Dear Vince; You Blew A Golden Opportunity

[jacdnwarrior]

If this has been done before, forgive me but I'll do it anyway and you can delete this later.

I remember watching a shoot interview with Jim Cornette. Now I know what a lot of people are thinking.... 'Cornette who cares what he has to say.' He's a this and a that , why listen to him.' Well, his...missteps aside, I believe he does know what he's talking about. Heyman also has his issues but has a great mind for the business. Any ways, the shoot had Cornette coming up with an idea for rebooking the Invasion Angle, where WCW and ECW were invading WWE, see it here

http://justin.tv/porc_inator/b/280063016

(or if the link doesn't work go to www.justin.tv and search for guest booker with jim cornette and see if that works)

In the vid, Cornette comes up with a new way to have booked the entire Invasion angle while dissing how WWE did it. I wholeheartedly agree, and loved his ideas. Now the shoot is about 1 hr and 42 minutes, so if you don't have time to watch it you won't appreciate my evaluation but you don't have to see it to answer my question or read this topic (but it would help):

I personally hated the way it was booked and how it was started and finished by WWE. They couldn't have done a more incompetent job with an angle that had the makings of being the biggest thing in the history of the industry. I felt Vince should have opened his wallet pay the small fortune to the performers and then he could be laughing all the way to the bank with the income he'd make off of events, and the film library from the Invasion Angle.

Questions:

How did you like the invasion Angle ?
Did you like the booking of it or were you disappointed by it ?
How would you have booked it differently ?

 

[Trill Co$by]

Seriously? Another one of these? This topic is more annoying than Cena turning Heel topics or "Push star B because I'm tired of star A" threads.

When Vince McMahon bought the WCW, he bought just that the WCW. All contracts that workers signed through Eric Bischoff were signed over to Vince McMahon which left him with limited contracts to use. Nash, Hall, Hogan, Flair, and even Goldberg contracts were done through TNT and they still wanted those names for whatever reason. Sting didn't WANT to go to WWE so he got out of the contract and Jeff Jarrett was released. So, with what they were given, WWE did a great job.

Even if the WWE did have the contracts at that time, I still prefer how the WWE went about everything. For starters, Jim Cornette proved already that he can't run a promotion. He's failed every time he's been hired as a booker, so that tells you his true potential worth. Plus, the entire thing drew in a lot of heat. It gave us a heel Stone Cold, which worked. It gave us a conflicting interest, which worked. And it even gave us new names to look at such as RVD, Rhino, Chuck Palumbo, Booker T, and even Tajiri... well, for those of us who didn't watch WCW or ECW.

Personally, the invasion angle is one of my favorite moments in WWE history because everything changed for the better at this time. There wasn't as much shit [literally] being thrown around, the blood was starting to be toned back, and stars were delivering gold every which way possible.

 

[thebarber]

The invasioon was booked as well as it possibly could have been considering the level of talent they had. Only Booker T and DDP were MAIN EVENT, or WWE main event calibre guys when WCW was bought out. Having an invasion with Shawn Stasiak and Mark Jindrak running in, hardly believable. The amalgamaation with ECW was a great move, there guys were stronger and much more over than the WCW guys.
The ionly thing they should have done, once Vince had nWo, Flair, Goldberg etc was to re-visit the i nvasion with the upper echalon, guys that were big in WWE, left for WCW then now returned. Could have been a great feud, but this was lost after the original invasion was booked so one sided. Leave it in the past

 

[JJ15776]

When Vince McMahon bought the WCW, he bought just that the WCW. All contracts that workers signed through Eric Bischoff were signed over to Vince McMahon which left him with limited contracts to use. Nash, Hall, Hogan, Flair, and even Goldberg contracts were done through TNT and they still wanted those names for whatever reason. Sting didn't WANT to go to WWE so he got out of the contract and Jeff Jarrett was released. So, with what they were given, WWE did a great job.

Even if the WWE did have the contracts at that time, I still prefer how the WWE went about everything. For starters, Jim Cornette proved already that he can't run a promotion. He's failed every time he's been hired as a booker, so that tells you his true potential worth. Plus, the entire thing drew in a lot of heat. It gave us a heel Stone Cold, which worked. It gave us a conflicting interest, which worked. And it even gave us new names to look at such as RVD, Rhino, Chuck Palumbo, Booker T, and even Tajiri... well, for those of us who didn't watch WCW or ECW.

