The Invasion (professional wrestling)
professional wrestling storyline / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Invasion was a wrestling storyline in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) that began after the WWF bought World Championship Wrestling (WCW). It involved the WCW wrestlers "invading" WWF television to try to "take over" the WWF.
The idea of a match showing the top 2 shows of the Monday Night Wars was considered to be a "dream match" show in the eyes of many fans, because it let fans to see which show would be superior. The storyline began when Vince McMahon's son, Shane McMahon, said on RAW that he bought WCW.[1] This led to many appearances of WCW wrestlers during RAW and SmackDown! after WrestleMania X-Seven.[2]
In June 2001, the storyline got more intense as more WWF storylines ended to make room for the central Invasion storyline. WCW and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) merged to make The Alliance and challenged the WWF's control over the wrestling industry.[3] An Inaugural Brawl took place at the WWF Invasion pay-per-view, where Stone Cold Steve Austin defected and joined the Alliance.[4] Many inter-promotional matches occurred after the Invasion between The Alliance and the WWF, leading up to the climax of the angle at Survivor Series 2001, when Team WWF (The Rock, Chris Jericho, Big Show, The Undertaker, and Kane) defeated Team Alliance (Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Booker T, and Shane McMahon) in a Winner-Take-All match.[5]
A very large storyline that went for 5 months from June 2001 to November 2001, the storyline has been heavily criticized.[6][7][8]