Columns
Morning Glory #15: The
Fall Of The WWF/E (Part 2)
The second part in
my series on this subject, this piece discusses why the Invasion angle failed, how the
WWF/E had the ‘next big thing’ 6 months before Brock Lesnar, and didn’t
realize, and how Vince McMahon’s obsession with destroying his competition has almost
killed his own company…
Nostalgia, Necrophilia, and Torn Quads: The Fall of the WWF/E, Circa 2001-3
After totally blowing the Steve Austin heel turn, and losing Chris Benoit and Triple H,
two of the most over men in the company to bad injuries, as 2001 reached it’s halfway
point, the WWF looked in a spot of bother. The ratings had slipped – not to horrific
levels, but a sight lower than in the ‘boom period’ of 1999-2000, and the fans
were still not buying Stone Cold in his heel role. As the WWF headed into the June PPV,
King Of The Ring, Austin was positioned against the top two faces at the time, Chris
Benoit and Chris Jericho. Meanwhile, the next big angle had begun to come to fruition. An
angle that had been set in stone back in March, just before Wrestlemania X7, and an angle
of huge proportions, that had been talked about for years beforehand. The storyline
version of the real life war that had driven two companies against one another for 5
years, until one was no more….WWF vs WCW.
When the WWF had purchased the WCW in March 2001, the storyline was immediately set out.
Shane McMahon, at the time embroiled in a huge feud with his father Vince, ‘bought
the company’ from under his father’s nose. The final WCW Nitro ended with Shane
McMahon in a WCW ring, and nothing in the wrestling world would be the same again.
However, at the time, the ‘WCW Invasion’ that was guaranteed to happen, was not
really considered likely to happen until at least late 2001. Men like Ric Flair, Goldberg,
Scott Steiner, and Sting, the backbone of WCW, were tied up in huge contracts with Turner,
and the WWF didn’t seem too keen to buy these contracts out. The same went for the
other WCW wrestlers who hadn’t been on TV, but were huge names nonetheless, like Hulk
Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall. Guys like Billy Kidman, Booker T (the then-WCW
champion), and Diamond Dallas Page had signed for McMahon, but at the time, even though
they had titles, and pushes, in the old WCW, they were not considered huge stars. It
would’ve been wiser for the WWF to wait until the real huge stars were signed up,
before they began the Invasion. But, as you probably know (and if you don’t,
you’ll learn through this series of columns), the WWF doesn’t tend to do
‘wise’ any more.
So in early June, Shane McMahon returned to TV, and began a feud with Kurt Angle. The feud
itself ended at King Of The Ring in a MOTYC Street Fight, but even so, It was not the feud
that was special. Shane began, slowly, to introduce the WCW wrestlers to the WWF. The WCW
logo would flash up on the screen, and along with Shane, a wrestler would run in to wreak
havoc. Lance Storm, Hugh Morrus, and Stacy Kiebler began the Invasion, but King Of The
Ring was where it really kicked off. Booker T, the WCW champion, attacked Steve Austin. At
this point, things were pretty strange as far as the Invasion was concerned. The WCW were
being played as huge babyfaces, all except Diamond Dallas Page, who was introduced as a
mega-heel, the man who stalked the Undertaker’s wife. This was the first dropped ball
of the Invasion. When Page was introduced as the stalker, although it was great that the
WWF had finally given us a surprise we didn’t expect, he didn’t seem to fit the
role, but that didn’t matter. He’d gotten under the Undertaker’s skin, and
was way over as a heel. But when he came face-to-face with Taker at King Of The Ring,
Taker kicked his ass. If DDP had been allowed to drop Taker with a Diamond Cutter, the WCW
may well have been taken as more of a threat. As it happened, DDP was made to look like a
chump, and the only established main eventer the WCW had was ruined.
From there on, the Invasion continued to go downhill. Firstly, rather than being
considered a rival company, the WCW was more or less pushed as a stable of wrestlers who
were not as good as their WWF counterparts. They were pushed as babyfaces, despite the
fact that every WCW wrestler, apart from Booker T (in the beginning), were being booed
like crazy. However, about two weeks following the King of the Ring PPV, it was announced
that some WCW matches would be allowed to take place on WWF TV. The first would be a WCW
World title match between Booker T, and Buff Bagwell. Simply put, the match was an
abortion. Bagwell’s work was poor; he used three restholds in the short match, and it
ended with both men being booed out of the building. When Steve Austin and Kurt Angle, the
WWF’s two top heels, attacked the WCW wrestlers, they were cheered like Hulk Hogan in
the mid 80’s. It was clear something needed to change. And on RAW, July 9th, 2001, it
did. Before that show, WCW, especially Shane McMahon, were still being pushed as faces,
which was the first change that they made. Shane was supposed to face DDP in a Street
Fight, but when he let Undertaker take his place, Shane and DDP revealed solidity in the
WCW ranks, and beat Taker down. When Booker T then used bent referee Nick Patrick to
retain his WCW Title against Kurt Angle, it was done. WCW was now firmly heel.
