The Butterfly Effect #1 (Pilot) - The Invasion

[Jonny B]

This is the first in (depending on the popularity) what will be a series of what if scenarios, from major changes to minor ones, and I’m calling it “The Butterfly Effect”. If anyone has any idea’s they want to throw my way I’d be more than happy to use them in the future.

What if the WCW/ECW Invasion Never Happened?

The Premise: The WCW/ECW Invasion of the WWF/E in 2001 never took place.

The Background: In this fictional scenario the WWF/E still purchased WCW and ECW (including the worker contracts that came with it) but they decided that the Invasion angle was ultimately doomed due to the waning popularity of WCW and the lack of WCW Star power they were able to acquire.

Plot Holes: The dual broadcast where Shane appeared on Nitro and snared WCW from under the nose of his father still took place, but instead of the seeds of the Invasion it was used as fodder for the eventual Vince vs. Shane match that took place at Wrestlemania 17. Any of the “Invaders” that made sporadic appearances in the WWF/E before King of the Ring did not appear. Booker T’s attack on Stone Cold Steve Austin at King of the Ring still however took place.

The Question: Now that you have all of the information, how do you think 2001 would have played out had the Invasion not taken place? Without the Invasion there are still so many question marks, the WWF/E still has numerous workers ready to debut, including Rob Van Dam, Lance Storm, Tommy Dreamer, Sean O’Haire, Chuck Palumbo, Mike Awesome, Kanyon and Billy Kidman. There is also the booking of a Heel Stone Cold Steve Austin to think about, and how his feud with the newly debuting Booker T will play out. You will also have The Rock returning in just over a month, how does this play out on TV?

My Thoughts
It’s nearly impossible to go through each individual storyline so I am going to focus on just three.

Stone Cold Steve Austin: I would keep Austin as a heel well into the beginning of 2002. The Rock was due back to pick up the slack for merchandise sales so I think the experiment could have continued a little longer. His feud with Booker T would be for me a one month filler to bridge the gap to Summerslam, and would end in Austin keeping the title. I would have Austin drop the title at Summerslam to a now face Kurt Angle, this had been building for months and althought not a million miles from real life. The two of them would work at least two more PPV Matches and I would have them trade the title at least once more ending in Kurt Angle walking out of Survivor Series with the Belt.

The Rock: The lazy way to book this is for Linda to get involved and lift his suspension. But I’m not going to go the lazy route, I would have him return at the same point he did, but immediately try and go after Austin, his return however would be against the company policy and he would be repeatedly ejected from the buildings. It always annoyed me that Austin screwed him at Wrestlemania and he never got his rematch. Vince would try and keep Rock away from Austin by using Chris Jericho. This would be the second big match at Summerslam. I would also keep these two together until Survivor Series, possibly having Vince involved along the way also. This would eventually build to a Rumble win in 2002 and a Title win against Austin at WM 18. Hogan would face someone else at Wrestlemania and The Rock would face Hogan at WM 19 as a heel.

Triple H: Triple H would return as he did, entering the Rumble but would not win it, he would eventually go on to face Hogan at Wrestlemania. At that time Triple H was the hottest face in the company and I think that match would have made sense given the timing.

My booking might not be to everyone’s taste but I’ve intentionally tried to make things as difference as I realistically could. The point of this thread is for your opinion on how this scenario would have played out…

 

[ProWrestlingFan]

Instead of doing the Invasion angle in 2001, do it in 2002.
I would change the Summerslam 2001 main event to The Rock (face) vs Kurt Angle (face) vs Austin (heel) for the WWF title. Austin will retain. Unforgiven main-event would be the same (Angle vs Austin) but instead of Angle winning, Austin retains. Austin will be the WWF Champion going into Survivor Series. Survivor Series main event would be Rock vs Austin vs Undertaker - Triple Threat match for the title, Austin retains. Triple H will return before the Royal Rumble, win it. I would keep everything after Royal Rumble the same (except the NWO debut). Hogan would return to WWF as a face and the two main events at Wrestlemania 18 would be -

Rock vs Hogan (face vs face) [Rock wins]
And, Triple H (face) vs Steve Austin (heel). [HHH will win the title].

