The fact that the match to ultimately decide WCW (and Ecw’s) fate had the last two participants be The Rock and Steve Austin should tell you the story of the invasion
The Alliance team had only one member that was on the original Alliance team back in July: Booker T. DDP: Humliated by UT, Kane and Sarah and dropped down to the midcard. Dudleys: Tag title unification match Rhyno: I think he was out with an injury by this time. Replacing them: Steve Austin and Kurt Angle: WWE mainstays, who were on the WWF team in July RVD: Too popular to not include in the main event Shane McMahon: Yep
@@Fixxer315 Yup I mean Shane being on the team would make more sense if they kept the alliance having both faces and heels and he was the babyface owner
On the other hand it could be argued The Rock represented WWF’s flashy sports entertainment style in contrast to Austin’s gritty Southern rasslin’ style representing the NWA/WCW. Just to play devils advocate... 🤷🏻♀️
The last 2 guys should’ve been wrestlers who were the epitome of their respective companies e.g Rock, Kane or Taker for WWF or RVD, Booker T or in a more ideal world Goldberg, Nash or Hogan for WCW. The Alliance was a pretty odd and weak team. They only had 2 certified WCW/ECW guys in Booker T & RVD who were mid-carders with main event shine and 3 WWF guys. Kurt Angle who the Alliance had no logical reason to trust given his blood feud with Austin, Shane a non-wrestler who isn’t nearly as tough as a heel as he is a face and Stone Cold who is the core of WWF. DDP should’ve been on the team to add another actual WCW name to the Alliance.
Fun Fact: the go-home show ended with The Rock and Austin in the ring dicking around, singing a song together, and overall having kind of a good time. That’s enough to tell you the Invasion.
I always felt that if Triple H hadn't been injured, them he would have played the part that Chris Jericho played during this storyline. The Rock, and Chris Jericho were gold together during the invasion.
HHH always held down Jericho he never once put him over that I remember. Its ironic really when HHH went down injured, Chris became a main event player and one of the top faces in the company.. Fast forward to HHH's return and you have Jericho babysitting HHH's dog whilst he had a pointless feud with stephanie (who none of us want on camera) and soon after taking jerichos world titles in a boring match at mania and beating him in a few other matches including a hell in the cell.. Jericho was down into midcard until a few years later when he finally had enough and left for a couple years.
For me, I could see Triple H being Austin’s role as betraying people and looking out for himself would fit his mantra, given we see this during the Reign of Terror and McMahon-Helmsley days. I think Jericho and Rock’s arc would still remain, but I think Angle would lose out with Austin taking his place by chasing after Trips. Although as said, Triple H would be too obvious to double cross and it would have been him leading another dominant heel faction between 2000-2005, that would have been a lot of Trips on top time.
Either that or be the one to defect instead of Austin. SMH owned ECW, HHH would've went right along with her, if not eventually. There was still unfinished business between him and Austin... that would've given the WWF/Alliance feud the heat it needed.
"I didn't care when he turned Heel, I didn't care when he turned face, and I'm certainly not gonna care in a week's time when you turn him heel again" - Early Brian reviewing the main event finish.
“Austin is never made accountable for his actions. He’s never made accountable for his crimes.” Forgot you were talking about wrestling storylines for a second.
I always found it weird that they held this “WWF: Last Stand” PPV in the most important arena in NWA history. I guess in a way it’s dancing on the grave.
I remember seeing Survivor series 2001 at the War Memorial Coliseum in Greensboro, NC. My girlfriend & I sat in the front row of the balcony and we got to see Jeff Hardy jump off the top of the steel cage at eye level.
Stephanie: if the Alliance loses tonight I will have to do everything by myself The following night Steph: oh yeah I still have Hunter’s salary, Hunter for god sake you have to return to action
I can never understand the Raw the night after. Austin is just face again and Angle is heel just because, despite all the things that had happened in the months prior.
@Jay Harv28 No that’s fair but story wise it made no sense. Austin has tried to put WWF out of business for months, Angle effectively saves the day but 24 hours later Austin is a good guy and Angle a bad guy.
@Jay Harv28 especially since they ended up doing Vince vs Flair leading to the brand split right after this, would’ve made way more sense if it started during the alliance.
Give credit to Vince for that. His arrogant, blustery demeanor on Raw putting over Kurt Angle and just laughing at everyone was him at his heel best. He turned Austin face again without Austin doing anything
I definitely consider myself to be among those who doesn’t fully hate The Invasion Angle But even I find Team Alliance having only two non WWF guys on the team absurd
And they took DDP, a legit WCW main eventer, and didn't make him he leader of the faction. Instead they had Taker and his wife bury DDP in a stupid stalker angle people didn't buy even back then.
