thumb|upright|Poster for the eponymous [[WWF Invasion pay-per-view, which features the faces of Shane and Vince McMahon morphing together.]]
The Invasion was a professional wrestling storyline in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as WWE) during the Attitude Era that ran from March to November 2001 and involved stables of wrestlers purporting to represent World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW)—which merged to form The Alliance—placed against a stable of wrestlers purporting to represent the WWF. The storyline began shortly after the WWF's acquisition of WCW in March 2001, and concluded with a "winner takes all" match between The Alliance and the WWF at Survivor Series.
The idea of a supercard featuring the two top promotions of the Monday Night War was considered to be a dream match scenario in the eyes of many wrestling fans, as it would allow the fans to see which promotion would be superior in kayfabe. The angle began when Mr. McMahon's son, Shane McMahon, announced as part of the storyline on WWF's Raw Is War and the final episode of WCW's Nitro (which merged into a simulcast) that he had bought WCW from under his father's nose.
In June 2001, the angle grew in intensity as other WWF storylines somewhat abated to make room for the central Invasion storyline. WCW and ECW merged to form The Alliance and challenged the WWF's control over the wrestling industry.
The final night of the televised Monday Night War occurred on March 26: Raw Is War primarily focused on the major storylines heading into WWF's WrestleMania X-Seven event, while WCW's Nitro held their final episode with a "Night of Champions" special. Mr. McMahon, the storyline and real-life owner of the WWF, opened up Nitro and announced a simulcast later that night to address the future of WCW. Throughout Raw Is War, McMahon publicly named several WCW wrestlers who would not be retained. planting the seed for what was considered a lucrative future storyline opportunity. The Invasion did not begin immediately afterwards, as the WWF was preparing for WrestleMania, the year's largest show, occurring only days after the final night of the Monday Night War.
WCW's first strike; Start of The Invasion
thumb|upright|[[Shane McMahon owned WCW throughout the Invasion storyline.]]
The WWF had effectively doubled the size of its roster through its acquisition of WCW, and as a result, the company believed that there was not enough screen time for many of the new roster members. To alleviate these concerns, the original plan was to find a time slot on TNN (later renamed to Spike TV, now known as Paramount Network) to continue running WCW as a separate entity, with WWF controlling SmackDown! on UPN and WCW controlling Raw Is War on TNN. These plans fell through when no television networks would touch WCW because of its reputation for losing money. The WWF scrapped these plans, however they would eventually carry the idea again in the future for what would later become the brand extension, running two separate brands, with both of the WWF's two existing televised shows, SmackDown! and Raw.
On the May 28 episode of Raw Is War, Lance Storm became the first WCW wrestler to appear on WWF programming, by performing a run-in during a match featuring WWF wrestlers. WCW's Hugh Morrus made his WWF debut on the June 4 episode of Raw Is War by attacking Edge. At King of the Ring on June 24, then-WCW Champion Booker T interfered during the triple threat main event match for the WWF Championship and almost cost Stone Cold Steve Austin the title. Additionally, Austin legitimately suffered fractured bones in his hand from the side slam he took from Booker T into an announce table. The next night on Raw Is War, which was held in New York City's Madison Square Garden, widely considered the WWF's home arena, a confrontation occurred between WCW owner Shane McMahon and WWF owner Mr. McMahon. While Mr. McMahon was in the ring, Booker T came from behind to perform his finishing move, a scissor kick, on him. WCW Tag Team Champions Chuck Palumbo and Sean O'Haire then made their WWF debuts on June 28, by invading SmackDown! and attacking the Hardy Boyz and Dudley Boyz during a tag team match, before fleeing after WWF wrestlers came after them in the ring. As they were exiting the arena, they were attacked from behind by other WWF wrestlers led by Hardcore Holly and the APA, preventing what happened with the previous WCW wrestlers running to the arena exits undisturbed and rushing them back into the ring, where they were beaten up by WWF wrestlers.