Austin would turn face. After Wrestlemania 18, Eric Bischoff would debut in WWE as a heel and say he is going to transform RAW into WCW. On the next RAW, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash would make their returns to WWF (as heels) and WCW wrestlers would start appearing on RAW. Booker-T debuts as the WCW Champion. At Backlash (2002), Hogan would turn heel and join Scott Hall and Kevin Nash thus reforming the NWO. After a month Goldberg and Sting will debut in WWE (neither heel nor face but would align themselves with WCW wrestlers). Then continue the angle till Survivor Series 2002 with one Goldberg,Sting and Hogan WCW title reign in-between. Summerslam 2002 main-event would be Hogan (WCW Champ) vs HHH (WWF Champ) - HHH wins the title and becomes the first ever Undisputed World Champion. Then have a 5 on 5 match at Survivor Series -Team WWF (The Rock, Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Kane, and Triple H) vs Team WCW (Hollywood Hulk Hogan,Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Goldberg and Sting). Team WWF wins. Team WCW would turn face afterwards.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Interesting premise but the change is further back in March 2001... Vince makes the decision to keep WCW as a seperate entity with Shane and Heyman legit at the helm and Flair as the main "booker". The Contracts he keeps become their roster with a few choice picks offered incentives to break their Time Warner deals (Sting)... Goldberg can rot.

WWE contracted talent are given an option to "defect" to WCW on the same deal for one year and a reduction if TV/PPV's have not taken off by then... but it's opportunity. As TV is currently an issue he makes a point of leveraging his TV partners for a slot much as he did with PPV back in the day - If they don't find a good slot for WCW they will lose WWE next deal... In the short term WCW operates in one one Smackdown slot per month and in Heat's slot.

Of the talents who make "the defection" the first taker is Jericho who is offered a "sweetheart deal" to return and be WCW's "franchise". His deal is slightly better than the other defectors in that he has a guaranteed return to the WWE/pay or play for his next deal as he is giving up a very good spot. If Vince decides not to move him back or to even not renew, he will still pick up his full pay plus 50% for a year after.

The second guy to be asked to make the move is one who is less happy to accept it but does so grudgingly - Triple H. Vince wants Hunter to be WCW's top heel and ultimately lead the invasion angle. with Jericho. Vince also sees this as a way to break up the Steph/Trips romance or at least stop it affecting business... so she stays in the WWE and Trips heads over... his sweetener is that Nash and Hall are already there so to an extent "The Kliq" will ride again though with no creative control/less power to what they have previously enjoyed they will to all intents be "the guys"once more.

With ECW also recently folding Heyman is given the book and a remit that his role is to provide exciting, edgy TV but not "Attitude" or a WWE copy. Shane's knowledge of new media and business/finance is a valuable tool but Heyman is "the guy" when it comes to the shows themselves. Flair is used as a "figurehead" onscreen and is acknowledged as the "man who made the deal happen" by Shane.

The WCW roster/title picture is retained to an extent with only the Hardcore titles being eliminated. Jarrett isn't fired in the way Vince did but he is not retained passed the first 3 months. The Cruisers are once again made prominent. It is made clear that PPV deals are contingent on the first quarter's 3 hour weeks.

WWE meanwhile continues much as it did, just without the McMahon/Helmsley era or Jericho's involvments. Other talents do make the switch but none who drastically impact what happened.

In WCW a soft reboot is held with all belts vacated. On the first Nitro which is the dual broadcast Shane does much as he did before and then drops the bombshell that the network has agreed that one show a month of WWE's time will he his making Vince red with rage and he has another surprise for Vince telling him he missed something important, maybe some contract renewals cos he was so caught up trying to buy WCW... I got some guys here who are gonna make sure my ratings beat yours on those weeks and Triple H, Nash, Hall and Jericho all make their way to the ring... Vince is livid to see two of his talents raided and the Kliq riding again... Shane then cuts the feed.

In WCW the tournament is held for the World title over the first 3 shows and culminates in a 3 hour special. The 16 man bracket includes Trips, Nash, Booker, DDP, Steiner, Jericho, Jarrett, Hall, Sting, Rey Mysterio, Buff Bagwell, Kanyon, Curt Hennig, Luger, Konnan and Dustin Rhodes.

Over the course of the tournament it builds tension between Jericho and Hunter when Jericho manages to beat the harder bracket opponents and it appears they will face off in the Finals He tries to talk about the bigger picture but when they do finally face off he upsets Trips with a flash pin. The Kliq are livid and he announces he doesn't need the Kliq cos he he has his Jerichoholics and the WCW World title...

