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Aside from the Alliance's impending demise, this was an fun and very surreal show to watch just because you'd see matches between people you never expected to see in the ring together. It was booked as a true WWF vs Alliance supershow rather than the Alliance challenging the WWF on the WWF's turf, as they kept a running tally of the score as the show progressed and even alternated having WWF and WCW referees officiate each match. To the review...
We open the show with a tag match pitting Edge & Christian (WWF) against Lance Storm & Mike Awesome (Alliance). Edge had just won the King Of The Ring tournament, which was the first step in him breaking away from Christian and moving up the ranks as a singles star, while Christian was being the jealous junior partner who was carrying around Edge's trophy and acting like he won it. It's strange to look back at this match because it's been so long since Storm or Awesome were full time wrestlers, but these dudes were in amazing shape and Awesome really was a monster at this point. Edge & Christian were in control of the match until Awesome tripped Christian up on the top rope and took him to the floor where he rammed him back and forth between the barricade and the ring apron. Awesome killed Christian with a top rope frogsplash, but went for a top rope Awesome Bomb and got backdropped into the ring, giving Christian an opening to make the hot tag to Edge. At one point Edge accidentally rammed into Christian and sent him off the ring apron, but christian recovered and took out both Storm and Awesome with a top rope clothesline. Storm went for a superkick on Christian, but Christian ducked and Storm hit Edge instead, and Awesome went for a cover but only got 2, so he went for the Awesome Bomb instead and Christian ran in and hit the spear on Awesome, allowing Edge to cover Awesome and get the win. WWF now is up in tonight's series 1-0.
We go backstage to Vince McMahon celebrating Edge & Christian's win, and then William Regal came in to inform Vince that Steve Austin has arrived. McMahon corrects him and says that it's the OLD Steve Austin, and then tells Regal that he should get ready for his match with Raven tonight, and to do to Raven what George Washington did to King George's Redcoats.
Our second match was the Battle Of The Senior Referees, as WWF Senior Referee Earl Hebner faced WCW Senior Referee Nick Patrick. See, the WWF vs WCW war was so personal that even the referees were getting into backstage scuffles, and it got to the point where Commissioner William Regal told Hebner to stand up for himself and challenge Patrick to a match at InVasion. So here we are, and I don't think anyone was expecting this to be a workrate classic, but it was just here to illustrate how much the two sides hate each other. It's pretty funny watching Patrick and Hebner come out accompanied by their respective crews and acting all badass. With two juggernauts of this stature going at it, there was only one man who could control this melee: Mick Foley. Patrick smacked Hebner right from the start, but then Hebner tore into him, but then Patrick fought back and tossed Hebner to the floor where the WCW referees tried to attack him until the WWF referees backed them off. Hebner gets back in the ring and sends Patrick to the corner so he could go up for the 10 punch count, but Patrick hit a low blow and a baseball slide that sent Hebner to the floor. The WCW officials took the opening to attack Hebner and the WWF officials went after them, setting off a big brawl at ringside. Foley came out and broke it up and ejected the WCW officials, then rolled Hebner back into the ring where he hit a spear on Patrick to pick up the win. Patrick got in Foley's face after the match, so Foley nailed him and gave him Mr Socko. This seemed ridiculous at the time, but watching it now it occurs to me that if the WWE roster in 2011 showed half the fire these guys did, WWE would be a lot more interesting to watch week-to-week, and also this match was better worked than 75% of the matches I see on the indies these days. The WWF goes up to a 2-0 lead over the Alliance.
Before our next match, we look back to this past Thursday night on Smackdown when Diamond Dallas Page kidnapped Debra (Steve Austin's wife at the time), and then we go backstage to Debra in catering as she is flipping out and venting to Sara Undertaker about what DDP did. Sara says she knows all about DDP and what a pervert he is, but not to worry about it because there won't be anything left of him after Mark gets done with him tonight.
