The 411 Wrestling Top 5 2.10.10: Week 61 – Guest Booker Month - The Invasion of the WWF

Posted by Michael Bauer on 02.10.2010

From Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin dropping the nice guy act and finally facing off and Diamond Dallas Page winning the WWF Title to Paul Heyman and ECW running wild as their own force and the WWF winning in the end, the 411 wrestling staff looks to rebook the Invasion Angle of 2001 in the latest edition of the 411 Wrestling Top Five!

Hello everyone and welcome to 411 Wrestling's Top 5 List. What we are going to is take a topic each week and all the writers here on 411 wrestling will have the ability to give us their Top 5 on said topic, plus up to three honorable mentions.

So, on to this week's topic…

GUEST BOOKER MONTH – THE INVASION ANGLE

For the month of February, we are doing Guest Booker Month, much like Ring of Honor has with a DVD series. For the four Top 5 lists this month, we will be looking back a specific time period and seeing what the writers would change. The lists will be one through five, chronologically, with no Honorable Mentions. The five items do not have to be related to one another.

For example: Hogan's leaving after Wrestlemania VIII

If you would never had Savage beat Flair for the gold, you can still assume Bret Hart became champion when he did and just have a different result to end Wrestlemania IX.

This week we are going to the end of WCW and WWE, starting on March 26, 2001. Six days before Wrestlemania and Shane McMahon shows up on WCW Nitro's final broadcast to work the WWE angle of him against his father. It ends on November 18, 2001 when Steve Austin eats the final pinfall in the Survivor Series match and the WWE defeats the combined forces of WCW and ECW… or does it? Not only do our writers get the chance to rework those eight months, but they are able to go further to Wrestlemania XVIII or however long they need to properly end the feud.

So what did our group of writers select? Let's find out…



Jeremy Thomas

1. Diamond Dallas Page wins the WWF Heavyweight Championship.



And right off the bat, too. One of the biggest problems with the InVasion was that after WrestleMania, nothing really happened with it. Fans were breathless with anticipation to see what was going on, but the WWF were busy trying to figure out how to establish them as two separate shows. Instead of doing that, they needed to play through the angle and then, AFTERWARD, set them as two distinct brands. So things escalate immediately after WrestleMania in my booking, with the confrontation between Shane and Vince where Booker T comes in to scissor kick the Chairman happening the Raw directly after 'Mania. With that in mind, one of the most important things to do in order to establish the importance of the WCW Invasion was to make their talent seem dangerous. As much as I would like to have said that one of the iconic names comes in to win it, I'm deciding to work with what I have and really, you have two names in WCW that wrestling fans would have accepted as legitimate threats. One of those was Booker T, who was the WCW World Heavyweight Champion. The other was DDP, who had been a champion before and was hugely over with the crowds. This is set up the week after the situation where Booker T scissor kicked Vince. Instead of having Booker take on Buff Bagwell, you have DDP (who would NOT have debuted in the Sara Undertaker stalker crap in this version) come out and apologize to Vince for that. He promises that as one of the WCW locker room leaders, he will deal with it but in return, he wants a shot at the Rock and the WWF Title. (He didn't lose it in my booking because they didn't do the Two-Man Power Group and Austin heel turn. That would just overshadow the InVasion too much and a heel turn for a major star is not as significant as what Vince had on his hands.) Vince reluctantly makes the deal, and through the rest of the show you have DDP talking with people in WCW, arguing that they need to show what they can do as talents, not bullies. Eventually they all agree, including Booker. Page says that he's going to have Booker sit at ringside and watch how a true sportsman behaves. When the match kicks off, things are going well. Booker looks like he's about to interfere a couple of times but Page tells him not to. Finally the end comes when a ref bump happens and Booker comes in. Page tries to hold him off and the Rock about ready to take them both out when Page asks him to back off. Rocky does...right into a belt shot from Shane who's come out of the crowd. The Rock stumbles forward into a Diamond Cutter for the pinfall and bam! Instant credibility for the WCW group. They've just fired a huge shot across the bow, but not in a way that proves they're the better company. Just like that, in the words of Marcus Burnett, "shit just got real."

