You Know, watching the Invasion Era wasn't that Bad

[Loose Cannon]

Yea, last night at like 2 am I popped in one of my old tapes and it was mostly the Invasion Era on it. Now before I get into my reason for this topic, let me just say that I don't tape full episodes of Raw or not even full segments. I just tape things that I am interested in and know I will probably want to watch at a later date. For matches I am interested in (always the main events) I usually tape the last 5-6 minutes or so cause that's where everything happens. For interviews I usually tape the whole thing. So my Wrestling tapes of Raw, Nitro, ECW TV and TNA sometimes are just quick segments all together and it's great cause I don't know what's coming next when I watch.

Ok so the tape I was watching last night was All WWE during the Invasion. And watching my tape, I was really entertained by everything. My tape made it seem like the WWE was on fire at that time. Here are the most notable things I enjoyed.


Rock Comeback, Rock vs Booker

Wow, the crowd went nuts when Rock came back. The segments with Shane/Steph and Vince waiting for the Rock to arrive were hillarious. Then The Rock came out during the Final segment and he "faked" joining Shane/Steph by Rock Bottoming Vince. Then he hit the Rock Bottom on Shane and came back to the WWE.

Rock vs Booker T was a really great feud. But they made the Huge mistake of not getting Booker over here. They had him go over Rock in a few segments, but he never got the big win. Booker was hillarious in backstage segments at the time.


Austin Segments

LOL, funniest stuff Austin has ever done. I had a segment where Austin was chatting with Shane Helms in the back and he was asking what the tatoo Helms had on his arm was and it was the Green Lantern symbol. And Austin was like:

Austin: What the hell is that?

Helms: Green Lantern

Austin: The Green What?

Helms: The Green Latern..a Superhero

Austin: Kurt Angle thinks he's a Superhero

Helms: He can't beat the Green Lantern.

Austin: Kurt Angle can't beat him?

Helms: NO

Austin: Can the Green Latern fly:

Helms: Yes

Austin: Can you fly?

Helms: I try :lol:

Then he told Helms to be a Superhero and make a name for himself and thus The Hurricane was born.


Another segment was with Kanyon after the Invasion PPV and Shane, Steph and Heyman were there. Austin didn't know who he was and then Kanyon explained to him that he was Kris Kanyon and he goes out to the audience and asks "Who's better then Kanyon and......"

AUSTIN: What, Who's Better then Kanyon? I'll tell you who's better then Kanyon. Stone Cold Steve Austin Is.

Kanyon: OK OK OK, From now on I'll say "Who's better then Kanyon except Steve Austin."

Austin: You dam right.


One more was when Vince was rallying up his Invasion team for the PPV (Y2J, Taker, Kane, Kurt, Austin) and Austin kept shoving Angle and Angle was getting mad. Then Austin shoved Taker one time and Taker was like "You do that again and I'm gonna kill you." Austin starred at Taker for a second and then shoved Kurt Angle again. :lol:

Yea, Austin was hillarious.

I'll post more Good Stuff Later as I know if you open this thread and see a long post, you won't read it.

Post Good Things from the Invasion Era. Yea ECW Forms. We Know. Other stuff then that one.

[PullMyFinger]

Well, yeah some of those Austin segments were hilarious.

However, it was soon after the Invasion PPV that I just shut off wrestling and barely watched up until last year.

[Danny Electric]

I loved it when RVD stood up to Austin, they should have put him over.

[Cruiserweight 3:16]

I loved it when RVD stood up to Austin, they should have put him over.

RVD did go over Austin in a non-title match on Smackdown

[YOUR Hero]

Those and other segments were great, the wrestling results were terrible. So much missed potential.

[Cruiserweight 3:16]

When I first watched the Invasion PPV, I was convinced that was the worst WWE PPV of all time. But I watched a bit of it a few months ago and it seemed to grow on me more than when I first watched it, so it was definately a bad PPV for that era but perhaps it doesn't seem so bad compared to the crap PPV's of today.

[Savio]

Yeah it was funny.

[Jaded-Dragon]

Oddly enough, I too watched Invasion not too long ago, and the SS that followed. So much missed potential is right. Although I do still enjoy the comment JR made about RVD, "He may be the hidden gem in the entire Alliance". Yup, exactly why he's in mid-card hell now. RVD should of been given the strap, the guy was crazy over during this time.

