Shining a Spotlight 6.30.11: The Invasion Part III

As I’ve noted in previous entries on the Invasion, the loss of major names was something that robbed the entire angle of some excitement. I’m not saying the presence of HHH would have saved things but losing one of their major stars just before this all happened really was a blow to WWF, ditto for Benoit. WCW was never seen as a major threat thanks to the lack of guys like Steiner, Goldberg, Hogan, Hall and Nash not coming in, leading to Vince deciding they “needed” more WWF guys on their side. But the worst part is that Vince also failed to see just how well to use the guys in WCW he had. Even though Jim Crockett massively dropped the ball with the UWF, he still saw the huge potential in Sting and developed that into the company’s biggest star. But, as often happens, Vince was unable to accept that anything he didn’t develop personally could be that great and so failed to properly utilize the WCW guys he had. There would be a few exceptions but it wasn’t helped by the return of a man whose own personal star power pretty much blew away the entire Alliance combined.

The Great One Returns

The July 26th, “RAW” didn’t start off on a high note as Jericho beat Tazz in less than a minute. Meanwhile, Test was shown talking from the old WWF Café in Times Square. One bit I missed amid the wildness of the previous weeks was that before Austin’s turn, the WWF locker room was convinced there was a mole and targeted Test, the APA leading a beat-down on him. However, Sgt. Slaughter informed them that the evidence against Test didn’t hold up. At the café, Test did a promo saying he was disappointed in the lack of trust but he was still a WWF man through and through. Yeah, you can pretty much guess where this was going. The rematch for the WCW title was up and as Angle came to the ring, the Alliance attacked him. Angle managed to fight back in the match but Austin ended up hitting him with a Stunner to allow Booker to regain the title. WWF did strike back as X-Pac defeated Kidman to unify the Light Heavyweight and Cruiserweight titles. We got some comedy as the McMahons and Regal were waiting for the Rock’s limo, making a big show with “reporters” only to have Howard Finkel be inside. The Rock was soon shown outside the arena to a monster pop.

After the Brothers of Destruction smashed the Dudleyz in a tables match, it was finally time as the Rock came to the ring with a huge ovation. Before he could speak, Vince made a big speech of welcoming him back before Shane and Stephanie came out, replaying a video of how many times Vince had screwed the Rock over. For long moments, the Rock appeared unsure before hitting Vince with a Rock Bottom. On commentary, Paul Heyman celebrated while Jim Ross went into hysterics and the Rock shook Shane’s hand…then picked him up for a Rock Bottom, followed by a People’s Elbow. The Rock finally took the mic to announce “Finally…the Rock…has come back…to the WWF.” It was a huge moment but, as we’ll soon see, it led to just more problems taking the Alliance seriously.

That week’s “SmackDown” opened with Angle upset over losing the belt and doing an in-ring promo interrupted by Lance Storm to set up a match between them. Kane faced Kanyon for the U.S. title with WCW ref Nick Patrick disqualifying Kanyon when he was lightly touched while Kanyon was in the choke slam. Kane chokeslammed Patrick before leaving. This led to the Rock coming out with a great promo, trashing Austin and calling him out. Instead of Austin, however, Booker T showed up which was interesting as, during 2000, WCW had basically been trying to turn Booker into a copy of the Rock, the Bookend a rip-off of the Rock Bottom and going wild in promos. Booker spent a few minutes running his mouth on how Rock was nothing compared to him, he was the superior, only for the Rock to hold up a hand to cut him off and bring down the house by inaugurating his new catchphrase “Who…in the Blue Hell…are you?” When Booker talked of how he was going to be at SummerSlam, Rock laughed “what, does someone need to park their car?”

Right there, a feud that, on paper, sounded amazing was immediately weakened. It’s not the fault of WWF really as it only made sense to put these two together. The problem was that Booker simply wasn’t in the Rock’s league of fan heat. That’s not a knock on Booker as the fact is, you can count on one hand the guys who can come close to the Rock in terms of charisma and star power. Booker is great on the mic but against the Rock, he was seen as instantly weaker in the eyes of fans so the entire program was always off to a wrong foot. Booker defended the title against the Undertaker in the main event with another Alliance run-in but the Rock raced out to beat them back. It was the start of a new cycle in the angle that would shake things up more.

