Rebooking The Invasion Angle

Today, July 22, 2021, marks the 20th anniversary of InVasion.

It’s the highest-grossing non-WrestleMania pay-per-view WWE has ever produced – higher than any rendition of SummerSlam, Survivor Series or Royal Rumble, and hell, even higher than Money in the Bank 2011, which featured one of WWE’s hottest storylines, well, since the Invasion angle.

Despite the strong financial figures, the Invasion angle was critically panned across the board and did little to do what it should have: set up the next half-decade of WWE programming. Personalities inside and outside the wrestling business have contributed their own versions of how they would have booked the angle. Jim Cornette gave a very good rendition of the Invasion angle that would have brought a sport-like tone to the storyline, although it lacked somewhat in practicality. Vince Russo’s account of the Invasion angle took on a more episodic storytelling approach, and surprisingly might be the better version. I’m the type of fan to side with Cornette over Russo nine times out of 10 and perhaps more, but Russo positioning the angle as a sequel to the WCW Outsiders angle would have been extremely effective.

Where Russo loses me in his version is when Sean Oliver asks him if the Outsiders are heels. “It doesn’t matter,” Russo says. “I could care less. Are people watching the show? I could care less if they’re booing them or cheering them. The only thing that means anything to me is what is that number on Tuesday morning.” That’s all swell, but the fact of the matter is a good vs. evil dynamic is imperative for conflict resolution, and without conflict resolution we would STILL be watching the Invasion angle. There’s something to be said for writing stories backwards, something WWE clearly doesn’t do and neither does Russo. But I digress…

I love fantasy booking and have tried many different kinds of popular storylines and angles over the years, but never the Invasion. The reason? For as much flack as WWE got for its handling of such an upside laden storyline, part of the reason for that is because up until that time, WWE could do no wrong. Stars were being made left and right, the company was grossing more money than ever and all the big shows were delivering. WWE got a dealt a bad hand with injuries at WrestleMania 2000, but rebounded nicely with X-7, putting on what many believe is the greatest WrestleMania ever.

The point is expectations were only as high as they were because WWE’s product was as positively viewed as ever before (or since). Not to mention, invasion angles are tough. All great storylines have a winner and a loser; a protagonist and antagonist. Since this particular invasion angle is taking place under one roof, it’s easy to fall into the trap of favoring that same side. Moreover, the WWF’s Invasion angle didn’t really have a protagonist, rather there were two antagonists. Most of the fans watching were understandably WWF fans, so to turn around and tell that fan, “Yeah, those guys are all bad now,” is a tough sell.

Meanwhile, the WWF had sold its fans for years that WCW were the bad guys, but while The Alliance made for natural antagonists, Vince McMahon is not, has never been, nor will ever be a sympathetic television character. As a result, we saw turn after turn, and even a babyface promo from Paul Heyman on McMahon that is a favorite amongst the writers on this site. It was impossible to keep straight, and thus, tough to get into as a fan without feeling in some way short-changed. The Invasion angle turned into a big fat mess, but I’m now going to attempt to clean it up and present something that succeeds at the following:

1. Integrates the WCW roster and select ECW superstars into the WWF

2. Sets up a half-decade of future wrestling programming

3. Creates iconic moments along the way in a power-struggle

Having said all that, I will be setting ground rules for myself, as sure, it would be really easy to just say, “let’s buy out all the Time Warner contracts and throw those guys on TV,” but I’ve never been one to take the easy way out. WWE is a legitimate business, so I am going to treat it like one and only negotiate buyouts on a strict $10,000,000 salary cap. Remember, Booker T, DDP and Buff Bagwell had all elected to accept their buyout offers, leaving potentially millions on the table. We can also assume that each of these guys were only brought in because of their willingness to rip up their WCW contracts, because none of these names would have meant anything to McMahon at the time. Ideally, I would attempt to haggle with some of the bigger names to see if I can get them to come in for even 90% of their 2000 salary, but for the purposes of this exercise, I’m going to honor the contracts as they were, all of which can be found here.

Note that the 2000 salaries appear to represent 54% of the year, which we can determine by Bret Hart’s yearly rate being largely flat, assuming he would have made in 2000 what he did in 1999 with a full table of data. As a result, if we multiply the 2000 figure by 1.46, we can better determine what a certain wrestler probably made in 2000 WCW (emphasis on probably).

