WCW Invasion
Welcome to Fantasy Booking, where the results are made up and the ratings do not matter.
A quick history lesson: On March 26, 2001, WCW aired its final episode of Nitro. On April 1, 2001, WWF aired WrestleMania 17, where an ill-fated heel turn took place in the main event. On May 28th, 2001, Lance Storm kicked off the WCW Invasion angle by appearing on WWF TV, two full months after WCW closed its door - leading to a universally disappointing invasion angle.
Today we are asking a simple question: what if the WCW Invasion angle went in a different direction?
Setting The Stage
In this booking, Shane isn’t revealed to be the new owner of WCW. That angle didn’t really lead to anything other than shock value. However, Vince does start the show, where he announces that WCW is dead and Booker T winning the WCW Championship ends the show.
Five days later, Stone Cold Steve Austin challenges The Rock for the WWF Championship in the main event at WrestleMania X-Seven in Houston, Texas. The build to this match is that Austin is desperate to beat Rock. He HAS to, he will do ANYTHING.
WrestleMania X-Seven
Late in the main event, The Rock has Austin hurt. Rock Bottom. Two count. Austin kicks out. Rock gets ready to set up for another Rock Bottom, when a figure comes through the crowd. Street clothes. No music. No entrance. Just a man with absolutely nothing left to lose. Booker T has arrived at Wrestlemania, in his hometown of Houston, with both the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Austin and Booker lock eyes, and Booker slides the WCW Championship across the canvas. Rock turns around. CRACK. One, two, three. New WWF Champion.
Two men stand in that ring. Austin holds up the WWF title. Booker holds up the WCW Championship, US belt wrapped around his waist. The briefest nod between them. Jim Ross is somewhere between furious and heartbroken on commentary.
(Writers note: when I made the connection that WCW folded the same week as Wrestlemania and that Mania was in the new WCW champions hometown, I was like… the pieces fit TOO perfect. Absolutely insane. I think I said “holy shit” out loud, to myself).
Mania Fallout
The next night on Raw, Vince McMahon hits the ring demanding answers. Austin walks out to the entrance stage with a beer in his hand. Immediately after Austin cracks open the beer, Booker attacks Vince from behind, hits the Axe Kick, and grabs the mic. "WCW is dead? I AM WCW. Can you dig that, Sucka!" Booker makes it clear: HE is WCW. He name drops every big WCW name sitting out their contracts at home collecting Time Warner money and states he does not need any of them. He sends out an open recruitment call to any free WCW wrestler who wants to show up and take what is theirs. Then he drops the mic and disappears through the crowd. Austin watches from the stage, sips his beer, and walks back through the curtain.
Over the next couple of weeks, Booker's army begins arriving. No announcements, no debut packages, no big reveals. They just appear. Lance Storm first, then Diamond Dallas Page, then Billy Kidman. Each one getting involved in random matches and causing mayhem.
Backlash
Vince McMahon, humiliated in his own company, goes to the Brothers of Destruction. Hat in hand. While he doesn’t have control over the brothers, Vince is desperate to stop Austin and Booker. He pitches for Undertaker to go for Austin’s WWF title and for Kane to go for Booker’s WCW title. The brothers accept.
Backlash comes and Booker retains over Kane with help from his three recruits. This puts Undertaker's instincts on high alert. He tells his brother to be ready to fight at all times because he is sure they will interfere in his match too. And he was right. In the closing stretch of his match against Austin, the ring is surrounded by Storm, Kidman, and DDP. Kane comes sprinting down the ramp to make the save and is immediately cut off by two men vaulting the guardrail. Sean O'Haire and Chuck Palumbo. The WCW Tag Team Champions. They beat Kane down while the others hold Undertaker in place. Austin forces Taker's head up and makes him watch as Booker T walks down to a fallen Kane with a steel chair. WHAM. WHAM. Booker DESTROYS Kane's knee with the chair. A broken Undertaker is lifted to his feet to eat a Stunner. Austin retains.
Judgment Day
For Judgment Day, Vince is still obsessed with getting the WWF championship back, and wants possession of the WCW championship. He recruits Triple H to fight alongside Undertaker, promising one of the world championship titles to him and books a tornado tag match inside Hell in a Cell. Everything on the line. Winning team takes all.
