10 Fatal Mistakes Of WWE's 2001 Invasion

8. Not Hiring Enough Identifiable Names

WWE hired a lot of WCW talent in the buyout, but they missed out on not only top stars, but a lot of mid-card wrestlers that fans were familiar with. The weird identity that The Alliance developed was one of the factors that did them in, because too many members of the group just felt like WWE guys.

Most people who watched WCW and WWE gave up on the Turner organisation a couple of years before the company died. Therefore, they didn’t know who the Chuck Palumbos and Mark Jindraks of the world were.

So bear with me for a moment, but Disco Inferno would have been a good signing for the angle. He was a fun comedy act, fans knew who he was, and he was completely identifiable with the WCW brand. Also, WWE may not have then felt compelled to turn nearly every other WCW wrestler into a comedy act if they had him.

Also missing from the angle was Vampiro, Konnan, Daffney, Juventud Guerrera, The West Hollywood Blondes, 3-Count (brought in as that gimmick), Psicosis, and even Bam Bam Bigelow and Curt Hennig to give them a little more star power. And hell, they should have brought in Norman Smiley, Glacier and La Parka for short runs.

Of course, not everyone should have been hired. Tank Abbott, Van Hammer, David Flair, and Brian Knobbs were probably fine sitting at home. But WWE missed a big opportunity to make the angle feel more authentic by letting so much of WCW's working class miss out on the fight entirely.