10 Fatal Mistakes Of WWE's 2001 Invasion
Where to begin?
It’s been over 15 years since WCW has been out of business. Vince McMahon quickly snatched up the remains of his old competition, and then decided what to do next. He didn’t waste much time, as WCW forces soon began to assemble and invade WWF shows. It escalated into an all-out war at the Invasion pay-per-view in July of 2001.
As most fans know, the angle was pretty much one gigantic disaster. The Invasion event itself drew a great buyrate (770,000), but there was a steep decline in business in the following months, as well as an increase in fan apathy. The surefire juggernaut storyline never came anywhere near reaching its built-in potential, and mercifully ended at Survivor Series four months after the Invasion pay-per-view.
After the war, WWE's ratings soon fell back to normal levels. That was shocking, since there were still a couple million WCW fans left tuning into Nitro at the end. Yet they seemed to have simply given up watching wrestling altogether, rather than witness what Vince was going to do with their beloved brand.
Either the entire thing was cursed from the start, or WWE just didn’t know how to book this angle, which should have been one of the easiest ones ever to write. So what happened?
It’s hard to ignore the massive errors made along the way, and that’s what we’re here to relive. Let's go back 15 years in time and rank the 10 fatal mistakes of the Invasion angle.