US title is won by Scott Hall, TV title by Lance Storm and Cruiser by Shane Helms. The successful ratings convinces the network to give WCW it's own show on a Thursday while Smackdown moves to Fridays. Vince is able to also use some of his stroke with the PPV company to get 6 WCW PPV's a year to begin with, on the proviso that Wrestlemania next year will be the "invasion" and they won't want to not carry Mania which he is quite prepared to offer to network TV as a true "Superbowl of Wrestling".

The invasion begins a year later...

 

[Rocky84]

It's hard to predict how everything would've played out because who knows what creative was thinking at the time. They were crazy enough to give us that garbage instead of waiting until they had the proper pieces. Yet they did great leading up to Mania 17...best Mania of all time in my opinion, but dropped the ball bigtime soon after.

If they skipped the Invasion angle and still went through with the Nwo "poison" angle then I think we would've ended up with the same card at Mania 18 because it was back to normal by that point and the Invasion angle was pretty much through.

In between is pretty much anyone's guess, but as far as your ideas...not too bad I guess, but I definitely wouldn't have had Rock-Austin 3 @ Mania 18, and Rock as heel vs Hogan red and yellow @ 19 because then we lose out on Hogan vs McMahon @ 19 and the usual two year break from Rock vs Austin we need to watch it again (15, 17, 19). I thought the 3rd time Rock needed to be heel and it worked well. Plus Hogan needed to be Hollywood NWO against Rock and needed to be Red and Yellow for Vince. Can't change those.

 

[Jonny B]

Interesting premise but the change is further back in March 2001... Vince makes the decision to keep WCW as a seperate entity with Shane and Heyman legit at the helm and Flair as the main "booker". The Contracts he keeps become their roster with a few choice picks offered incentives to break their Time Warner deals (Sting)... Goldberg can rot.

Sting has made it very clear at the time that he had no intention of working for the WWF/E. What exactly would have changed in this scenario to make Sting suddenly want to sign with the WWF/E?

IWWE contracted talent are given an option to "defect" to WCW on the same deal for one year and a reduction if TV/PPV's have not taken off by then... but it's opportunity. As TV is currently an issue he makes a point of leveraging his TV partners for a slot much as he did with PPV back in the day - If they don't find a good slot for WCW they will lose WWE next deal... In the short term WCW operates in one one Smackdown slot per month and in Heat's slot.

Why would the WWF/E decide to run WCW seperately? It was losing money, no-one wanted to watch it anymore.

Of the talents who make "the defection" the first taker is Jericho who is offered a "sweetheart deal" to return and be WCW's "franchise". His deal is slightly better than the other defectors in that he has a guaranteed return to the WWE/pay or play for his next deal as he is giving up a very good spot. If Vince decides not to move him back or to even not renew, he will still pick up his full pay plus 50% for a year after.

The second guy to be asked to make the move is one who is less happy to accept it but does so grudgingly - Triple H. Vince wants Hunter to be WCW's top heel and ultimately lead the invasion angle. with Jericho. Vince also sees this as a way to break up the Steph/Trips romance or at least stop it affecting business... so she stays in the WWE and Trips heads over... his sweetener is that Nash and Hall are already there so to an extent "The Kliq" will ride again though with no creative control/less power to what they have previously enjoyed they will to all intents be "the guys"once more.

With ECW also recently folding Heyman is given the book and a remit that his role is to provide exciting, edgy TV but not "Attitude" or a WWE copy. Shane's knowledge of new media and business/finance is a valuable tool but Heyman is "the guy" when it comes to the shows themselves. Flair is used as a "figurehead" onscreen and is acknowledged as the "man who made the deal happen" by Shane.

The WCW roster/title picture is retained to an extent with only the Hardcore titles being eliminated. Jarrett isn't fired in the way Vince did but he is not retained passed the first 3 months. The Cruisers are once again made prominent. It is made clear that PPV deals are contingent on the first quarter's 3 hour weeks.

WWE meanwhile continues much as it did, just without the McMahon/Helmsley era or Jericho's involvments. Other talents do make the switch but none who drastically impact what happened.

In WCW a soft reboot is held with all belts vacated. On the first Nitro which is the dual broadcast Shane does much as he did before and then drops the bombshell that the network has agreed that one show a month of WWE's time will he his making Vince red with rage and he has another surprise for Vince telling him he missed something important, maybe some contract renewals cos he was so caught up trying to buy WCW... I got some guys here who are gonna make sure my ratings beat yours on those weeks and Triple H, Nash, Hall and Jericho all make their way to the ring... Vince is livid to see two of his talents raided and the Kliq riding again... Shane then cuts the feed.