Personally, the invasion angle is one of my favorite moments in WWE history because everything changed for the better at this time. There wasn't as much shit [literally] being thrown around, the blood was starting to be toned back, and stars were delivering gold every which way possible.

Bingo. I'm so sick of people acting like Vince just chose not to use the big names. Or that he didn't want to spend the money. First of all, contrary to popular belief, Vince doesn't run the WWE by himself. He has shareholders and a Board of Directors to answer to. So even if he wanted to spend all that money to bring in the bigger names, that doesn't automatically mean he could. But that's not important, because he didn't have the opportunity to begin with. Those guys simply were not available.

The ionly thing they should have done, once Vince had nWo, Flair, Goldberg etc was to re-visit the i nvasion with the upper echalon, guys that were big in WWE, left for WCW then now returned. Could have been a great feud, but this was lost after the original invasion was booked so one sided. Leave it in the past

That's a fair point. They could've saved all the big names and had them all come in at once, later on, to avenge the name of WCW or whatever. Have a short of second invasion. But, like you said, at that point it was already done. I think it was better just to bring them in individually the way they did, and spread them out like they did.

But I have something to add here: has anybody actually watched Jim Cornette's booking of the invasion? I mean actually paid attention to what he would have done, instead of glossing over it with your head in the clouds all dreamy because it's something different than what the WWE did? Trust me, I watched every minute of it. His booking of the invasion is ATROCIOUS. It would've been a complete failure. Jim Cornette himself realized how bad it was as he was going along, because he starts to make excuses, saying he just wrote this up in a few days and he was traveling and didn't have time to think it through. It was seriously embarrassing and painful to watch such a supposedly brilliant wrestling mind make such a complete fool of himself in a forum like that.

 

[Shadow of Darkness]

First of all thanks for copying my thread and presenting it in a new way.

http://forums.wrestlezone.com/showthread.php?t=250115

and secondly... Cornette's idea sucked. Go and check Vince Russo's one. Russo gives a exact view of how it could have been interesting. While Cornette just goes on with his "all wrestling, no storyline, full kayfabe angle". He is still stuck in 80s and will never come out of that.

Hell yeah...

 

[Dysturbed]

Bingo. I'm so sick of people acting like Vince just chose not to use the big names. Or that he didn't want to spend the money. First of all, contrary to popular belief, Vince doesn't run the WWE by himself. He has shareholders and a Board of Directors to answer to. So even if he wanted to spend all that money to bring in the bigger names, that doesn't automatically mean he could. But that's not important, because he didn't have the opportunity to begin with. Those guys simply were not available.

In addition to that, even if money was the primary issue and the company was just being cheap like some have said over the years, I wouldn't blame him for not spending even more to get the big names. (and I get the impression that you and others in this thread wouldn't either). The company already spent millions over the years on salaries for wrestlers and employees, to rent arenas, on pyro, to transport equipment, to advertise, and so on. Plus millions were spent on the XFL around that time. Then Vince spent what he did to purchase WCW, now have new salaries to take on, and so on. Despite a lot of money coming in due to the company's success, even rich people and corporations tend to have have their limits, but a lot of fans of WWE or even sports teams seem to think that financial decisions are easy to make, possibly because they're not the ones that have to make them.

With that being said I fully understand why only specific wrestlers were in the company, but in retrospect do wish that certain things were presented differently with what WWE did have to work with. At the same time, just like I said with the money thing, it is easy to try to play booker when I/we're just the ones sitting at home watching shows and not the one responsible for helping make decisions that millions of viewers will watch.

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

He could have waited to do the invasion angle until the contracts expired. I heard they advanced the angle when HHH got injured after WrestleMania17.

But Hogan, Nash, Hall, Flair, Steiner, Goldberg and DDP were all in the WWE within the next year or year and a half anyways. They could have held the angle until they had the contracts and the talent to do it well. They maybe could have even had Sting. Sting's gone on record with how offput he was with The Rock buying Booker T in his WWE debut and that was part of what made him never want to join.

 

[BillAlfonso]

Seriously? Another one of these? This topic is more annoying than Cena turning Heel topics or "Push star B because I'm tired of star A" threads.

Then why did you reply to it?