Time to move on to the next match as the two tag champs face off, with WWF Tag Team Champions the APA (Faarooq & Bradshaw) took on WCW World Tag Team Champions Chuck Palumbo & Sean O'Haire. The build to this match became typical of the way the entire WWF vs Alliance feud would play out going forward, as the APA were the backstage leaders who resented the WCW guys thinking they were going to come in and take over, so they got the entire WWF locker room to come out and deliver a gang beating to O'Haire and Palumbo, ending with Bradshaw powerbombing them through tables. No titles were on the line here, but still a really entertaining brawl as all four guys just unloaded on each other. The parts where Bradshaw and O'Haire went at it were especially entertaining, and I was surprised that the WCW guys were given as much offense as they got instead of being treated like total jobbers. Faarooq got worked over for part of the match before making the hot tag to Bradshaw, who came in and steamrolled over the WCW champs. Palumbo hit Faarooq with a superkick, but Bradshaw followed right up by ripping Palumbo's head off with a Clothesline From Hell to get the win and bring the WWF up to a 3-0 lead over the Alliance.
We go back to Vince's dressing room where he's joined by Chris Jericho, who says that he's wrestled for all three companies and WCW was a place where nobody was in control and and inmates ran the asylum, but ECW always had an evil mind running the show in Paul Heyman. Jericho then comes up with about a dozen different adjectives in a row to call Heyman fat (including calling him a white Shrek), but then he and Vince agreed that after tonight, Team WCW/ECW will never, EVER show their faces in the WWF...again.
We flip over to Shane & Stephanie's locker room where Stephanie screams about how much she hates Chris Jericho, and then Paul Heyman comes in ranting about how they're doing horribly tonight and Kidman needs to beat X-Pac to turn the momentum back in their favor. Kidman tells them to relax because he's the WCW Cruiserweight Champion and he's going to show everyone why people say X-Pac sucks.
This leads us into out next Champion vs Champion match as WCW Cruiserweight Champion Billy Kidman faces WWF Light Heavyweight Champion X-Pac. It was pretty interesting seeing X-Pac in the LHW division because he had fought for so long to stay in the heavyweight ranks, which was smart given how well the LHW/CW talent was usually booked in the WWF. The thing is that if he had been in that division all along, we probably could have gotten some pretty good, traditional LHW high flying type stuff out of him, but by this point he was around 30 years old and had suffered enough injuries that bouncing around like he did at 20 just wasn't an option anymore. Plus, after several years in the WWF as a member of DX and X-Factor, he was starting to get pretty long in the tooth and the truth is that other than holding the LHW Title, there just wasn't much else to do with him anymore, especially with the influx of all the WCW talent. He had one last gasp in 2002 as a member of the NWO, but once that was over he was totally tapped. This was solid, but nowhere near the level of what we were used to seeing in the WCW Cruiserweight division. At one point Kidman came off the top rope and X-Pac caught him on the way down and dumped him right into the X-Factor, but only got 2, and then Kidman came back to deliver the Shooting Star Press and beat X-Pac clean to FINALLY give WCW a win and narrow the WWF's lead to 3-1.
Shane, Stephanie, and Heyman are ecstatic about Kidman's win, and Diamond Dallas Page is in their locker room saying that he's gotten in Austin and Undertaker's heads by messing with their wives, and the Alliance is going to win the main event.
Speaking of the Alliance, we go to the Alliance girls, Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keibler, talking about how it's too bad the WWF fans will have to settle for Trish Stratus in her bra and they won't get to see Torrie's voluptuous breasts, and Stacy agrees that Torrie's breasts and her ass and long legs look way better in panties than Lita does, and the only way she could look better in panties is to not be wearing any at all. They then decide to give Matt & Jeff Hardy a private showing after the PPV, and Torrie slaps Stacy on the behind and says "Ooooh, Stacy! You DO have a firm ass!" Shakespeare himself couldn't have written it better.
Back to the ring for the next match, as Raven (Alliance) takes on WWF Commissioner and Goodwill Ambassador William Regal. This was just five or six minutes of Regal beating Raven up like he owed Regal money until Regal took a charge and Raven tossed him to the outside where he was able to get in some offense in his element. Regal basically controlled the entire match until they did a spot where they hit head to head and Raven tumbled out of the ring, and while the referee was checking on Raven, Tazz ran down and gave Regal a T-bone suplex, and then Raven came in and hit the Raven Effect DDT to pick up the win and close the gap to 3-2 WWF.
