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There should be no other option than the Invasion...I goofed and voted Goldberg's run before I saw it, but Goldberg's run should've been incorporated within it.
The timing of the contracts was a major issue...the WCW guys wanted to sit at home n get paid instead of work. Vince should've paid them on top of those contracts or did something to entice them. They all came over gradually at different times (Flair, Booker & DDP, then NWO, then Bischoff, then Steiner, then Goldberg, etc) but it would've been amazing had it happened all at once...a real Invasion.
And, we 100% no matter what should've gotten Austin vs Goldberg. This was a travesty and pretty devastating to a lot of fans. Especially when they were interacting the way they were in 2004...it could've been the epic dream match everyone wanted to see.
Such a shame. If only Vince and the company really cared as much as the fans..
Firstly, like you said, many of the WCW top brass were sitting at home on WCW contracts (I though contracts become null and void when a company folds), so if they waited until people like Goldberg got off their butt to show up, it would have been two or three years later, and by then, they have had WCW talent sitting on ice, and they probably couldn't do an invasion at all. I mean, Sting only joined last year, and he would have to be in any proper Invasion angle. It just wasn't feasible to get everyone they wanted, when they wanted.
As for Goldberg v Austin, Austin was on his way out, as Goldberg was on his way in.
Goldberg debuted the night after WMXIX. Austin retired the previous day at WM. His neck was stuffed, so if they ever did Austin v Goldberg, it would have to be at WMXIX itself, and I guess Austin worried about his neck and wanted to wrestle the Rock, who had always looked after him in that regard in the past, whereas Goldberg's style means that Austin would have to bump a bit, and maybe injure himself more.
The WCW guys were under contract from another company...I forget the explanation of it, but their contracts were still good.
Regarding the timing...I know, and that's why I mentioned it. What I'm saying is that Vince should've offered them all money on top of what they were getting paid by the other company since he wasn't paying them. That's the difference.
Sting didn't come over because of the way they treated the first guys coming in like Booker T. Had Vince put ego aside and went to work for the fans to give them what they wanted, everyone could've been happy. But I suppose he wasn't up for it and needed the time to get over things.
Had they done that, then Austin vs Goldberg could've happened at Mania 18. Even if they didn't, and making that issue separate from the Invasion, many here have talked about how they should've had Goldberg vs Austin at Mania 19. Austin only had an issue (although a really significant one) the night before Mania where he went to the hospital. He was fine before that however. Had they brought in Bill a couple months beforehand, they could've built it.
The Alliance wasn't really that missed because they did what they could with what they had...they were never going to have the huge stars that they needed to make it work.
Without a doubt the biggest missed opportunity was the nWo vs the WWF
- nWo debuts at royal rumble beating up Flair after his win against McMahon
- nWo spends the next couple of RAWs jumping main eventers like Rock Austin and Taker
- Rock Austin and Taker challenge nWo to a match at No Way Out
- nWo wins the match via interference from Vince
- Vince and the nWo are allies; Vince has brought them in to take out Flair and anybody loyal to him
- Rock challenges Hogan to a match at Wrestlemaina, Hogan accepts
- the Outsiders go on the hunt for the Tag Titles; they jump every tag team they can
- the brothers of destruction win the tag titles 2 RAWs before wrestlemaina
- Flair doesnt want to let Hall and Nash have the title shot at Wrestlemania but Taker and Kane insist that he let them
- At Wrestlemaina the Outsiders beat bros for the tag titles with help from new nWo member Xpac; Hogan loses to Rock but shakes his hand afterwards
- HHH wins the Undisputed title from the Austin
- next night on RAW, Outsiders attack Rock in the back, Hogan stops them; HHH challenges Hogan to a match instead of his rematch with Rock says he's not afraid of the nWo
- Outsiders jump hogan during the match and reveal HHH as the new leader of the nWo!
- Big Show and Curt Hennig join the nWo leading up to Backlash
- at Backlash HHH and Nash face Rock and Hogan, nWo puts Rock out of commission and win the match. Rock isn't seen for a cpl months afterwards
- Vince is happy to see what the nWo have done to Flair and his side of the company, board of directors have had enough and declare RAW to be Vinces show and Smackdown to be Flairs so they can keep this chaos from happening
- at the inaugural draft Vince gets the nWo as his first draft pick
- nWo feuds with Austin, Booker T, RVD, Hogan, Kane, Bradshaw, the Dudleys for the remainder of the spring
- HHH and the Outsiders hold onto the belts through this time
- newest member HBK appears during a Austin HHH world title match and costs Austin his shot
- Vince doesnt like HBK being apart of the nWo as he's too hard to control, he mentions the Kliq onscreen and doesnt want it to be like the mid 90s again with those guys running the show again
- things come to a head between Vince and the nWo in July and Vince is losing control over the nWo; they are showing up on SmackDown now as well and beating up guys there too
- Vince thinks this is all going too far and has the group in the ring with a contract to disband them when out of nowhere Eric Bischoff comes out onto the stage!
- Eric says that he has used his vast network of connections to perform a hostile takeover of the board of directors; Vince is out and now Eric is the chairman of the board!
- now not only do Eric and the nWo run roughshod over RAW, they invade SmackDown and take Flair out!! now the nWo is basically in control of the whole company with nobody to stop them.....