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Austin turns at Invasion

John Powell

It is the situation Vince McMahon has always feared. One of his own superstars taking the WWF World Heavyweight Title to another wrestling promotion. With the WWF purchase of World Championship Wrestling and the demise of Extreme Championship Wrestling, McMahon’s former competitors now work for him so there is no chance of that happening in the distant future. What better way for the WWF to celebrate then by turning McMahon’s greatest concern into a major WWF storyline. That was exactly the case last night at the first ever “interpromotional” pay-per-view when the man McMahon thought could rally the troops against the fictitious ECW-WCW Invasion turned his back on him.

In the only significant surprise of an otherwise unspectacular broadcast, WWF champ – “Stone Cold” Steve Austin – switched alliances siding with Vince’s children – Shane and Stephanie McMahon, the “owners” of WCW and ECW. Borrowing a page from Hulk Hogan’s defection from WCW to the New World Order which shook the wrestling world several years ago, Austin undermined Team WWF causing them to lose the main event tag match to Team WCW-ECW.

The ponderous “Inaugural Brawl” pitting The Undertaker, Kane, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho and Steve Austin (Team WWF) versus The Dudley Boys, Diamond Dallas Page, Booker T. and Rhyno (Team WCW-ECW) was slightly above average as far as matches go but concluded in a muddled brawl that any fan could have telegraphed a mile away. 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 machines. 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.

During the match’s finale, The Undertaker and Diamond Dallas Page fought into the crowd never to be seen again. The Dudley Boys beat on Kane outside the ring until the Big Red Machine Chokeslammed D’Von Dudley through the announcers’ table. Rhyno and Buh Buh Ray Dudley double-suplexed Kane through the Spanish Announce Team’s table then Chris Jericho gave Rhyno a flying shoulder block from the ring apron knocking him through a table the Dudley Boys had set-up to use on Kane. As all of this was going on, a paramedic conferred with Austin on the arena floor as he held his knee. The legal men, Booker T. and Kurt Angle remained in the ring. Buh Buh and Booker T. tried to double-team Angle but he took them both down. Buh Buh received an Angle Slam and Booker was locked into the Angle Ankle Lock. Booker managed to kick out sending Angle into the referee knocking him out of the ring.

Vince McMahon threw the WWF World Heavyweight Title in the ring for Angle to use. Shane McMahon beat him to it and nailed his father in the head with it. Meanwhile, Angle punished Booker with his Slam and Ankle Lock. Booker tapped out but the official was still outside the ring. A seemingly uninjured Austin dove back into the squared circle, Stone Cold Stunnered Angle and then laid Booker on top of Angle for the pinfall. Flipping the crowd off, Austin chugged beers with Paul Heyman, Stephanie and Shane McMahon. Naturally, this is the prelude to another Austin and Rock confrontation with the self-proclaimed Most Electrifying Man In Sports Entertainment helping McMahon regain the WWF World Title, possibly at SummerSlam.

Invasion was hyped as what wrestling fans have long waited for. A chance to see the WWF duke it out with ECW and WCW. Yet, there weren’t many high-profile “dream matches” on the card that would elevate it to mega event status. Besides the main event itself, the Rob Van Dam – Jeff Hardy clash was about the only one fans will fondly remember. The majority of the bouts were satisfactory though with the depth of talent the WWF now has, the match-ups should have been better than what they were. As with the whole “invasion” storyline — which they had to desperately revamp two weeks ago to incite some interest and cater to the marks who wouldn’t cheer for anyone besides their beloved WWF stars — the WWF bookers dropped the ball somewhat at Invasion. What should have been a historical pay-per-view was nothing more than a run-of-the-mill offering from the WWF.

The next WWF pay-per-view is SummerSlam on August 19th.

WWF Invasion Results

Mike Awesome, Lance Storm versus Edge, Christian

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