With the benefit of hindsight, the InVasion of WCW and ECW has largely been viewed as a failure. With the biggest stars in WCW either on no-compete contracts with AOL/Time Warner (Hogan, Hall, Nash, Goldberg, Flair, Steiner) or injured (Rey Mysterio), the WWF got the B-Team of WCW stars for this invasion, led by DDP and Booker T. Still, at that time, wrestling fans had been conditioned for years to think of WWF and WCW as separate entities, and to see them combined on the same show -- regardless of which wrestlers were representing the company -- was very intriguing. The ratings reflected that interest. The InVasion Pay Per View, which replaced Fully Loaded in July, got nearly 800,000 pay per view buys, making it one of the most-purchased non-Big Four pay per views in WWE history. The height of the angle happened on the July 9, 2001 episode of Raw, where Tommy Dreamer and Rob Van Dam invaded in the company, and eight other WWF and WCW stars were turned back over to ECW. Paul Heyman, who was sitting with Jim Ross at commentary, spoke the memorable words: "Feel this, JR! Feel this moment for the rest of your life! Feel it!" Then got up and proceeded to deliver a great promo (as he always does) declaring that the InVasion had just gone to the extreme. Later in the night, another bombshell was dropped, as ECW and WCW had merged to form The Alliance against the WWF. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2hKTuU5hMA The next couple of months would be full of interesting plot turns, as Steve Austin would jump to The Alliance and Vince McMahon would attempt to bring back The Rock, who teased a jump to The Alliance before solidifying his allegiance to Team WWF. Plus, the InVasion would help build a bonafide star in RVD. The InVasion never lived up to the potential that it could have delivered, but what we got was good enough to make this one of the hottest summer storylines in WWE history.
