Bigger Letdown - WCW Invasion or ECW Relaunch

[The Scarred One]

The topic of this thread is pretty simple: which WWE use of another brand was the worst? The WCW invasion of 2001 or the ECW relaunch back in 2006? Let's look at the details behind each one.

1) WCW Invasion.
In March 2001, the Monday Night War came to an end as Vince McMahon purchased the dying World Championship Wrestling for a mere $3 million. The purchase came with the trademarks, intellectual properties, video tape library and the contracts of several WCW wrestlers. McMahon used the purchase as part of the storyline he had with his son, Shane, leading into WrestleMania X7 less than a week away. In the storyline, Shane went behind his father's back and bought WCW for himself. As time went by, the WCW purchase went unmentioned until WCW wrestlers began invanding WWE television. It culminated at the King of the Ring when Booker T made an appearance in the main event. With that, the invasion had begun.

The plan was for WWE to re-establish WCW as a second brand under its umbrella. This would have involved finding a television slot on Saturday nights on TNN or making either RAW or SmackDown a WCW show. On July 3, WCW had the chance to showcase its talent by having its first match on a RAW broadcast. The main event featured Booker T vs. Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship. Unfortunately, the match failed to impress. After that match, the storyline changed gears as it soon abandoned the idea of giving WCW its own show and portraying WCW as the villains, where before they were portrayed as the heroes.

To try and salvage the storyline, ECW came into the mix and aligned itself with WCW to form the Alliance. Along with that, Stephanie McMahon revealed herself as th new owner of ECW to go along with Shane McMahon's WCW. Even with the introduction of WWE turncoats in Steve Austin and Kurt Angle didn't help as the Alliance was made to look inferior in comparison to the WWE. The storyline came to an end in November of that year with a Winner-Take-All match at Survivor Series. To the surprise of no one, WWE one and the Alliance died. Eventually, many former Alliance members integrated themselves onto WWE television and the original vision of a WWE/WCW brand split came to be in the RAW/SmackDown brand extension the next year.

2) ECW Relaunch
In April 2006, Vince McMahon and WWE chose to revive Extreme Championship Wrestling as a third brand under its umbrella after it originally died back in 2001. After the success of The Rise and Fall of ECW in 2004 and ECW: One Night Stand in 2005, the WWE became aware that the ECW fanbase was still alive and strong. McMahon signed former ECW stars to contracts and secured a timeslot on the Sci-Fi Channel. He also placed Paul Heyman in charge of writing and booking the show. The new brand had its kickoff at ECW: One Night Stand 2006, which saw Rob Van Dam cash in the Money-in-the-Bank briefcase he won at that year's WrestleMania against John Cena for the WWE Championship. At the end of the night, RVD emerged victorious as the new WWE Champion, finally breaking the glass celing and becoming a main event star. Two nights later, he was presented with the ECW World Championship as well, making him a dual champion.

After a hot start, it would all soon cool off. Less than a month after winning both titles, RVD would drop both of them after a run-in with the law for drug possession. He would never regain that momentum again while in WWE. The next month, ECW held a show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, which became a signature location along with the ECW Arena in Philadelphia for the orignal ECW. The show featured the debut of CM Punk, but it also featured a main event of the Big Show defending his ECW World Championship against Batista. The Hammerstein Ballroom crowd turned on the main event, booing and heckling the competitors involved. It would only get worse as the ECW Originals would soon be fired and replaced with cast-offs from RAW and SmackDown.

The next infamous moment in ECW's relaunch came with ECW December to Dismember, a pay-per-view that has a reputation of being one of the worst, if not the worst, of all time. Many factors could be contributed to this such as the advertisement of only two matches on the card to the sandwiching of it between two other pay-per-views in less than a month. The main event saw Bobby Lashley, a SmackDown cast-off, defeat the Big Show, Rob Van Dam, CM Punk, Test and Hardcore Holly in an Extreme Elimination Chamber match. After the pay-per-view, Paul Heyman left the WWE and stayed away until 2012. As 2007 came and went along, the show became more of a glorified developmental brand. But in December 2006, ECW truly died once more.

So what do you guys think? In my opinion, I thought the WCW Invasion was worse, simply because it had the potential of being the greatest storyline of all time. It was a dream match for those who experienced the Monday Night War. If Vince McMahon had shelled out more money to buy the contracts of bigger WCW stars or portray WCW as an equal alongside WWE, maybe it would've been successful. In any case, those involved would've made a lot of money off of it. As for ECW, I just knew it wouldn't work. It wasn't going to be the orignal, no-holds-barred ECW of the past. And when Rob Van Dam got busted for drugs, I just knew that the brand was doomed from that point on.

But anyway, what are your thoughts?

 

[TDFG]

The WCW Invasion was the worse of the two, WWE had so many options after the buyout & they still got it wrong, I personally would have preferred for Smackdown to become WCW Smackdown but the TV deal might not have allowed for that but I'm sure they would have got a TV deal somewhere.

