclark52 said:

I know Flair came in to be co-owner of the WWE,

And this is the thing that blows my mind. Flair, the wrestler most identified with WCW (along with Sting) finally makes his appearance the night AFTER the invasion ended. In the following two years Hogan, Hall, Nash, Steiner, Mysterio, Goldberg and even Bischoff would come in. If Vince brought most of those men for the invasion in the first place maybe it wouldn't have been such a colossal failure.

I think they really underestimated how poor the Invasion was going to go and how fast it would flatline, so by the time they actually got Flair, they figured it would just taint his name, brand, drawing power, etc. if they associated him at all with the Alliance.

[hassanchop]

Jul 28, 2019 21:40:18 GMT -5 RI Richmark said:

Jul 28, 2019 16:32:41 GMT -5 adamclark52 said:

I know Flair came in to be co-owner of the WWE,

And this is the thing that blows my mind. Flair, the wrestler most identified with WCW (along with Sting) finally makes his appearance the night AFTER the invasion ended. In the following two years Hogan, Hall, Nash, Steiner, Mysterio, Goldberg and even Bischoff would come in. If Vince brought most of those men for the invasion in the first place maybe it wouldn't have been such a colossal failure.

Bischoff claims when called about the Invasion, JR was ambiguous and showed no enthusiasm. He claims had they told him about the Invasion angle he would've gone to them and contribute to the storyline.



Language, yew know

[cabbageboy]

A part of me kind of wishes Bischoff would keep reviewing those Invasion era PPVs. Since he was totally out of the loop and didn't watch any of it at the time he quite enjoyed the Invasion PPV as a first time viewer. Most of the PPVs during that time were actually quite great. It's just that when people thought of the epic WWF vs. WCW storyline they didn't figure it would be a vehicle for Rob Van Dam to get himself over.

They were caught between a rock and a hard place. Several of those guys had their Time Warner deals up in 2002, hence the NWO angle, but that wouldn't help in 2001 when the angle needed to be done. Frankly guys like Hall, Nash, Steiner, and the like had little to offer. I would have broken the bank for Goldberg though, but keep in mind the guy's heat was basically gone after a few years of terrible booking in WCW. In his case being off TV for 2 years might have helped.

[-Lithium-]

It's the laziest booking of all time. Just awful.

[deezy]

I was at that Raw after Survivor Series in Charlotte and I remember being utterly confuses and thought to myself "once I get home and hear the commentary they should make sense of this somwhow", Nope.

Didn't hurt having Austin with Flair in Charlotte.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

In a way, this is one of the worst episodes of Raw ever. They could instead have just aired two hours of a barrel of money being burned.

Angle is heel after all!
So is Vince!
And Austin is so face now that JR will shout on commentary about how Angle screwed him the night before even though if Angle hadn't, nobody would have a job!
Also here is Flair, completely pointlessly, six months late to be any use!

[eJm]

Pretty much in agreement with most of you. The double agent storyline was stupid enough...making it a triple agent storyline and making said agent THE BAD GUY for saving everyone's jobs? Even my 13 year old self was like "How does THAT work?!"

Also, the InVasion made me fully realised wrestling wasn't real and the story was set out to make WWF look good and the opposing forces look like dummys. So it made me into a smark. Thanks Vince!