The Austin and Angle segments, when they were both heels under Vince, were absolute gold.

[Loose Cannon]

Yea, looking back, I think if it wasn't about WWF vs WCW/ECW and you just look at the feuds without that background, there were some great feuds. Getting back to the stuff:

Austin vs Angle

Dam, Angle was so over as a babyface here. The crowd was really into him vs Austin. The milk truck thing was hillarious, the time where Angle tied Austin up and pretended he was going to throw him in the river, but pushed him in a kididie pool was LMAO. I really have no clue why they turned him heel. My guess was to make Rock top face, but I think Angle was just so dam over, that they killed him turning heel.


RVD and Austin

My god, watching this last night just made me sick. Danny mentioned it up there already. But here we are in San Antonio Texas, Austin's home state, and the crowd was going ape shit for RVD standing up to Austin. I don't think I've heard that loud a chant against Austin in Texas before.

I guess this was when RVD was late to the interview. Not sure cause I didn't tape the Beg. But Austin goes "I don't like you." Then RVD grabs the mic and says "I don't like you eathier." CROWD JUST POPPED HUGE. The crowd was waiting to explode for RVD to hit Austin, but instead Austin hugged him and nothing. :nono:


Austin Celebration/Taz

This was classic. Just seeing all the Alliance signing in ring was hillarious. Austin's face through this was great as he was smiling and singing too. Then he thanks everyone and says it's great to see everyone with a WCW/ECW/Austin T-shirt on.

Then he sees Taz has his own shirt on and Once Again the crowd starts popping for Taz. Austin started doing the WHAT thing here. Crowd wanted Taz to hit him, but it never happened as Angle came out.

Then a few weeks later, when it seemed Taz had turned babyface, he joined Austin again by putting the Tazmission on Angle.


I'll have some more fav's of mine later.

[Gouda]

Austin was hilarious in this period. It's when I liked him best.

Either this time or that time he was all hugging Vince McMahon.

I miss Kanyon too. Him and his MVP shirt.

[Jaded-Dragon]

Yeah, Austin and Angle at Summerslam was great. The part that sticks out the most is when they are fighting outside and a bloody Kurt Angle slaps on the Ankle lock and proceeds to shout... "Tap!! Tap you son of a bitch... WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! WOOOOOOOO!!!":y:

[The CyNick]

I'll try to stay positive on this topic.

I actually have all this stuff on tape in its entirety so I know they had something good going with the Invasion.

The main highlights for me were:

#1 ECW reunion.
--Even though Atlanta was a stupid place to do it, it was still an awesome segment, and got me going crazy when it happened, but then....

#2 Final RAW before the Invasion PPV
--They did some stuff where Austin was deciding whether or not to help Vince and the WWF. The rest of the guys on the WWF side were in a room, hyping each other up, then Fred Blassie gets out of his wheelchair and tells everyone to stand up and fight. God damn, I was ready to fight myself. WCW crew was doing a similar thing in their room. Ends up with a giant brawl between WWF and WCW/ECW guys, leading to Austin coming out and cleaning house for the WWF. For that night Austin was back to being a babyface, and they had erased the mistake of turning him heel, but then...

#3 RVD and Tazz standing up to Austin.
-- I used to go to all the events here in Toronto, and I know Austin is #1 in this town. Back in the Attitude era, some cities were more for Rocky, but Toronto was definately an Austin town. I believe they had a SD taping here around that time, and RVD got over on Austin in a dark segment after the taping. The crowd was totally behind RVD and totally against Austin. That one night was enough to convince me that RVD could have carried the company, and I always shake my head when people say RVD is "missing something".

Same goes for Tazz, although not as much as RVD. But still, the crowds were itching to see someone stand up to Austin and take him out. All they had to do was pull the trigger and put one of, or both of them over on Austin, which NEVER happened on TV (RVD may have got a win, but he was never "put over" Austin). People were ready to get behind RVD as a top guy, but then...

#4 Heyman's promos
--There were a few of these where Heyman just killed it on the mic, he could have been such a valuable asset as the leader of the ECW/WCW crew, but then....

#5 RAW/Nitro Show
--An event nobody could ever have predicted would have happened, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity handed to the WWF on a silver platter, seemed tough to muck it up, but then....

Hey, I tried.