In July, the WWF tested the idea of a brand extension between WWF and WCW by branding the final twenty minutes of the July 2 episode of Raw Is War under the "WCW" name, with Scott Hudson and Arn Anderson as the announcers in place of Jim Ross and Paul Heyman. During a match between Buff Bagwell and Booker T for the WCW Championship, WWF wrestlers Kurt Angle and then WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin interfered in retaliation by beating Booker T up, with Bagwell joining Angle and Austin in attacking Booker T. This match was poorly received by the audience in attendance at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington; One source cited that the match should have showcased the best of WCW, but instead featured too many restholds and not enough action. The audience jeered the wrestlers with chants of "This match sucks!" and "Boring!"
Up until this point, the WCW contingent were being depicted as malcontent faces rising up against the heel Mr. McMahon, because of McMahon's bluster during the final Nitro broadcast and Shane's usurping of the WCW ownership. Originally, WCW talents were meant to attack strictly heel WWF wrestlers. The strongly negative reaction of the core WWF viewership to the WCW product and talent,
Addition of ECW; Formation of The Alliance
thumb|upright|[[Stephanie McMahon became the storyline owner of ECW and joined with her brother to form The Alliance.]]
On the July 9 episode of Raw Is War at Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, Kane was scheduled to face WCW's Mike Awesome and Lance Storm in a handicap match.
Stone Cold Steve Austin's exile and return
thumb|[[Stone Cold Steve Austin defected from the WWF to join The Alliance.]]
Stone Cold Steve Austin, who had turned heel at WrestleMania X-Seven and formed an alliance with Mr. McMahon when he helped Austin win the WWF Championship, took a change in character during this time. Instead of being a beer-drinking redneck, he was more emotional and tried to cheer-up Mr. McMahon, who was clearly stressed from the threat of The Alliance, by doing something generous like giving McMahon a cowboy hat as a present. On the July 12 episode of SmackDown!, Austin played "Kumbaya" and "We Are the Champions" for McMahon, to which McMahon was unresponsive.
On the July 16 episode of Raw Is War, Austin was shown drinking and playing pool at a bar downtown.
Invasion pay-per-view
At the Invasion pay-per-view, the "Inaugural Brawl" took place between Team Alliance and Team WWF. Team WWF consisted of Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Kane, and The Undertaker, who all squared off against the team of Diamond Dallas Page, Booker T, Rhyno, and The Dudley Boyz.
WWF gains momentum; Return of The Rock
thumb|left|upright|[[Booker T (wrestler)|Booker T lost his WCW Championship to WWF wrestlers Kurt Angle and The Rock throughout the summer.]]
On the July 26 episode of SmackDown!, Shane McMahon extended an invitation to The Rock, who was serving a kayfabe suspension since the post-WrestleMania X-Seven edition of Raw Is War, to join The Alliance.
Angle's WCW title run proved to be short-lived, as Booker T won it back on the July 30 episode of Raw Is War. On that same night, The Rock returned for the first time since the start of his kayfabe suspension on the April 2 episode of Raw Is War (in reality, he was given the "suspension" to take time off to film The Scorpion King). On the September 3 episode of Raw Is War, Debra and Stephanie bought a new truck for Austin, but Angle came up from behind and nailed Austin in the back of the head with a pipe. He put a cinder block and rope into the truck, place Austin in the vehicle, and drove away. He blindfolded Austin and threatened to throw him into a river if he did not get a title shot. Austin, fearful for his life, broke down in tears and agreed to give Angle a title shot at the upcoming pay-per-view, Unforgiven. Angle said, however, that Austin was "still going into the water", but instead simply embarrassed Austin by throwing him into a kiddie pool.
On September 11, 2001, four aircraft were hijacked and crashed into locations in Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and New York City. As a result, the Invasion storyline was temporarily paused on the September 13 live episode of SmackDown! held in Houston, two days after the attacks, where Alliance and WWF wrestlers joined in solidarity when Mr. McMahon gave a speech and ring announcer Lillian Garcia sang The Star-Spangled Banner. Following the September 11 terror attacks, the title of Raw Is War was shortened to Raw.
