2001–2002: The WCW/ECW "Alliance" Invasion and the nWo could of been better

[stro]

The thing no one talks about is that all of the WCW "stars" that were left besides Goldberg, Booker, Sting, and DDP were all ex-WWF guys anyway (and Sting/DDP were already in their 40s). I don't think the Invasion would have done the money people thought even if Vince spent the money to bring all the big names in. The star power of anyone in 2001 WCW was greatly diminished from what it was even a year and a half prior. I imagine Invasion would have gotten a huge number (since it did even with nothing but midcarders), but ratings would have started to fall off regardless.

Based on the freefall of ratings and attendance for WCW over 2000-2001, it was safe to say their talent and brand weren't drawing people regardless.

 

[SteelCitySoldier]

WCW's attendance and ratings dropped because it was literally the same show from the beginning of the NWO until it finally ended. NWO would have WCW talk shyt, NWO would beat the shyt out of them throughout the show and in the couple of times a WCW wrestler does win, NWO comes out and beat the shyt of him after the match or later in the show.

WCW could have still been a viable company in the right hands and that Invasion angle could have worked because WWF had longtime WCW wrestlers on their roster who they could have put on the WCW side by simply saying "they sided with them because "friendship" and loyalty meant more than money to them.

WWF fukked up even further when they put wrestlers on WCW side when THEY HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH WCW.

Why the fukk would Stone Cold be on WCW side when he shyt all over WCW in the first place? What about Kurt Angle who had never even wrestled a match in WCW?

The entire story was never even built around making the WCW stars look good in anyway and was doomed from the start.

 

[stro]

And yet it still made Vince a ton of money, probably more money than it would have with all the high priced stars since the overhead for the angle was super low.

You pretty much got the real Invasion in 2002-2003 anyway.

 

[seanjohn21276]

It sucked because Nash, Hall, Hogan, Goldberg, Flair and Sting were all still getting paid by Time Warner and Vince didn't want to buy out their contracts.

 

[SteelCitySoldier]

And yet it still made Vince a ton of money, probably more money than it would have with all the high priced stars since the overhead for the angle was super low.

You pretty much got the real Invasion in 2002-2003 anyway.

He also already had previous WCW workers on his payroll already that he could have used as part of the "Alliance" and like someone else said he could have thrown some money at Bichoff (Heyman was already working their) to make it look even more legit.

Jericho should have been on WCW side along with:

Booker T
Chris Benoit
RVD
Tazz

This could have worked great if there was some actual thought AND CARE put into the story line. It was like Vince knew he was going to make money (like you said) and just half added put some shyt together.

 

[stro]

No arguments that it could have been better from a fan's perspective. From a business one, it probably was about the same, as the huge contracts would have offset the bigger ratings/buyrates. I'm sure that was a consideration Vince made in not picking up those talents until their contracts had run out and he could offer them lower deals. If he thought it would be worth it, he would have. Invasion is still the biggest non WM buyrate ever even with such matches as Edge and Christian vs Team Canada, Earl Hebner vs Nick Patrick, Kaynon/Mean/Hugh Morrus vs Billy Gunn/Big Show/Albert.

Would the extra 300K buys been worth the amount of money to pay to get Goldberg/Sting/Hogan/Nash/Steiner/Sid? Idk. There probably would have been higher buy rates for all the PPVs for at least a few months instead of one giant one for Invasion. Summerslam was basically Invasion 2.0 and had 200K fewer people, and by Survivor Series it had dropped another 100K.

 

[Grifter]

 

[stro]

Jim Cornette also thought NWA wrasslin is what people wanted to see in the attitudinal world of 1998, so I'm definitely not listening to him rebook a year long angle from 2001 for 3 hours.

 

[Here Comes the Pain]

They had booker t in the nwo.

Stone cold was punking taz(ecw`s top guy) and they had ddp(wcw`s top guy) stalking some hit looking broad.

When the dust settled, it was stone cold vs the rock

Vince was doing everything in his power to exploit them and make them look like idiots compared to his guys.

 

[Playaz Eyez]

I feel like I've exhausted myself on talking about how much Invasion was botched, but I'll just add that I should have known Invasion would be a wash as soon as Undertaker was beating down DDP every week in one of the most 1 sided feuds in history.