The Invasion should have been the biggest angle in wrestling history. Fans at the time dreamed of seeing their favourite WWF stars clash with the incoming names from WCW. People couldn't wait to see Austin vs Goldberg and Undertaker vs Sting - the feuds almost wrote themselves. Unfortunately this didn't quite go to plan. The storyline (which spanned from mid to late 2001) is now widely regarded as a huge anti-climax, with Vince McMahon and co. failing to hit the easiest of home runs, held back by the WWF's need to prove itself superior to the competition. Admittedly, Vince's ego wasn't the only reason the angle was prevented from reaching its full potential - some of WCW's biggest names weren't willing to take a pay cut to wrestle for the WWF, instead sitting out the rest of their inflated contracts at home. These names included arguably the biggest three stars in the company at the time: Goldberg, Sting and Kevin Nash. Despite this admittedly huge drawback, Vince is still widely criticised for allowing his ego to get in the way of the most promising wrestling angle ever. The Alliance's stars weren't built up to be as big of a threat as they should have been, with only Rob Van Dam and Booker T receiving any sort of substantial push. The other top stars of the invading forces were defecting WWF stars such as Steve Austin and Kurt Angle. Despite the creative mess the WWF made of the Invasion, luckily it delivered some great matches from a purely in-ring perspective. Although the first Pay Per View (also named Invasion) was something of a flop, the following five PPVs all delivered to some extent - even the usually dire jaunt to the UK for Rebellion. Despite not attracting WCW's biggest names, Vince was able to scoop some of their best workers. Additionally, although turning the existing WWF stars against each other may have made the Alliance look weak, it admittedly resulted in a good collection of Pay Per View matches between workers who already knew each other's game inside out.