The WWF gained even more momentum at Unforgiven, as The Rock retained the WCW Championship in a handicap match against Booker T and Shane McMahon, and Kurt Angle made Austin submit to the ankle lock, winning the WWF Championship from Austin, putting both belts into the hands of the WWF.
thumb|upright|[[Diamond Dallas Page's feud with The Undertaker culminated in a loss against him in a tag team match at SummerSlam.]]
Almost every other championship had changed hands during this period of the storyline, being exchanged between WWF wrestlers and Alliance members. For example, The Undertaker and Kane beat Diamond Dallas Page and Chris Kanyon in a steel cage match at SummerSlam to become co-holders of both the WWF and WCW Tag Team titles. Also, X-Pac beat Billy Kidman to become a double champion, holding the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship as well as WCW Cruiserweight Championship.
The Alliance rebounds
thumb|left|150px|[[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock represented the WWF throughout the Invasion storyline.]]
There were several inter-promotional matches after Unforgiven. Furthermore, a crucial plot point formed when, on the October 8 airing of Raw, Chris Jericho and The Rock teamed up against Shane McMahon and Rob Van Dam. On the October 11 episode of SmackDown!, WWF CEO Linda McMahon promptly fired Regal from his position as WWF Commissioner, and named Mick Foley as his replacement. Regal, himself a former WCW employee, was then declared the Alliance Commissioner by Shane and Stephanie.
The feud between Jericho and The Rock built up to a match at No Mercy on October 21, where Jericho beat The Rock to win the WCW Championship (Jericho's first world title). Also at No Mercy, Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated Angle and Rob Van Dam to retain his WWF Championship.
On the October 29 episode of Raw, Shane McMahon told his father, Mr. McMahon, that a member of Team WWF would jump ship to The Alliance that night. Later that same night, Kurt Angle backstabbed the WWF by hitting Jericho, The Rock, The Undertaker, and Kane with steel chairs by joining The Alliance; ironically Angle intended to join ECW in 1996 but backed out due to the crucifixion incident. On the November 1 episode of SmackDown!, Angle, who originally led the WWF wrestlers, explained that he represented what is great about America — he was a winner, and his defection came from his decision to fight along the winning side. That side included Steve Austin, a man Angle claimed knew how to win.
Survivor Series 2001: End of The Invasion
thumb|In a storyline [[Swerve (professional wrestling)|swerve, Kurt Angle joined The Alliance, only to defect back to Team WWF at Survivor Series.]]
On the November 5 airing of Raw, Mr. McMahon countered Kurt Angle's defection by stating that a member of Team Alliance would defect during the Team WWF vs. Team Alliance match at the upcoming Survivor Series. Steve Austin came out to confront McMahon about it, and McMahon stated that Austin would be the one to defect. Because of this announcement, many Alliance members began to distrust Austin, who vehemently denied the charges and called McMahon a liar. Austin went on to interrogate members of Team Alliance, questioning Booker T and sitting Rob Van Dam down in a room with a light shining on him. That same night The Rock won the WCW Championship from Chris Jericho, but Jericho assaulted The Rock in the ring following the match.
All of this led to the "Winner Take All" match at Survivor Series, which pitted Team WWF (The Rock, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane, and Big Show) against Team Alliance (Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, and Shane McMahon).
It was also on this night that several titles were unified; Edge defeated Test to unify the WCW United States Championship and the WWF Intercontinental Championship, while The Dudley Boyz beat The Hardy Boyz in a steel cage match to unify the WCW Tag Team Championship with the WWF Tag Team Championship. The final member of The Alliance, ECW's Jazz, made her debut during a Six Pack Challenge match for the vacant WWF Women's Championship, which was won by Trish Stratus.
