The Invasion (professional wrestling)
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The Invasion was a professional wrestling storyline in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as WWE) during the Attitude Era that ran from March–November 2001 and involved stables of wrestlers purporting to represent World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW)—which merged to form The Alliance—placed against a stable of wrestlers purporting to represent the WWF. The storyline began shortly after the WWF's acquisition of WCW in March 2001, and concluded with a "winner takes all" match between The Alliance and the WWF at Survivor Series.
The idea of a supercard featuring the two top
In June 2001, the angle grew in intensity as other WWF storylines somewhat abated to make room for the central Invasion storyline. WCW and ECW merged to form The Alliance and challenged the WWF's control over the wrestling industry.
The angle saw financial success for the WWF, with the Invasion pay-per-view garnering a buyrate of 775,000, one of the largest non-WrestleMania buyrates in company history. Despite its commercial success, the angle received mixed reviews following its conclusion, and is generally historically considered a major disappointment by fans and critics.
History
End of the Monday Night War
During the
Among other factors, mismanagement within WCW eventually led the company to a decrease in popularity, from which it never recovered. The Monday Night War came to an end on March 23, 2001, when the WWF bought the rights to WCW's video library, trademarks, contracts for selected wrestlers, championship belts, and other select properties for what was considered by CNN Money to be a "low bargain price".[6]
The final night of the televised Monday Night War occurred on March 26: Raw Is War primarily focused on the major
WCW's first strike; Start of The Invasion
The WWF had effectively doubled the size of its roster through its acquisition of WCW, and as a result, the company believed that there was not enough screen time for many of the new roster members. To alleviate these concerns, the original plan was to find a time slot on
On the May 28 episode of Raw Is War,
In July, the WWF tested the idea of a
Up until this point, the WCW contingent were being depicted as malcontent faces rising up against the heel Mr. McMahon, because of McMahon's bluster during the final Nitro broadcast and Shane's usurping of the WCW ownership. Originally, WCW talents were meant to attack strictly heel WWF wrestlers. The strongly negative reaction of the core WWF viewership to the WCW product and talent, however, coupled with the reality that a WCW wrestling program tailored to appeal to WWF fans would not come to fruition, led to the entire WCW contingent being abruptly turned heel.[12] One example was the heel gimmick of WCW wrestler Diamond Dallas Page, whose first WWF appearance was built up over several weeks in a storyline in which he was portrayed as an anonymous stalker sending invasive videotapes to then-babyface, The Undertaker and his wife.[15]
Addition of ECW; Formation of The Alliance
On the July 9 episode of Raw Is War at Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia,
Later during the night, Shane and Mr. McMahon bumped into each other backstage.[3] Shane told his father that ECW needed to be taken care of and pointed out that there were ten ECW wrestlers under Heyman's belt.[3] He suggested that WWF and WCW field five wrestlers each to take out ECW; Mr. McMahon agreed, but he stubbornly insisted that WCW would eventually meet its demise when all was said and done.[3]