But still, the recruits get involved after a hellacious battle. Austin and Booker pin one man each, getting the pinfall victory. The WWF still has no answer.
Then on the following Raw, Austin, Booker and the recruits attack Triple H. They take off running as soon as the WWF locker room arrives to help - but it is too late. Triple H is injured and out for the foreseeable future, alongside Kane.
King of the Ring
Vince has had enough - so much so that he has given up. He has two of his top stars on the shelf over this, with potentially more to come. So he decides he has no choice left - the WWF will come up with a new championship. And the winner of King of the Ring will become the new champion. Therefore, without a need for the belt, Vince just fires Steve Austin - “and go ahead, keep the belt” being said to Austin. Surprisingly - all seven men of Team WCW disappear after this. Almost as if firing Austin got them all fired. Vince, like a FOOL, thinks his worries are over.
But then we get to the King Of The Ring finals between Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho, when all seven men return. They beat down both men, but the WWF locker room immediately run out to fight as well. After a quick brawl, Team WCW retreats through the crowd.
On the following Raw, an irritate Vince makes his way to the ring and lays it all on the line - a WWF team of seven vs the WCW team of seven. If WCW wins, they gain control over Monday nights. If WWF wins, Team WCW must retire from professional wrestling, and disappear forever.
The Invasion
Undertaker becomes the captain of Team WWF. Over the next couple of weeks, he recruits Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, The APA, and Edge and Christian. Misfortunate strikes when the Raw before The Invasion PPV, Edge and Christian are beaten up backstage. Undertaker finds them and begins cursing O’Haire and Palumbo’s name, when The Dudley Boyz appear. They said they couldn’t help but overhear that Team WWF has two new spots. They offer their services, if they can have the first shot at the WCW Tag Team Championship titles once they become vacant. Taker agrees.
The match at Invasion gets going, and it is an all time classic. Because of course it is. This is a fantasy booking. Meltzer would poop. his. pants.
Everyone is laid out, including the ref - except Austin and Undertaker. Suddenly, The Dudley Boyz slide into the ring and attack Taker. Austin is shocked but he pins the fallen Dead Man to get the victory.
Team WWF are scattered all over the ringside floor, beaten and broken. Storm, Kidman, DDP, O’Haire, and Palumbo celebrate by the ring ramp while The Dudley Boyz stand in the ring with Austin, as Booker gets into the ring alongside his co captain. Booker and Austin look confused, but The Dudley Boyz embrace the WCW leaders with a hug. The crowd goes wild… but for a completely different reason.
Rhyno comes running from the entrance ramp and hits his finisher, Gore, so hard on Palumbo that his shoes fly off. Before anyone could register what just happened, Raven appears out of nowhere and beats down O’Haire. Billy Kidman turns to Lance Storm, almost to signal that they need to do something - when he is met with a headbutt to the face and a kick to the nuts. Storm has attacked his teammate. The Dudley Boyz start brawling with Austin and Booker, when they are joined by Storm, Raven, and Rhyno. The numbers get to the WCW leaders, and they get mauled.
Paul Heyman makes his way through the crowd, alongside RVD, who is holding a black sack. Once in the ring, RVD pulls out the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. The championship Rhyno was the holder of when ECW went out of business. RVD hands this over to Rhyno, and Rhyno takes a good long look at it, but he gives it back. He tells RVD, “That’s yours now. Don’t forget the mission - bring ECW back to life”. The Dudley Boyz pick up the WCW tag team titles, which they have yet to win at that point. Lance Storm grabs the US title. Paul Heyman puts the WWF and the WCW Championships over RVD’s shoulders, while Rhyno hoists RVD up onto his. Heyman gets on the mic, “I heard there was an Invasion going on? Well, don’t mind if E-C-F’N-W comes invading. FUCK WCW, you don’t get to take what is ours. If anyone is taking WWF over, it’s going to be us - or we will burn the whole shit down and die trying”. The image is clear. ECW is here for Team WCWs championships and for WWFs promotion.