The roster the brought over wasn't great, but they could have traded some guys over until the likes of Mysterio signed.

I think after the failure of the Invasion, when I heard ECW was being relaunched, I knew what was going to happen.

 

[Giovanni Galvano]

No doubt that ECW nostalgia was big in the mid 2000's. Especially after the release of the Rise and Fall of ECW dvd. The first 2 One Night Stand PPV's were absolutely incredible. And for RVD to win the title at the second one, was a moment that many ECW fans probably never thought would happen, an ECW guy, in an ECW setting, winning the WWE Championship. So its clear that there were some serious positives from the ECW relaunch even though as it went on it got pretty ugly. My question to you guys is do you think the ECW name value has decreased in the eyes of fans since the relaunch happened?
Personally I think the greatness of the original ECW will live on forever in the hearts and minds of true fans. But what do you think about it?

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

Neither are as bad as people act. By that I mean, there is what could happen in a fantasy world; and what's realistic.

The Invasion was the way it was because of the shitty contracts. It'd be great to have Goldberg and Nash and the nWo and Steiner right away. Too bad they didn't have to wrestle if they didn't want to (or some shit, Nash and Goldberg have talked about it on shoots). They had to strike while the iron was hot though, had they waited until mid 2002 or 2003 when they eventually picked up Nash, nWo, Goldberg, Steiner, etc, it wouldn't have meant that much.

The ECW relaunch was about what I expected. WWE isn't stupid enough to have such a narrow brand as the original ECW. The two ONS PPVs were pretty awesome. The ECW show itself wasn't always terrible. It was sort of a precursor to NXT. I think if WWE would have made it a subsidiary or treated it like a fighting brand it would have worked out better. Or hell, just funded ROH to be on TV and call themselves ECW at the time as long as they get a cut.

 

[RicSpade]

Here is the problem with both in simple terms, WCW Invasion had maybe 3 top WCW stars with no legit star power behind it, ECW had some of the hardcore ECW fans craved but eventually it all went away and you had for the most part the horrid syfy gimmicks and more WWE and less ECW. I would have to say WCW Invasion just because they had to use WWE guys to make it more relevant, if they had used the NWO, or Goldberg or Flair or acquired anyone from WCW that had star power as a main eventer at the time I would think differently, but thats basically how it is.

 

[A11oftheLights]

The Invasion was the way it was because of the shitty contracts. It'd be great to have Goldberg and Nash and the nWo and Steiner right away. Too bad they didn't have to wrestle if they didn't want to (or some shit, Nash and Goldberg have talked about it on shoots). They had to strike while the iron was hot though, had they waited until mid 2002 or 2003 when they eventually picked up Nash, nWo, Goldberg, Steiner, etc, it wouldn't have meant that much.

Didn't have to go straight away, Vince could have just said that none of the WCW stars will ever get on TV again and then when they got hold of the contracts proceeded to invade.

What was worse? I can't really say but ECW was never going to work once WWE went PG but there were a few good moments

 

[Judah's Lion]

my vote is for the WCW Invasion. both had some high spots and both had some terribly low spots.

WWE gets tons of crap for both, Vince McMahon especially. and i get it. he's the owner, so ultimately the buck stops with him.

however, i don't think it's all his fault or the fault of the parent company. for example...

the ECW Re-Launch. RVD was the WWE and ECW Champion at the same time. he was primed for a major legit push to the main event on a full time basis, or one can only assume. then he got busted for drugs and dropped both belts on back-to-back nights. same time frame and Kurt Angle is drafted to the ECW brand. this was huge and could have made the show pretty enjoyable long term. he gets busted for drugs and leaves the company for TNA. so now that their two major players that were gonna carry the brand aren't reliable enough to do so, it's time to hit the reset. and the night it was gonna happen, a certain superstar by the name of Chris Benoit no showed the event and literally changed the face of wrestling.

yeah, WWECW kinda flopped, but it wasn't for lack of effort. RVD, Angle and Benoit were counted on to make the show relevant and exciting and all three let the company down in one way or another.

as many have stated, the WCW Invasion suffered from lack of major star power. personally, i think the WWE rushed the whole thing. the Invasion basically started at Mania 17 with the match between Vince and Shane McMahon. but by Mania 18, the entire Invasion angle was completed. but a quick look at the names on the card at Mania 18 shows Hogan, Flair, Hall and Nash, all of whom were left out of the entire angle. could Vince really not wait a couple of months and let the Invasion angle play out to Mania? and one year after this, we see Steiner and Goldberg enter the WWE. obviously Sting was never an option, but within a year and a half of the Invasion officially ending at Survivor Series, Hogan, Hall, Nash, Flair, Steiner and Goldberg were all with the company. shell out some extra bucks and get Goldberg and Steiner in with Flair and the NWO.

again, most everyone agrees that the Invasion angle was simply rushed and lacking those big names. i think that, for the most part, the WWE is to blame since all those big names were on their way in anyway. as for the WWECW, i don't blame the WWE hardly at all. clearly the effort was there. crazy outside circumstances that Vince and Company couldn't control killed that opportunity, whereas he just flat out blew the Invasion angle due to poor booking and timing.

really interesting thread. never thought of this before but really enjoyed discussing it. thanks.