At the end of the night, the WCW wrestlers came into the ring, accompanied by Shane McMahon. The WWF wrestlers then came into the ring and, before ECW entered, the WCW and WWF wrestlers started to brawl.[3] The WWF wrestlers cleared the ring, but then were stormed by the ECW wrestlers and taken out.[3] The WCW wrestlers came into the ring, high-fived the ECW men and then dismantled the WWF wrestlers as Paul Heyman and Shane McMahon hugged in triumph.[3] Upon seeing a stunned Mr. McMahon asking what was going on, Shane admitted being responsible for all the events that just transpired and announced that ECW and WCW merged to form The Alliance – with Stephanie McMahon as ECW's new owner.[3]
Stone Cold Steve Austin's exile and return
Stone Cold Steve Austin, who had turned heel at WrestleMania X-Seven and formed an alliance with Mr. McMahon when he helped Austin win the WWF Championship, took a change in character during this time. Instead of being a beer-drinking redneck, he was more emotional and tried to cheer-up Mr. McMahon, who was clearly stressed from the threat of The Alliance, by doing something generous like giving McMahon a cowboy hat as a present.[16] On the July 12 episode of SmackDown!, Austin played "Kumbaya" and "We Are the Champions" for McMahon, to which McMahon was unresponsive.[17] Later that night, Mr. McMahon came out and asked Austin to come to the ring, announcing him as the man that would lead Team WWF into the Invasion pay-per-view and into victory.[17] Upon entering, Mr. McMahon told Austin that he had changed quite a bit since WrestleMania, and when the WWF goes up against The Alliance at the upcoming pay-per-view, he did not need an Austin that gave him hugs and gifts and baked him cookies. He needed the "old" Stone Cold who was a "beer-swilling, foul-mouthed SOB" and the "old" Stone Cold that "didn't take shit from anyone". He asked Austin to knock him down, even yelling to the crowd, "If you want Stone Cold to beat the living hell out of Vince McMahon, give me a hell yeah!" to which the crowd responded enthusiastically.[17] Austin, however, shook his head and proceeded to leave the ring, turning his back on Mr. McMahon.[17] Later that night when Diamond Dallas Page and Shane McMahon went up against The Undertaker and Kurt Angle, many members of The Alliance interfered.[17] Kane and Jericho came to help their team, but The Alliance's numbers were too many, and without Austin to back up his teammates, Team WWF was overwhelmed.[17]
On the July 16 episode of Raw Is War, Austin was shown drinking and playing pool at a bar downtown.
Later that night, Diamond Dallas Page and Rhyno faced Kane and The Undertaker.
Invasion pay-per-view
At the Invasion pay-per-view, the "Inaugural Brawl" took place between Team Alliance and Team WWF. Team WWF consisted of Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Kane, and The Undertaker, who all squared off against the team of Diamond Dallas Page, Booker T, Rhyno, and The Dudley Boyz.[4] Near the end of the match, all of the wrestlers were outside of the ring except Booker T and Angle. Angle applied the ankle lock on Booker T, who tapped out, but no referee was there to witness it. Austin then dragged a referee into the ring, but in a swerve, kicked Angle in the head, hit him with a Stunner, and placed Booker T on top of Angle and told the referee to count. Team Alliance won the match due to Austin's betrayal of the WWF.[4]
The next night, Austin claimed he joined the Alliance because they appreciated him.[19] He cited Mr. McMahon's hugging of Angle and calling The Rock on the phone as signs that McMahon did not appreciate Austin and accused him of grooming Angle to be the next WWF Champion.[19]
WWF gains momentum; Return of The Rock
On the July 26 episode of SmackDown!, Shane McMahon extended an invitation to The Rock, who was serving a kayfabe suspension since the post-WrestleMania X-Seven edition of Raw Is War, to join The Alliance.[20] Also that night, Kurt Angle challenged Booker T to a WCW Championship match, which Booker T accepted. The WWF gained momentum when Angle made Booker T submit with an ankle lock, taking the WCW Championship away from The Alliance.[20]
Angle's WCW title run proved to be short-lived, as Booker T won it back on the July 30 episode of Raw Is War.