SummerSlam
Team WCW technically won at Invasion, so they have gained control over Raw. However, the fallout between Austin and Booker starts its cracks. Both men begin point fingers at Lance Storm's betrayal and neither is willing to take responsibility. Austin says Booker recruited Storm and vouched for him. Booker says Austin never trusted any of his WCW guys from the start and that distrust is what drove Storm away. Tensions continue to rise. Especially with ECW being an unpredictable element in the mix.
On the following Raw, Austin forces Albert to issue an open challenge for his Intercontinental Championship and tells Team WCW to pick who’s going to answer it. Albert is standing in the ring with a ref, when Billy Kidman answers the call. Except as he is making his entrance, Rhyno runs by him like a bullet, hits Albert with a Gore, and gets the pin. Rhyno is the new Intercontinental Champion. And it happened in seconds. Austin and Booker continue to finger point over this.
With Austin and Booker at each other's throats and ECW running rampant through the entire roster, Vince McMahon sees his opening. He does not care about Booker's WCW Championship and he certainly does not care about ECW's championship. He wants his WWF title back in his company. So he hatches a plan - WCW has control over Raw, but they don’t have control over the PPVs. So Vince books a triple threat for the main event of SummerSlam. All three world titles on the line. Winner takes all. BUT, there is one more condition. The contract for this match is actually a two match contract - whoever walks out of SummerSlam as champion must defend the WWF Championship against a person of Vince's choosing at the next PPV.
All three world champions agree - but both Austin and Booker independently demand a no interference stipulation. Neither man wants ECW's numbers game involved in the most important match of their careers. Which is worth noting, given that these are the two men who started this whole invasion in the first place. Ironic. With this match set in place, the tensions between Austin and Booker reach an all time high.
During one of the final episodes of Raw before Mania, Heyman offers Booker a chance to get his hands on Lance Storm for betraying his team - as long as he puts that United States Championship on the line. Booker says he isn’t falling for that bait, but Austin tells Booker that he will have his back if anything happens. So Booker agrees, eager to Axe Kick Lance Storm to smithereens. During the match, the ref takes a bump - and almost immediately, RVD appears on the ring apron. Booker and RVD have a stare down - when Austin runs out, slides into the ring, hits Booker with a Stunner, slides out the ring, and walks back up the ramp. Austin just screwed over the man who helped him win the WWF Championship, and was gone before anyone could even register what had happened. RVD looks shocked but pleased. He begins laughing, as Lance Storm pins Booker to win the United States Championship. The Austin - Booker alliance is dead.
SummerSlam arrives. The Dudley Boyz defeat O'Haire and Palumbo for the WCW Tag Team Championships. Rhyno retains the Intercontinental Championship. Lance Storm retains the US Championship. Team ECW is on a roll heading into the main event.
Austin versus Booker T versus RVD. WWF Championship. WCW Championship. ECW Championship. Winner takes all. No interference. And after the best damn match in SummerSlam history - Because of course it was. It’s fantasy booking, baby - and RVD pins Booker clean. One. Two. Three.
Rob Van Dam stands in the middle of a SummerSlam ring holding all three world title championships. Heyman is screaming "We did it! We did it! Oh my God, we did it!”.
Then the music hits.
The Rock has returned. He stands on the entrance ramp and stares down RVD. He says nothing. He does not have to. The Rock is back to save the WWF.
Final Verdict
This Invasion angle could go on forever, especially as the bigger names became available, so I decided to try out a cliffhanger ending this time around. But the pieces to kick this storyline off were always there. WCW folds the same week as WrestleMania. WrestleMania is in the new WCW champion's hometown. Stone Cold Steve Austin is desperate to win the biggest match of his life. That is not a booking decision. That is the universe handing you the keys to the kingdom.
Everything that follows, the ECW invasion hiding inside both locker rooms, Heyman standing in a WWF ring with every top championship in the sport draped over RVD's shoulders, The Rock appearing at the top of that entrance stage saying absolutely nothing, all of it flows naturally from one moment in Houston, Texas where Booker T slid a championship belt across a canvas and changed everything. WWE had all of this sitting right in front of them in 2001. They just forgot to look down.
Agree? Disagree? Would you have booked it differently? Sound off and let me know. Until next time, we are Hanging Beachside.