10 Fatal Mistakes Of WWE's 2001 Invasion

1. Making It All About The McMahon Family

Look at the Invasion poster. Just look at it. Fifteen years later, and it still makes me uncontrollably vomit.

This storyline is really where The McMahon Family started to believe that the wrestling world revolved around them. They provided us with our entertainment, and we should just be happy for it. To them, WCW was never about Austin vs. Goldberg, or The NWO vs. DX, it was Vince vs. Ted Turner. Now Ted was gone, and Vince now was the wrestling world.

The leader of WCW in the angle he booked? Not Flair, Sting, or Eric Bischoff, it was Shane McMahon. The leader of ECW? Not Paul Heyman, but Stephanie McMahon. Even Vince had to realise that Steph isn’t in the same stratosphere at cutting promos as Heyman. But it didn't matter. He won the war, and he could do whatever he wanted.

The McMahons being pushed at the forefront of the storyline was one of the weirdest, unnecessary ego trips the family has ever been on. No one watched wrestling before 1997 for any McMahon. The WCW vs. WWF war went on long before they ever became characters. That's how people wanted to see it play out: in the ring with top wrestlers, not as a McMahon family chess game.

Everyone knew who won in real life. They just wanted to be entertained with dream matches, and a compelling storyline. But Vince, his son, and his daughter couldn’t take themselves out of the equation to make things work. That remains the biggest mistake made from The Invasion.