Anyway, I loved the Invasion feud, it was great to see the guys that they were able to bring in. Personally, I thought he should've just kept everything the way it was and delegate others to run each promotion. It may or may not have been practical but he could've had Heyman book ECW since the finances were no longer an issue, had Russo book WCW and possibly bring Bischoff higher into Titan Inc. and have Shane run WWE. That would extend the concept of "dream matches" at Wrestlemania, Starcade, and/or Anarchy Rulz(was that ECW's flagship PPV?) a lot longer and make it possible to see Sting vs Taker, Stone Cold vs Hogan, or the Outsiders vs DX.

If there had to be an Invasion Angle, I thought they should've done it subtly starting of the way they did. I'd have the lower level guys from both ECW and WCW start of then you gradually build to the bigger stars of each company coming in like Hogan, Raven, etc. They also should've made the ECW guys look stronger, they completely wasted Raven and tried to bury RVD during that entire angle.

 

[Mazzaroti78]

The 'Invasion' was 12 years ago. I'm gonna repeat...12 years ago. The absolute and utter failure of this angle has no bearing on the company anymore. It's a dead issue. The CM Punk MITB angle is more topical than the Invasion. It was never going to work in any configuration or under any different booking idea. WCW and WWF guys literally hated each other. If you are Steve Austin, you aren't going to job to Goldberg to make him look good because he was just your main competition. The Undertaker didn't let any WCW guy into the WWF locker room to change clothes after the buyout. Booker T and Buff Bagwell changed in the rest room. One guy, Rock, wanted to work with Booker T and Sting took his promo against Booker T as a burial LOL. It was not going to happen. Too many stars, too many ego's and WAYYYY too soon as far as timing goes. The level of hatred and mistrust goes so deep that even Sting, to this day, after so many ex WCW stars have had success in WWF/E, refuses to go to WWE because he thinks Vince will bury him so he can't draw anymore. There is no way it wouldn't have been a disaster.

 

[Dysturbed]

I heard they advanced the angle when HHH got injured after WrestleMania17.

Possibly, but not likely by too much. The company was purchased not long before WM and, even if it hadn't been announced on the last episode of Nitro (6 days before Wrestlemania) it was, as you know, a well known fact that WWE owned them. With that in mind, even if Triple H was healthy, holding off on debuting the WCW wrestlers that they did have would imo been a poor decision. I realize that you never said to hold off debuting them, just that there maybe shouldn't have been an "invasion" yet, but as I will explain below, holding off on the invasion probably wouldn't have been a good idea. I do understand why you feel otherwise.

He could have waited to do the invasion angle until the contracts expired.

Hogan, Nash, Hall, Flair, Steiner, Goldberg and DDP were all in the WWE within the next year or year and a half anyways

Of course they "could have" waited that extended amount of time but a big part of the invasion was that a large number of the initial members of the alliance were guys who had just come over from WCW's purchase (or previously been in ECW) and looking to make an immediate impact based on their outsider status as newcomers to the company. If those guys debuted regardless around the same time but in a non invading capacity, waiting a year and a half wouldn't have made them outsiders (though the other guys you mentioned still would have been) rather they would have been people who (like other alliance members like The Dudleys, Austin, etc) were already acclimated to the WWE roster at that point and suddenly chose to team up with newcomers. It also would have meant that instead of RVD getting a rare face like reactoin while with a large group of heels, many others possibly would have been too )depending on how they were presented and what fans thought of them) since they would have had so long to have established themselves in the company.

That is unless WWE chose to wait a year or more to introduce Booker T, DDP, Lance Storm, and so on to the roster as well which probably wasn't in their best interest, not only because they would have had a large number of people ready to immediately debut that they were holding off on, but because the extra year or more of anticipation would have lead to non stop rumors, even higher expectations, and therefore a greater likelihood of people being let down due to waiting so long.

 

[GameOver]

Bingo. I'm so sick of people acting like Vince just chose not to use the big names. Or that he didn't want to spend the money. First of all, contrary to popular belief, Vince doesn't run the WWE by himself. He has shareholders and a Board of Directors to answer to. So even if he wanted to spend all that money to bring in the bigger names, that doesn't automatically mean he could. But that's not important, because he didn't have the opportunity to begin with. Those guys simply were not available.



