As much of a letdown as the 2006 ECW revival was, at least it wasn't as bad as the bungled ECW/WCW invasion from 2001. When ECW folded and the WWF bought WCW in early 2001, fans immediately began to fantasy book the inter-promotional feud. This was something that fans had been thinking about during the duration of the Monday Night Wars. Now with Vince McMahon owning the rights to the WCW and ECW names, it was a reality. What matches did fans want to see during the eagerly-anticipated invasion? Goldberg versus Steve Austin topped most fans' lists. Hogan versus Austin wasn't far behind. Ric Flair versus The Rock? Potentially great. A shock return of Macho Man Randy Savage? Dig it. The long-awaited debut of Sting? Yes, please. What did fans get? Well, not a lot, as it turns out. The invasion was screwed from the start. Most of the WCW big guns decided to collect on their guaranteed Time Warner contracts. WWF wrestlers, extremely protective of their spots, were not willing to sell or show weakness to the alliance members. Undertaker buried the promising Mike Awesome and Sean O'Haire and destroyed DDP and Kanyon. Then Stephanie and Shane McMahon got involved and it became just another episode of McMahon family feud. There were some successes, of course. Rob Van Dam was exposed to a wider audience than ever before and immediately got over, having some great matches with Jeff Hardy, Steve Austin and Chris Jericho in the process. But the invasion was a letdown, to put it mildly. It could be argued that it would never be able to live up fans' expectations but, to be honest, WWE didn't even try, did they?
