The Invasion

The Invasion was a professional wrestling storyline in the World Wrestling Federation that began shortly after the WWF's purchase of World Championship Wrestling. It involved the WCW wrestlers "invading" WWF TV in an attempt to "take over" the WWF.

The idea of a supercard featuring the two top promotions of the Monday Night Wars was considered to be a "dream match" scenario in the eyes of many fans, as it would allow the fans to see which promotion (at least in kayfabe) would be superior.

History
The Monday Night Wars had both the WWF and WCW, the two top North American wrestling promotions, vying for ratings. Through developments such as the nWo and the Montreal Screwjob, fans continually compared the two promotions, and the Internet Wrestling Community was full of debate as to which of the two was superior.

However, among other factors, mismanagement within WCW (such as allowing wrestlers themselves to book matches) eventually led WCW to a downward spiral from which it would never recover. The Monday Night Wars came to an end on March 23, 2001, when the WWF bought WCW for what was considered to be a bargain price.

The final WCW Monday Nitro aired the next Monday on March 26, 2001, and storylines were wrapped up for good as WCW wrestlers contemplated their fate now that the large majority of them were now employees of what was once their company's biggest rival. As the final moments on Nitro neared (and rival WWF RAW entered its second hour), Vince McMahon appeared at the RAW ring, in a segment simulcast on both RAW and Nitro. McMahon talked about the buyout of WCW and how he fully intended to fire all WCW personnel, to the cheers of the RAW crowd and the jeers of the Nitro crowd. However, in a shocking twist, Shane McMahon appeared on Nitro, and announced (in kayfabe) that he had purchased WCW out from under his father's nose, planting the seed for what was considered a most lucrative future storyline opportunity. The Invasion did not begin immediately afterwards, as the WWF was preparing for WrestleMania X-Seven, the year's largest show, mere days away.

The goal of the Invasion was that, because the WWF had acquired WCW, the WWF had effectively doubled the size of its roster and as a result, there was no way screentime could be given to everyone. The original plan was to find a timeslot on Spike TV to continue running WCW as a separate entity. Polls were even put up on WWF.com and WCW.com to decide the name of the new show. These plans fell through when the McMahons could not secure a timeslot that would attract the target wrestling demographic. By eventually carrying out what was known as a brand extension, the WWF could effectively revive WCW under its own auspices and effectively run two separate promotions, each with one of the WWF's two existing televised shows RAW and SmackDown! As part of its plans, Lance Storm became the first WCW wrestler to appear on WWF programming, by running in during a match on the May 28 episode of RAW. At The WWF King Of The Ring 2001 PPV on June 24, then WCW's Booker T would interfere during the Triple Threat Main Event Match for the WWF Championship and almost cost Stone Cold Steve Austin the title (Additionally, Austin suffered fractured bones in his hand from the side slam he took from Booker into an announce table). A few weeks later there would be a confrontation between WCW Owner Shane McMahon and WWF Owner Vince McMahon and Booker T would come from behind and deliver his trademark move 'The Scissor Kick' on Vince which would get The Invasion storyline up and running for good, RAW Announcer Jim Ross would almost confirm this by saying after the incident 'The battle lines have been drawn!'. The WWF eventually began to recognize WCW, and tested the idea of a brand extension by giving WCW the final twenty minutes of RAW (for this, the entire RAW set was changed), with Scott Hudson and Arn Anderson doing announcing duties in place of Jim Ross and Paul Heyman, and during which WWF wrestlers Kurt Angle and WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin interfered in retaliation in a match between Buff Bagwell and Booker T for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship by beating both men up. The match itself got a very negative reaction from WWF fans watching the event on TV and those in attendance.

Up until this point, the WCW contingent, from Vince's bluster during the final WCW Nitro broadcast and Shane's usurping of the WCW ownership to WCW talents' run-ins on strictly heel talent, showed that they were being built up to being malcontent faces. However, the reaction of the core WWF viewership to the WCW product and talent, coupled with the reality that a WCW wrestling program to appeal to their fans would not come to fruition, led to the entire WCW contingent to abruptly be turned heel.

On July 22, the Invasion PPV occurred with the Inaugural Brawl main event featuring team WWF facing team WCW/ECW. Team WWF featured Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, and Kane. Representing Team WCW/ECW was Booker T, The Dudley Boyz, Rhyno and Diamond Dallas Page. During the match, Austin executed his famous finishing move, the Stone Cold Stunner, on Kurt Angle to betray the WWF and to give the WCW/ECW Alliance a victory. The next night, Austin claimed he joined the Alliance because they appreciated him, unlike the WWF.

The WWF gained momentum on the July 26 edition of SmackDown! when Angle beat Booker T for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Angle's title run would prove to be short-lived, as Booker T won the WCW Title back on the July 30 episode of RAW. On that same RAW, The Rock returned to the WWF from a long period of absence since WrestleMania X-Seven. This return would lead to a WCW Title match between The Rock and Booker T at SummerSlam 2001 where The Rock won the WCW Title. At that same PPV, Austin retained his WWF Title against Angle after Angle won by DQ (titles can't change hands via a DQ). After the Invasion PPV, WWF TV was increasingly composed of matches pitting Alliance superstars against WWF superstars for each other's titles. All this led to a "Winner Take All" match at Survivor Series 2001, which pitted a WWF team of The Rock, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane and The Big Show against The Alliance's team of Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Booker T, Rob Van Dam and Shane McMahon. In the original line up of team WWF, it was supposed to be The Rock, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane, and Vince McMahon, who then had The Big Show take his place. The WWF's team prevailed, with The Rock pinning Steve Austin (due to Angle's last-minute turn on Austin), thus finishing the storyline.

WCW
After The Alliance was disbanded, the WCW World Heavyweight Championship was unified with the WWF Championship to form the WWF Undisputed Championship. Another WCW championship, the WCW Cruiserweight Championship, was rebranded as a WWE title and replaced the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship. Additionally, the WCW United States Championship was revived in 2003 as a SmackDown! title.

The Brand Extension that split RAW and SmackDown! into two separate brands was originally intended to split the roster into WWF and WCW. When the Invasion failed and was prematurely ended, the WWF opted to instead split the roster between the two shows.

ECW
Although the WCW brand effectively died once and for all following the end of this storyline, ECW was temporarily revived by WWE in 2005 for the purposes of a special "reunion" show, ECW One Night Stand, held on June 12, 2005. Many fans felt the build-up to this one-shot event, which featured former ECW talent putting over the virtues of the brand versus the WWE product and appearances by several former ECW wrestlers not under contract to WWE, was everything the Invasion storyline should have been. In 2006, it was announced that WWE would be reviving ECW as its third "brand" (to compliment RAW and SmackDown!). The second One Night Stand, held on June 11, 2006, was the official start of the new ECW, which is now televised weekly on the Sci Fi Channel on Tuesdays.