That's a fair point. They could've saved all the big names and had them all come in at once, later on, to avenge the name of WCW or whatever. Have a short of second invasion. But, like you said, at that point it was already done. I think it was better just to bring them in individually the way they did, and spread them out like they did.

But I have something to add here: has anybody actually watched Jim Cornette's booking of the invasion? I mean actually paid attention to what he would have done, instead of glossing over it with your head in the clouds all dreamy because it's something different than what the WWE did? Trust me, I watched every minute of it. His booking of the invasion is ATROCIOUS. It would've been a complete failure. Jim Cornette himself realized how bad it was as he was going along, because he starts to make excuses, saying he just wrote this up in a few days and he was traveling and didn't have time to think it through. It was seriously embarrassing and painful to watch such a supposedly brilliant wrestling mind make such a complete fool of himself in a forum like that.

Yup WWE went public traded in 1999 b4 WCW was bought to be precise, however the McMahons still have controlling interest at 51% so he ultimately does have the final say. But if he pisses of the stockholders WWE's worth will drop considerably not to mention family networks/advertisers that wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole.

as for the big names, they were under contract with Time Warner and didn't have to do anything til there contracts ran out, Vince had nothing to do with that. Goldberg was given the opportunity but he chose to stay at home being paid to do nothing for instance. If Vince wanted them all on the roster he would've had to pay out there contracts then re-sign them on new contracts aswell, WWE was already over stacked with salaries and financially in some turmoil at that point.

Would've loved the invasion angle to run better then it did but really looking back now i don't see how it could've been any better other then The Alliance winning and controlling WWF for a short spell b4 something that gives back controll to WWE. PErsonally i think it was art imitating life, WCW invaded WWF's monday night time slot and were beating them, they used and abused ECW talent to help the situation but ultimately who won out? WWF. ECW were worthless at that point, they offered no noticeable names that people who never woulda watched ECW new about so they were just a bonus.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

People seem to think that the Invasion angle failed because of the lack of superstars from WCW. While partly of that is true no one's saying that The Invasion angle needed Hogan, Nash, Hall, Luger, Flair, Goldberg, Steiner, and Sting to be successful.

During the Invasion Angle WWF had ... DDP, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, Rhyno, Taz, and Paul Heyman. Buff Bagwell was also in the roster but his attitude was so bad that he booted out the first week in. But even so WWF still had a pretty solid undercard from The Invasion angle that were pretty relevant you had Lance Storm, Spike Dudley, Shane Helms, William Regal, Chris Kanyon, and Mike Awesome. Then you could have easily turned Jericho and Big Show since they had some affinity to WCW as they did for The Dudley Boyz.

Then from the people under the Time Warner Contract, Vince could have asked to bring in Eric Bishoff and Ric Flair. I think these two would have easily accepted.

So The Alliance would have had the following guys
DDP, Booker T, Chris Jericho, The Big Show, Rhyno, Rob Van Dam, Lance Storm, Mike Awesome, Shane Helms, William Regal, Chris Kanyon, Mike Awesome, Taz, Spike and The Duleyz. Then you had Kielber and Wilson as the women. Then Heyman as the Manager. Plus maybe Flair and Bishoff.

That would have been a credible group to stand up against Austin, The Rock, Undertaker, Kane, Kurt Angle, Edge, Christian, and The Hardyz.

The storylines could have been more compelling in a sense that they could have had The Alliance dominate the WWF for a long period of time instead of making The Alliance look weak and having to rely on Austin to look credible.

Now ... I can say this though regarding Austin joining WCW/ECW. It had to be done since he was a heel already, turning him face would have rendered WMX-Seven useless (since the big moment of the event was his heel turn). Perhaps after knowing they bought WCW, WWF and Vince could have backtracked at his heel turn knowing that Austin needed to lead the charge for WWF since The Rock was taking time off to film The Scorpion King.

One Angle that could have stamped The Alliance is Turning Jericho heel at KOTR when Booker T invaded. I could see an injured Benoit in the mat, then Booker T attack Austin to have Jericho pin Benoit. Turning heel with Heyman and Booker T(with the WCW Title) celebrate with Jericho as the New WWF Champion.

Boom!!! Instant heat for the Alliance and sets the tone for the whole angle. That's not hindsight mind you since it could have happened at that moment.