[The CyNick]

Yea, looking back, I think if it wasn't about WWF vs WCW/ECW and you just look at the feuds without that background, there were some great feuds. Getting back to the stuff:

Austin vs Angle

Dam, Angle was so over as a babyface here. The crowd was really into him vs Austin. The milk truck thing was hillarious, the time where Angle tied Austin up and pretended he was going to throw him in the river, but pushed him in a kididie pool was LMAO. I really have no clue why they turned him heel. My guess was to make Rock top face, but I think Angle was just so dam over, that they killed him turning heel.



Not to be insensitve but if you look back at that time, 9/11 was handed to them on a silver platter. How they didn't make Angle one of the all time great babyfaces during that time period is beyond my comprehension.

But yeah, it was a great program.

[adamwwe]

The Invasion had a few good moments...no doubt. Still pathetic overall.

But I think the biggest problem against the Invasion was the fact that it could have been 1000 times better, not just that it was bad in its own right.

Imagine if they left well enough alone as far as using their WCW purchase on screen for, say, a year? They bought WCW in March of 2001. By early 2002, the NWO was brought in. Shame the Invasion had already happened and tanked by then.

[loopydate]

Yeah, the biggest problem with the Invasion, imo, was how much they rushed it. The first few weeks of it (Lance Storm's interference, Mike Awesome taking the Hardcore Title) were very cool, 'cause you didn't know what was going to happen.

But the talent roster that WWF had signed from WCW was incredibly weak in comparison to their own, so it never felt like the outcome was in jeopardy. Especially when they took their biggest inherited star and jobbed him to one of the WWF "icons'" wife. And when Booker T accidentally injured Austin... he kinda sealed WCW's fate.

If they'd waited until they could sign Bischoff, Goldberg, Flair, Hogan, Nash, Steiner, etc. (all guys who, within 18 months, had joined the victorious WWE), rather than stacking the "Alliance" roster with WWF guys like Austin, Angle, the Dudleys, Test, etc., we may still be seeing a WCW/WWE war.

Imagine if Vince had held his cards a little longer and let Bischoff "lead" the WCW team against WWF, we might have gotten what we were all hoping for at the time: WCW Nitro on Monday, WWF SmackDown on Thursday. No need for a brand extension. The two brands were already set in fans' minds, and "competing" promotions would have been a lot easier to swallow.

Plus, if they'd done that, they could still have people jumping ship back and forth with at least some of the shock value of the old WWF/WCW jumps.

All that notwithstanding, I enjoyed the Invasion. I was really into the "new blood" in WCW, so I thought it was cool that guys like O'Haire and Palumbo were getting important roles in the storyline (that is, up until they were totally buried to the entire WWF locker room). And, even though I loathe Steve Austin with every fiber of my being, I thought a lot of his segments were really funny. Chris Kanyon was fantastic, and Booker T and RVD really should have become perennial main-eventers because of their roles in the Invasion.

So, the Invasion had a lot of mistakes, but it was still a good storyline. It's just frustrating because it could have been so much better.

[XL]

Gotta agree^^^

The Invasion with nWo, Stenier, Goldeberg, Flair, (all of which joined wwe within a few months of the invasion ending) would have rocked!!!

Would have seemed a lot more genuine than having mostly undercard stars and Austin!

Oh well!

[Tornado]

Yeah they way they booked the InVasion was pretty poor, but the acting of Austin and Angle made up for it a bit.

[tucsonspeed6]

Invasion couldn't have been summed up better than the way it was in "The Death of WCW" The WWE was too cheep to buy the guys they ended up paying too much for later on, and they were too egotistical to make it entertaining.

[Loose Cannon]

DAMMIT, THIS became a WHY Did Invasion Suck/How could of it been better thread. I wanted to stay away from that :mad:

[Loose Cannon]

Can we ever have a thread with a positive vibe :(

[Loose Cannon]

I loved when Rhyno Gored Jericho through the Titon Tron thing on Smackdown

And then he gave the best Goar of his career to the Rock.

[V]

i was a pure mark, this was when i just started watching wrestling

i swear to god i almost cried when angle joined the alliance

dont' wanat ype much.. but unlike everyone else i loved the invasion, especially the survivor serires match, Angle winning at unforgiven, regal's heel turn, Booker vs rock.. so many great things

[Loose Cannon]

Yea, I didn't get to Regals' Turn yet on my tape. It's coming up soon though.