2. Gang Warfare Escalates: If the WWE would took a hit when DDP won the Heavyweight Title, then things would really start to look bleak when ECW joined in the fray. I would have that whole thing play out exactly how it did (except, again, earlier), with WCW and ECW embracing in the ring. Afterward, the Alliance starts acting like the nWo did to a degree. They're fighting for their careers here and since Vince McMahon won't give them air time, they're going to earn it. Edge and Christian lose the World Tag Team Titles to Undertaker and Kane on the April 19th edition of SmackDown, only to have the Dudley Boys and the Impact Players come down and take them both out. That sets up a four-way match at Backlash for the Tag Team Titles which the Dudleys win. Similar sneak attack methods play out elsewhere; DDP retains his title against the Rock thanks to RVD and Dreamer, while Booker T loses by DQ against Triple H when Shane comes in to interrupt the three count. The WWF starts fighting back using the same tactics and things start to get ugly.

3. Steve Austin's Allegiance is Unknown: Austin's motto was legendary. "DTA: Don't Trust Anybody." In a situation where two sides were lining up, it would make the most sense for Stone Cold to fight as a solo warrior and not take either side. While Shane and Stephanie would try to woo him to the Alliance and Vince tried the same thing with the WWF, Austin would have had good reasons not to trust any of them and would have kept fighting all comers. He ends up as the guest referee in a Judgment Day tag team main event between DDP & Booker on one side and the Rock and Triple H on the other and calls it right down the middle. When a close count doesn't result in a three, Page gets in Austin's face and shoves him, which results in a Stunner to the WWF Heavyweight Champion. The Rock covers for three and the big question is whether Austin has sided with the WWF. However the next night on Raw, Austin is confronted by all three McMahons and told to pick a side. Austin says he's picking his own side and stuns all three of them. While this would result in a slightly diminished role for Stone Cold in-ring, it would keep him in the thick of things and actually let him rest some of the injuries he'd been nursing at the time.

4. The WWF Makes Their Comeback: Building through SummerSlam and toward Survivor Series, the WWF starts to come back in their feud. SummerSlam sees a major defection as RVD gets tired of the crap that Shane and Stephanie are spewing and sides with the WWF. Meanwhile Jericho defects the other direction. Palumbo and O'Haire get tired of the Dudleys holding down the Alliance Tag Teams and denying them a shot, and that dissention starts to play out throughout as the younger guys want their shots. The Rock wins back his WWF Title from Page in a chaotic lumberjack match and the Alliance teams start to get more and more frustrated. The battle lines start to get a bit blurry as people who haven't chosen a side are targeted more intensely; only Austin manages to stay the lone wolf. While the Alliance is still holding their own at this point the 'F is looking competitive again, and that leads to the climax at…

5. Survivor Series 2001: And this plays out more or less as it did, with the exception of no mole. Instead, we have a five-on-five Winner Take All Main Event. On Team WWF are The Rock, The Undertaker, Kane, Rob Van Dam and Kurt Angle; on Team Alliance are Chris Jericho, Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page and the Dudley Boys. While the other inter-promotional matches throughout the show are tallied up in favor of the Alliance or the WWF, this is the tie breaker. They battle it out in a hard-fought match that ends up coming down to two men: The Rock and Page. The Rock is in control until Stephanie comes down and distracts the referee, allowing Shane to take him out from behind. Shane and Page are beating down the Rock until finally, Steve Austin comes out. The Alliance offers him a job in the new alliance once the 'F is out of business, and Austin considers before taking them both out and helping the Rock up. Austin beats Shane up the ramp as Page is Rock Bottomed, allowing for the three-count and a WWF win. Afterward, WCW ends up with SmackDown thanks to the Ric Flair half-owner deal and you have two separate brands that are totally viable. End of InVasion.



Aaron Hubbard

1. Benoit as WWF Champion, Leads ECW:



In this scenario, Chris Benoit was not injured (nor was Triple H, but I'll get to that in a second) and had defeated Austin and Jericho to win the WWF Championship. WCW invades and Benoit and Booker T, the WCW Champion, renew acquaintances, with Booker defeated Benoit to guarantee that WCW takes over half of Monday Night RAW. Austin accuses Benoit of losing on purpose and being a mole for WCW, and Benoit walks out of the company. At Invasion, Angle defeats Jericho and Undertaker to win the vacant WWF Championship. Austin and Triple H battle Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page, but Benoit interrupts the match with The Dudley Boyz, Rob Van Dam, Raven, Rhyno, Taz, Tommy Dreamer, Sabu and Paul Heyman in tow. They declare ECW the dominant company, and Benoit invokes his rematch clause to face Angle at Summer Slam, where he wins with a little help from Heyman. ECW battles both sides as an independent promotion.

