Invasion Gripe #6,972

[Con T.]

Matched only by the Montreal Screwjob for most over talked moment in wrestling history.

Anyway, I was watching the Monday Night Wars series on the WWE network, and they were basically bitching how the invasion sucked, because you didn't get all the really big names. No Nash, Hogan, Sting, etc.

So, one of the things they mentioned is how all those guys had guaranteed contracts from AOL Time Warner, and they chose to sit at home, because of those contracts. Then they had Paul Heyman basically say it's all their faults, for sitting at home with guaranteed contracts.

Well, gee, it's like WWE had no say in the manner. No sir, can't buy all those contracts out, that would be crazy talk.

The funny thing is, they all praise Vince for eventually swallowing his pride, and eventually bringing all these guys in later, because it was best for business.

Motherfucker. What would have been best for business would have to have bought out their contracts in the first place. Maybe if you did that, this Invasion angle wouldn't have sucked so badly. Maybe, instead of the B Squad, we could have had all the big names when it mattered.

 

[Nate DaMac]

Are you aware how huge those contracts were?

 

[Con T.]

Are you aware how huge those contracts were?

I'm aware that it's in the seven figures.

Question; if you did a main event of Austin-Goldberg in 2001, you really don't think you could make back Goldberg's contract threefold in revenue?

 

[TheICChampion]

Not like he had to buy every single contract, either. Just maybe Goldberg, Flair and the nWo. Sure, it would have been expensive but if he had given everyone a real chance instead of listening to his superstars about WCW guys not being able to work and what not he could've had a solid year of great storylines which would've paid those contracts and then some. Add in Bischoff and they had gold.

 

[ABMorales787]

I assume you guys watched Wrestlemania 31. There's a clear cut reason why things went down how they did. And I doubt it had fuck all to do with money.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

It's one thing to bring in a guy or two. It is another thing to give that guy or two a top spot. It is a completely other thing to bring in a significant part of another company and give a middle finger to all the guys that helped save your company.

Plus how happy and productive are a bunch of guys going to be working when they were old, tired, high, drunk and now being asked to work for a paycheck?

 

[Stormtrooper]

So if I offered you one million dollars to sit on your ass in your living room, or offered you one million dollars to work, what would you do?

Now what if you're a 40+ year old professional wrestler who has been in the business for decades? Sit and home and make bank or go to work 250 days a year on the road all over the world for the same amount of money?


There was no buying them out. They didn't want to be bought out. Hogan and Flair were old, Goldberg and Nash were smart, and Hall was drunk/high.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Aww man, you've got me started again.

Dammit I would have sold my own parents to see a War Games match between

Team WWF- Steve Austin, Undertaker, The Rock and Kurt Angle

vs

Team WCW- Ric Flair, Goldberg, Diamond Dallas Page and Booker T

vs

Team nWo- Hollywood Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Scott Steiner

vs

Team ECW- Rob Van Dam, Mike Awesome, Raven and Rhino


Fuckkkkkk....what a match!

 

[NSL]

If Vince truly wanted to, he'd have brought in who he wanted/needed. The way it happened was just fine. Vince's main event guys (Austin, Angle, Rock, HHH) all got to look like they were worlds ahead of the competition (which they were) by beating on WCW's "B team), and the mid-card got filled out with some quality guys (Mysterio, Guerrero, Benoit). Once the angle ran its course, he brought in the guys that were bigger draws and made a whole new batch of money.

It's just a shame that Goldberg and Lesnar shit all over it...

 

[Mighty NorCal]

So if I offered you one million dollars to sit on your ass in your living room, or offered you one million dollars to work, what would you do?

.

This is what people don't seem to understand about this situation.


He could have bought the contracts out, but that doesn't garuntee people show up.

He could have offered up whatever he wanted, but these guys were already getting 7 figures to sit home and do nothing.


There is no way you will be able to make it worth someones time to forgo getting paid in the millions to chill at the house.


Your Austin-Goldberg scenario is irrelevant, since neither guy who have agreed to do business in a thousand years.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

If you can waste over 30 million dollars on a failing Restaurant in New York and how many millions on a shit football league you can most certainly work with WCW's top guys and pay them what they want for a proper invasion angle which would have made WWE and Vince a hell of a lot more than the XFL and WWE New York did.