 

[Aquaman6686]

I liked both, but the Invasion is the bigger letdown simply because I feel WWE's ECW was a great product. So what if it wasn't the original ECW? I don't feel it was supposed to be. It was a third WWE brand. I was in Trenton NJ for the very first episode of ECW on SciFi, and while it was a cool moment to see Rob Van Dam get awarded the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, it just wasn't a product I was interested in seeing. Once they moved away from the specter of the original ECW and made it its own product, it was much more enjoyable. From 2006 to 2010, the ECW Championship may have been a tertiary World Championship, but it was still a WORLD Championship for the first time. It was far more important than the regional title status of the original ECW. With the exception of the 6 months where it became the Bobby Lashley Happy Hour, the new ECW was a great product and I enjoyed the hell out of it. I wish it would have lasted longer.

 

[MCMG]

WCW had a lot more potential so that is my answer. I agree with what Vince did. Killing of WCW had to be done, not only for his ego, but just to prove who the dominant company were. The Invasion was a sound idea but there were are a lot of difficult circumstances. Sting and Goldberg didn't feature in the initial invasion which didn't help. Moreover, Benoit and HHH were injured. Four top guys missing before they really got to do anything.

Add those four guys and some slight changes and it would have been a lot better. There was a lot of potential and, while I enjoyed the invasion, it was a little bit underwhelming. If the WCW/ECW pack was led by Sting, Goldberg, Booker T, Benoit, Jericho and RVD it would have been incredible. That vs Rock, Austin, Taker, HHH, Kane and Angle. So much star power and possibilities that would have helped overall.

Overall, I enjoyed the WWECW. It helped to create some big names and featured some decent matches/moments. I could just say CM Punk and leave it at that but there was also Sheamus, Swagger and The Miz who benefited from a run in ECW. It also helped salvage the career of Christian.

"Hardcore" wrestling was slowly dying and there wasn't a lot they could do with the brand. Once, Sandman and co. left it just became WWE's third show with little connotations. They even took Joey Styles of commentary....

The Invasion was a bigger letdown certainly; simply because of the potential

 

[whoopin' ass]

Invasion for sure. People don't realize but ECW was sort of the minor leagues for WWF and WCW, they just got noticed more than others. But a ton of wrestlers went there before moving to the big stages. The WWECW was the same - people worked there before going to Raw or Smackdown. Truthfully is it should have never been called ECW as that was never the plan Vince had but it did exactly what it was meant to do.

With the Invasion, so much was just tossed away. Okay, maybe they didn't have the big names but they still had some recognizable names like Booker T. Plus they had the numbers. They could have done the hit and run attacks more and come across as a threat. Problem there was they weren't able to get WCW tv time right away so they had to use these guys on WWE tv but Vince wouldn't make them look strong. Who would give you a tv show to have the guys getting beat up every week appear on it? You didn't necessarily need hogan, Nash, etc to make this work but you did need to make the talent you have look strong and Vince wouldn't. And make no mistake, it was Vince's ego that killed it. He'll do what's good for business but you pay in the end. Look at all the guys that came in after the Invasion angle and how poorly those went. People complain about Nash and how he does business but he is one of the few guys who actually gets how the business works and always makes sure he is protected.

 

[enviousdominous]

YOUR SOURCE OF INFORMATION IS SUSPECT!!

I chose the WCW Invasion angle because it was the biggest let down of the two. I was marking out like Linda Richman at a Barbara Streisand concert when ECW entered the fray. I thought that it would be like watching the armies of three major nations collide in an all out war, and it turned out to be an attempt to destroy the WWF. Oh, fun.

This was also the angle that forced Austin to play heel, and they wouldn't even let him play an entertaining heel. They made him whine, and complain that he wasn't loved enough. I'm pretty sure that the "WHAT?!" fad started with this as well, which is a pro and a con rolled up into one obnoxious fad.

This was supposed to be a blow-out angle where Vince would have to consult a savant to calculate all the money he was about to make, and it ended up leaving a bad taste in everyone's mouths.

The ECW thing wasn't nearly as disappointing. It had it's run. It came, it delivered and we outgrew it. No big whoop.

 

[Ubermensch]

ECW. The reason being, is that Vince had a real opportunity to bring hardcore wrestling coupled with gritty story lines to mainstream TV and co promote on his other shows, and he completely blew it.

Versus opting for these shatty Invasion angles and roster splits. Vince should have celebrated what made both the WCW and ECW viable competition for so many years. Have WWE Raw as your signature Sports Entertainment brand, have WCW as the more kayfabe "wrasslin" promotion with more in-ring work, and have ECW as the hardcore fed with gritty story lines.