We go backstage to Undertaker and Kane, with Sara Undertaker in tow, warming up for their match. Vince McMahon comes in and tells them that they have to win tonight, he reminds Kane that the ECW and WCW wrestlers beat him down, and then reminds Undertaker about DDP stalking Sara and doing the Best Of Sara video. Undertaker grabs Vince by the throat and tells him that tonight, we'll see the Best Of The Undertaker. He walks away and Vince stares after him and smiles. See, his secret plan was to fire Undertaker up by reminding him of what DDP did, which would piss Undertaker off enough to run amok and destroy the Alliance team. Psychology!
Next up was a six man tag with Big Show, Billy Gunn, and Albert (WWF) against Chris Kanyon, Hugh Morrus, and Shawn Stasiak (Alliance). Yeah, I don't care any mroe about this one than you do, so I'll just entertain you with trivia facts. Albert was the WWF Intercontinental Champion at this time, having beaten Kane for the title in what I can only assume was the result of him winning a bet. Billy Gunn was still "The One" even though he returned from injury and failed to impress anyone. Big Show was in and out of developmental due to weight and attitude issues. Shawn Stasiak had been in the WWF as Meat, Terri Runnels and Jacquelyn's sex slave, but got fired after he got caught recording people's conversations backstage without their knowledge. He ended up in WCW and got scooped back up after the WCW buyout. Chris Kanyon somehow found himself holding several different titles throughout the InVasion storyline, including being literally handed the WCW US Title by Booker T (who was both the WCW World and US Champion at the time the company closed) but never did much of anything with himself after the angle ended, and Hugh Morrus spent years playing characters with various pun names and was a multi-time WCW US Champion himself before dropping out of active competition to head up WWE's short-lived developmental territory in Deep South. This was all more interesting (and took longer to type) than the actual match, which was again the WWF guys killing the WCW guys until Stasiak hit a Scorpion Deathdrop out of nowhere to pin Billy Gunn and tie the series up at 3-3. The glory was short lived, as the WWF guys decimated the WCW team after the match, leaving them all laying in the ring and strolling to the back as if they had won.
We go backstage to Shane McMahon with the aforementioned Booker T, who counts the score at 4-3 since Chavo Guerrero, Jr won his match on HEAT. Booker T says that he is both the WCW Champion and the US Champion, and he is a superior athlete, and he will win tonight.
Let's step over to Commissioner Regal's office, as he tells Tajiri that he is proud of him for staying loyal to the WWF, and that he wants him to go out and destroy Taz.
That leads us into the next match, as Taz (Alliance) took on Tajiri (WWF) in a battle of former ECW stars. This was a great match, and it's been so long since Taz has wrestled that it's a little surreal to watch him in the ring and try to reconcile him with the guy I hear doing commentary on Impact each week. The WWF was making him wear the stupid full body prison outfit thing at this point, but he was still dishing out the suplexes and submissions while Tajiri was killing him with kicks. Tajiri spit the green mist in Tazz' eyes and hit him with the knockout kick to pick up the win and pull the WWF ahead 4-3, or it's tied up at 4-4 according to Shane McMahon's count.
We go backstage to the Hardy Boyz as Jeff is stretching in preparation of his upcoming Hardcore Title defense againt Rob Van Dam, and Matt is giving Jeff a pep talk before he goes to the ring when RVD suddenly runs out with a chair and lays Matt out, then tells Jeff that he's next. This is so funny to watch given what's been going on in TNA the last few months. Talk about coming full circle.
We go to WWF New York where Hardcore Holly is happily greeting fans and signing autographs until a fan comes up to him wearing a WCW t-shirt. Holly asks the guy if he knows where he is, and says that this is WWF New York, not WCW New York. He rips the guy's shirt off and sends him packing, then goes back to signing autographs. Hey everybody, come to WWF New York and you too can get roughed up by a real live WWF Superstar!