Aftermath
Fallout after Survivor Series
Alliance member Test won a battle royal at Survivor Series that featured both Alliance and WWF wrestlers battling for the right to be immune from termination for a year, regardless of which side won in the event's "winner take all" match. Over the next several weeks Test began using that immunity to his advantage, attacking and bullying other wrestlers for no reason and often assaulting referees. Whenever he would be called on it, he would bring up his immunity from being fired. Shortly after Survivor Series, however, Test's immunity storyline was eventually forgotten and dropped.
The immunity was also extended to any Alliance member who held a championship at the conclusion of Survivor Series. Stone Cold Steve Austin, who was the WWF Champion, The Dudley Boyz, who held the WWF Tag Team Championship, Rob Van Dam, who was the WWF Hardcore Champion and Christian, who was the WWF European Champion, also were safe from termination. Of these wrestlers, everyone except Rob Van Dam (who was already cheered by fans despite being a member of The Alliance) remained heels after the dissolution of The Alliance. Also receiving immunity from The Alliance was Stacy Keibler, the manager of The Dudley Boyz, and Tazz, who was a commentator on SmackDown! and had been kicked out of The Alliance several weeks prior.
On the Raw the night after Survivor Series, WWF Commissioner Mick Foley resigned. Mr. McMahon celebrated his (assumed) complete and sole ownership of the WWF and his final victory over The Alliance. Immediately, McMahon began making those who were allied with the Alliance to answer for their supposed betrayal of WWF. McMahon first kayfabe fired Paul Heyman as commentator (in reality, Heyman was given a new backstage role within the company, thus his 'firing' was an excuse to write him off from WWF television), leading to Heyman to first brawl with his now former partner Jim Ross before being carried out by WWF security. McMahon then announced the return of Jerry "The King" Lawler as commentator, making his first appearance back in WWF since quitting the company after the Raw Is War episode that followed No Way Out in February. Vince then ordered Shane and Stephanie McMahon to come to the ring to answer for their actions. While Shane calmly accepted defeat and left the ring with no incident, Stephanie cried and begged for Vince to take her back, leading Vince to order WWF security to throw her out as well. Stephanie would return to WWF television the following month whilst Shane made a small brief appearance on the July 15, 2002 episode of Raw and would then return full-time to television in 2003. At this point, Vince started to go on a power trip by announcing the creation of his infamous "Kiss My Ass" club, where he was going to force former Alliance members to literally kiss his bare buttocks in order to keep their jobs, with the first victim being former Alliance commissioner, William Regal. McMahon would soon start forcing any WWF employees, whether they were former Alliance members or not, to kiss McMahon's buttocks to keep their jobs.
McMahon also announced that he would strip Alliance leader Steve Austin of his WWF Championship and would reward it to Kurt Angle, who earlier that night had portrayed himself as the "hero of Survivor Series" and bragged about his actions in an egotistical matter to other face wrestlers, to which they all gave him negative reactions. This led to an upset Angle telling McMahon that nobody thanked him and appreciated him for his actions the previous night, leading to McMahon telling Angle that he would be honored to reward him the WWF Championship. In doing so, McMahon and Angle completed slow heel turns that had begun at the beginning of the night.
Before McMahon could announce Angle as his new champion, Ric Flair (who was making his return to the WWF after leaving in January 1993) announced that he "bet on a winner" at Survivor Series. When pressed, Flair revealed to McMahon that he was not in fact the sole owner of the WWF as he had originally thought. When Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon had bought WCW and ECW earlier in the year they had sold their shares in the WWF to "a consortium", but the "consortium" was actually Flair himself, making him half-owner of the WWF and now McMahon's business partner.
Immediately after Flair made his declaration, Austin made his return and attacked Angle for costing him the win at Survivor Series against The Rock and also attacked Mr. McMahon for attempting to strip him of his title, ending the heel run he had begun at WrestleMania. He turned face by aligning himself with Flair and reclaiming his WWF Championship belt.