 

[King Patrick Star]

How did I like the invasion Angle??
I loved the Invasion angle. I loved the idea of seeing a war between WWE and WCW. I loved the surprise inclusion of ECW. I loved the potential this angle had and made me think that the future was bright in the world of Professional Sports Wrestling Entertainment.

Did I like the booking of it or were you disappointed by it??
As for the booking itself, I was a bit disappointed, but not because of what happened, but with who was involved. It should have been star studded. We should have had WCW Stars and ECW Champions / ECW Championships involved. Instead, we got WWE vs. WCW Champions and ECW Stars only.

How would I have booked it differently??
This could go on and on, which I have already said in the past. Just search Invasion post by King Patrick, just to avoid repeating myself. The basic gist, instead of WWE vs. WCW / ECW, I would have rather it been, WWE vs. DX vs. WCW vs. NWO vs. ECW vs. BWO vs. NWA vs. the Radicalz. This would have pushed the Radicalz to new heights, if they added more Stars who wrestled for each of the Big 3, like Jericho and Austin.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

This is one of the longest running threads that pops up on a regular basis. I agree that the Invasion angle sucked especially considering how Flair came the night after it ended and Hogan, Hall and Nash came in 3 months after it ended. It makes you think why they didn't take their time and get the most out of what should have been the easiest thing not to screw up, yet the WWE some how did.

Obviously the 2 biggest issues is were the people in the Alliance (not a good idea when you got to pad out most of the players with current WWE guys like Austin and Angle) and the fact it was all about Vince vs. Shane/Stephanie, it sure wasn't about WWE vs. WCW which is what it should of been. They had EVERYTHING to make this angle a success and they blew it, plain and simple.

That's all I can say on it, otherwise its gonna just be a long ass rant that I've already done before.

 

[relentless1]

ive always thought that you could work with the guys that they had just have a few former wcw guys turn on the wwf so my roster would look like this : DDP, Booker T, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Big Show, Eddie Gurrero, Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn, Lance Storm, Mike Awesome, William Regal, Billy Kidman, RVD, Kanyon and shell out the money to get Flair since he came in like the day after anyways. then just book them to be a threat, have the second wave come in early 2002 with the nWo ( Hogan, Hall, Nash, Bischoff, Big Poppa Pump) you could write 2 years of programming with these guys alone, not to mention fi they ever got sting, when goldberg came in, ECW, unifying the world titles etc etc

 

[jacdnwarrior]

I thought this topic was done before, but I was home and wanted to do something. Sorry if you guys are sick of this being done over again, although I'm a little surprised by the number who came to this same topic.

Tbh, I liked the idea of the Invasion Angle, but thought the execution wasn't as good as it should have been. I don't like all of Cornette's ideas, but even his bad ones are better than what WWE gave us. The angle (I could be wrong) was a flop, financially. This had never been done before, people always wanted to see this, make it memorable and I totally believe they failed in that part.


Can you get every one ? No. But focus on the ones you can, then wait on the ones who were the biggest stars in the company, or just wait until you get the biggest stars first then get the smaller names later. You can't have an WCW invasion without Sting, Luger (maybe you can), Flair, Steiners (Scott, especially), Goldberg, NWO, among others, you just can't do it. And ECW performers as good as they were, they weren't on WCW's level. Sorry ECW, fans, they weren't. If that means you wait, then wait, if that means throw money at it, you do so. You have to get this right. Board of Directors are a concern, but Vince and his family had more control than any one else from what I understand (correct me if I'm wrong), they could have made this happen. And the timespan they did this for was way too short for something of this magnitude.

The finale at SSeries was the greatest slap in the face imaginable. Shane McMahon, Austin, Angle, RVD, Booker T vs. Jericho, Rock, Big Show, Kane and Undertaker. What the hell is Shane doing in the main event ? Why make Austin heel ? Because WCW looks weak without a strong performer there, yeah I know, but that should never have been done. People have waited to see WCW stars compete against WWE and that's your main event ?

How about this instead for the main event:

Sting, Scott Steiner, Luger, Booker T, Goldberg vs. Austin, Angle, Rock, Taker and Jericho.


NWO vs DX

WCW tag teams vs WWE tag teams

I mean give me time, and I could come up with something better.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

Ultimately though if WWF just got Eric Bishoff and, with the roster it had, I thought that could have been enough. I think the sheer size of the roster and Bishoff and Heyman as the leaders of the Alliance would have given the angle enough credibility. Since it was Bishoff that wanted to put the WWF out of business so there's instant heat there.