Back to the ring for our next match, as WWF Hardcore Champion Jeff Hardy defends against Rob Van Dam of the Alliance. People who weren't watching back then might not grasp how over RVD was at this point, but he was over HUGE. He was fresh off his run in ECW and was just doing insane stuff out there beyond anything the rest of the roster was doing, and even though the WWF tried to take advantagem of it by putting him over Austin and then having him work a PPV main event later in the year, he got so popular that the WWF intentionally began shoving him down because he was getting too over. They definitely succeeded in chipping away at the excitement that came with his 2001 WWF run, but they were never able to completely kill him no matter how badly he was booked, though by the time he finally got the WWE Title in 2006 it was way too late to capitalize on the following he had in 2001. Probably his best matches during his first year in the WWF were with Jeff Hardy because the two of them would go out there and DESTROY each other, between the punishment they took hitting insane dives and just the fact that they potatoed the crap out of each other, you always knew you were going to get something special when these two hooked up. You were also pretty much guaranteed a Van Dam win 99% of the time, because I think Jeff probably won three or four of the dozens of matches they've ever had against each other. RVD actually beat Jeff on the episode of Raw in 1997 when ECW invaded, and even when they came to TNA, RVD won the only match they had against each other, and it's kind of become Jeff's place in history as the guy that RVD would punk out time after time after time.
Van Dam leapt up to the top rope at one point and Jeff shoved him off to the floor and then tried that move he used to do where he'd run along the barricade and come off with a clothesline on the guy, but RVD jumped up on the barricade himself and went to try something, but they both slipped and just smacked onto the barricade and fell to the floor. They fought through the crowd where RVD moonsaulted off a section of wall onto Hardy, and then they headed back to ringside where RVD dropped Hardy across the barricade and then came off the apron with a spinkick and got a 2 count on the floor. They headed back in the ring as Van Dam got a huge RVD chant from the crowd, but it only lasted a minute until RVD was on the apron and Hardy hit a sunset flip/powerbomb to the floor on RVD. Then he pulled out the ladder. A big one. And he climbed it, but RVD recovered, rolled into the ring, and tipped the ladder over, sending Hardy plunging halfway up the aisle. Then RVD grabbed a chair and stalked Hardy with it, but Hardy grabbed the top of the ladder and launched it at RVD's face, then took the chair RVD dropped and beat him up the aisle with it. Hardy had RVD on his knees and went to nail him with the chair, but RVD sprung to his feet and hit the Van Daminator on Hardy, knocking him silly and sending him tumbling off the stage. RVD brought Hardy and the chair back to the ring and went for the split legged moonsault, but Hardy got the knees up and hit a NASTY DDT for 2. Hardy nearly bent RVD in half with a very sloppily applied German suplex and went up top for the Swanton, but RVD moved and Hardy hit nothing but mat. RVD put the Hardcore Title belt on top of Hardy and hit the Five Star Notebook Splash for the win and the Hardcore Title. This was just an unbelievable fight and they destroyed each other out there, easily the best match of the night so far. With this win, RVD ties it up at 4-4 going into the main event, unless you're Shane McMahon and count dark matches, in which case it's 5-4 Alliance.
Back to Vince McMahon's dressing room, as he is joined by Kurt Angle. Vince tries to fire Angle up by appealing to his patriotism, but Angle says enough of this Americana (BS), when he won the gold medal he kicked some major ass and he did it for his country, and tonight' he's going to do it for his company and himself, and of course it's true, it's DAMN true.
