Firstly, the history...

 

WWE didn't always have a monopoly on the wrestling world, once there were 3 companies, who all had their own share of the market.

 

WCW were the main rivals of WWE, and for a long time in the mid to late 90's actually surpassed WWE (Then F) in the ratings, and were winning the Monday night wars, the battle between the two companies main broadcasts, which aired at the same time, and on the same night. WCW also managed to lure many of the top talent away from Stamford and down to Atlanta. Names like Lex Luger, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and famously then Women's champion Alundra Blayze, turned their back on WWE.

 

The other were not as big, but were a hugely popular niche group, ECW...

 

Run by the eponymous Paul Heyman, the hardcore and extreme wrestling style that WWE went on to adopt during their most successful period, the Attitude Era, had an on and off partnership with WWE, Vince also helped the promotion financially for a time.

 

However both companies went out of existence in 2001, ECW went bankrupt after failing to land a new TV deal, partly because of the WWE change in ethos, adopting the ECW style had driven the interest in the originators of the style right down, only hardcore fans stayed loyal, and that was not enough to keep them going.

 

WCW also went that year, the parent company TNN lost interest in wrestling, and proposed buyout deals fell by the wayside one by one, until the company gave up and removed the TV licences, leaving the door open for Vince McMahon to buy the licensing rights, video library, and talent contracts.

 

This led to 2001's Invasion...

 

Shortly before WrestleMania 17 Vince McMahon was feuding with his son Shane McMahon building to a match at the super show, when Vince McMahon came out on Raw to announce he was going to buy WCW. Gloating and strutting around the ring McMahon demanded that Ted Turner personally attend WrestleMania 17 to join the Kiss My Ass Club, before he signed the deal to take over WCW.

 

Big mistake, the Titan Tron comes to life revealing Shane McMahon walking through a backstage area, and out onto the set of... WCW Monday Nitro... 

 

He entered the ring and announced that he had usurped his father and had acquired WCW from under his dad's nose.

 

This added to the feud between the two men, for their Mania match, but it was at King Of The Ring 2001 of couple of months later that the Invasion began properly. A mystery man had being stalking Sara, then wife of The Undertaker. Taker demanded the guy attend the PPV for a fight, he did, revealing himself to be Diamond Dallas Page.

 

He was not the only star to invade that night. WCW Champ Booker T jumped the barrier to attack WWF Champ Stone Cold Steve Austin during his triple threat title defence against Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho.

 

It was on...

 

The rest of 2001 saw the switching of roles, Vince becoming face, and Shane heel, the first time ever WCW titles had been defended on WWE TV, and the continuing feud of the two promotions rosters, with WWE stars turning heel and joining WCW, including the WWF champ Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Christian and Test. The biggest turn came when Stephanie McMahon decided she wanted in, and became the owner of ECW, many WWE stars came to the ring to save their own guys from a beat down by WCW, only to turn their backs on WCW and stare down the WWE stars, before attacking their former colleagues. The Dudleyz, Rhyno, Tazz, Raven, Justin Credible and more all joined the invasion in one fell swoop.

 

The feud came to an end at that years Survivor Series, a series of unification matches between WWE and WCW Champions, a battle royal, and finally a 5 on 5 match between WWE and WCW / ECW, which would decide the future of wrestling, the winning team survived, the other would die forever.

 

WWE won of course, and that ended that.

 

But it could have been so much better...

 

WWE could have let WCW continue as an independent group, ECW too if they wanted, let Shane go over and run it. Steph could go and run ECW, giving them hands on experience of running a promotion, ready for the eventual step of one of them taking over WWE.

 

It also would have meant more when the rosters appeared on each other’s shows, it would have been a real invasion.

 

What I would have done is drop SmackDown and give the Thursday (It was still a Thursday show then) time slot to WCW, and maybe give one of their weekend shows up to ECW.

 

That would have allowed WCW and ECW to continue, keeping the hardcore fans of those companies happy, and would have expanded the repertoire for WWE fans, allowing them to see other stars and gimmicks the loyal WWE fan (Like me) had not seen before.

 

WWE could have also given up some of their PPV events to the groups, maybe 4 for WCW and 3 for ECW, with WWE keeping the big 5 for themselves.

 

It could have been run like the WWE brand extension, every year, post Mania, have a roster draft with stars changing promotions, giving us the chance to see some previously unthinkable matches, and angles. They could still have an intense rivalry, and inter-promotional matches, a WCW and an ECW star in the Rumble, or a triple threat match with one star from each promotion battling for pride at Mania, WWE stars could go onto their shows too, a WWE team entering Wargames maybe. But overall they would be separate entities.

 

Story lines that did happen could have been improved by this format too, for example the DDP vs Undertaker feud mentioned above, how much bigger would that have been if DDP kidnapped Sara on Raw, and The Undertaker walked into the lion’s den of WCW on Thursday to get her back.

 

It would also have solved the still lingering issue of having two top titles in WWE. Big gold could have stayed on WCW TV.

 

The rosters would have been bigger, meaning stars would suffer less burnout, meaning fewer injuries. Also creatively the stories and feuds would be much easier to keep fresh, the amount of talent over the 3 shows would allow creative to write new feuds regularly, and not have the same stars feuding over and again, and if the time came they were running out of feuds for a star, they could be transferred to one of the other groups to get access to a whole new roster of fresh opponents, waiting to face them.

 

It also would have helped in the development of talent, putting youngsters in week after week with established veterans on ECW for example, would give them chance to learn and develop, whilst still getting national and international exposure, and they could gradually work their way up through the groups until finally reaching the pinnacle of WWE. This could also extend the careers of ring veterans, instead of dropping talent when age started to slow them, they could be relegated down through the levels, to help guide the careers of younger stars, whilst still being able to get in the ring themselves.

 

They could also have avoided embarrassing flops, bringing stars in hoping to make them top stars right away, only for them to fail, could have ended. They could have been put into one of the lower promotions for a year to see how they did, before bringing them into WWE.

 

The PPV line up could have looked like this...

 

 

• Jan - Royal Rumble (WWE).

• Feb - War Games (WCW).

• Mar - Living Dangerously (ECW).

• Apr - WrestleMania (WWE).

• May - Starrcade (WCW).

• Jun - King Of The Ring (WWE).

• Jul - Great American Bash (WCW).

• Aug - SummerSlam (WWE).

• Sep - Hardcore Heaven (ECW).

• Oct - Halloween Havoc (WCW).

• Nov - Survivor Series (WWE).

• Dec - December To Dismember (ECW).

 

They could have kept this format for good, we could still be watching WCW and ECW TV and PPV today. Oh Vince's ego... Why!!!.

 

The actual invasion really disappointed me, WWF stars joining the other team, most of team WCW / ECW were WWF guys that had switched. WWE should have brought the whole WCW locker room over and had WWE vs WCW properly, Sting, Ric Flair, Goldberg and the like, WWE were too lax in the early days, allowing WCW stars that did not want to make the switch to free themselves of their contracts, they should have played hardball, or at least got people into WWE HQ to talk to them.

 

Austin, Rock, Kane, Taker and Show vs Sting, Flair, Goldberg, Booker, and Rey...

 

I would have liked to see that match...