Hell, just talk the top guys like Hogan, Nash, Sting, Goldberg, ect. have them do a Brock deal where they wrestle 5-6 times during the Invasion angle and pay them more then they would've made doing nothing. When you got 10-12 top guys instead of 2 (like today with Brock and Cena) it's very easy to have each of them them work only a few matches without frustrating the fan base and with that much talent it should be easy to keep the angle hot long term.

Any problem that was the situation in '01 (like them wanting to not work as they were getting paid a million to sit at home) could've been easily worked out financially. If Vince really wanted to he would've been able to do it without question.

You really think you couldn't talk guys like Nash to make a few million (almost double of what he did make) for wrestling a handful of matches and showing up at a handful Raws? Please.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

Does the failing of xfL around that time quantify here? Just asking

 

[Lee]

I liked the invasion.

 

[Vega]

It could've worked with the young / middle aged guys who still wanted to make big careers as wrestlers.

Mysterio, Kidman, Juventud would've rocked the place (I know Kidman appeared). Possibly Wright, Kanyon, Skipper et al too, Daniels, Styles in hindsight.

As for the other guys:

Sting was the cornerstone of WCW, should've been the main player and paid accordingly. Without him, the story more or less fails.

Bret Hart would've been incredible as a surprise member to even the odds. I guess he would've still been able to have some big matches before the stroke happened. Socially it's almost impossible of course.

Booker actually appeared as the champion and was fine in the role.

Goldberg, for the really big matches maybe. Having a man of that limited ability squash the WWE main eventers is probably not worth the hassle of buying the contract out and risking your own guys' credibility.

DDP should've been getting better booking, but we already know that.

Jarrett's / Steiner's demands are probably too high, booking and money wise.

Likely guys to deflect are the Radicalz, who Invasion authority Flair might recruit as Quasi-Horsemen. Maybe replace Saturn / Guerrero with Hennig, he looked well in 2002. Possibly Show too. Vader as muscle might work as well, if he's able and willing to sign from NOAH.

The NWO guys are not needed in my opinion. Old, expensive and doesn't make a lot of sense booking wise.

 

[NSL]

Does the failing of xfL around that time quantify here? Just asking

I know there was a considerable loss of money. Whether or not is was enough to stop Vince from buying contracts, I don't know. But it could have maybe made him think twice about where he mailed his checks.

 

[Slash-LN]

Sting was the cornerstone of WCW, should've been the main player and paid accordingly. Without hi, the story more or less fails.

Bret Hart would've been incredible as a surprise member to even the odds. I guess he would've still been able to have some big matches before the stroke happened. Socially it's almost impossible of course.

I haven't watched the story in question but the original story on the whole WCW thing was that Vince offered anyone who wanted to come to WWE that they could do it and he'd buy out their contracts. Sting didn't want to. Sting himself has made it clear in the past that he didn't want to go to WWE.

Bret Hart was already unable to wrestle by this point because of the concussion from Goldberg's errant kick. Stroke or not he wasn't going to be able to wrestle and do you think it likely he would even want to go back to WWE at that time frame? Look how long it took him to work out a deal just to appear and bury the hatchet.

On the thread in whole:

As already mentioned why would you go out and work when you can sit at home and collect your paycheck. Again from my first first point n this post was the original story I had seen/read was that Vince offered to buy out the contracts of anyone who wanted to join the company. Those who did, did just that.

 

[red ass skull muhfukkah]

I liked the invasion.

I did too.

Never watched WCW at the time though and of course I was 11-12 which is the perfect age to be obsessed with wrestling.

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

It would've been a bigger deal had guys like Goldberg, Hogan, Sting, Flair, Nash and Hall shown up right away, like at Wrestlemania. Either way, it couldn't last long with all those egos. Obviously the WCW guys would have to lose, a lot, and the chaos because of it would've been nuts.

But the idea of guys like Austin, Rock, HHH and Undertaket against Hogan, Goldberg, Sting and Flair/Nash/whoever is pretty fun seeing I wouldn't have to directly deal with any of them.

 

[nightmare]

He got what he wanted for his storyline & spent a lot less money just using guys with less of an ego than the marquee stars. Vince probably just wanted to wait until they were older, broke & battling a few addictions instead of just cutting a big check. You know, the whole "You need me more than I need you" type of power move.

Either way, I enjoyed that time. Sure adding a few of the others would have been great, but what we got was still good. Sure as hell was better than that crap from WM they threw together. God that was a bit hard to watch.