Okay, time to move on to what will surely be the workrate classic of the night as Lita & Trish Stratus (WWF) take on Torrie Wilson & Stacy Keibler (Alliance) in a Bra & Panties Match. Basically, the background involved the WCW girls hitting on the Hardyz, pissing Lita off and motivating her to put her hatred for Trish aside for the sake of taking Torrie & Stacy down. Trish Stratus would, of course, go on to become perhaps the greatest women's wrestler of her time, but what people usually forget when tallying up Trish's Women's Title reigns was that she spent the first two years of her WWF run doing three things: managing, getting down on her hands and knees and barking like a dog, and matches like this. Trish was not considered even passable in the ring in the beginning, and while I would imagine she had begun training at this point since she would win her first Women's Title a few months after this PPV, she wasn't close to the Trish we would come to know in later years. Mick Foley somehow managed to get himself assigned to referee the match, and I think at that point he outweighed all four of the other girls combined. I'm really not trying to be mean, but he had seriously lost his way with the cardio not long after he retired and it got really noticeable really quickly. So Lita tore Stacy's shirt off early on and chased her around ringside, but Torrie grabbed Lita's legs as she chased Stacy into the ring so Stacy could ram her face into the ring apron over and over again and tear Lita's shirt off. Lita went for a flying bodypress but Stacy dodged and tagged out to Torrie, but Lita made a hot tag (so to speak) of her own and Trish and Torrie went at it. Torrie stood on Trish's hair and pulled up on her arms before tearing Trish's shirt off, but Trish got a victory roll and of course there's no pinfalls in this match, but it made for a perfect setup to yank Torrie's pants off, and Trish and Lita double teamed Torrie and tore her shirt off as well. They then double teamed Stacy and Lita moonsaulted onto her and then tore her pants off for the win. Trish and Lita walk to the back all buddy buddy and holding hands, a far crty from what we would see years later when Trish spent all of 2004 tormenting Lita after Kane knocked her up, and would continue tormenting her until Lita lost the baby at the hands of Gene Snitsky. But this was a simpler, more innocent time when the only pregnancies we saw were either faked or resulted in 80-something year old women giving birth to severed hands. So by my count this puts the WWF at a 5-4 advantage, but the main event is next and they're supposed to be tied going into the final match, so I guess we're counting the preshow match. 5-5 it is!
We go to the back one more time before the main event as Shane, Stephanie, and Paul Heyman fire up Team Alliance before they go to the ring.
Meanwhile, Vince McMahon comes into Steve Austin's dressing and tries to motivate him, but Austin said he doesn't need the motivation because he's not here to save anybody or anything else, he's here to kick some ass and that's the bottom line because Stone Cold said so.
We look at a video package recapping the history of the InVasion starting with Shane McMahon buying WCW out from under his father, Mike Awesome crashing Monday Night Raw and winning the Hardcore Title, and the formation of the WCW/ECW Alliance, complete with Stephanie McMahon and her ECW beret. Vince appealed to Steve Austin and asked him to bring the old Stone Cold to InVasion to lead the WWF team. Austin initially walked out on Vince, but Vince found him drinking at a bar and again appealed to Austin to save the WWF. The WWF team tried to rally against the Alliance, but found themselves outnumbered...until Steve Austin made his return, the OLD Stone Cold Steve Austin, and he cleared the Alliance out and took up his rightful spot as the leader of Team WWF. Incidentally, to see what happens when somebody demands the "old" anybody, I refer you to Dustin Rhodes begging the old Arn Anderson to be his partner against Terry Funk & Bunkhouse Buck at Bash At The Beach 1994.
So it's all come down to the main event, with Team WWF of Undertaker, Kane, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, and WWF Champion Steve Austin taking on Team Alliance of WCW World/US Champion Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, Rhyno, and the Dudley Boyz. Shane McMahon entering first to Here Comes The Money, and is then joined by Paul Heyman and the new owner of ECW, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley. I don't think I'm the only one on this site who feels dirty watching Stephanie come out to the ECW theme song. In another interesting move, instead of introducing one entire team and then introducing the other, they alternated entrances with the Alliance introducing someone, then the WWF, and back and forth until the entire teams were out there. Well, almost: the Undertaker attacked Diamond Dallas Page on his way to the ring and jump started the match and a brawl commenced until we heard the glass breaking and Austin made his entrance and started beating up all the Alliance guys. Team WWF took turns beating up Booker T once they made their way into the ring, then took turns beating up D-Von Dudley until the Dudleyz hit Kane with the double neckbreaker that looks like 3D but isn't. Kane quickly tagged out to Undertaker who casually beat up Bubba Ray Dudley until he went after DDP and DDP snapped Undertaker's neckdown on the top