Although WCW was now heel, the way the fans treated them in the first place, the company
still had the problem of a lack of wrestlers. This was also solved on July 9th, as in a
tag team match between Mike Awesome/Lance Storm and Kane/Chris Jericho, Rob Van Dam and
Tommy Dreamer made a run in. Paul Heyman went on to cut an awesome promo, before
recruiting Tazz, Justin Credible, the Dudley Boyz, Storm, Awesome, Raven and Rhyno, and
reforming ECW. For an hour, at least, it seemed the Invasion would be a three way. But on
the same show, we saw another swerve, as Shane and Heyman were revealed to be in cahoots,
and ECW and WCW merged. Heyman then announced the sale of ECW…to Stephanie McMahon.
And from there, things went right down the shitter. Step back and take a look. We began
with WCW vs WWF, two totally different companies, with WCW featuring a range of wrestlers
that we’d never seen before, who would have to be pushed to make the feud work. And
what had we ended up with? WCW and ‘ECW’, led by Shane and Stephanie McMahon,
with eight of their wrestlers (eleven if you count WCW turncoat Test), being
‘former’ WWF workers. And of course, if the WWF had waited just SIX MONTHS to
pull the trigger on this angle, they wouldn’t have needed to pull this crap. Look
back at my last column – and blame the lack of a HHH turn for that.
So, continuing on, it was decided that at the next PPV, InVasion, there would be a card
full of WWF vs WCW/ECW matches, with the main event being a Ten Man Tag featuring Steve
Austin/Kurt Angle/Undertaker/Chris Jericho/Kane vs Booker T/DDP/Rhyno/Dudley Boyz. For
about a week, the WWF pushed the angle well, as the ECW/WCW guys were shown to be
dominant, even over men like Undertaker and Angle. However, on the final RAW before the
PPV, that was all pissed away. Steve Austin was playing an angle in which he didn’t
want to involve himself with the Invasion, while Vince McMahon was desperately trying to
bring the ‘OLD Stone Cold’ back. In other words, the Stone Cold before the
ill-fated heel turn. Austin continued to refuse, until this edition of RAW. A mass brawl
erupted, with ECW and WCW getting the upper hand. Until the ‘Old Stone Cold’
arrived. Austin proceeded to stun around 90% of the WCW/ECW guys, swinging the tide of the
brawl alone. And, at the InVasion PPV, he turned heel, and joined the newly-Christened
Alliance. Get this straight….Austin destroys 90% of the Alliance, then joins them as
leader. Not only was the Invasion angle even more watered down, as the Alliance was now
being led by two McMahons and Steve Austin (you couldn’t get more WWF if you tried),
but the team also looked very weak for taking the beatings from Austin before his turn.
Over the course of the next four months, a lot of things were done right, admittedly. Kurt
Angle was positioned as the top face challenger to Austin’s WWF Title, and after a
rollercoaster feud, finally took the title in his home town of Pittsburgh. He went on to
drop it back to Austin a week later. The Rock returned, and won the WCW Title from Booker
T, firmly establishing himself as the #1 face in the WWF camp. His feud with Chris
Jericho, with both men playing tweeners, was THE highlight of the fall. Christian finally
turned heel, playing the only WWF-based heel in the angle, when his jealousy of Edge
finally boiled over. Test and Rhyno seemed to be moving up the card quickly, as fans of
theirs had hoped for a while. Booker T was getting soundly over as a heel. But of course,
the bad well outweighed the good during this period. Angle, after his huge face run and
title reign, was pointlessly turned heel, and joined the Alliance – a group who he
had fought off for three months. Christian, rather than being left as
‘WWF-but-heel’, something that actually would’ve been interesting, ended up
being switched to the Alliance, in a move that, unlike the ‘shades of grey’
we’d seen for the past four years, was a throwback to the black and white
‘He’s good, he’s bad’ mentality of the 80’s. Undertaker and Kane
no-sold against anyone they came up against, and proceeded to end Booker T’s hopes as
an upper card player at October’s No Mercy. And worst of all, by November and Vince
McMahon’s return, the Invasion angle had become nothing more than the usual McMahon
Wars.