[V]

the tag matches were also great

with the brothers of destruction, booker and test, hardys, dudleys, APA, ddp and kanyon... the tag titles (both of them) meant so much

[Nark Order]

I never looked down upon the Invasion angle. I enjoyed it.

[adamwwe]

Of course, Buff Bagwell vs Booker T in Bagwell's first and last match in WWE took the wind right out of the Invasion's sails. There was some awkwardness before that (overdone WCW debuts), but it was going good. Having a WCW main event in the midst of a WWE show, and then having it suck (and involve a guy who complained to his mommy...literally... all the time) just flat out killed it.

[LK]

Let's not forget that legendary moment when Angle and Austin played the guitar for Vince to try and cheer him up.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

lol Vince wouldn't stop RAW to have Nitro, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

[Nark Order]

Let's not forget that legendary moment when Angle and Austin played the guitar for Vince to try and cheer him up.
Gold

[Kane Knight]

Those and other segments were great, the wrestling results were terrible. So much missed potential.
There were some high points, even for the wrestling. However, this was a longtime dream for so many of us, and they botched it so horribly it wasn't even funny\ from that perspective. Isolated elements were often decent (though a lot of them still blew), but the overall presentation was a letdown.

[Kane Knight]

Olympic Gold

[Kane Knight]

DAMMIT, THIS became a WHY Did Invasion Suck/How could of it been better thread. I wanted to stay away from that :mad:
Should've psoted this on a non-wrestling site then, dumbass.

[adamwwe]

lol Vince wouldn't stop RAW to have Nitro, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

He did it. Even brought out a WCW announce team to call it. Arn Anderson and ummm, Scott Hudson? Sounds right anyway...

It was ridiculous. Rushed and miserable letdown.

[Mr. JL]

I'm trying to be positive but it is just too hard not to be negative.


EC F'N W! Thanks to the Invasion I have this to remember about. I have never marked out so much in my entire life.

Just watching Rob Van Dam wrestle/hardcore matches in those days were special. Not too mention the RVD/Austin segments

Austin/Angle was GOLD in and out of the ring

Austin/Booker grocery store segment was the funniest thing I have ever seen

Rhyno/Jericho was a solid good mid-card feud that really established Rhyno, until his neck injury.

[Loose Cannon]

Not to be insensitve but if you look back at that time, 9/11 was handed to them on a silver platter. How they didn't make Angle one of the all time great babyfaces during that time period is beyond my comprehension.

But yeah, it was a great program.

Yea, I know. Saw the heel turn segment again before and it was like the air was pulled out of everyone when that happened. It was so counter productive.

Anyway, after completing all my footage, I think these 5 guys were the guys that could of been semi-major - major superstars for the company. In order

5)Kanyon
4)Rhyno
3) Taz
2) Booker T
1) RVD

DDP would be #6

[John la Rock]

RVD was the most over wrestler in the company and he was a HEEL

God dammit Vince :nono:

[Innovator]

I loved at the beginning to a RAW, and Austin said somebody should fight Kurt tonight. The entire crowd started chanting "RVD RVD RVD RVD RVD". RVD points to himself and the crowd goes apeshit.

[The Mackem]

I liked the Commissioner Regal stuff during this time, he'd been a heel commissioner for quite hile and now suddenly he was sticking up for his company. I remember when Kanyon and DDP won the WWF tag titles and Regal came along backstage, congratulated them, told them that they'd have a fight with Undetaker and Kane, left them (looks on DDP's and Kanyon's faces were priceless) then Regalcame back and said something like "Oh, and it will be a steel cage."

Another backstage segment with Regal involved The Rock doing his whole "Can you smell it" routine thing. Next thing Regal and Rock sidestep a little to let Stasiak run through the middle of them into some general backstage equipment knocking himself out.

Then there was that whole Rock and Austin singing segment which I will download one day, I sear.

[Hitman84]

Apart from Stone Cold's heel turn at the very end, I thought the Invasion PPV was a very good one. I personally wouldn't have had Austin turn heel, but if he hadn't, we wouldn't have had all the fun moments listed above.

For my opinions on how the Invasion should have been handled, click here:
http://www.tpww.net/forums/showthread.php?p=794879#post794879
I won't go into them here as this isn't the purpose of the thread.

PS: I didn't actually see the Kurt Angle milk truck thing, can someone upload it and PM the link please???