I'm still sad about DDP he was my favorite WCW wrestler. Also should have brought in Flair here as a huge reveal and get Shane tf off the team. DDP replaces Angle. RVD and Booker stay. Rhyno, Mike Awesome, Kanyon (if they managed him better) hell even Lance Storm or Tajiri could have been elevated. Team WWF should have been, Austin, Rock, Taker, Angle, Kane or Jericho Vs Flair, DDP, Booker T, RVD, Mike Awesome or Rhyno Or ya know take this opportunity to fix Taz.
Out of curiosity, roughly how old are you and when did you start watching pro wrestling? I mean, I'm not gatekeeping here I just want to understand your perspective on this.
This channel is the only thing wrestling I consume anymore. I stopped watching WWE about five years ago, never watched AEW, and I couldn't tell you when the last time I watched TNA was. I've just lost interest in the product. But there's something about this channel's looks back at the PPVs I watched that make me a wrestling fan for a half hour every two weeks.
Late reply, but check out Wrestling Bios. Brian's classic ppv content is awesome, but there's just not a lot of it here. Wrestling Bios does nothing but old shows/ppvs
Correction on Chyna She was not off TV since Wrestlemania - she defended the Women's Championship against Lita a couple months later at Judgment Day... with the infamous nip slip
The commentary during the Immunity Battle Royal is still my favorite to this day. "Heyman: you know back during the old WCW/NWA days, throwing a man over the top rope was an automatic disqualification" JR: "......yeah? Heyman: WHAT THE HELL IS TAZZ DOING OUT HERE?!
And one of the double turns happened the following night, Kurt angle the man that saved wwf was treated as a villain while Stone cold Steve Austin the guy that almost puts wwf out of business received a hero’s welcome
Funny at the time this happened I was bitching non-stop about the company going downhill, whereas nowadays I'd kill for wrestling to be this good and popular again, we didn't know how good we had it in a way.
PPV buyrates plummeted after WrestleMania X7 with only a few WrestleMania's getting amazing numbers again. Statistically the Spring of 2001 began the decline still felt today.
@@PBK1977 that was her heel voice. when she first turned heel it's not like she had a deep chest of wrestling to pull from, she had to be inventive to come up with ways to grate on people's nerves, so she came up with that god awful voice.
I think the reasoning for Angle turning on the Alliance is that he wanted to cozy back up to Vince so he could get the world title back from Austin. I think that kind of got implied on the Raw after.
and to this day people still cry and cry about it because they have a hard time grasping that they weren't going to spend millions upon millions upon millions of dollars to buy out all those AOL contracts
@@lutherheggs451 I kinda get where they're coming from. I mean let's be real, the Invasion angle would have carried alot more weight as a storyline if they actually had WCW's top guys at the forefront rather than just Booker T and DDP and a bunch of lower mid-card guys. Plus most of them, outside of Sting, wound up in the company right after this (Scott Steiner, N.W.O, Goldberg, Ric Flair, Rey Mysterio and Eric Bischoff)
@@lutherheggs451 Vince should have waited for those contracts to end. Sure, you can say that striking while the iron is hot makes sense, but Vince had to be aware that he wasn't gonna hire any of those wrestlers before the contracts ended.
The first time I saw this, I remember having a distinct feeling that the entire storyline was done for the sole moment of Vince McMahon getting to celebrate, triumphant with his arms in the air.
I Thought 2016 Was The Beginning Of The Indy Wrestling Boom Period Because Of The WWE End Of Burial Of WCW At WM 31. The WWE Ratings Dropped To Below 3,000,000 Viewers Lower Than WCW 2000 Ratings And Never Got To 3,000,000 Viewers Again For Raw, Only One Smackdown, The Smackdown Debut On Fox. I Wouldn’t Say The Indy Wrestling Shit Was A Boom Period But The Worst Era By Far. WWE Burying WCW Made Him Become Way Worse Than WCW Lowests. The Invasion & McMahon Buying WCW Was The Beginning Of The End Of The WWE. Wrestlemania 31 Treatment Of WCW Made The WWE Get To Stat Of No Return. Only WCW Can Save Sports Entertainment.
Really shows how little logic Vince was using. DDP was one of two legit WCW main eventers (along with Booker) that was hired. Instead of making DDP a major part of the Alliance story, they completely buried him with the idiotic Taker stalking angle.
