10 Worst Things WWE Did To The Alliance During The Invasion

It’s hard to believe but it was twenty years ago that the final Monday Nitro aired and WWE had purchased their competition. The assets of ECW were purchased as well. The Monday Night War was over and the viable third brand from Philadelphia had gone the way of the dinosaurs.

All of the wonderful fantasy booking ideas fans had in their heads for years couldn’t prepare them for the near year-long debacle that was The Invasion Angle and The Alliance. What could have catapulted the business into a wild new boom period was completely washed out and washed up in less than a year that the competition was purchased. There are too many reasons why, but we can highlight a few of them here.

10 Started WCW In Tacoma, Washington (Raw 07.02.2001)

After a few instances where WCW guys invaded Raw and Smackdown, the upstart rival promotion was given a match on Raw from Tacoma, Washington. While plenty of places in the world at this point had access to cable and knew full well about WCW, Tacoma wasn’t any kind of stronghold.

Even better was that one week later the show was in Georgia, the former home of WCW! A one-week wait for the Booker T / Buff Bagwell match might have made all the difference in how it was received.

9 The Merger (Raw 07.09.2001)

One week after the abysmal WCW main event, Raw was live in WCW’s backyard, but the baby already got heaved out with the bath water, fans already weren’t high on the Invasion. In swift response, WWE took things to the extreme - the signed RVD and Tommy Dreamer.

Both debuted on the same night and other former ECW alum assaulted both WCW and WWE; until they revealed that they were merging with WCW, which just seemed and wound up being completely out of left field. It felt forced and it would have been way better to have a wild three-promotion battle instead of a forced Alliance.

8 Not Booking Anyone Strongly

Like any debuting superstar, if they’re not booked correctly, they won’t last long and the fans will moan and groan and not accept them. Just ask most NXT call-ups about being used poorly. When you’re not booked strongly, the audience won’t think of you as a threat and that’s what happened during The Invasion - seldom were WCW homegrown talents booked to beat the WWE guys and when they were victorious, the Alliance members were part of ECW or had been part of WWE.

7 Questionable Title Changes

When WCW closed its doors, the last tag team champions were the Natural Born Thrillers. But during The Invasion, the only actual WCW guy to hold the titles was Booker T. The Dudley Boys, who never stepped foot in WCW are the final recognized champs. Booker was also the final US champion and he gave the belt to Kanyon on Smackdown.

After that, every title holder was a WWE or ECW talent. The same for the WCW World Championship. No fan was going to buy WCW as a viable entity when all of the titleholders were either Booker T or WWE and ECW guys.

6 Shane And Stephanie Were Focal Points

As part of the build-up to their match at WrestleMania X7, Shane McMahon swooped in and bought WCW right under Vince’s nose. That at least made sense from a storyline perspective.

One could argue that Stephanie being the owner of ECW also made sense from a storyline perspective. But it also put all of the focus of the Invasion and the Alliance squarely on the McMahon family instead of where it should’ve been put - the wrestlers.

5 DDP As The Stalker

While many Alliance superstars were buried by the big storyline, DDP was used especially bad. Had he been used anywhere near the way he was booked in WCW, the entire storyline could have been better. Instead of being the working man’s champion, the WCW people’s champion, DDP was unveiled as the smarmy and creepy stalker.

Page had targeted The Deadman’s wife Sara just to get under Taker’s skin. Diamond Cutters could have been flung all around, but instead one of the biggest homegrown talents in WCW history was merely cannon fodder for The Phenom and his wife.

4 The Stone Cold Appreciation Society

With one week left until the Invasion PPV, Vince McMahon wanted to see “the old Stone Cold.” Austin came down during the WWE-Alliance skirmish to one of the biggest ovations he ever received in his career (and that’s saying something!). But once he turned on the WWE at Invasion, The Alliance became The Stone Cold Appreciation Society.

Yes, the milk truck was one of the funniest moments in Raw history, but the focus of The Alliance and the Invasion storyline had shifted to Austin. Not just a WWE guy, but THE WWE guy. It was clear that The Alliance had no huge names on par with the WWE and booking had no interest in presenting them as if they did.

3 Not Giving Them Their Own Show

In wrestling, when you’re not treated as equal or better than, you’re simply perceived as less than. The Alliance were nothing more than a massive group of would-be usurpers who invaded and had matches against WWE guys.

With such a massive roster of men and established titles like Nitro, Thunder, or any other show WCW put out, the company could have figured out a way to get WCW their own air time.

2 Not Getting Eric Bischoff

While a lot of these Invasion/Alliance articles tend to bemoan the fact that WCW’s biggest names didn’t come along for the ride, would anyone reading this article choose to not sit at home, rest your body, and collect the rest of your money that AOL-Time Warner owes you.

But Eric Bischoff certainly was available and certainly needed to be a part of any angle involving WCW. But sadly, Bischoff by his own recollections over the years felt that he wasn’t shown the proper respect when JR called him to see if he wanted to come in.

1 Not Waiting To Do The Storyline

One year would have been all WWE needed. Sometimes it’s not good to strike while the iron’s hot. Sometimes it’s better to let fans expectations die down until you can have all of or most of the required chess pieces. Nearly one year after the WCW was purchased, the nWo arrived, Bischoff came a few months later. Mysterio debuted in 2002, a substantial offer to Sting could have been made.

The most awaited storyline in the history of wrestling deserved to be in a holding period. Sure in hindsight, no one could have known that one year later, the WWE roster was the greatest ever assembled. But hindsight wasn’t needed, the big-name contracts were all up around the same time - WWE could have waited before hotshotting a massive angle.

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