His return led to a WCW Championship match between The Rock and Booker T at SummerSlam, which The Rock won, marking the second time the WCW Championship belt changed sides to the WWF.[22] At that same pay-per-view, Austin retained his WWF Championship against Angle after Angle won by disqualification.[22]
The following Raw Is War and SmackDown! shows featured primarily inter-promotional matches between the two factions, with one notable match being a singles match between Chris Jericho and Hugh Morrus on the August 9 episode of SmackDown! in which the match ended with Jericho picking up the victory with a submission on Morrus, however Rhyno performed a post-match attack on Jericho in which Rhyno delivered his finishing move, The Gore, to Jericho which in turn destroyed a portion of the oval stage design (the following week's episode of SmackDown! would see the debut of the fist stage design in response to the destruction of the oval stage design). On the August 27 episode of Raw Is War, Austin stole Kurt Angle's medals, and on the August 30 episode of SmackDown!, tied them to a cinder block and threw them in a river.[23] On the September 3 episode of Raw Is War, Debra and Stephanie bought a new truck for Austin, but Angle came up from behind and nailed Austin in the back of the head with a pipe. He put a cinder block and rope into the truck, place Austin in the vehicle, and drove away. He blindfolded Austin and threatened to throw him into a river if he did not get a title shot. Austin, fearful for his life, broke down in tears and agreed to give Angle a title shot at the upcoming pay-per-view, Unforgiven. Angle said, however, that Austin was "still going into the water", but instead simply embarrassed Austin by throwing him into a kiddie pool.[24]
On
The WWF gained even more momentum at Unforgiven, as The Rock retained the WCW Championship in a handicap match against Booker T and Shane McMahon, and Kurt Angle made Austin submit to the ankle lock, winning the WWF Championship from Austin, putting both belts into the hands of the WWF.[26]
Almost every other championship had changed hands during this period of the storyline, being exchanged between WWF wrestlers and Alliance members. For example, The Undertaker and Kane beat Diamond Dallas Page and
The Alliance rebounds
There were several inter-promotional matches after Unforgiven. Furthermore, a crucial plot point formed when, on the October 8 airing of Raw, Jericho and The Rock teamed up against Shane McMahon and Rob Van Dam.[27] During the match, Jericho mistakenly struck The Rock with a steel chair, costing them the match. The Rock confronted Jericho backstage after the match, leading to a brawl between the two.[27] The two of them began a feud, despite both remaining loyal to the WWF, during which they often tagged together, regularly hurled comedic insults together at ECW's Stephanie McMahon, and, at one point, won the WWF Tag Team Championship.
Also that night, Steve Austin and Kurt Angle faced off for the WWF Championship, and the WWF Commissioner William Regal, who sat at ringside to ensure a fair match would take place, hit Kurt Angle with the belt, thereby backstabbing the WWF and costing Angle the title.[27] On the October 11 episode of SmackDown!, WWF CEO Linda McMahon promptly fired Regal from his position as WWF Commissioner, and named Mick Foley as his replacement. Regal, himself a former WCW employee, was then declared the Alliance Commissioner by Shane and Stephanie.
The feud between Jericho and The Rock built up to a match at No Mercy on October 21, where Jericho beat The Rock to win the WCW Championship (Jericho's first world title). Also at the event, Steve Austin defeated Angle and Rob Van Dam to retain his WWF Championship.[28]
On the October 29 episode of Raw, Shane McMahon told his father, Mr. McMahon, that a member of Team WWF would jump ship to The Alliance that night. Later that same night, Kurt Angle backstabbed the WWF by hitting Jericho, The Rock, Undertaker, and Kane with steel chairs.[29] On the November 1 episode of SmackDown!, Angle, who originally led the WWF wrestlers, explained that he represented what is great about America — he was a winner, and his defection came from his decision to fight along the winning side. That side included Steve Austin, a man Angle claimed knew how to win.[30]
Survivor Series 2001: End of The Invasion
On the November 5 airing of Raw, Mr. McMahon countered Kurt Angle's defection by stating that a member of Team Alliance would defect during the Team WWF vs. Team Alliance match at the upcoming Survivor Series. Steve Austin came out to confront McMahon about it, and McMahon stated that Austin would be the one to defect. Because of this announcement, many Alliance members began to distrust Austin, who vehemently denied the charges and called McMahon a liar.[31] Austin went on to interrogate members of Team Alliance, questioning Booker T and sitting Rob Van Dam down in a room with a light shining on him. That same night The Rock won the WCW Championship from Chris Jericho, but Jericho assaulted The Rock in the ring following the match.[32][33]
All of this led to the "Winner Take All" match at Survivor Series, which pitted Team WWF (The Rock, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane, and Big Show) against Team Alliance (Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, and Shane McMahon).[5] The final three men in the match were The Rock and Jericho vs. Austin.[5] Jericho was eliminated and, to continue the feud between the two men, attacked The Rock with a Breakdown, even though Jericho's future was on the line if The Rock lost. The Rock and Austin continued to battle it out, each stealing and reversing their signature maneuvers and the referee was knocked down in the match.[5] Austin hit a Stunner on The Rock and pinned him, but there was no referee to count it.[5] Austin approached the downed referee to try to revive him.[5] As this was occurring, Angle ran to the ring, picked up the WWF Championship belt, and nailed Austin with it, revealing himself to be the defector to which Mr. McMahon was referring to the entire time.[5] The Rock got up to his feet and followed this with a Rock Bottom and a pin on Austin, to which the referee woke up and groggily counted the three count.[5] Team WWF prevailed, thus ending the storyline.[5]
It was also on this night that several titles were
Aftermath
Fallout after Survivor Series
Alliance member Test won a battle royal at Survivor Series that featured both Alliance and WWF wrestlers battling for the right to be immune from termination for a year, regardless of which side won in the event's "winner take all" match. Over the next several weeks Test began using that immunity to his advantage, attacking and bullying other wrestlers for no reason and often assaulting referees. Whenever he would be called on it, he would bring up his immunity from being fired. Shortly after Survivor Series, however, Test's immunity storyline was eventually forgotten and dropped.