Defections and Rises

As noted above, WWF didn’t seem all that interested in utilizing any of the fresh faces among the Alliance. One exception was Shawn Stasiak, a fair worker who was better known for two things: His goofball demeanor and his connection to Stacy Kiebler, she of the gorgeous body and stunning 42 inch legs. Stasiak was soon made the true comic relief of the Alliance, throwing himself into various antics that would end up backfiring on him. One bit that I have to admit still makes me laugh is when he gets fired up by Austin to go after Angle. Angle was shown talking to William Regal in Regal’s office when they heard screaming coming at them. Angle rose so Stasiak charged right past him, smashed into the suit of armor Regal had in his office and flopped to the floor. Angle and Regal looked down at him, at each other, shrugged, and went right back to talking like nothing had happened. Not quite a shining example of the Alliance, eh?

On the other hand, there was Rob Van Dam. I’ve made my opinion clear that I’ve long felt RVD rather overrated. Good worker, yes, great in the ring, yes but a bit annoying to me that people rave so much over a guy who hasn’t changed his moveset since 1999 being so innovative. But in 2001, coming back after a long time off due to a leg injury, RVD was still pretty well respected and seen as a future main event star. His holding the Hardcore title actually made that mean something as he got good battles and growing more heat. It seemed that if anyone could make it out of the Invasion with a much bigger presence, it’d be him but as we all know, things rarely work out so smoothly. As SummerSlam came on the horizon, Vince really started going out of his way to sell WWF as the top guys over WCW.

The August 6th “RAW” had RVD beating Kane for the title followed by Stephanie coming to the ring for a promo. Jericho interrupted to insult her, bringing up for the first time Stephanie’s obvious boob job. He then brought out a rather bizarre bit of cross-promotion as a couple of guys in gorilla suits came out, tied to Tim Burton’s horrific Planet of the Apes remake which was in theaters at the time, to hit Stephanie in the face with a pie. Lance Storm faced Christian with Christian suggesting they sing the Canadian national anthem, which was just an excuse for Edge to run in and yank down Storm’s trunks, showing he wore silly underwear. We then got a fun backstage bit with Angle and Rock arguing over which of them was meant to lead WWF and trading insults. The Undetaker/DDP feud was reignited as Taker found a shine to his wife in DDP’s locker room, leading to a fight and an Alliance beat-down. The main event had Rock vs Shane in a street fight with Rock beaten down by Booker T. The week’s “SmackDown” had Austin holding an Alliance meeting encouraging them to go out and take it to WWF as much as they could. His words seemed to have an effect as DDP and Kanyon beat the APA for the WWF tag team titles after Test interfered. Test explained that he’d been truly hurt by being accused of being the mole so decided to join the Alliance for real, giving them yet another WWF guy on their side. Then Perry Saturn lost to Raven and also lost his beloved “Moppy,” beginning a long and painful storyline of the idiot Saturn looking for his “friend.” Things picked up better with Edge facing RVD for the Hardcore title and although Edge lost, it was clear to everyone WWF was positioning him to break out of tag action and be a big singles star. Booker and Shane did an in-ring promo interrupted by the Rock for more insults that made Booker look foolish (Although I admit to laughing at “You can come to L.A. to get your hair done by Whoopi Goldberg…”) Then, just as the Alliance had gotten the WWF tag titles, Kane and Undertaker obliterated Palumbo and O’Haire to win the WCW tag belts. The night ended with Angle and the Hardyz facing Stone Cold and the Dudleyz ending with Angle beaten so bad he had to be taken off on a stretcher.

The August 13th RAW kicked off with Austin holding an in-ring meeting for the Alliance where he boasted of his greatness and singled out DDP, Kanyon, Test and RVD. He also announced the Stone Cold Invitational, running down Raven, Tazz, Tommy Dreamer and others where he basically told them all they sucked, forcing the ECW guys to beat down Tazz, not exactly the best way to sell the Alliance’s mid-card guys. The high point of the show was Stephanie, Booker and Rhyno’s in-ring promo interrupted by Jericho and the Rock who, in a moment collected on several DVDs, did a great tag team insult round on all three of them (including the Rock’s famous “going to school” mockery of Booker).