🎵You came to meee... In a dreeeam last night... You were standing... In a brilliant light... One minute heeeeere, but the next you were gonnne... I thought I could stay, but I was so wrong... The end is heeeeeeeeeeere! The game is *OOOOOOveeeeer!* No more pretendiiiiiiing... No moooore... *NO MOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE!!!* The end is heeeeeeere! The end is heyuhhhhhh! The end is heeeeeeere! *THE END IS HEEEEEEERE!!!* ... *THE END IS HEEEERE!!!*🎵
A good part about this was the aftermath with Shane taking the loss like a man and admitting he lost. It was some nice character work. Can't say the same for how Stephanie handled it.
I’ve always hated tag-team cage matches because if I was one team I would gladly let one opponent climb out and then have a 2-1 handicap match and have a 95% chance of winning every time
That's what I always do when I play the video games, but even though it is the smart thing to do, there's nothing stopping the guy on the outside from getting back in if you're not quick enough.
This very edition of Survivor Series also started a sparse tradition of having a Survivor Series match with something on the line. The following editions I can think of which have had that are: 2001 (Team WWF vs. Team Alliance for the fate of the WWF) 2003 (Team Austin vs. Team Bischoff for Stone Cold's GM job safety) 2004 (Team Orton vs. Team HHH for who gets to control Raw for a month) 2014 (Team Cena vs. Team Authority for the job safety of *ALL* of Cena's teammates) 2017 (Team Raw vs. Team SmackDown for Angle's GM job safety)
I loved the cage match finish, Jeff was/is the risk taker, he wanted to go for the Swanton off the cage and Matt was reasonably pissed off, leading to their feud
I agree that RVD would have been a better choice as the mole in the Alliance. Even before the merger he thought he was above ECW as “Mr. Monday Night” and made several WWF appearances, and during the Invasion he was cheered by the WWF crowd and butted heads with Austin, so paying that off by having him be the one to get his revenge on Austin and kill off the Alliance would have made more sense than Kurt changing alignments three times in a month
RE: Jeff Hardy jumping off the cage, he was always more of a risk taker from what I recall, to the extent of costing them matches in the past. You could view it as Devon baiting Jeff with the perfect finish for an adrenaline junkie. Matt's not happy with the thrillseeking taking precedence over winning the match and bails, becoming the V2.0 we love.
Can I just say I think this is the best night by JR and Heyman? JR just sounds done with Heymans crap, and Heyman is doing his best to irritate him. It's at least the best back and forth night they had.
It’s crazy that I remember Stacy distracting the Ref at the time. And it’s a damn shame. But yeah, looking at this show…and going forward everything was designed to tie up all loose ends and return things to as “normal” as possible for the WWF. Weird huh?
I’m going to say it, the Brock feud a year later was probably a “last chance” for Big Show. Had it bombed, he’d probably be looking at his release at the time because of how irrelevant he was in the time between WrestleMania 2000 and Survivor Series ‘02
I disagree, I think the reason behind his lack of TV time was the influx of new talent from the collapse of ECW, WCW and even the USWA. When you have so many wrestlers and you only have so much time on TV to showcase them, some will get lost in the shuffle. I think the brandsplit is what did wonders for him, he was a featured main eventer as soon as Smackdown was it's own brand. Plus there's no way they were going to release a 7'1" 500lbs guy with Vince's love of giants. Especially with how smart Big Show is.
@@Bigtmac2200 I mean he was drafted to RAW to begin with and did absolutely nothing really apart from win the hardcore title on a house show. Smackdown utilised big show in the best way and actually made him a threat again and more importantly believable again
@@Venemofthe888 Ah, I forgot about his stint on Raw. Either way, it's not like he's the one writing the show. He can only do what the writers have told him to do. Paul Heyman had control over Smackdown's writing and direction and saw how to utilize Show, so once he got to the blue brand he had much more to work with.
Considering that you talked about Edge going from IC Champ to US Champ between one PPV and the next, I'm surprised you didn't discuss the baffling list of title switches that led to the Tag Title Unification match. Between No Mercy and Survivor Series, the Hardys went from WCW to WWF champs, and the Dudleys did the opposite (with teams like Booker & Test and Rock & Jericho winning titles in the meantime). They actually could've had no title changes after No Mercy and still ended up with with the same match, just with the titles reversed, lol!
Zane doing test voice it’s hilarious "She wants me" Also test pin taker or rock clean he benefited greatly from the invasion he won gold and was the top bad guy
I remember watching this PPV at a bar for $5. All I can think of is the missed opportunity to do something memorable and historic. All it felt like was a missed opportunity.
First pay per view my parents ever ordered for me. I guess I watched enough wrestling in the years before to have them justify it finally. Thanks mom and dad!