Additionally, not every person pertinent to telling this story was under contract with WCW at the time. If I can identify anyone who fits that criteria, then I would have the ability to “negotiate” a deal with them, determining a fair number based on what we know they made in the past. Smaller names will serve as “extras” in the story, and any wrestlers who were part of the Invasion angle are also exempt from cap inclusion.

My table can be found below:

The Beginning

For the first part of Jack Goodwillie’s Invasion Angle, I’m actually not going to change a thing. The WCW/WWF simulcast, and the promo Vince McMahon cut, need no changes, nor does the storyline of Shane McMahon acquiring WCW for himself. Given the landscape of the McMahon vs. McMahon feud going on at the time, as well as The Rock and Steve Austin’s WrestleMania collision course, it made sense that Shane would acquire WCW’s assets from under his father’s nose. However, given the timeline of events, it would give me the ability to change the finish at WrestleMania X-7 if it can help the angle to follow.

On one hand, I can keep the Austin heel turn. Say what you want about the follow through, but it made for one hell of an out-of-context moment and serves as the caboose to one of the greatest main events in the history of the show. However, knowing that a WCW invasion is imminent, it would probably make more sense to keep Austin and The Rock as tense rivals as opposed to bitter enemies. Then again, there’s also no getting away from Vince McMahon’s heel persona during this time. It would make sense to portray the WWF as a babyface since it will be the one under attack after all, but the attachment to this raging heel Mr. McMahon character is going to make that very tough.

Initiating a double turn between Vince and Shane probably isn’t practical, so the options are limited: make the WWF faction full blown heels or layer the story in a way that is going to make sense. I’m going to opt for the latter, which means keeping the WrestleMania X-7 ending, only to go a different direction the following night on Raw. Instead of Triple H running into the steel cage rematch to cost The Rock and put him out of commission, The Rock is going to overcome the odds and win back his title, establishing him as the most dominant force in the WWF. Triple H will spoil the party with a post-match beatdown inside the cage.

The following week, Triple H officially aligns himself with Austin and McMahon in a segment where The Rock challenges Austin to one final confrontation at Backlash for the WWF Championship. However, following the evening’s main event, the Titantron cuts to the back to show The Rock getting blindsided by an SUV in a hit-and-run situation reminiscent of the ill-fated “I did it for The Rock” angle from the prior year. In any case, the WWF Championship match at Backlash has been cancelled, and the belt will not be defended until after SummerSlam. People may moan and groan about how derivative this type of angle would be, but the point here is not to create a “who-dun-it” situation, but rather to write The Rock off television while he films The Scorpion King and create a motive for the inclusion of the WCW roster.

However, we are going to tease the “who-dun-it” component to this for the better part of the next week before a shocked and seemingly blameless Mr. McMahon comes to the ring in the final segment of the night to finger his son Shane as the one to take out The Rock as a means of undermining his business. However, instead of Shane coming to his own defense, “Back in Black” by AC/DC plays throughout the arena as Eric Bischoff becomes the first WCW character we see on WWF programming as part of the angle. Bischoff doesn’t fess to or deny McMahon’s accusations, but pleads with Vince not to shoot the messenger, with the message being not to get too comfortable, because it’s “quite remarkable how quickly the tables can turn.” At that moment, the lights go out, and when they come back on, McMahon is laid out in the ring with a long baseball bat remaining with him in the ring. Bischoff is also gone.

On the final episode of Raw before Backlash, Shane McMahon returns and is immediately confronted by Austin and Triple H. Before the Two-Man Power Trip can get their hands on him, Shane tells them he’s just as upset as they are. Just because he purchased WCW to spite his father does not mean he gave Eric Bischoff license to come on the show without a talent contract and direct traffic. The reality is, he is just as pissed as they are that his father got attacked and wants to help them do something about it. Shane, Austin and HHH agree to show up to Backlash looking to fight whoever chooses to show themselves as Vince’s attacker. Given the circumstances, the viewer is led to believe that Sting is the culprit because of the baseball bat left over in the ring.

