The Invasion storyline might be remembered as a flop now, but before it truly became apparent how much WWF would drop the ball with it, it was magnetic television viewing. The disconnect at seeing so many WCW stars fighting WWF stars on WWF programming was unreal at first. Everyone knows what happened fresh from winning the Monday Night War, McMahon was too headstrong to even consider booking the WCW roster acquisitions as equals to his own performers, in part because hed balked at paying to bring in the big guns, who were sitting at home still being paid vast sums via their contracts with Time Warner, whod bankrolled WCW until its demise. In the meantime, WWFs biggest star was stagnating. Stone Cold Steve Austin had turned heel at Wrestlemania X-Seven, allying with former nemesis Vince McMahon, and cementing his turn with a further alliance with superheel Triple H as the Power Trip. And then the Game blew his quad, and Austin flatlined as a character. Hed become whiny, bullying, over-emotional and sentimentally corny by turns, far from the rebellious tweener that had made so much money and won the Monday Night War for the WWF, and had no traction as a heel at all. Facing annihilation in the storyline, as ECW and WCW merged to form the Alliance, headed by his own children, Vince McMahon pleaded with Stone Cold to go back to his old self and the result is television magic that only pro wrestling can bring. On RAW on July 16th 2001, the Rattlesnake did indeed return, and beat up half the Alliance roster on his return to the ring, proceeding to deliver a Stunner to the other half once he got there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDOhuHgCGhQ It wouldnt last clearly Austin was committed to the heel persona hed unleashed at Wrestlemania. Less than a week later, hed turn heel yet again by screwing over the WWF for the Alliance at the Invasion pay-per-view. For one night only though, the crowd popped for the return of their hero.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