The fact that the match to ultimately decide WCW (and Ecw’s) fate had the last two participants be The Rock and Steve Austin should tell you the story of the invasion
The Alliance team had only one member that was on the original Alliance team back in July: Booker T.
DDP: Humliated by UT, Kane and Sarah and dropped down to the midcard.
Dudleys: Tag title unification match
Rhyno: I think he was out with an injury by this time.
Replacing them:
Steve Austin and Kurt Angle: WWE mainstays, who were on the WWF team in July
RVD: Too popular to not include in the main event
Shane McMahon: Yep
@@Fixxer315 Yup I mean Shane being on the team would make more sense if they kept the alliance having both faces and heels and he was the babyface owner
On the other hand it could be argued The Rock represented WWF’s flashy sports entertainment style in contrast to Austin’s gritty Southern rasslin’ style representing the NWA/WCW. Just to play devils advocate... 🤷🏻♀️
The last 2 guys should’ve been wrestlers who were the epitome of their respective companies e.g Rock, Kane or Taker for WWF or RVD, Booker T or in a more ideal world Goldberg, Nash or Hogan for WCW.
The Alliance was a pretty odd and weak team. They only had 2 certified WCW/ECW guys in Booker T & RVD who were mid-carders with main event shine and 3 WWF guys. Kurt Angle who the Alliance had no logical reason to trust given his blood feud with Austin, Shane a non-wrestler who isn’t nearly as tough as a heel as he is a face and Stone Cold who is the core of WWF. DDP should’ve been on the team to add another actual WCW name to the Alliance.
Fun Fact: the go-home show ended with The Rock and Austin in the ring dicking around, singing a song together, and overall having kind of a good time.
That’s enough to tell you the Invasion.
Back when I was a young little mark, I remember being so worried that the alliance were going to win… the good old days
Oh me too you in good company. 😅😅😅😅
I began watching wrestling during the build to Survivor Series 2001.
If Adam Blampiad had got his way the Alliance would have won lol.
I wish they would’ve lmao
In the great words of Mick Foley "Long Live The Alliance!!"
I always felt that if Triple H hadn't been injured, them he would have played the part that Chris Jericho played during this storyline. The Rock, and Chris Jericho were gold together during the invasion.
HHH always held down Jericho he never once put him over that I remember. Its ironic really when HHH went down injured, Chris became a main event player and one of the top faces in the company.. Fast forward to HHH's return and you have Jericho babysitting HHH's dog whilst he had a pointless feud with stephanie (who none of us want on camera) and soon after taking jerichos world titles in a boring match at mania and beating him in a few other matches including a hell in the cell.. Jericho was down into midcard until a few years later when he finally had enough and left for a couple years.
Imagine if Triple H, Chris Benoit, and Eddie Guerrero was around for the Invasion.
Triple H was supposed to play Angle's role in screwing the Alliance.
For me, I could see Triple H being Austin’s role as betraying people and looking out for himself would fit his mantra, given we see this during the Reign of Terror and McMahon-Helmsley days. I think Jericho and Rock’s arc would still remain, but I think Angle would lose out with Austin taking his place by chasing after Trips. Although as said, Triple H would be too obvious to double cross and it would have been him leading another dominant heel faction between 2000-2005, that would have been a lot of Trips on top time.
Either that or be the one to defect instead of Austin. SMH owned ECW, HHH would've went right along with her, if not eventually. There was still unfinished business between him and Austin... that would've given the WWF/Alliance feud the heat it needed.
"I didn't care when he turned Heel, I didn't care when he turned face, and I'm certainly not gonna care in a week's time when you turn him heel again" - Early Brian reviewing the main event finish.
Tajiri and Torrie's relationship sure did cost them both a lot of ass whoopings in 2001.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
She's worth it tho
Absolutely worth it 👌🏽
“Austin is never made accountable for his actions. He’s never made accountable for his crimes.”
Forgot you were talking about wrestling storylines for a second.
You've covered nearly the entire year of 2001 at this point. Nice.
He said that he’s gonna be covering Vengeance of that year soon, so the only ones left he has are Insurrextion and judgment day
@@Eric-wu7bp it’s weird no judgement day 2001 because that’s a stacked show
Did he really?
@@nlee4566 Yep
Arguably the worst year in wrestling.
I always found it weird that they held this “WWF: Last Stand” PPV in the most important arena in NWA history.
I guess in a way it’s dancing on the grave.
Had Survivor Series took place in Connecticut, New Jersey maybe, or New York…it would have been appropriate.
That is totally something Vince would do.
Something tells me it was intentional
Sounds petty enough to be intentional from Vince
Funnily, it also had the smallest attendance out of any 2001 PPV, only about 10,000...in an arena that can house over 20,000.