The immunity was also extended to any Alliance member who held a championship at the conclusion of Survivor Series. Stone Cold Steve Austin, who was the WWF Champion, The Dudley Boyz, who held the WWF Tag Team Championship, Rob Van Dam, who was the WWF Hardcore Champion and Christian, who was the WWF European Champion, also were safe from termination. Of these wrestlers, everyone except Rob Van Dam (who was already cheered by fans despite being a member of The Alliance) remained heels after the dissolution of The Alliance. Also receiving immunity from The Alliance was Stacy Keibler, the manager of The Dudley Boyz, and Tazz, who was a commentator on SmackDown! and had been kicked out of The Alliance several weeks prior.
On the Raw the night after Survivor Series, WWF Commissioner Mick Foley resigned. Mr. McMahon celebrated his (assumed) complete and sole ownership of the WWF and his final victory over The Alliance. Immediately, McMahon began making those who were allied with the Alliance to answer for their supposed betrayal of WWF. McMahon first fired Paul Heyman as commentator, leading to Heyman to first brawl with J.R. Ross, and as Heyman was carried out by WWF security, McMahon announced the return of Jerry "The King" Lawler as commentator, making his first appearance in WWF since No Way Out in February. Vince then ordered Shane and Stephanie McMahon to come to the ring to answer for their actions. While Shane calmly accepted defeat and left the ring with no incident, Stephanie cried and begged for Vince to take her back, leading Vince to order WWF security to throw her out as well. Stephanie would return to WWF television the following month while Shane made a small brief appearance on the July 15, 2002 episode of Raw and would then return full-time to television in 2003. At this point, Vince started to go on a power trip by announcing the creation of his infamous "Kiss My Ass" club, where he was going to force former Alliance members to literally kiss his bare buttocks in order to keep their jobs, with the first victim being former Alliance commissioner, William Regal. McMahon would soon start forcing any WWF employees, whether they were former Alliance members or not, to kiss McMahon's buttocks to keep their jobs.
McMahon also announced that he would strip Alliance leader Steve Austin of his WWF Championship and would reward it to Kurt Angle, who earlier that night had portrayed himself as the "hero of Survivor Series" and bragged about his actions in an egotistical matter to other face wrestlers, to which they all gave him negative reactions. This led to an upset Angle telling McMahon that nobody thanked him and appreciated him for his actions the previous night, leading to McMahon telling Angle that he would be honored to reward him the WWF Championship. In doing so, McMahon and Angle completed slow heel turns that had begun at the beginning of the night.
Before McMahon could announce Angle as his new champion, Ric Flair (who was making his return to the WWF after leaving in January 1993) announced that he "bet on a winner" at Survivor Series. When pressed, Flair revealed to McMahon that he was not in fact the sole owner of the WWF as he had originally thought. When Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon had bought WCW and ECW earlier in the year they had sold their shares in the WWF to "a consortium", but the "consortium" was actually Flair himself, making him half-owner of the WWF and now McMahon's business partner.