But Sting, as it turns out, would not be the one to step forward as Vince’s attacker. Instead, it will be a baseball bat-wielding Jeff Jarrett, who cuts a worked shoot promo, playing on the insider stories about him “holding Vince up.” Jarrett says he robbed Vince blind, but did it for love and not for money, just like what he’s going to do to Austin next. Jarrett references Austin’s disdain for him in the ‘90s and how it cost him millions of dollars, and now he’s about to come down to the ring so Austin can “pay it forward.” Jarrett charges the ring, opening the door for Diamond Dallas Page to slide through the back door and hit Triple H with the Diamond Cutter while Shane McMahon bludgeons Austin with a pair of brass knuckles. All of a sudden, members of the WWF roster begin to rush the ring while Shane, Jarrett and Page escape out of different sides of the arena. Sure enough, Shane had been in cahoots with WCW, which he owns, the whole time.

The next night on Raw, Mr. McMahon is back. At the start of the show, McMahon holds a talent-only meeting in an attempt to get friends and enemies on the WWF roster on the same page, given the unpredictable nature of the show at this point. For the final segment, McMahon goes to the ring to call out Bischoff, Shane, Jarrett and anyone else who wants a piece of him. He also threatens to fire any member of the WWF roster who chooses to get involved, as this is his fight, not theirs. This time, the lights go out, but instead of Vince being laid out in the ring when they come back on, the one they call Sting finds himself looking across the ring from McMahon, microphone in hand.

Sting cuts a babyface promo, letting McMahon know he is not involved with Bischoff, Shane, Jarrett or anybody claiming to be affiliated with WCW. He runs down a list of all the great things WCW did, what WCW really stood for and how McMahon wouldn’t have the things he has today without the push from WCW. Sting mentions how all he wants to come of Shane’s WCW purchase is an opportunity for WCW wrestlers to show they can become viable WWF assets. Sting tells McMahon that while he is no friend of Eric Bischoff’s, he will involve himself in the situation if necessary. The following week, McMahon comes to the ring to cut a promo on Sting. After thinking about it, McMahon realized what should be blatantly obvious: He doesn’t owe WCW anything. That includes Bischoff, Jarrett, Sting and Page, and McMahon also threatens that anybody who decides to challenge him this time will be met with swift action from his roster, which is gathered around the ring (though is largely only the midcard talent).

At that point, the camera cuts to Jeff Jarrett, DDP and the debuting Booker T, who are standing at opposite ends of the arena, ready to come through the crowd and challenge the WWF roster. All of a sudden, Goldberg’s music hits and the roof nearly pops off the building. Goldberg makes his way through the backstage hallway and out to the ring down the stage as all four men meet the WWF midcarders in the ring. One by one, they are decimated by the WCW talent, but McMahon begins to call reinforcements. As the numbers start to get to the fatigued WCW superstars, Sting makes his appearance, baseball bat in hand and handles the rest of the WWF roster. Shane McMahon and Eric Bischoff join the wrestlers in the ring to pose for the cameras as the show comes to an end. The nucleus of the WCW contingent is now in place, and while everybody has their different motivations for being there, whether it’s to defend the WCW name or get more money or get back at Vince McMahon, they’re all playing for the same team, for now.

The Middle

At this point, the Steve Austin-Vince McMahon vignettes we came to know and love can begin to surface as a stressed out Vince starts to throw obstacles in WCW’s way. One of the ways in which he’s able to do that is by reintroducing Ric Flair on Raw. One of the biggest issues I have seen in the actual invasion angle and some fantasy booked scenarios is the alignment of some of the characters. Ric Flair would NEVER help WCW because of his resentment for Eric Bischoff. This is why I didn’t hate the fact that he didn’t get involved in the WWF until the night the angle came to an end, but he can be a valuable piece to spice things up on the WWF side, and we do need some defectors on both sides to make things compelling.

McMahon also starts placing bounties on WCW stars. Guys like Lance Storm, Buff Bagwell and Rey Mysterio have since debuted, aligning themselves with WCW one at a time. Kurt Angle answers the bell, taking out each of these three talents in consecutive weeks, earning the respect of McMahon while becoming something of an equalizer for the WWF. With The Rock still MIA, McMahon turns to Angle to be the interim WWF Champion, ensuring him a title opportunity for when The Rock is medically cleared to return, much to the disgust of Austin.