As for Survivor Series ... I will still be realistic and say guys like Goldberg and Sting would have been hard to get. But, as I mentioned, the current roster was good enough already. Imagine if the Survivor Series Match would be Booker T, Chris Jericho, Rob Van Dam, Diamond Dallas Page, The Big Show vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, The Rock, Undertaker, and Kane. I think The Alliance stacks up pretty well.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

People don't realize these are real people and a real business and as a performer, you protect your brand. Lebron James won't d the slam dunk competition because if he loses, it hurts his brand. Same thing here. It's not fantasy booking where you just write names down.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

People don't realize these are real people and a real business and as a performer, you protect your brand. Lebron James won't d the slam dunk competition because if he loses, it hurts his brand. Same thing here. It's not fantasy booking where you just write names down.

I don't get that ... even if you lose the dunk you are paid to win games not to win a exhibition contest. Why not have a bit of fun for the audience?

Anyways back to your point ... I don't get what you mean by brand. Do you mean the brand as the WWF or the individual wrestlers. If you mean the former, since WCW was bought by the WWF, the WCW is now part of the WWF brand name. So burying WCW means WWF hurting it's own product.

If you mean brand as in individual ... I doubt many superstars in the WWF have enough power (except Austin) not refuse to put WCW guys over. In the end of the day it's Vince's call.

 

[dukes07]

I notice a lot of hostility in this thread. About the InVasion not being relevant etc. Um, it is history, so it is relevant. It is looked at as an example of how not to book.

The main criticisms of the InVasion is that they were never booked on the level as WWF guys. The audience had always been led to believe that WCW guys were inferior. They were booked that way too. They got beat up more often than not etc. DDP came in and was annihilated by the Undertaker etc. Look at the buyrate for the first Invasion PPV. It was huge. The potential was there....

You can make a successful invasion angle out of so-called midcarders: They started to do with Nexus and a bit with the Shield. You can take Booker T and DDP and Mike Awesome and Lance Storm among others to attack the WWF guys. Top ECW guys too. You can even bring in former WCW/ECW guys to help like Jericho and Show and Tazz.

But when you put WWF guys in charge and start an Invasion with Shane McMahon at the helm, you have already started off on the wrong foot. As for money: Yeah, the XFL was a fucking joke and cost Vince millions. But he will get desperate and start signing a lot of these WCW guys for big money. Not saying he could have then. But after that first PPV the money was there.

If anything I think history has shown that the InVasion may have gotten a bad rap. But at the same time it could have and should have been done better.

 

[SaveUsCMPunk]

I liked the Invasion angle. I was never a big WCW fan prior to this (Having only watched it sporadically.) and I had only watched ECW once so the way the storyline turned out didn't bother me. Now if I was a huge fan of either company, I might've been annoyed. In 2001, I didn't even know about dirt sheets or wrestling message boards and for that I'm glad! The only wrestling site I went to was WWF.com.

The Invasion Angle provided some great memories for me. I didn't care for WCW DDP, but every time "Self Help Guru" DDP cut a promo, my eyes were glued to the TV. That turned me into a DDP fan. The one thing I didn't like was that he lost to Hardcore Holly in his last match. (After a dropkick!) That was months after the Invasion Angle though. Shawn Stasiak running into inanimate objects and falling down stairs was hilarious. Paul Heyman was great on commentary and his shoot on Vince was really good. Rhyno goring Chris Jericho through the Smackdown sign on the stage was a cool moment. Lance Storm and his whole "If I could be serious for a minute" schtick was rather amusing. I thought Stone Cold Steve Austin was great as the leader of the Alliance. Hell, I was legit booing the guy. He did some dastardly things as a heel. The whole tension between Tazz and Austin and some of the things Austin did to Tazz made me want to see Tazz kick Austin's ass. RVD "filling in" for Stone Cold after Unforgiven 2001 was good as was his interactions with Austin. I even thought it was cool how Stone Cold turned "WHAT?" into a catchphrase. Pretty much everything Stone Cold did was gold.

