With the purchase of WCW, the World Wrestling Federation was finally declared the winner of the Monday Night Wars and wrestling fans went nuts because now they would finally see all those fantasy matchups pitting WCW vs. WWF. Wrestling magazines for years used to do big business writing articles about interpromotional matches and now we were finally going to see it. Of course, it turned out to be a massive failure. Without going into all the details as to why the Invasion failed (that's a story for another time), the stupidest decision during that time was probably the choice of Steve Austin to turn against the WWF. Austin had turned heel at Wrestlemania X-7 by joining Vince McMahon to win the WWF title from the Rock. To say that Austin's heel turn failed would be a massive understatement. Nobody wanted to boo Steve Austin, so he was turned back into a babyface when the WCW wrestlers started appearing on WWF television. Finally, the stage was set for the big event in Cleveland, Ohio as the stars of WCW/ECW would take on the WWF stars and a new era in wrestling would begin. The main event was the "Inaugural Brawl" pitting Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, the Undertaker, and Kane vs. Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, Rhyno, and the Dudley Boyz. Common sense stated that the Alliance had to win the main event because that would kill the storyline right out of the gate if they didn't. Most smart fans figured that Chris Jericho would turn on the WWF since he had been a whiny heel the past few months and he was a WCW wrestler for a large part of his career. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPw89iSIkRo However, Steve Austin ended up being the one who turned on Kurt Angle and allowed Booker T to win the match for the Alliance in the main event. Austin's decision was an incredibly stupid one, considering he built his career mocking WCW for firing him while injured. He was also the biggest star in the WWF's long history and had recently aligned himself with the owner, Vince McMahon! The entire thing made absolutely no sense and the angle was basically killed right out of the start gate.
