The first half of 2001

[NeanderCarl]

Originally Posted by Noid Another of the WWE's bigger mistakes in 2001, in my opinion, was turning Booker T & Shane McMahon heel just for the sake of making the WCW guys all "evil." When Booker first jumped the barricade and put Austin through an announce table, the fans went NUTS. With The Rock out making a movie, Booker T would have been another great candidate to step-up and challenge Austin. A heel Austin vs. face Booker feud, pitting the WWE Champion against the WCW Champion could have been huge for the WWE. Instead they turned Booker into a clown and a Rock "wannabe."

They pushed Booker strong as a face when plans were afoot for WCW to take over one of the TV shows. When the WCW matches on Raw flopped badly, those plans were abandoned. They had no choice but to turn Booker and the Invasion guys heel, otherwise the story would have been even more of a confusing mess than it was. How you can you have two warring factions, when each side is made up of both heels and faces? Who do the fans root for?

There had to be clarity for the angle to have any kind of lasting chance, and one side had to be presented as the antagonists, Did you really think Vince was gonna present the WWF as the bad guys against WCW?

The main things that fucked up the Invasion:

1. Stephanie McMahon. Her first big angle in charge of the creative team, and she proved out of her depth.

2. XFL. A massive distraction for Vince McMahon, and a huge drain on his resources, leading to....

3. Vince's XFL-forced frugality = no big name WCW topliners. WCW was made up of nobodies and guys who had defected from WWF for the angle. The only true WCW stars were Booker T, who had become a main eventer long after most had stopped watching Nitro, and DDP who was instantly made to look like shit by Undertaker.

The third factor is made a more bitter pill to swallow by the fact that when the Invasion angle was dead and buried, Vince proceeded to dip his hand in his pockets and bring in ALL the guys who would have made the angle white hot... Hogan, Bischoff, Hall, Nash, Flair, Steiner, Goldberg... squandered opportunity yes, but don't let that big disappointment detract from some of the great moments the Invasion angle did manage to muster up, plus hark back to a time in late 2001 when Rob Van Dam was the most over guy in the company, the Paranoid Rattlesnake's "What?" gimmick had yet to grow annoying, Vince/Austin/Angle were gold and great matches were taking place left, right and centre.