While the heel turn at WrestleMania X-7 was a total flop, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. The WWF had recently purchased WCW and every fan's dream was about to come true. For years, there had been discussions about what a WWF vs. WCW pay-per-view event would look like. Fans would map out their matches and winners and magazines at the time ran features almost monthly about the subject. When the WCW purchase happened in 2001, fans were chomping at the bit to see WCW vs. WWF. The problem was that no WCW talent was ever able to actually succeed against a WWF wrestler. WCW guys were portrayed as stupid henchmen to owners Shane and Stephanie McMahon. They later added Paul Heyman's ECW guys to the fix, forming the not-so-threatening-sounding Alliance faction. With the WWF under siege by the Alliance, Vince McMahon called upon Steve Austin to return to the hell-raising, beer drinking character old. Austin had turned soft in recent months and Vince went so far as to beg Austin to give him a Stunner. He needed Steve to captain Team WWF at Invasion and needed him badly. On the Raw before Invasion, Austin seemingly made up his mind. While the WWF roster was badly outnumbered by WCW guys, Austin made his triumphant return, delivering stunners to everyone and clearing the ring, popping the crowd huge and making his return to the WWF side of things. Then, it all went bad. For no reason whatsoever, Steve Austin turned on Team WWF at Invasion, stopping Kurt Angle from winning the match and turning heel once again. To say people were less than pleased would be an understatement. There was absolutely no reason for Austin to join WCW. It was a well-known fact that Austin hated the company for firing him while he was injured and, come on, he was the most popular WWF wrestler of all-time. The Alliance was immediately turned from an outside threat into Austin's sniveling henchmen. It completely killed any realism the angle had and was a colossal failure that probably cost the WWF hundreds of millions of dollars.