Immediately after Flair made his declaration, Austin made his return and attacked Angle for costing him the win at Survivor Series against The Rock and also attacked Mr. McMahon for attempting to strip him of his title, ending the heel run he had begun at WrestleMania. He turned face by aligning himself with Flair and reclaiming his WWF Championship belt.
WCW
During the Invasion storyline, the WWF determined that they had too many championships, due to them acquiring WCW's championships, and felt that each individual title became devalued. To combat this, the WWF began to
The Undisputed Championship was originally represented by both the original WWF and WCW title belts, and the champion would carry both belts around until it was replaced with a single belt the following year on the April 1 edition of Raw. At the beginning of the WWE brand extension, the Undisputed Champion would appear on both Raw and SmackDown! until then-champion Brock Lesnar signed an exclusive deal with SmackDown! after his victory over The Rock at 2002's SummerSlam, thus making the championship exclusive to the brand. In response, then-Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff, former Senior Vice President of WCW, introduced the World Heavyweight Championship, represented by the former WCW Championship belt, and awarded it to Triple H, who was the number one contender for the Undisputed title. The Undisputed Championship would be renamed to the WWE Championship, as it was no longer undisputed since there were two world championships in the promotion. On the June 19, 2003 edition of SmackDown!, the United States Championship was revived as a SmackDown!-exclusive title, thus becoming the WWE United States Championship (and counterpart to Raw's Intercontinental title) — it is the only active title currently in WWE to not have originated in the promotion.
Although the WWF acquired all of WCW's championships, several were never used following the purchase of WCW, such as the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship, WCW Hardcore Championship, and the WCW World Television Championship (in which the latter was retired a year before WCW went out of business). Jim Ross made a passing mention of the WCW Hardcore Championship at the Invasion pay-per-view when mentioning all the titles Lance Storm had held in WCW, but the title never appeared on WWF programming during the storyline.
ECW
Although
Reception
The Invasion angle was a large storyline that spanned for almost half of 2001 and brought about financial success for the WWF, such as the Invasion pay-per-view having one of the highest non-WrestleMania event buyrates in the history of WWF pay-per-views.[37] However, the Invasion storyline has come under criticism by wrestling fans and wrestling media,[22] with the storyline being called "a flop".[38] Media sources have referred to the storyline as "one of the most poorly handled, ego-filled storylines in wrestling history".[39] In 2001, The Invasion storyline won the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Worst Feud of the Year award.
Perceived weakness of The Alliance
Throughout the storyline, many inter-promotional matches had WWF wrestlers winning over WCW and ECW wrestlers, usually cleanly. In contrast, most of The Alliance's wins were controversial due to interference or disqualification. For example, it took Tazz assisting Raven at the Invasion pay-per-view to beat WWF undercarder William Regal.[4] The Rock, however, beat WCW Champion Booker T cleanly at SummerSlam, despite Shane McMahon's assistance to Booker T.[22] It has been speculated that the reason for The Alliance appearing weak was because WWF's real-world owner Vince McMahon wanted the WWF to look strong while fighting The Alliance, as he worked very hard to put down his competition, especially WCW.[38][40][41]
SLAM! Wrestling alleged that The Alliance members were purposely made to look poorly in comparison to the WWF wrestlers:
Portrayed as disorganized and inferior grapplers, the ECW-WCW Team had more than its fair share of mistimed moves which hurt their own team members while the "WWF squad" of course wrestled like a well-oiled machine. The weakening of the ECW-WCW dubbed superstars didn't stop there either. The WWF faction battered their enemy tag partners off the ring apron over and over again making them appear weak and more times than not, the ECW-WCW grapplers gained an advantage only by double-teaming or employing underhanded tactics. The message sent was loud and clear. The "best" of ECW-WCW is not good enough to hang with the WWF.[4]
Focus on the McMahons
The Invasion storyline was presented with a backdrop of a McMahon family feud. In the storyline, the WWF was owned by Vince McMahon, WCW was owned by Shane McMahon, and ECW was owned by Stephanie McMahon. Although the feud did not center completely around the McMahons, the family feud storyline had been done many times before on WWF programming and was viewed as "tainting" the Invasion angle.[42][43] The McMahons allegedly got more airtime than the WCW and ECW wrestlers did during the course of the storyline.[39]
In addition to this, the Steve Austin versus Vince McMahon feud, which had already been the most prominent storyline in the WWF during the Attitude Era, comprised much of the Invasion storyline. Many critics felt that this storyline was "played out" and hurt the uniqueness of The Invasion.