Dissension was shown backstage as X-Pac insulted Angle, causing Angle to slam him onto a table of food. Angle faced RVD for the Hardcore title but when Dreamer interfered, Angle slapped on the Angle Lock, with Jeff Hardy running in to splash RVD and pin him to regain the belt. The main event was a tag match with Jericho and Rock facing Booker and Rhyno, ending with, yep, you guessed it, a beat-down of the WWF guys. Sheesh, “Nitro” ended less shows with giant beat-downs. The August 16th “SmackDown” was the go-home show for SummerSlam with Shane and Booker celebrating putting the Rock out only for Rock to show up. We actually got a WWF-only match as X-Pac and Albert beat Regal and Tajiri and then Tazz came out for commentary, still ticked over the attack and chewing out Heyman for letting it happen. The Austin Invitational started with Scotty 2 Hotty coming out first and Austin running down a loser like him being out here. He attacked Scotty with Tazz running in only to get beat down himself. While this did well to sell Austin as a major heel, it didn’t exactly help the fact that the Alliance’s central figure was still considered by fans a WWF guy. RVD and Rhyno beat Jericho and Jeff Hardy and Booker beat the Rock in a Lights Out match with help from Shane. Despite the attacks from his friends, Tazz was still in the Alliance and faced Angle in the main event with Angle attacking Austin.

SummerSlam

That brought us to SummerSlam on August 19th from San Jose. The show began with Storm defending the IC title against Edge with Christian watching on a monitor backstage with the rest of the WWF locker room. It was a pretty good fast-paced battle, one of the first chances for Edge to show off as a singles worker on a major stage. The match flowed back and forth and as Storm go the upper hand, Christian ran down to the ring. He tried to hit Storm with a spear but Storm dodged so Christian nailed Edge. Storm super-kicked Christian out of the ring and went for the pin but Edge managed to kick out. As Storm tried for another move, Edge hit him with a DDT to win the belt. Christian came to the ring with the title belt and after a tense moment, the two hugged and celebrated. The Dudleyz and Test faced off with the APA and Spike in a messy brawl won after Shane hit Bradshaw with a chair, allowing Test to get the pin. We then had the first unification bout as X-Pac faced Tajiri with both the Light Heavyweight and Cruiserweight belts on the line. It wasn’t too bad a battle, some great high-flying moves with Tajiri spraying mist into an interfering Albert which gave X-Pac the chance to hit the X-Factor to win both belts. Jericho faced Rhyno in a wild brawl notable for when Stephanie tried to interfere and Jericho gave her a kiss in the middle of the ring. Rhyno went for the Walls of Jericho himself but Jericho broke the hold and when Rhyno went for the Gore, Jericho managed to get the Walls on to win. Backstage, we got more of Stasiak being an idiot, charging at the Rock and slamming into a wall.

We got a real highlight as RVD faced Jeff Hardy in a ladder match for the hardcore title. Naturally, both men were terrific using the ladder for big spots, RVD superplexing Jeff off the ladder and Jeff later power-bombing him off it with various smashes and blows that made you wince along. The climax had Jeff climbing to the belt but RVD yanking the ladder away, leaving Jeff hanging from the cable before falling and RVD climbing to win back the belt. The next bout was another unification match as the Brothers of Destruction faced DDP and Kanyon for both tag titles. Calling it a match would be generous as Kane and Undertaker totally destroyed the WCW guys, Page and Kanyon never getting any offense and were utterly decimated so the Brothers won both belts. Backstage, Stasiak once more wiped himself out trying to attack the Rock. Angle and Austin had a wild brawl from the very start, really going old-school at times such as Austin putting Angle in the Cobra Clutch. The battle went back and forth with Angle weakening but keeping on fighting. However, the ending was marred as Austin punched out ref Earl Hebner and when two other refs came to the ring, Austin Stunned them. That brought out WCW’s Nick Patrick who disqualified Austin, letting him retain the title. The main event was Rock vs Booker and the two did a great job mixing together in the ring, from brawling to actual wrestling. Shane interfered to hit Rock with the WCW championship belt but the APA raced down to beat him up. Rock pulled off a spinebuster and a People’s Elbow but Shane recovered to stop the count. Booker hit a scissors kick but then idiotically wasted time with a Spinaroonie and as he finished, the Rock popped right up to hit a Rock Bottom and win the WCW title.

