10 Times WWE Lost Their Minds

For decades, there were two major wrestling companies in the United States - WWE, and what would come to be known as WCW. While most stars would end up working for both promotions in the course of their careers, they all ended up inextricably linked to one or the other. That meant that fans always wondered what would happen if the WWE superstars fought the ones from WCW.

In the Attitude Era, wrestling got insanely popular, and that curiosity increased - especially because WCW's top star, Bill Goldberg, bore a physical resemblance to WWE's main attraction, Steve Austin. Though the similarities were only skin deep, the "Austin versus Goldberg" debate consumed pro wrestling. Soon after, though, WWE began thrashing WCW in the wrestling war, and in 2001, the company was put up for sale. WWE bought it.

That opened up the door for what could have been the single most successful storyline in wrestling history - a WCW versus WWE war. The only problem was that WWE was never really committed to its success. The top stars in WCW had separate contracts through Time Warner, meaning that WWE didn't get the rights to their deals. Hiring guys like Goldberg, Kevin Nash, Sting, Lex Luger, and Rey Mysterio would have forced WCW to buy them out, and Vince McMahon wasn't interested. Only Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page took payoffs from Time Warner (at less than what they were owed) to join WWE for the invasion.

WCW stars soon began to filter onto WWE TV, and they demanded a chance to prove themselves. Booker T took on Buff Bagwell on an episode of Raw, and when that match bombed (due to Bagwell), the decision was made to turn all of the WCW stars heel. Soon, ECW alums - led by Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer - joined the WCW guys, overshadowing them in a group called "The Alliance."

The booking was already horrible, but fans were still interested - the Invasion PPV, featuring the first WWE versus WCW matches, still stands as the most-purchased non-WrestleMania event in history. That show saw Steve Austin turn on WWE, taking the helm of the WCW/ECW Alliance. Needless to say, the stars that came from WCW didn't exactly feel like stars.

For the next four months, WWE's guys beat WCW's stars mercilessly, and the only Alliance members who didn't come out looking bad were Rob Van Dam and the wrestlers who had defected from WWE. It bears repeating that WWE owned WCW, so what was good for WCW was good for WWE. In any event, WWE won a winner-take-all match over the Alliance at the Survivor Series, killing the group once and for all.

In an alternate universe, WWE made WCW look good, kept the brand as a separate entity, did a "WCW vs. WWE" showdown PPV once a year, and made billions. In this universe, 3 million people watch wrestling every Monday as compared to 10 million in 1999.