As stated by a SLAM! Wrestling synopsis of No Mercy, a pay-per-view that occurred during the Invasion storyline:
For fans who didn't catch it the fifth, tenth or twentieth time they've run the angle, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Vince McMahon are about to feud once again... First up was Vincent McMahon labelling Austin with a steel chair as he was waiting to put a dazed RVD away... Three minutes later, it was Shane McMahon's turn to hurl Kurt Angle out of the ring and into a steel ring post. Vince tackled Shane over the announce table and the two began pummeling one another. Back in the ring, Austin laid a "Stone Cold" Stunner on to retain the belt as a disgruntled Vince scowled. Gee, how many times have we seen that scenario play itself out before? Austin wins. Vince fumes. Fans snore. Whatever.[28]
Lack of major WCW and ECW talent
Many wrestling fans had dreamed of a day where they would see WWF and WCW wrestlers compete against each other, but the Invasion storyline's final match ended with four WWF wrestlers wrestling. On TSN's Off the Record, host Michael Landsberg asked Booker T why the Invasion – which he stated should have been one of the biggest money angles in wrestling history – was in his words a failure on pay-per-view. Booker responded:
That wasn't the true WCW. I mean, we didn't have guys like Goldberg. We didn't have Sting. We didn't have Kevin Nash. We didn't have all the major players in the WCW to face the WWF superstars.[44]
Some of the WCW wrestlers' absences were partly out of the WWF's control. Many of WCW's top wrestlers had contracts with
In correlation with WCW, ECW was also missing most of their key wrestlers such as
The WWF itself would be missing some of its biggest stars, most notably
Overemphasis on WWF defectors
In lieu of signing big WCW names, to bolster the ranks of WCW, some WWF wrestlers (such as Steve Austin) defected and joined The Alliance, often being pushed as the leaders of the group.[4] Austin, who had worked in WCW and ECW but had found his greatest success in the WWF and was seen primarily as a WWF wrestler, was pushed as the leader of The Alliance and a more important player during the Invasion than the bona fide WCW or ECW members of The Alliance. Several top WCW and ECW talents who were main event wrestlers in their previous companies, such as Diamond Dallas Page, Mike Awesome, Justin Credible, Raven and Tazz, were put down into low-mid card matches, while lesser-ranked WWF wrestlers who defected to The Alliance, such as Test and Christian, were given a greater push. Sting would cite these lack of pushes for WCW and ECW wrestlers as the reason he did not initially sign with McMahon's organization despite being offered a contract.
In the final match between The Alliance and the WWF at Survivor Series, The Alliance was represented by five wrestlers. Three of these were WWF wrestlers who had defected. Two members of the teams, Shane McMahon and Kurt Angle, had never wrestled a match for WCW or ECW prior to the Invasion. Only three wrestlers on the team (Austin, Booker T, and Rob Van Dam), including the WWF defectors, had worked in WCW or ECW. McMahon, Booker T, and Rob Van Dam were the first three wrestlers eliminated on the Alliance's team, resulting in the last survivors representing the ostensible WCW/ECW entity being two wrestlers who were already working for the WWF prior to the Invasion. This overemphasis on WWF wrestlers was widely cited by critics as a reason for The Invasion storyline's "failure". In contrast to most critics, Smash Wrestling welcomed the use of WWF wrestlers in The Alliance, claiming that WWF wrestlers were needed to defect to make The Alliance appear as a credible threat due to the decline of the WCW and ECW products prior to their closures.[37]
References
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- ^ Arnold Furious (February 14, 2004). "Smash wrestling". Archived from the original on September 29, 2011. Retrieved December 12, 2007.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Paul Nemer (July 9, 2001). "RAW Results 7–9–01". Wrestleview. Retrieved December 10, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f John Powell. "Austin turns at Invasion". Archived from the original on July 13, 2012. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
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: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "WWF buys rival WCW". CNN Money. March 23, 2001. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
- ^ Arnold Furious (November 10, 2003). "Smash Wrestling". Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved December 12, 2007.