2. WCW Takes Over: Leading up to Survivor Series, there are many twists and turns. Triple H and Austin have stopped caring about the war altogether, battling each other and causing a major rift in the WWF's war plan. Undertaker and The Rock take up team responsibility for WWF and Rock beats Booker T for the WCW Title at Summer Slam, while Jericho, fed up with being overlooked, joins WCW. In a shocking upset, Jericho beats The Rock cleanly at No Mercy for the WCW Title, and Booker defeats Benoit to gain the WWF title, leaving the WWF powerless. Going into Survivor Series, Vince, Heyman and Shane go all in, bring back War Games with three teams of three, Winner Takes All. WWF has Rock, 'Taker and Angle, WCW has Booker, DDP and Jericho, and WCW has Benoit, RVD and Sabu. Austin and HHH settle their rivalry in Hell in a Cell, with the stipulation that the winner will be signed by whoever wins. Austin wins that match, and in an absolute shocker, Jericho makes The Rock tap to the Walls of Jericho and WCW wins the war, kicking out WWF.

3. Steve Austin, WCW Champion: Now that WCW has taken over, they face the problem of having Jericho as their World Champion, while Booker T declares that he is World Champion as well, even if the WWF is dead. To settle the issue, WCW brings out Ric Flair as the WCW Commissioner, and Flair decides that they will bring back WCW's traditional December PPV, Starrcade. That at Starrcade, Jericho will face Austin, while Booker will face the newest man to resign with WCW...Bill Goldberg! Austin defeats Jericho, and Goldberg defeats Booker, leading to the epic dream match fans have been waiting for. After a brutal and dramatic contest, three Stone Cold Stunners put Goldberg down, and Austin reigns on top of the world as WCW Champion.

4.The n.W.o. Poisons WCW: Unfortunately, during his celebration on Nitro, Austin is assaulted by Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Hollywood Hogan. Hogan says that the n.W.o. Is responsible for WCW becoming the monster that could challenge and bury the WWF, so they have every right to be here. Austin declares that he will fight Hogan as soon as possible, and thanks to heavy interference from Hall and Nash, Hogan defeats Austin to become champion once more. Hogan says that he is in control and he's calling the shots, so he demands that Flair rehire the Rock so Hogan can prove once and for all that he is the biggest star in wrestling. Flair obliges and Hogan and Rock is set for SuperBrawl. In a shocking turn of events, Hogan goes down to a single punch from Rock and Rock hits the People's Elbow to become champion. Suddenly, all of the major WWF and ECW stars flock the ring, and Rock explains that the n.W.o. were sent in by Vince McMahon when Triple H called in a favor to his good buddies. Now the WWF has the belt, and the war is back on.

5. Wrestlemania X8-The Battle to End All Battles:In response to the WWF/ECW/n.W.o. Alliance, Flair desperately scours for any old talent that WCW has. He brings in Rey Mysterio, Eddy Guerrero, Curt Hennig, and most notably Sting. The stage is set for the biggest event in wrestling history at Wrestlemania X8, with Undertaker facing Goldberg, Triple H facing DDP, Angle facing Booker T, The Outsiders facing Flair & Hennig, Benoit facing Jericho, and RVD and Sabu facing Mysterio and Guerrero. The show is headlined by the double whammy dream matches of Hogan vs. Austin and Rock vs. Sting for the Championship. In the end, the WWF wins with Rock delivering the most electrifying move in sports entertainment to the Stinger. All of WCW's top talents are signed to the WWF.



Mathew Sforcina

1.Re-establish WCW.



Clearly, these things don't have to be totally realistic (right Jake?), but I'm keeping out all the huge names they couldn't get for one reason or another (Right JP?). Nor am I having injuries not take place. So, after Wrestlemania, what do you have? A bunch of WCW mid-card acts, with TWO main eventers, neither of whom are known to the WWF audience (in theory). So, what do you do?

Build up what you have, obviously.

After Shane's victory over Vince at WM, Vince is angry, even with Austin in his pocket. So, he issues a challenge to Shane, for a rematch at Backlash. After some back and forth, it becomes a battle for WCW's Future, with Shane putting up his stock in WCW AND the WWF against Smackdown. And, after Austin beats down Shane in a psychotic rage on a Smackdown, and some WCW stars (who get little promo pieces during commercial breaks as WCW 'advertises' on WWF TV. Hey, Shane can buy ad time if he wants to...) murmer about running it, the match is put into a steel cage. Shane wins when Big Show lumbers out and knocks out Austin as he tries to interfere, allowing Shane to jump to escape and win, turning Smackdown into Thursday Nitro. After Big Show's defection, a few other moderate names jump brands when their contracts expire (and one or two switches the other way as well), but WWE and WCW just begin to pretend the others don't exist while going on with business as usual. But on every PPV, which they are forced to share due to Smackdown's right to airtime, the tension is palpable. World Champions have face offs, Divas get into cat fights, the Hardcore Title is briefly held by WCW guys for a few seconds, no major offensive, the two sides are being ordered to hold off. Until...