In WCW the tournament is held for the World title over the first 3 shows and culminates in a 3 hour special. The 16 man bracket includes Trips, Nash, Booker, DDP, Steiner, Jericho, Jarrett, Hall, Sting, Rey Mysterio, Buff Bagwell, Kanyon, Curt Hennig, Luger, Konnan and Dustin Rhodes.

Over the course of the tournament it builds tension between Jericho and Hunter when Jericho manages to beat the harder bracket opponents and it appears they will face off in the Finals He tries to talk about the bigger picture but when they do finally face off he upsets Trips with a flash pin. The Kliq are livid and he announces he doesn't need the Kliq cos he he has his Jerichoholics and the WCW World title...

US title is won by Scott Hall, TV title by Lance Storm and Cruiser by Shane Helms. The successful ratings convinces the network to give WCW it's own show on a Thursday while Smackdown moves to Fridays. Vince is able to also use some of his stroke with the PPV company to get 6 WCW PPV's a year to begin with, on the proviso that Wrestlemania next year will be the "invasion" and they won't want to not carry Mania which he is quite prepared to offer to network TV as a true "Superbowl of Wrestling".

The invasion begins a year later...

I think you may have missed the point of the thread... It was to speculate how the WWF/E would have gone in 2001 had Vince decided to not run the WCW Invasion.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Nope... didn't miss the point at all... you call something "The Butterfly Effect" then it means one decision changed, not a "What if they did no invasion at all". The decision I chose was keeping WCW a seperate company.

You're wrong - people DID want to watch it, just not the way it was just as people like Sting wouldn't want to work there as it was... If they had done it as a totally seperate company without Vince's involvment past the "set up" then guys like Sting may well have had a "figure" they would have stayed for... as I said they wouldn't be doing "Attitude" style stuff so that would also be a reason for Sting to stay as he wouldn't be asked to do anything he was uncomfortable with.

The reality is that Vince DID look at it seriously but the decision of AOL/TW to remove the TV basically killed it. Even if they'd let them run for 6 months then Vince could have sorted a new TV deal and leveraged his PPV partners. That TNA could run the weekly PPV model meant WCW could.

Don't be a dick about it if someone takes your idea on a tangent... it's the first rule if you want to get anywhere near the main page (which I am guessing this idea is for as a column) or people to shoot it down before it starts as a regular thing... first rule of pilots is they usually get cancelled...

 

[Jonny B]

Nope... didn't miss the point at all... you call something "The Butterfly Effect" then it means one decision changed, not a "What if they did no invasion at all". The decision I chose was keeping WCW a seperate company.

You understood the premise but not the intention. The idea was to debate the single change (ie. The Invasion not happening in 2001).

You're wrong - people DID want to watch it, just not the way it was just as people like Sting wouldn't want to work there as it was... If they had done it as a totally seperate company without Vince's involvment past the "set up" then guys like Sting may well have had a "figure" they would have stayed for... as I said they wouldn't be doing "Attitude" style stuff so that would also be a reason for Sting to stay as he wouldn't be asked to do anything he was uncomfortable with.

The only way I can think to logically measure if people wanted to watch WCW or not is in the TV ratings, and they don't really support your theory. Between January and March 2001 the WWE managed between a 4.0 and a 5.0 on average. WCW for the same time frame managed between a 1.5 and a 3.0 (the 3.0 was the final Nitro it actually hovered around the 2.5 mark).

As for Sting I can only really look at what has actually happened. Realistically Sting has had 13 years since WCW closed it's doors to work for the WWE, and even longer before that. That alone supports my arguement that Sting wouldn't want to work for WWE in any guise. Also your assuming Vince wanted to spend a lot of money buying these contracts.

The reality is that Vince DID look at it seriously but the decision of AOL/TW to remove the TV basically killed it. Even if they'd let them run for 6 months then Vince could have sorted a new TV deal and leveraged his PPV partners. That TNA could run the weekly PPV model meant WCW could.

He gave them a segment on RAW, they stunk up the joint. After that it was never even mentioned again.

Don't be a dick about it if someone takes your idea on a tangent...

If I wanted to be a dick I would have run your idea's down for being absolutely ridiculous, but I didn't.

it's the first rule if you want to get anywhere near the main page (which I am guessing this idea is for as a column) or people to shoot it down before it starts as a regular thing... first rule of pilots is they usually get cancelled...

I have a fair idea of how things work, so although your advise is appreciated it is not required and this thread is just that a thread, there is no intention to try and get a spot on the Main Page... I just thought it might be a fun idea.