The following night’s RAW started with Austin firing up the Alliance again and an interesting dynamic of Stephanie reconnecting with “former fiancée” Test. The Rock did a celebration promo where he brought out a midget dressed like Booker for some fun mockery interrupted by Lance Storm. A big 12-man tag match had the APA, the Big Show, Scotty 2 Hotty, Spike and Billy Gunn taking on the Dudleyz, Palumbo, O’Haire, Dreamer and Hugh Morris, ending with that old standard of “guys doing chain of finishers on other guys” before Big Show (returning after time off from an injury) hit a chokeslam to win. Test beat Jericho when Jericho made the mistake of letting Stephanie and Rhyno distract him but Rock evened things up by defending the WCW title against Storm. In a bout that would have implications later, Christian failed to win the European title from Matt Hardy. Booker demanded a rematch with the Rock from Regal but after Tajiri insulted him, Booker challenged him instead, fighting in his street clothes to smash Tajiri to pulp. The show ended with “Stone Cold Appreciation Night” where the entire Alliance came out to celebrate Austin, Stephanie doing a horribly off-key rendition of “Wind Beneath My Wings” for a video package. Thankfully, Angle interrupted with a terrific take-off on one of Stone Cold’s best moments as he drove a milk truck to the ring and threw cartons of milk at everyone. Surprisingly, the only member of the Alliance to attack him was Stasiak, who was sent smashing into the truck and knocked out. Angle then took out a hose and sprayed milk over the entire Alliance. A funny story is that Angle underestimated how hard it would be to clean his clothes afterward and so had to fly home reeking of dried milk.

SmackDown had RVD continuing to win favor by retaining the Hardcore title against Jeff Hardy when Jeff missed a Swanton and flew through a table. Raven then attacked RVD after the match, DDTing him onto a chair but RVD managing to pin him. Stephanie came out to bitch about them fighting and as they kept going at it, Austin came out to chew them both out and in the process created what would become the incredibly annoying “WHAT?!” chant. Jericho interrupted to throw out more insults on Stephanie about her horrible singing. Rock was shown asking the APA to watch his back as Edge was talking to his grandma on the phone about his first IC title defense only for Christian to tell him that he had talked the two into a title match against Kane and Undertaker. Despite a spear on Undertaker, the champs would retain. The main event had Jericho coming close to beating Austin only for him to manage to use the ropes for leverage on a pin.

The August 27th “RAW” started with Shane talking of Rock facing him and Booker in a handicap match for the title at the upcoming “Unforgiven” PPV, the Rock coming out to beat on Shane a bit but Rhyno racing in to Gore him. There was an attempt to spread the Alliance force out a bit as on “SmackDown” earlier, Ivory (who had defected to WCW) beat on Lita with the help of Hurricane Helms. Matt tried to defend her honor on RAW but Ivory helped Helms hit him with a bar to win the European title. Angle attacked Kanyon, hurting his leg and making him unlikely to team with Austin in the main event. More “comedy” had Stasiak trying to dump a bucket of fish chum on Angle but getting Debra instead. Much better was Booker T being interviewed and shown a video of Big Show doing a hysterical impression of Booker that had everyone laughing. Booker wasn’t laughing however, using a chair to beat Big Show down hard in their match.

Austin was claiming an arm injury so the main event was Tazz and RVD against Angle and Jericho. Angle pinned Tazz but Austin beat him up, stealing his gold medals to boot. This of course put Angle on the warpath, calling out Austin on “SmackDown,” with Booker coming out only to get even more insults thrown at him (“Go back to your dressing room, practice your spinaroonie, send another audition tape to Soul Train and get the hell out of my ring!”). Edge challenged Kanyon for the U.S. title with Christian trying to interfere with the title belt only to hit Edge, letting Kanyon retain. Christian quickly got on the mic to apologize and say he’d make up for it by challenging the Rock for the WCW title. Austin was shown in the streets threatening to drop Angle’s medals into the sewer. Mike Awesome made the mistake of mocking Angle and got beaten up for his troubles. I should mention that one benefit of the Invasion was to sell Angle as a true intense threat, the fans really responding to him big-time. Angle faced off with Booker, Shane liberally interfering but the WCW ref allowed it to pass by, bringing the Rock out to beat up on him and Shane. Angle hit Booker with a reverse suplex as Earl Hebner made the pin and Angle and Rock cleaned house. However, Austin was shown on a bridge throwing Angle’s medals into the river.

So as September of 2001 dawned, things were rolling on multiple levels but WCW was still being made out weaker unless it had a WWF guy like Austin at its head. While some Alliance guys like RVD were elevated, others were made to look foolish like Booker T, DDP and Kanyon as Austin vs Angle was the dominant theme over any WWF vs WCW/ECW stuff. However, the next few weeks would have real life throwing a major twist into things that would shake everyone to the core.

Next week, I take a break from the Invasion special to look back twenty years at one of the most infamous PPVs of all time. For now, the spotlight is off.

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