2.An Extremely Interesting SummerSlam - The Rock returns from his Vince McMahon exile (although Vince tried to get him back earlier, Rock refused) to, shockingly, announce his retirement from WWF. As soon as the ink is dry, he signs onto WCW for a short term contract, on the basis that he wants to punish Booker T for parody AND to get some revenge for killing 'his' show. And in the main event of Summerslam, he defeats Booker T, with an assist from Vince (although was it known to Rock?), Rock holds up his WCW Title... and promptly eats a chairshot from Tommy Dreamer. RVD is kicking away at Booker, before some WCW and WWE guys run out. Wait a moment... Tazz, Raven, Dudleys, Tajiri, Stevie... ECW BEATDOWN! Summerslam ends with Heyman gloating, the feed being cut in mid carnage as ECW brutalises all attempts at run ins from WCW or WWE.

3.Screw You, Screw You, and SCREW YOU. Thank you very much. - Now, ECW (which soon takes another name, thanks to the ECW lawsuit issue. I liked The Lunatic Fringe as was coined by Jed Shaffer, so we'll go with that) is set to bring down BOTH companies. Heyman wants to kill WCW for past slights, and WWF for current ones. The entire summer is taken up with the War, as WCW and WWF are forced to work together to try and stop Heyman and his flunkies. WCW guys are shown on equal footing with their WWF partners as they face off the Fringe, with now the occasional appearance of cross promotions. Austin makes an appearance on Nitro to team with Rock against The Impact Players, Kronik pops up as Enforcers to force The Dudleys to defend their WWF tag titles against The Hardys, stuff like that. Survivor Series sees the Fringe win the special 10 man elimination tag match, with RVD, Raven and Dreamer surviving thanks to Rock and Austin brawling, but The Rumble sees the Fringe fail in BOTH the WWF and WCW Rumbles. Some people join the Fringe (Austin joining after Survivor Series because he wants the Rock), some defect back, and there's still some switching around between WCW and WWF. This all comes to a head at Wrestlemania X8...

4.End of the InVasion, Start of the War. - There are several big matches, but Wrestlemania X8 ends with the biggest one of all. The Rock, representing WWF, and Booker T, representing WCW, managed by Ric Flair, taking on Austin & Chris Jericho of the Fringe, managed by Heyman, both Rock and Booker's WWF and WCW titles on the line, as opposed to the Fringe's existence. WCW and WWF win, the Fringe is defeated and gone, mass celebrations, WCW and WWF all come out to celebrate... And then Hulk Hogan and the nWo pop up on the Tron, and say "Execute Order 66."

Well, OK, not that, but something similar.

And WCW turns, beating down WWF, this Wrestlemania ending in pure chaos as the War kicks off.

5.One Full Year. - The War lasts all year, as WWE, now, and WCW (now run by the nWo after they bought/kicked Shane out) wage war against each other. Both sides use dirty tricks, Fringe members are brought back as weapons, moles, lise, tricks, double crosses, the works. It ends at Wrestlemania XIX, where in a Wargames match, Team WWE defeats Team WCW, killing WCW, giving WWE all their property and rights, bringing back Smackdown and ending the InVasion in huge, bloody style.



Ryan Byers

Note: For purposes of this fantasy booking scenario, I am assuming that all things that would have been beyond my control if I were actually running the promotion are beyond my control here. So, for example, I am not pretending that any injuries which occurred did not occur, and I am assuming that there is no viable outlet for a new WCW television program, much as there was not one in real life.