I guess if I were to book anything differently, it would be the outcome of some of the matches. I was just watching an old episode of Jakked and Justin Credible jobbed to Scotty 2 Hotty. Really. I also probably would've made someone like Mike Awesome look more credible. Kronik would've been around for the entire angle. Was there a reason they didn't debut sooner? One thing I found very interesting was the night after Survivor Series when Kurt Angle (Who helped Rock beat Austin and thus helped Team WWF win.) started the night off as a face became a heel by the end of the night. Same with Vince. Also, Austin went back to being a face that night.

It would've been interesting to see what Buff Bagwell would've done in the Invasion had he not been let go. It also would've been interesting if Jeff Jarrett was brought in but I guess Vince was still pissed at him.

People have complained how the Invasion Angle didn't have more big stars like Steiner, Sting and Goldberg. Well geez, if you were getting paid big to sit out your contract and not have to wrestle, wouldn't you? Like others said, there isn't much that Vince could've done about that. Some people didn't like Austin as the leader of the Alliance because it didn't seem realistic. If he wasn't a heel, would we have gotten the epic Austin Appreciation Night which featured the Alliance singing to Stone Cold? (Another great moment and far more memorable than any 3 hour Raw I've seen.) Yeah, the whole angle could've gone on longer than 5 or 6 months, but geez, let it go. The Invasion Angle was fine for what it was. 2001 was the last really memorable year for WWF/E, IMO.

 

[BretHitmanHart92]

Bingo. I'm so sick of people acting like Vince just chose not to use the big names. Or that he didn't want to spend the money. First of all, contrary to popular belief, Vince doesn't run the WWE by himself. He has shareholders and a Board of Directors to answer to. So even if he wanted to spend all that money to bring in the bigger names, that doesn't automatically mean he could. But that's not important, because he didn't have the opportunity to begin with. Those guys simply were not available.

Vince did choose not to use the big names when it actually mattered during the invasion angle. He could have waited, built WCW up as a separate brand which was originally the idea and use the talent he did have until the bigger names became available which they did. I get your point that at the very start of the storyline Vince didn't have access to the bigger names but he did within the year and had he been patient he could have had Hogan, Bischoff, Flair, Hall, Nash, Goldberg, Steiner all under contract and part of the new WCW. But Vince rushed right through it because ratings started to drop around that time and he had failed huge with the XFL so he needed something to get people talking. Too bad that he rushed it. It was awful. I don't know how anyone on here can say otherwise. It could have/should have been the biggest storyline in wrestling history and Vince totally blew it. The only good thing it gave us was Austin vs. Kurt Angle. That feud was great. But it still made no damn sense that Austin would even join the Alliance in the first place. They just didn't have any other big names at the time. The only ones they had were Booker T and DDP and they already blew it with DDP by giving him that stupid stalker gimmick. I really don't know how people can defend that whole angle. It was terrible.

 

[Nadeem Ahmad]

... it still made no ____ sense that Austin would even join the Alliance in the first place. They just didn't have any other big names at the time. The only ones they had were Booker T and DDP and they already blew it with DDP ... I really don't know how people can defend that whole angle. It was terrible.

It was a very bad angle, and I'm not singling you out, but in general, I don't understand why people couldn't picture Austin being in the Alliance. He had infamously worked for both WCW and ECW in the past.

 

[fenderjapan]

The only ones they had were Booker T and DDP and they already blew it with DDP by giving him that stupid stalker gimmick. I really don't know how people can defend that whole angle. It was terrible.

Regardless of how the angle resolved itself...the unmasking of DDP and the revealing of him as Undertakers stalker is one of the all-time most epic crowd reactions to a debut on Raw. Page was already in his mid-40's at the time, he wasn't going to become the biggest thing in the WWE...but he generated huge reactions.

 

[BretHitmanHart92]

Regardless of how the angle resolved itself...the unmasking of DDP and the revealing of him as Undertakers stalker is one of the all-time most epic crowd reactions to a debut on Raw. Page was already in his mid-40's at the time, he wasn't going to become the biggest thing in the WWE...but he generated huge reactions.

DDP could still go at the time and a feud with Undertaker would have been great if it wasn't for the pointless stalker storyline. There was just no need for it or any need for DDP to get $50,000 or whatever in dentist work so he could be some motivational speaker. He was one of the top guys in WCW and should have been booked like he was there. I could picture his feud with Taker being similar to the feud he had in WCW with Savage. Just two guys beating the crap out of each other and putting on some entertaining brawls/matches. No one needed to be heel/face in that feud.