12 One-Time WWE Pay-Per-Views

The Invasion, or, the biggest missed opportunity in wrestling history.

With the WCW/ECW Alliance formed, the company was now in the throes of interpromotional conflict. Keep in mind: traditional wrestling logic dictates that the heel should have the upper hand to start out the program in order to make them look credible and add dramatic tension. It’s a bad sign when the first three matches on this card have the WWF beating the Alliance. Not even WCW’s former referees could look good, as Nick Patrick lost in two minutes to Earl Hebner (no really, this happened).

The main event saw Alliance members Booker T, DDP, Rhyno, and the Dudley Boyz (yes, Rhyno and the Dudleyz, despite them already being established WWF talent before the Invasion) engage in a brawl with WWF main eventers Steve Austin, Chris Jericho, Kane, The Undertaker, and Kurt Angle. But uh oh! Stone Cold turned on the WWF and joined the Alliance. Yes, the Alliance simply couldn’t be credible on their own. They needed the help of the the WWF’s biggest star ever to be a threat.

Poor booking aside, this show did absolute gangbusters, and at 777,000 buys, it’s WWE’s most bought non-WrestleMania PPV in history. Seriously, it did better business than any SummerSlam, Survivor Series, or Royal Rumble. It’s almost like people were really excited by the prospect of a WCW/WWF war, and there was a lot of money to be made out of doing it correctly. But hey, what they did was... A for effort? Maybe?