1.Buildup to the Invasion PPV



One of the complaints that I constantly hear about the invasion is that the WWF didn't fork over the money to buy out the Turner contracts of some of the bigger names in WCW, guys like Bill Goldberg, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Ric Flair. However, I am of the opinion that none of those men would have been necessary in the early going if the WWF actually treated the WCW wrestlers that they did sign as major league stars. Booker T and Dallas Page were both on board for the invasion and were established main event talent, and it wouldn't have been a stretch at all to take the crew of Sean O' Haire, Lance Storm, and Mike Awesome, all of whom were solid upper-midcard guys at the time of WCW's demise, and convince WWF fans that they were competent wrestlers capable of giving guys like Kurt Angle, Kane, Chris Jericho, and the Hardy Boys runs for their money. If I were booking the initial stages of the angle, the entire period of time between WCW's first strike against WWF and the Invasion pay per view would consist of those top five WCW names - Booker, Page, O' Haire, Storm, and Awesome - consistently being booked as the equals if not the superiors of their WWF counterparts. WCW and WWF skirmishes might occasionally end in draws, but the vast majority would end with the WCW wrestlers getting the upper hand, even if it were by cheating or creating situations in which the numbers game played out to their advantage. This would have the secondary effect of keeping ECW out of the early stages of the invasion, as Heyman and crew were really only brought in as a band-aid for the storyline once the WWF had bungled the handling of the WCW wrestlers so badly. I would keep the concept of a ten-man "Inaugural Brawl" for the Invasion pay per view, but with the lineup being Austin, Taker, Kane, Angle, and Jericho vs. Booker, Page, O' Haire, Awesome, and Storm. The finish would be WCW Champion Booker T. pinning WWF Champion Steve Austin after the egos of the WWF stars prevented them from presenting a united front. This would all lead in to . . .

2.Invasion through Summerslam - Though he was an entertaining heel in backstage skits, I wasn't a huge fan of the turn of Steve Austin and his joining WCW. It made the whole angle feel like a story featuring WWF guys going up against other WWF guys, which, of course, killed a lot of novelty of the invasion. Instead, I would keep Steve Austin with Team WWF, maintaining an uneasy alliance with the likes of the Undertaker and Vince McMahon. With Austin having been pinned by Booker T. in the Inaugural Brawl, Summerslam would be built around Austin vs. Booker in a title versus title match. In a move sure to shock the vast majority of WWF fans, Booker would triumph over Stone Cold due to last-minute interference from Shane McMahon, resulting in both the WWF and WCW Titles coming to rest around the waist of Booker, making him the first man to unify those championships. Booker and the entire WCW roster would show up to gloat in the main event slot of the next evening's Monday Night Raw, only to be interrupted by a familiar line of "Do You Smell What the Rock is Cooking . . ."

3.Summerslam through Survivor Series - After sitting on the sidelines for several months due to his prior "suspension" by Vince McMahon, the Rock would return the night after Booker T defeated Steve Austin for the WWF Title, being the first WWF wrestler to successfully lead a charge of the company's locker room to beat WCW in a face-to-face confrontation, clearing them out of the ring to close the first Raw after Summerslam. The result would be a Rock-Booker T. feud, preferably one in which Booker is portrayed as being on the same level as the Rock instead of being his clear subordinate as was the case in the real-life Rock-Booker feud. This would set up a four-way match at Unforgiven for the unified WWF and WCW Titles, with Booker defending against the Rock, Steve Austin, and Shane McMahon. Rocky would be inserted due to his dominance in his return angle, Austin would be exercising his rematch clause, and Shane would be put in at the insistence of Stone Cold so that he could legally get revenge on him for costing him the championship at Summerslam. In the four-way, Austin would pummel Shane for the majority of the match with Rock and Booker going toe-to-toe until the final minutes, where the WWF talent would be neutralized just long enough for Booker T. to steal a pinfall on a battered Shane McMahon to retain the unified championships. A tag match between those four men would follow at No Mercy with Rocky getting a clean pin on Booker, clearly establishing him as the top contender to the WWF and WCW Titles, setting up . . .

4.Survivor Series through Royal Rumble - First of all, I would not choose to end the invasion storyline at the 2001 Survivor Series. The only reason it was ended there was because it had been bungled so badly that it was clear it needed to be put out of its misery. Instead, I would make the Survivor Series just another chapter in the story, with the main event being Booker T defending both the WCW and WWF Titles against the Rock, the man who had pinned him in a tag team match at the immediately prior pay per view. The Rock would win a competitive match, becoming the first WWF wrestler since the invasion began to score a decisive pay per view main event victory over a WCW wrestler. It would appear for a few fleeting moments that WWF had finally won the war until . . . GOLDBERG HITS THE RING. It would be at this moment, seconds after the WWF/WCW Title change, that Bill Goldberg would make his debut as part of the invasion, laying Rocky out with a spear. It would later be revealed that Goldberg was brought in as the ultimate weapon of WCW, the guy who Shane McMahon feels will be able to, once and for all, put the WWF to bed. He would go on to win the 2002 Royal Rumble, which would include both WWF and WCW wrestlers. Of course, this would set up . . .