The third measure Vince goes to in an attempt to eradicate WCW is by introducing ECW into the WWF, guaranteeing contracts to ECW wrestlers. Remember, it’s also illogical for Paul Heyman to align himself with WCW, even if it is to oppose Vince McMahon. Heyman had been spewing nothing but venom WCW’s way since ECW’s heyday. Plus, Heyman and McMahon had been in cahoots during ECW’s final years, so while Heyman’s worked shoot on McMahon during the invasion angle was, in a vacuum, a legendary promo, it actually did very little to help further the story. Several ECW wrestlers go on to join the WCW’s cause, though, as Rob Van Dam leads a revolt against the WWF. In an example of art imitating life, Heyman vows to pull the plug on his own creation once and for all, promising to scour the earth looking for the “antidote” to ECW and WCW.

Almost three months into the angle, Vince McMahon is having minimal returns on his WCW eradication efforts. His wrestlers can’t get on the same page, and some are even defecting over to the other side. On an episode of Smackdown, Chris Jericho cuts the promo of his life talking about how he once left WCW for the WWF because he wanted to work with Vince McMahon, but after having been there and done that he wants out. The egos of his fellow wrestlers have gotten out of control, and the once great Vince McMahon is now in over his head with too many cooks in the kitchen. He also talks about Vince asking him to take a pay cut to help make way for the ECW wrestlers and is able to close the promo with the now-famous line, “no tickee, no laundry!”

That being said, all was not perfect on the WCW side of things. The shelf life of the Shane McMahon-Eric Bischoff relationship came quickly with McMahon (rightly) concerned that Bischoff was attempting to usurp him, using him only as a means to regain the controlling stick of WCW rather than help run his father into the ground. Eventually, tensions between the two boil over when Bischoff begins to make things physical with Shane, causing Shane to fire Bischoff from the group. Bischoff says Shane will come to regret the decision in due time.

The End

With Bischoff and Heyman now both on the outs of their respective groups, neither move has gone unnoticed from the other side, paving the way for Vince and Shane to meet in the ring, face-to-face with no interference to hammer out their issues once and for all. With both father and son at an impasse in their personal relationship, Shane proposes one match to determine the fate of both companies at SummerSlam 2001. Shane refers to it as a “Squad Strike Match,” which he describes as two 10-man teams, one wrestler in the ring at a time with the first team to eliminate all 10 members from the other team to be declared the winner.

Should WCW win, all of its wrestlers will become part of the WWF, and while Vince will maintain majority control over the company and its profits, he will cede control over both Raw and Smackdown to Shane while also being subject to Shane’s creative control. Should the WWF win, Shane McMahon and every member of the WCW coalition would be barred from the WWF for life, never to be seen again with Shane forfeiting his shares and stock options back to Vince. Vince agrees to the deal under one condition: at SummerSlam, he would get to go one-on-one with Jeff Jarrett in a Street Fight. Shane accepts on Jarrett’s behalf, to which Jarrett is not happy about, but the match is on and the teams are starting to come together. Team WWF will consist of Steve Austin, The Rock, Ric Flair, Big Show, Chris Benoit, The Undertaker, Kane, Edge, Jeff Hardy, and Kurt Angle, while Team WCW will consist of Shane McMahon, Sting, Goldberg, DDP, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, William Regal and Raven.

The Jeff Jarrett-Vince McMahon match, while not the spectacle Vince McMahon-Hulk Hogan would come to be at WrestleMania XIX, delivered the billing of a violent grudge match between two men who were (at that time) believed to legitimately hate each other. This should be the essence of the Invasion angle. The internet was chock full of rumors, stories and preconceived notions about the relationships between WCW and WWF wrestlers during these years, and if some of these things could have been tapped into, it would have made the whole thing feel a lot more believable than it turned out to be.

McMahon gets the jump on Jarrett in what feels like a successful effort to galvanize the WWF side to victory in the subsequent match. However, I’m going to do something many would probably not in this situation: WCW is going over, and I’ve determined this is the only way this storyline could have gone down. The idea behind having WCW invade the WWF is to begin the transfer of WCW talent over to the WWF. This also means having the WCW talent take on the identity as WWF talent when the angle is done and dusted, because many of the names that are coming in are going to help carry the company into the next era of programming.

