Challenge: Rebook WWF 2001 WITHOUT the Invasion

[wildojinx]

Lets say they decide not to do the Invasion angle, and instead send the WCW guys they have signed to developmental to hone themselves to the WWF "style" (as well as waiting another year so they can get the big names like Hogan and Flair). How would you book the WWF post WMX7 in that way?

[Celexa Bliss 54]

Sept 5, 2022 11:57:28 GMT -5 wildojinx said:

Lets say they decide not to do the Invasion angle, and instead send the WCW guys they have signed to developmental to hone themselves to the WWF "style" (as well as waiting another year so they can get the big names like Hogan and Flair). How would you book the WWF post WMX7 in that way?

Well, I kinda already did this. Click the "Wrestling Wars" link in my sig, you can see my take on 2001 WWF if WCW and ECW survive.

[thegame415]

Austin stays face.

His opponents:

HHH at Backlash
William Regal at Judgment Day
Kurt Angle at KotR, Fully Loaded and blow off at SummerSlam

That's all I got

[fw91]

Austin heel turn stays.

Backlash Main event stays the same.

Judgment Day- He defends against Undertaker and Kane in a triple threat, and wins with help from Angle who promises him a future title match. But Austin bullies Angle like he did when they were buddying up to Vince in phase 1 of the invasion.

King Of The Ring- Austin vs Undertaker in a cage match- Angle closes the door shut on Taker as he tries to escape, walks into a stunner and wins. But The Rock returns before the show goes off the air.

Fully Loaded- Steve Austin vs The Rock with Kurt Angles as special referee. Austin brings in a chair, but Angle stops him. Austin out of anger stuns angle. The Rock gets the upper hand but no ref to count. Angle grabs the chair and finally has had enough of Austin's abuse, but like summerslam 97, hits the wrong guy by accident. Austin wins.

Next Night On Raw- Rock is granted a rematch, but a debuting Diamond Dallas Paige runs in and takes out Rock because he is the "real" people's champion. Angle finally gets his hands on Austin.

Summerslam- DDP vs The Rock is the semi main event. Angle vs Austin main events, Austin retains by DQ

Unforgiven- Angle wins the title in his hometown. The Rock beats Chris Jericho in a face vs face match to become number 1 contender.

No Mercy- Kurt Angle and The Rock fight to a no contest in a last man standing match, after Chris Jericho runs in turning heel.

Survivor Series- Angle and Rock take on Jericho and Austin in a tag match where the winner of the fall gets the title. Jericho wins after pinning the Rock,

Vengeance- Jericho vs Rock vs Angle vs Austin fatal four way elimination- Austin is eliminated first after an Angle Slam. Angle then gets caught up in a roll up and is eliminated by Rock. Angle snaps and turns back heel by low blowing Rock. Giving Jericho the easy win.

Royal Rumble- Jericho beats Rock. HHH returns and wins the rumble, last eliminating Angle. Steve Austin gains momentum by drawing number 3, but lasted over an hour until being eliminated by Angle in the final 3.

No Way Out- Austin for valiant effort gets a title match against Jericho. Rock takes on Kurt Angle. HHH takes on heel Undertaker for number one contender's match. HHH Wins his match. however to the surprise of everyone- Scott Hall interferes in Rock's Match. Then in the main event- Kevin Nash runs in and costs Austin his match.

Next night on Raw opens with Hall and Nash in the ring and explain their actions. "Well since our stomping grounds down south went under, we got bored. In that company we took over and caused hell, now there's bigger fish to fry in the WWF. Austin, Rock, you think you are the big boys down here. Well were coming for you. Jericho and HHH feud to their title match at mania by revealing that he's been having an affair with Stephanie.

Next RAW- Hall and Nash jump Austin and Rock who were talking about putting their differences together to fight off the outsiders. They then do the point thing, towards the stage and out comes Hogan who sprays NWO on their backs. He then says to the camera "I was the WWF before you guys came along" At wrestlemania there will be a handicap match- if Austin and Rock lose, they have to leave the WWF

[tirtefaa]

Just going to focus on the main event, provided that the injuries still happen and they keep the belt on Austin until Survivor Series;

July PPV: Austin vs. Chris Jericho

SummerSlam: Austin vs. Kurt Angle

Unforgiven: Austin vs. Kurt Angle

No Mercy: Austin vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy
Survivor Series: Austin vs. The Rock

Rock wins the title, faces Hogan for the title at WrestleMania 18.

[hassanchop]

Austin still remains heel and still does the comedy skits with Angle, feuds with Jericho and Undertaker, briefly with Edge until Christian betrays him. And without the Invasion Tommy Dreamer and RVD debut as WWF stars, but with Dreamer attacking Heyman every week until security stops him, his reason is for blaming him for him and previous alumni out of work, which Heyman denies, and at first Taker accuses Dreamer of being the Stalker, only for McMahon to revealed as the stalker, as a way to keep him distracted from trying to get to Austin. RVD feuds with Jeff Hardy over the hardcore title. Right To Censor still disbands and Stevie returns with Nova and Blue Meanie as the bWo and teases an "Invasion" stating "What were you expecting, WCW?" then buries WCW while doing so. He also recruits several legends that participated in the gimmick battle royal at X7 such as Kamala, Earthquake, Typhoon, Duke the Dumpster, The Goon, Brother Love and even brings in Gillberg to further teasing an Invasion. The reason for their alignment is they felt they weren't treated well during their time, especially Kamala that speaks his normal voice doing a "shoot" against McMahon for the gimmick. They feud with Undertaker and Kane, for the break up of RTC, several legends were past opponents, and to "take over". Regal would feud with Mick Foley over the commissioner role.

