Was the Invasion always destined to fail?

[DrA]

It happened about two years too late. WCW was a shell of its former self and had lost just about all of its Monday Night War momentum by the time it was bought.

I also don't think the WCW and WWF rosters were that compatible to begin with. People talk about all the dream matches that could have come out of it, but what really could they have done? Lex Luger vs Mankind? Maybe it could have worked, but they were two completely different companies and the WWF was way ahead of WCW when the Attitude Era was at its peak. Most of the good WCW wrestlers were already in the WWF by that point anyway, and the ones who were successful afterward post-buy out like Booker T adapted on their own terms despite the WCW/Invasion stuff.