WCW
right|thumb|200px|The [[WCW World Heavyweight Championship|WCW Championship was later unified with the WWF Championship to form the Undisputed WWF Championship, which Triple H won at WrestleMania X8 in March 2002 after defeating Chris Jericho.]]
During the Invasion storyline, the WWF determined that they had too many championships, due to them acquiring WCW's championships, and felt that each individual title became devalued. To combat this, the WWF began to unify many championships. Survivor Series saw two title unification matches: WCW United States Champion Edge defeated Test to become the WWF Intercontinental Champion, retiring the United States title, while WCW Tag Team Champions The Dudley Boyz defeated The Hardy Boyz to win the WWF Tag Team Championship, retiring the WCW tag titles. The following month at Vengeance, the WCW Championship (renamed to simply the World Championship after Survivor Series) was unified with the WWF Championship in which Chris Jericho became the champion by defeating both The Rock and Steve Austin in a three-match tournament to form the Undisputed WWF Championship, which continued the lineage of the WWF Championship, while the World Championship was retired. Another WCW championship, the WCW Cruiserweight Championship, was rebranded as a WWF title (and later, WWE) and replaced the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship in 2002. The build-up to this one-off event 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. In 2006, it was announced that WWE would be reviving ECW as its third brand (to complement Raw and SmackDown!). The second One Night Stand, held on June 11, 2006, led to the official debut of the new ECW the following Tuesday. Rob Van Dam was awarded the ECW World Heavyweight Championship (later renamed to the ECW Championship) for his WWE Championship victory over John Cena, thus officially reviving the title for the ECW brand while also becoming the only wrestler to hold the ECW and WWE titles simultaneously. This was the only ECW title to be reactivated by WWE for the ECW brand. The brand would continue to operate until February 2010, when it was announced by Vince McMahon that ECW would be replaced by a new series for young wrestlers titled NXT, which eventually took the place of Florida Championship Wrestling as WWE's developmental territory. The ECW Championship was retired when the ECW brand was disbanded.
Launch of the WWF brand extension
In early-to-mid-2002, the WWF underwent a process they called the "brand extension". As part of the brand extension process, the WWF divided itself into two de facto wrestling promotions (referred to as "brands") with separate rosters, storylines, and authority figures. However, the Invasion storyline has come under criticism by wrestling fans and wrestling media, with the storyline being called "a flop". Media sources have referred to the storyline as "one of the most poorly handled, ego-filled storylines in wrestling history".
SLAM! Wrestling alleged that The Alliance members were purposely made to look poorly in comparison to the WWF wrestlers: <blockquote>Portrayed as disorganized and inferior grapplers, the ECW-WCW Team had more than its fair share of mistimed moves which hurt their own team members while the "WWF squad" of course wrestled like a well-oiled machine. The weakening of the ECW-WCW dubbed superstars didn't stop there either. The WWF faction battered their enemy tag partners off the ring apron over and over again making them appear weak and more times than not, the ECW-WCW grapplers gained an advantage only by double-teaming or employing underhanded tactics. The message sent was loud and clear. The "best" of ECW-WCW is not good enough to hang with the WWF. The McMahons allegedly got more airtime than the WCW and ECW wrestlers did during the course of the storyline.
In addition to this, the Steve Austin versus Vince McMahon feud, which had already been the most prominent storyline in the WWF during the Attitude Era, comprised much of the Invasion storyline. Many critics felt that this storyline was "played out" and hurt the uniqueness of The Invasion.