[ppl591]

Sept 6, 2022 10:43:54 GMT -5 hassanchop said:

Austin still remains heel and still does the comedy skits with Angle, feuds with Jericho and Undertaker, briefly with Edge until Christian betrays him. And without the Invasion Tommy Dreamer and RVD debut as WWF stars, but with Dreamer attacking Heyman every week until security stops him, his reason is for blaming him for him and previous alumni out of work, which Heyman denies, and at first Taker accuses Dreamer of being the Stalker, only for McMahon to revealed as the stalker, as a way to keep him distracted from trying to get to Austin. RVD feuds with Jeff Hardy over the hardcore title. Right To Censor still disbands and Stevie returns with Nova and Blue Meanie as the bWo and teases an "Invasion" stating "What were you expecting, WCW?" then buries WCW while doing so. He also recruits several legends that participated in the gimmick battle royal at X7 such as Kamala, Earthquake, Typhoon, Duke the Dumpster, The Goon, Brother Love and even brings in Gillberg to further teasing an Invasion. The reason for their alignment is they felt they weren't treated well during their time, especially Kamala that speaks his normal voice doing a "shoot" against McMahon for the gimmick. They feud with Undertaker and Kane, for the break up of RTC, several legends were past opponents, and to "take over". Regal would feud with Mick Foley over the commissioner role.

I want that bwo angle more than anything right now. Except maybe a nice tasty muffin

[Jindrak Mark]

Austin still turns heel. As he and Vince are destroying Rock in the cage the next night on Raw HHH runs out but they don't do the double swerve this time. HHH confronts Austin but Austin backs away.

Vince says the "if either of you touch each other outside of an official match you're fired" rule from before No Way Out is still in effect and refuses to give HHH a title shot so HHH is forced to fight through the heel roster over the coming months while Austin defends against Undertaker/Jericho/Benoit. HHH is the kinda tweener but realistically face as everyone cheers him and he's fighting heels like he was around Sep-Oct 2000 while Austin is full on heel.

HHH and Steph fake-out Austin and Vince and say they're back on side. The ruse lasts for a week or two then Vince books them to get a tag title shot on Raw. With it being an official match HHH is able to lay his hands on Austin and smiles when the bell rings and immediately attacks Austin. It's then revealed that Stephanie and Linda have colluded to book Austin v HHH for the title at Summerslam. Linda has also re-instated The Rock and he'll face Vince at Summerslam in a no holds barred match. If Rocks wins he gets a future title shot. The brutal beatdown Austin gave to Lita happens to Stephanie instead to write her off. HHH has already been removed from the arena by security and isn't there to save her. He goes crazy the next week, tearing apart the arena trying to find Austin. Even Rock has sympathy for what happened and they have a moment, acknowledging that they'll always be rivals but Austin is their target for now.

At Summerslam Rock beats Vince in one of Vince's crazy shenanigan filled PPV matches and gets revenge for Vince screwing him at Mania. Later in the main event HHH beats Austin in a bloody, violent match and wins the title then Rock comes out and they have a staredown as Austin is stretchered out. Austin is gone for a month selling the beating he took. It's HHH-Rock at the next PPV but Austin returns and ruins the match, destroying them both. The HHH/Austin/Rock triple threat that was supposed to happen at Survivor Series 1999 happens in 2001. HHH wins and moves on to newer challengers. Austin and Rock still have unfinished business from Wrestlemania though and continue to feud, leading to a blowoff match at the Rumble with the winner also being number 30 in the Rumble. Rock wins and also goes on to win the Rumble match later that night. Austin is moping the next night on Raw when HULK Hogan returns. Hogan says he's back home and challenges Austin to an icon v icon match in Toronto at Wrestlemania. Hogan says Austin carried the company after he left but not this Austin. He wants the badass from 97-98. Austin slowly starts acting less cowardly as the weeks pass but is still a heel. 

At the Rumble it was HHH v Angle for the title and Jericho screws HHH out of the title. The next night Stephanie returns. She turns on HHH for not being there for her when Austin assaulted her and hooks up with Jericho. No Lucy the dog this time. They're an actual couple. HHH and Jericho have a grudge match at Wrestlemania. Jericho wins when Kevin Nash and Scott Hall debut and take out HHH.

Rock is leaving to film movies again so he loses the world title match to Angle at Wrestlemania. It's a clean tap out win. They shake hands afterwards, signifying an Angle face turn. In the main event of the show it's Austin v Hogan. Austin wins. He's basically back to face now and shows respect to Hogan after the match. Nash and Hall show back up and destroy Austin. Hogan joins in and the show goes off the air with the NWO posing over Austin. The next night on Raw Eric Bischoff debuts and introduces Hogan (now Hollywood), Nash and Hall. They're the top heels along with Jericho and the top faces are Austin/HHH/Angle and Rock whenever he returns.

It's tempting to keep Austin face and never do the heel turn in 2001 but I was really starting to find him stale in late 2000/early 2001 and wanted to at least attempt heel Austin. I think the biggest problem with his heel run was the lack of big A-list rival to match up against him. Undertaker and Angle felt like B-tier main eventers. Jericho, Benoit and Kane like C-tier and the Hardys D-tier. Rock and HHH were the top choices to be his main foil but Rock went to film movies and they kept HHH heel despite the massive pop when they teased the face turn the night after Mania. Hopefully actually turning HHH face gives Austin a big enough foe to keep him busy in the first half of his heel run.

[auph10imitated]

I have been meaning to do this for so long, I will have a go!

[Hit Girl]

Just bring the best of the WCW talent in as repackaged free agents, and release the rest.