rope, allowing Rhyno to tag in and beat the Undertaker down. Once Rhyno had done the damage, now DDP was glad to tag in and go after Undertaker while he was worn down. Austin tagged in and went at it with Booker in the first time EVER that the WWF and WCW World Champions went at it in the ring. Booker T really impressed me here, the guy was so athletic and energetic back then, and he really slowed down a lot over the next few years of his WWF run. Chris Jericho wound up in trouble and taking punishment from the Alliance for the next several minutes before capitalizing on miscommunication by the Dudleyz to get back to his corner and tag Angle in. Angle cleaned house on the Dudleyz by himself, but DDP nailed him from the outside and set him up for Bubba to hit the Bubba Bomb. Angle played babyface-in-peril now, taking an axe kick from Booker T, then a spinning sitout powerbomb from DDP. Angle made it to his corner and tagged Austin, but the referee was distracted and didn't see the tag, but he sure saw Austin coming in and trying to beat up DDP, and put him back out to the apron. The Alliance dragged Angle back to their corner and beat him down, but finally Undertaker had enough and came in and went after DDP, leading to nearly everyone in the match brawling in the ring. Rhyno accidentally hit the Gore on Booker T and then the ring cleared out, leaving Undertaker alone in the ring with DDP. Undertaker hits a side suplex and chokeslam and then went for the Last Ride, but WCW Referee Charles Robinson stops Undertaker from hitting the move. Meanwhile, Booker T pulls Austin off the ring apron and lays him out on the floor as Undertaker grabs Robinson and gives him the Last Ride and then chases DDP out into the crowd and to the back, leaving us with a 4-on-4 match. Actually, it's looking like 4-on-3 because Austin seems to have hurt his knee during that beating from Booker T. Things are looking grim for the WWF with Austin down on the outside and the Dudleyz beating up Kane on the other side of the ring. They take a table out from under the ring and set it up on the barricade, but Kane chokeslams D-Von through the table before getting beaten back down by Rhyno and Bubba Ray. They double suplex Kane through the Spanish announce table, but then Jericho comes running off the apron and drives Rhyno through the original table the Dudleyz had set up. This thing just looks like a big car crash at this point, everybody's down and stays down as we watch replays of stuff we just saw. Finally we get some action, as Booker T and Bubba Ray Dudley beat Angle up inside the ring, but Angle fights back and tears through both men, German suplexing Booker, giving Bubba the Angle Slam, and then getting the ankle lock on Booker. Booker kicks Angle off into the referee and sends him careening out of the ring, then gives Angle a flapjack and everyone's down again. Vince grabs the WWF Title belt and slides it to Angle, but Shane McMahon slides into the ring and grabs the belt. Vince tries to stop him but Shane lays him out with the belt. Angle tosses Shane and then Bubba and gets Booker back in the ankle lock and Booker's tapping, but there's no referee. Suddenly, Austin makes a miraculous recovery and comes into the ring, kicks Angle in the head, gives him the Stunner, and rolls Booker on top of Angle to give Team Alliance the win, and the Alliance also wins the evening with a final score of 6-5. Shane, Stephanie, and Heyman get into the ring to celebrate with Austin, and Austin decides to beat Angle up some more and kick him out to the floor. Austin holds the WWF Title belt high and has a beer bash with the management of the Alliance as InVasion goes off the air.
* * *
Aside from the obvious point of this being the WWF vs WCW show that people had been clamoring to see for years, InVasion was notable for two reasons. The first was that this was the one and only time that the Alliance ever got the advantage in the entire feud. They had, of course, been suffering regular beatings at the hands of the WWF wrestlers for months, even when they had the advantage due to a sneak attack, but starting with Summerslam, everyone on the Alliance team would start seeing more ceilings than Michelangelo. The second important point was that the moment Steve Austin turned heel and joined the Alliance, it became clear that Vince McMahon had ZERO confidence in the WCW wrestlers as draws or performers on the level of his WWF roster, and he would never present them as the WWF's equals ever again. See, Vince had already given up on WCW the company, but this show made him give up on the wrestlers themselves and decide that maybe these WCW guys didn't need to be the stars of the Alliance, and he could just bury them and start throwing WWF wrestlers into the group instead. It was all downhill from there, and I don't think anybody ever expected Vince McMahon to let us see DDP and Booker T standing over Steve Austin and the Rock's bloody, broken bodies with their arms raised in victory, but the WCW roster would be treated as increasingly secondary while more and more WWF guys "defected" to the Alliance because Vince felt they needed to be there to make them competitive. Such has been the McMahon mentality for all of history: our product is superior, so we'll just turn their product into our product and everyone goes home happy. Hey, it was his dime.
Up next: both World Titles are on the line in a double main event at Summerslam 2001!
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