As stated by a SLAM! Wrestling synopsis of No Mercy, a pay-per-view that occurred during the Invasion storyline: <blockquote>For fans who didn't catch it the fifth, tenth or twentieth time they've run the angle, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Vince McMahon are about to feud once again... First up was Vincent McMahon labelling Austin with a steel chair as he was waiting to put a dazed RVD away... Three minutes later, it was Shane McMahon's turn to hurl Kurt Angle out of the ring and into a steel ring post. Vince tackled Shane over the announce table and the two began pummeling one another. Back in the ring, Austin laid a "Stone Cold" Stunner on to retain the belt as a disgruntled Vince scowled. Gee, how many times have we seen that scenario play itself out before? Austin wins. Vince fumes. Fans snore. Whatever.</blockquote>
thumb|left|WCW mainstay [[Sting (wrestler)|Sting wrestled his first WWE match at WrestleMania 31 in 2015.]]
Some of the WCW wrestlers' absences were partly out of the WWF's control. Many of WCW's top wrestlers had contracts with AOL Time Warner, WCW's parent company, and were willing to sit at home rather than wrestle for less money; Booker T, the reigning WCW Champion at the time of WWF's purchase, was a notable exception, agreeing to a buyout of the remainder of his contract with AOL Time Warner in order to wrestle for the WWF immediately. Vince McMahon had the option of taking on any contract he wanted with his purchase, but chose to let AOL Time Warner continue to pay out what he considered bad deals. Notably, Ric Flair and Rey Mysterio Jr. were signed once their AOL Time Warner contracts expired, debuting after the Invasion storyline ended. though it was unlikely that he was going to be signed by the WWF in 2001 if healthy due the WWF's concerns about Steiner's unprofessional backstage behavior. Steiner would later join WWE in October 2002. Others, such as Hollywood Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Goldberg, were not signed until well after the storyline finished. Hogan, Nash, and Hall would make their returns to the company, as the nWo, at 2002's No Way Out, and then the following year, Goldberg made his WWE debut on March 31 on Raw the night after WrestleMania XIX. Austin, who had worked in WCW and ECW but had found his greatest success in the WWF and was seen primarily as a WWF wrestler, was pushed as the leader of The Alliance and a more important player during the Invasion than the bona fide WCW or ECW members of The Alliance. Several top WCW and ECW talents who were main event wrestlers in their previous companies, such as Diamond Dallas Page, Mike Awesome, Justin Credible, Raven and Tazz, were put down into low-mid card matches, while lesser-ranked WWF wrestlers who defected to The Alliance, such as Test and Christian, were given a greater push. Sting would cite these lack of pushes for WCW and ECW wrestlers as the reason he did not initially sign with McMahon's organization despite being offered a contract.
Adam Copeland, known as Edge in the WWF, cites this period of time as when he thought that the quality of the writing deteriorated and seeing empty seats in arenas for the first time. In an interview with Inside the Ropes, Copeland said that he and tag team partner Christian were going to split up until the Invasion storyline began. That angle was delayed until further into the angle, in which Copeland stated in the interview:
<blockquote>It got turned into a, right, Christian will turn on Edge but he'll be a part of WCW. Huh?
How is the guy who's only ever been in the WWF a WCW guy? That happens throughout the show and now it just doesn't really make sense, and I think the fans sensed that. And it's that time that I think a lot of people lost interest.</blockquote>
In the final match between The Alliance and the WWF at Survivor Series, The Alliance was represented by five wrestlers. Three of these were WWF wrestlers who had defected. Two members of the teams, Shane McMahon and Kurt Angle, had never wrestled a match for WCW or ECW prior to the Invasion. Only three wrestlers on the team (Austin, Booker T, and Rob Van Dam), including the WWF defectors, had worked in WCW or ECW. McMahon, Booker T, and Rob Van Dam were the first three wrestlers eliminated on the Alliance's team, resulting in the last survivors representing the ostensible WCW/ECW entity being two wrestlers who were already working for the WWF prior to the Invasion. This overemphasis on WWF wrestlers was widely cited by critics as a reason for The Invasion storyline's "failure". In contrast to most critics, Smash Wrestling welcomed the use of WWF wrestlers in The Alliance, claiming that WWF wrestlers were needed to defect to make The Alliance appear as a credible threat due to the decline of the WCW and ECW products prior to their closures.