10 Years ago today

It was ten years ago today that the WWF (as was) completed the paperwork to buy World Championship Wrestling

(The last Nitro aired on the 26th)

Doesn't time fly?

Wow, really? Yeah it does. I still remember the last Nitro!

I still remember logging onto wwe.com and seeing the splash page "WWF buys WCW".

After all the years of being a wrestling fan, it was amazing to see that. And then to see a live simulcast from RAW and Nitro.

...Pity the WWE threw the angle down the drain.

Absolutements. Oh well, no use crying over spilt milk is there. 10 years later they're still dropping the ball!

Blimey! Time does indeed fly. Yup, they really dropped the ball on that one. I talked about it with DS not long ago and we said that the absence of the big names meant the whole gimmick fell apart because they started watering it down. But you're right about them still getting it wrong. Nothing I've seen in the reults makes me want to rush back and watch again...

...still, they are leagues above TNA!

Yeah it was sad that they couldnt get the bigger names, like Nash, Hogan, and Hall, Goldberg, Sting (Savage would have never came back I dont think)....with those names the Invasion angle would have been epic!

But for what they did and who they did have....I thought it was done alright.

They threw away millions in PPV revenue they could have generated from proper builds to WWF/WCW unification matches, had they been willing to book the WCW guys as being on the same level. Vince could easily have covered the cost of buying out the contracts in one single PPV with a well built Goldberg .v. Rock match. Instead he waited too long brought him anyway for the same money, but after anyone stopped caring or thinking WCW was worth anything, and then didn't bother to build the match properly.

The WCW invasion has to rank as one of the biggest wasted opportunities in WWE history, simply because it should have been the biggest thing ever, and it just wasn't.

And it started so well. When they walked down, to take on the WWE/F you got a buzz. By the end, though, you didn't care. I agree - Vibce should have put his money where his mouth was. I doubt he would have got Sting at the time, due to his content, but you never know...

He might have done, but even without Sting if he had paid for Goldberg, Hall, Nash, Hogan, and Steiner, and then more importantly if he had booked them and the others as a credible threat, it would have been more than enough - and he would have been able to persuade Sting later.

Sadly he let ego get in the way - there was no way "the competition" could be shown to be at the same level as the WWE.

It still amuses me that all of the WWE were eventually booked as the good guys, fighting off the evil invasion. Except for X-Pac, who the fans just couldn't bring themselves to like!

Ultimately, the WWE were booked as the good guys AND the bad guys - Team WCW had to have Austin and Angle, because of course no-one from Turnerland was a big enough star.

Well, yes, that's very true. I was thinking more of the ones who didn't go Alliance.

There's been a few mentions of a Team WWE and Team WCW but who would have been in your Team ECW? Raven, Dreamer, Sandman, RVD, Stevie Richards, as a starter for ten...

I can't even remember which wrestlers were in the ECW part of the invasion.

Heyman as the manager/mouthpiece
Tazz as the Enforcer

RVD, Dreamer, Raven, Stevie, Sandman, Dudleys, Sabu, Awesome, Credible

I'd forgotten about Sabu and Tazz!