[LK]

Just saw this in the C-fed forum and had to post it here

http://img54.echo.cx/img54/9872/sing3fn4ju.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

I AM THE CHAMPION,
NO TIME FOR LOSERS,
CAUSE I AM THE CHAMPION,
OF THE WORLD!!!!!

[RGWhat316]

Austin and Angle really made the Invasion for me. I was an Austin fan for so long, but then in '01, I started becoming more of an Angle fan. And when they met for the first time at Summerslam, then at Unforgiven, I've never cheered so hard against Austin ever.

I've said if there was one event I would've wanted to be at was Unforgiven 2001. Angle made Austin tap out to win the title, then all of the WWF guys came out afterwards to congratulate him. That was a really cool moment.

[Lamuella]

He did it. Even brought out a WCW announce team to call it. Arn Anderson and ummm, Scott Hudson? Sounds right anyway...

It was ridiculous. Rushed and miserable letdown.

To be fair, Anderson and Hudson were actually bloody good as an announce team. Hudson is one of the most underrated play by play men in the business. Arn Anderson is a soft-spoken entertaining legend.

they beat the hell out of the WWF announce team of the time.

I actually think the company missed a golden opportunity by not having Invasion as a split announcer PPV. Have JR and Cole call one match then Hudson and Anderson call the next. More than that, have Hudson and Anderson call the match with WCW as the babyfaces.

I really wanted this to be a clash of companies, not a watered down Bad Guy's Club invading.

[redoneja]

Don't forget Steph's new boobs!!

[TW Mangrove]

Don't forget Steph's new boobs!!

yeah but her old boobs were more technical. Her new ones were just spotfests

[diamondcutter]

Good moments here and there, but overall a disappointment, and was the last year that I ordered a PPV (WM17). Regardless of whether or not the then-WWF could've persuaded Flair, Steiner, Goldberg, and others to sign in time for the angle, they should've used Booker T. and Diamond Dallas Page to lead the invasion. I still remember the night Page debuted and took his ski mask off. The whole place went nuts, with some solid "DDP!" chants.

[Aussie Skier]

having only just got back into wrestling and watching all 2000 and 2001 PPV's, i've gotta say that Invasion angle was awesome 4 me @ the time. My favourite parts:

jeff hardy VS RVD - the first time i ever saw the van-Daminator...and it blew me away!

Austin/angle/Vince singing

Rock/Jericho talking to Booker/Steph/Rhyno
"Booker T and Shane McMahon, The punk ass sucka, and the silverspoon mother fucker"

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

He did it. Even brought out a WCW announce team to call it. Arn Anderson and ummm, Scott Hudson? Sounds right anyway...

It was ridiculous. Rushed and miserable letdown.

lol it was a 10 minute main even that I SAW, it wasn't fucking actually Nitro.

[olympic hitman]

The "Alliance" or "Invasion" angle, was pretty entertaining. At the time, alot of people were doing what they always do on the "net" and complain about the current state of wrestling, but, for its time[and compared to today's WWE product :-\ ] the "Invasion" angle was good.

The main thing was continuity. This was before the "Draft Lottery" split thing and was during the time that the shows were together[RAW & Smackdown], so, feuds were continued week-in and week-out. Seeing Austin/Angle or RVD/Austin were just some of the weekly classics we got the previledge to see;

Compare the "Invasion" time to current WWE; There would be no comparision, as the WWE easily had more and better talents[Kanyon,DDP,Booker, Mike Awesome, Lance Storm, etc].

Don't, however, think I'm saying the "Invasion" didn't have its flaws: it did. It was too rushed and very important guys like Goldberg,Sting, Steiner, and others[mostly Hogan,Hall, and Nash] were left off the "Invasion" because Vinnie Mac was too cheap at the moment and didn't wanna buy out their contracts and do it right. Having such big names as Goldberg,Sting, or Steiner heading the WCW/ECW "Invasion" would have been ALOT better than having Stone Cold heading the ECW/WCW side, when, we all know that it was irony at its best. Austin[for years] had complained about WCW and probably wasn't too fond of ECW[even though he never said anything negative of ECW]. So, to have the same guy heading both groups combined makes little or no sense from a storyline-standpoint, but, that was my only problem with the way the Invasion was done; lack of effort and not enough done to see the angle through.