5.Royal Rumble through Wrestlemania and Epilogue - With Goldberg winning the right to challenge for the WWF/WCW Title at Wrestlemania by virtue of his Royal Rumble win, the bad blood and the violence of the encounters between the two promotions would intensify greatly over the next several weeks, until it becomes clear to both Vince and Shane McMahon that the war needs to be brought to a conclusive end. Wrestlemania XVIII would be built around a best of seven WWF vs. WCW series, headlined by the Rock vs. Goldberg. The losing company would be forced to disband, while the winning company would gain control of all of the existing WWF properties, including Raw, Smackdown, and all pay per views. Of course, the series would be tied three to three at the end of the evening, when the Rock would finally pin Goldberg to retain his titles and bring the invasion storyline to an end. Over the course of the next several weeks on WWF TV, certain WCW wrestlers would show up to humbly acknowledge that the WWF won fair and square, which would turn them babyface and earn them spots on the Fed's roster. Other WCW guys would not do so, with their returns being held back to a later date as part of other angles. The result would be a blended upper card of some WWF and some WCW wrestlers, who would coexist as well as professional wrestlers ever do until being drawn together by a new threat a few months down the road . . . the threat presented by a revived ECW.



Julian Bond

1. WCW/ECW Takes Over, Claims WWE Championship/Retire WCW Titles - The one main thing that have always pissed me off about the booking behind the Invasion was that the WWE never truly made the WCW and ECW ever…EVER…look like a real legit threat. Sure they had strength in numbers and sure they had gotten some "good" wins and sure they were gunning for the top WWE people. But to myself (and to many others), the WWE never gave me the viewer a strong reason why the hell I should really and truly care about the "threat" the Invasion brought. So here I would change it where the WCW folks would take over (via getting some major…not just good…upset wins over the top talent) and would make a major impact by having one of their folks (probably RVD or even Booker T) win the WWE Title, without particularly bringing their tons and tons of former WCW Titles with them, i.e. retiring them with the death of WCW. I think that if WCW didn't come with their defunct title belts, they could have just started picking up the WWE's ones to make a real impact by stealing them away.

2. Austin Betrays WWE, Becomes Main "Advisor" of Alliance



While I am in the minority with saying that I truly love every moment of the Austin heel turn, I had always thought that the storyline in which Austin was suddenly the newly dubbed leader of the Invasion (after his "betrayal" of WWE) was kind of dumb. I loved when Austin was randomly kicking Invasion members' asses…but as a whole it was so damn damaging to the story because it made former bad-asses like Raven and Tazz look like straight-up bitches. So I would change it where Austin would still betray WWE, but instead of being the main leader of the Invasion he could just be their advisor in the background. If Austin was instead a sneaky cowardly bastard helping out the Invasion's cause instead of suddenly becoming their main savior and leader (which totally ruined the illusion of the collaboration between WCW/ECW), it would had made things so much believable.

3. Tides Turn at Unforgiven, WWE gains upper hand - Instead of having the Rock return and various WWE people (like Edge) win the WWE titles back at Summerslam, I would instead save the "turning of the tides" until Unforgiven (to give the Alliance a couple of good months of pure dominating) where WWE would make a significant comeback to start the beginning of the end for the storyline.

4. Alliance Starts Breaking Apart, Austin goes back to WWE side - Everytime I try to remember who turned on who when Austin betrayed WWE to face and then out of nowhere Angle turned on WWE also (only to turn face back again!!), it makes my head hurt really bad cause the shit made no real sense. So I would make it where there would be no stupid ass fake Angle "heel" turn (just wait to have it until after the Alliance story concludes) and have the Alliance group break down (keeping with the good tension between RVD and Austin) only to have Austin eventually go back as a face to return to WWE.

5. WWE "wins" at Survivor Series 2001 - Instead of the weird inclusion of Austin and Angle on the Invasion team, I would have had Jericho do his heel turn before the Vengeance PPV a month later to join the group along with the horribly underrated DDP to make more sense (Jericho making A LOT more sense since he was a long standing WCW star and a still fresh WWE person). And I would have it come down to Shane McMahon and the Rock (or Austin) to finally conclude things with the person who started the war in the first place…which technically was Shane with his buying of WCW.