- ^ Paul Nemer (May 28, 2001). "RAW Results 5–28–01". Wrestleview. Retrieved December 10, 2012.
- ^ John Powell. "Angle and Edge rule KOTR". Archived from the original on September 19, 2015. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
- ^ a b c Paul Nemer (June 6, 2001). "RAW Results 6–25–01". Retrieved December 10, 2012.
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What many fans felt was the worst main event in the history of the program... The match was embarrassing, and chants of "Boring" and "This Match Sucks" were clearly heard throughout.
- ^ "Booker T". Off the Record with Michael Landsberg. November 5, 2001. TSN.
- ^ "YouTube". YouTube.
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- ^ Calvin Martin (July 5, 2001). "SmackDown! Results 7–5–01". Archived from the original on October 14, 2007. Retrieved December 12, 2007.
Austin gives Vince a present from Texas. Austin says he was in such a good mood he bought himself one too. The presents are sterling cowboy hats.
- ^ a b c d e f Big Calbowski (July 12, 2001). "WWF Smackdown Results 07/12/01". Archived from the original on October 14, 2007. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
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- ^ a b Paul Nemer (July 23, 2001). "RAW Results 7–23–01". Wrestleview. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
- ^ a b Big Calbowski (July 26, 2001). "SmackDown! Results 7–26–01". Archived from the original on October 14, 2007. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Paul Nemer (July 30, 2001). "RAW Results 7–30–01". Wrestleview. Retrieved December 10, 2012.
- ^ a b c d John Powell. "Rock wins WCW title". Archived from the original on August 2, 2012. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
...they have bungled the WCW-ECW invasion angle so badly that it will go down as the greatest screw ups in the federation's illustrious history.
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- ^ JARO (September 3, 2001). "SmackDown! Results 9–3–01". Archived from the original on October 17, 2007. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
- ^ "20 Years Later: A Look Back at WWE Smackdown September 13th, 2001 – TJR Wrestling". September 13, 2021.
- ^ John F. Molinaro. "Angle wins WWF title". Archived from the original on July 14, 2012. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
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- ^ Big Calbowski (November 1, 2001). "SmackDown! Results 11–1–01". Archived from the original on October 14, 2007. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
- ^ Paul Nemer (November 5, 2001). "RAW Results 11–5–01". Wrestleview. Retrieved December 10, 2012.
- ^ Big Calbowski (November 8, 2001). "SmackDown! 11–8–01". Archived from the original on October 14, 2007. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
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- ^ a b Arnold Furious (June 27, 2003). "Smash Wrestling". Archived from the original on September 29, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
- ^ a b Bruce Chen (May 19, 2005). "The Flop of the Invasion". Retrieved December 9, 2007.
Eric Bischoff was not present and Paul Heyman was not given as much authority as he could have been
- ^ a b Matthew Evans (November 8, 2007). "Give It A Rest, Vince". Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
...one of the most poorly handled, ego-filled story lines in wrestling history.
- ^ Tony Cottam (June 28, 2003). "Smash Wrestling". Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
- ^ Tony Cottam (February 22, 2003). "Smash Wrestling". Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
- ^ John Powell. "Stephanie betrays Vince at Armageddon". Archived from the original on June 30, 2012. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ John Powell. "WrestleMania 2000 a flop". Archived from the original on June 30, 2012. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "Booker T interview". Off the Record. November 5, 2001. TSN.
...we didn't have all the major players in the WCW to face the WWF superstars, so it was kind of watered down a little bit.
- ^ a b c Arnold Furious (June 27, 2003). "Smash Wrestling". Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
- ^ Arnold Furious (June 30, 2003). "Smash Wrestling". Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
- ^ Meltzer, Dave (April 2, 2001). "April 2, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Final episode of WCW Monday Nitro". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved June 16, 2021.