That’s all the invasion angle needed to be – a launching pad for future programming. The structure of the match I put together for SummerSlam will give the fans a bite-sized look at what to expect for the next year-plus of television. Unfortunately, I haven’t even begun to figure out specifics related to the goings on in the match, but I do imagine it would include face-offs with Sting and The Rock, Goldberg and Austin, and The Undertaker and DDP (except without the creepy subtext we came to see in real life). In addition to blockbuster stars, the match is also going to feature some of the premiere wrestlers in the company, all of whom will stand to benefit from getting to work in such a star-studded match. Ideally, I’d put Pat Patterson in charge of laying the match out. He’d know how to broach it, really bringing the idea to life. Rest in Peace, Pat.

The Future

With WCW being named the victors, Shane McMahon appears on Raw the next night to gloat about the win and publicly map out the next two months of television for his father. However, The Rock comes out to let him know to watch his ass, because remember, it is still technically unbeknownst to anyone who is responsible for putting The Rock out of commission way back in April. Plus, as opposed to reality, I opted to hold The Rock out until SummerSlam, which would only serve to up the intrigue on the 20-man match. For the next month, Shane keeps his father on a tight schedule, serving him up to bloody beatings on the even weeks and public humiliation on the odd weeks.

Meanwhile, The Rock reasserts himself as a force in the WWF, fending off interim champ Kurt Angle’s attempt to unify the belts, before defending the belt against DDP, the first WCW wrestler to challenge for a WWF Championship. While on this mini-run, The Rock reconnects with the disgraced Mr. McMahon, still believing Shane to be or have something to do with his attacker, not to mention The Rock and Vince are WWF guys through and through now forced to work in a company run by the owner of WCW. However, Vince goes on to double cross The Rock in a future rematch with Angle, revealing Angle to have been the attacker with Vince pulling the strings the whole time.

Incensed that he was kept in the dark, Austin turns on Vince and destroys Angle, but with Vince now in control of the WWF Championship, all of a sudden Shane has reason to want to exterminate his father off of his own creation. “Team Shane” would battle “Team Vince” in a classic 5-on-5 Survivor Series elimination match with heightened stakes. A Team Vince victory would grant Vince McMahon his creative control back in addition to the controlling stick of Smackdown. A Team Shane victory would give Shane access to all of Vince’s controlling shares, henceforth exiling his father from the company.

The teams could have taken on any look, really, but Team Shane would have probably included The Rock, Steve Austin, Chris Jericho, Sting and DDP while Team Vince would have featured Kurt Angle, Booker T, Big Show, Chris Benoit and a debuting Brock Lesnar. Remember when Paul Heyman’s ECW wrestlers betrayed himself and Vince McMahon, causing Heyman to “scour the globe for the antidote to the problem?” That antidote would become Lesnar, who would be in line for a debut for the ages. Thanks to Lesnar, the elder McMahon would gain control of Smackdown, prompting the brand split and WWE Draft to occur on the very next episode of Raw.

As I start to put a bow on things, you might be wondering why this depiction doesn’t include any mention of Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. The reason? All three contracts totaled in the seven-figure range, and to bring them according to my rules would have caused me to have to leave out a Sting, Goldberg or perhaps even both guys, not to mention those three would HAVE to come in together. In his Guest Booker episode, Vince Russo’s vision for the Invasion angle starts as a reverse Outsiders angle in the WWF. While I like the idea of bringing the inverse storyline to the WWF after the original storyline set off the Monday Night War, that type of angle can be done completely divorced from a WCW invasion storyline because that trio isn’t necessarily pro-WCW over WWF as much as it is pro-nWo, AKA pro-themselves.

There’s no reason to have Hogan, Hall and Nash align themselves with Sting, Goldberg or DDP, so why not just hold off until the AOL Time Warner contracts expire before having the nWo invasion? Moreover, there is now more reason than ever to button it for later, given Shane McMahon’s falling out with Eric Bischoff. This will ultimately be how Bischoff gets reintroduced, similar to what we did with Heyman where we used him as a vehicle to introduce Brock Lesnar.

As I reflect on putting this piece together, there are parts to this reimagining of the angle that can be better fleshed out or blended in, but all the same this will go down as one of the longest pieces I’ve ever written for the site. Hopefully you were able to get a grasp on what my vision for the Invasion angle may have looked like, and my hope is that everything made sense. The goal of any magnum opus like this should always be to create as many memorable moments as possible while setting the company up for potentially years of future television. The actual invasion angle may have only accomplished one of those two goals, but the fact that we continue to talk about it to the extent we do today has to count for something.

Even if invasion angles should generally be avoided at any cost (looking at you, AEW, NJPW and Impact).