Having said all this…..the WWF did have one shining light throughout most of the
crap. A man, who, with the right push, could have been the TRUE Next Big Thing. A man who
could have brought the ratings back to the height of the Attitude Era. Rob. Van. Dam.
Initially pushed in the Hardcore division, having been an ECW mainstay, Van Dam was the
only member of the Alliance to receive huge cheers upon his entrance. His debut match,
versus Jeff Hardy at InVasion, was like nothing WWF fans had ever seen before. Van Dam
flew around, using a variety of crazy, unorthodox moves, and finished Hardy cleanly with
his Five Star Frog Splash. The “RVD! RVD!” chants from then on were deafening. A
star had been truly born. Sure, Van Dam was nowhere near a great wrestler in the ring. His
grip on psychology was pretty poor, as he concentrated on high-flying, spotty moves. And
his mic skills left a lot to be desired, too. But Van Dam appealed to the market. The days
of Austin and the badass face had been numbered since early 2001, and in Van Dam, the WWF
had the key right under their noses. Van Dam was cool. His character, the laid
back, couldn’t-care-less, confident guy who probably smoked weed, represented the
demographic the WWF was shooting for. By October, with just three months of WWF action
under his belt, Rob Van Dam was being treated by crowds as the #1 face in the company. At
first, it appeared the WWF would capitalize on this popularity. Van Dam’s popularity
clashed strongly with the fans’ hatred of Steve Austin, and the two men, part of the
same Alliance faction, were destined to clash. No Mercy’s main event was Angle vs
Austin vs Van Dam, for the WWF Title. Nobody clamoured for Van Dam to get the belt that
early, and it seemed the right decision to have Austin retain. But it WAS clear that Van
Dam belonged in the main events. The question was, would the WWF realize what they had,
and push Van Dam as the ‘next big thing’? Of course not.
At November’s Survivor Series, the Invasion angle was finally ended. The WWF defeated
the Alliance, which was put ‘out of business’. All the Alliance’s wrestlers
were ‘fired’, apart from their title holders (the best the Alliance had,
obviously, in Austin, Van Dam, the Dudley Boyz, and Christian), and Test, who had won a
Battle Royal to avoid firing. These men were assimilated back into the WWF, as if the past
four months had never happened. However, although the Alliance and the Invasion angle,
what should have been the biggest angle of all time, were dead, good things did seem to be
in store for the WWF. Chris Jericho was positioned firmly as a huge heel, facing off
against The Rock. Ric Flair had finally signed and debuted with the WWF, playing the role
of ‘co-owner’ with Vince McMahon, something which, although it didn’t suit
Flair, would give some interesting TV in the coming weeks. But the WWF also made a huge
mistake. They turned Steve Austin back into a babyface. Austin quickly got stale in his
‘1998’ act, but I’ll discuss that in the next part of the column, along
with the slide of Van Dam. And these good things quickly became bad moving into 2002, as
the WWF’s slide continued further than ever.
So, when all was said and done, what should have been the biggest money-drawing angle of
all time had become just another blown opportunity for the WWF. They had blown their wad,
so to speak, six months early, before the real WCW superstars who fans cared about had
been signed on. They had watered the invaders down, by involving WWF superstars, most
notably Steve Austin, and the McMahons, while giving very few of the ACTUAL WCW guys a
good push. But the question is, why? It’s simple really, and it ties in with the
reason that Rob Van Dam was never given the chance to be the next big thing. Vince
McMahon, although I don’t personally know him, is obviously a very arrogant, proud
man. He believes his company, and the wrestlers ‘he’ has supposedly created, are
the best in the business. And damnit, Vince McMahon was gonna prove it. So, because of
Vince’s pride and arrogance, the WWF buried the WCW name and the men who came from
the company. And in doing so, they lost all the WCW fans they could have gained. Imagine
how much better the Brand Extension would have been, had it been seen as the two different
companies – WWF, and WCW? But, no, it was not to be. The WWF was pushed over the WCW,
just because Vince felt the need to kill the ‘competition’. What this stubborn
fool didn’t realize was that WCW was no longer the competition – it was part of
his own arsenal. And thanks to the stubborn, dumb pride of Vince McMahon, WCW, and the
holy grail of the casual fan, was lost for good.
Keep an eye out for the third part of this series, in which I discuss HHH’s failed
face run, Austin’s stale face act, the lack of a Rob Van Dam push, and why Chris
Jericho’s title reign ended up being considered a failure.
Until then, seeya.
Scott Newman: scott.newman@ntlworld.com
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