The last time we seen Chyna, was actually at Judgment Day. She defended the women's title, against Lita.
I remember seeing Survivor series 2001 at the War Memorial Coliseum in Greensboro, NC. My girlfriend & I sat in the front row of the balcony and we got to see Jeff Hardy jump off the top of the steel cage at eye level.
Lucky! 😁😁😁😁😁
Head canon for the Cage Match finish- it was a Dudley trap.
D’von is ‘down’ to lure Jeff into being a predictable dummy.
Pretty much he learned about RR 00.
The man couldn't resist jumping off of something to use himself as a living projectile if the fate of the world depended on it.
Stephanie: if the Alliance loses tonight I will have to do everything by myself
The following night
Steph: oh yeah I still have Hunter’s salary, Hunter for god sake you have to return to action
True, true, oh so true! 😂😂😂
Hunter money stops injury .
Zzzzzzz
Love the Nick Patrick Flop. Anytime he was struck by a wrestler his arms always shot straight up in the air for some reason. It was a thing of beauty.
I think it maybe a reference to stage plays where you had to make sure the people in the back could see.
It's like a button on an action figure :P
@@mgunter I'm just imagining Nick Patrick refereeing while always facing the hard cam.
I can never understand the Raw the night after. Austin is just face again and Angle is heel just because, despite all the things that had happened in the months prior.
@Jay Harv28 No that’s fair but story wise it made no sense. Austin has tried to put WWF out of business for months, Angle effectively saves the day but 24 hours later Austin is a good guy and Angle a bad guy.
and the fact that Ric Flair, a WCW signing who would’ve made the invasion looked more legitimate showed up the night after too.
@Jay Harv28 especially since they ended up doing Vince vs Flair leading to the brand split right after this, would’ve made way more sense if it started during the alliance.
Give credit to Vince for that. His arrogant, blustery demeanor on Raw putting over Kurt Angle and just laughing at everyone was him at his heel best. He turned Austin face again without Austin doing anything
Angle pretty much saved the WWF.
Glad I still have my DVD copy which has the Control Puddle of Mudd theme.
Me too glad I found it at my local FYE I was so happy to find it.
Same, the theme they dubbed it with on the network almost makes it unwatchable for me on there.
Still have mine it was the first WWE DVD I ever bought
Drowning Pool - Bodies and Puddle of Mudd - Control. Both big hits on my high school wrestling team that winter lol
@@paulgarcia9682 Same for me but together with WrestleMania X-7 & InVasion as a neat little triple bundle.
That's how we know Angle was the plant, he taps to Rock's crappy sharpshooter.
This to me was like the end of an era in my childhood. What a trip down memory lane. I want to go back now.
I definitely consider myself to be among those who doesn’t fully hate The Invasion Angle
But even I find Team Alliance having only two non WWF guys on the team absurd
And they took DDP, a legit WCW main eventer, and didn't make him he leader of the faction. Instead they had Taker and his wife bury DDP in a stupid stalker angle people didn't buy even back then.
@@fattiger6957 Agreed, they utterly wasted DDP.
I'm still sad about DDP he was my favorite WCW wrestler. Also should have brought in Flair here as a huge reveal and get Shane tf off the team.
DDP replaces Angle. RVD and Booker stay. Rhyno, Mike Awesome, Kanyon (if they managed him better) hell even Lance Storm or Tajiri could have been elevated. Team WWF should have been, Austin, Rock, Taker, Angle, Kane or Jericho Vs Flair, DDP, Booker T, RVD, Mike Awesome or Rhyno
Or ya know take this opportunity to fix Taz.
@@fattiger6957 I love DDP. I will always be mad at WWE for doing him dirty.
Out of curiosity, roughly how old are you and when did you start watching pro wrestling? I mean, I'm not gatekeeping here I just want to understand your perspective on this.
Test: Are you in the Immunity Battle Royal?
Scotty: Yes
Test: So you have chosen death
Test: You are not immune to my ass kicking.
That shit didn’t make sense to me. Pointless and no meaning.
Heyman after Tazz tries to attack him:Why is everyone so hostile around me?
JR:Because your easy to hate
Lol I love JR
Hats off to Test for being an important key figure in the storyline. RIP Test wish he was still here today.
This channel is the only thing wrestling I consume anymore. I stopped watching WWE about five years ago, never watched AEW, and I couldn't tell you when the last time I watched TNA was. I've just lost interest in the product. But there's something about this channel's looks back at the PPVs I watched that make me a wrestling fan for a half hour every two weeks.
Late reply, but check out Wrestling Bios. Brian's classic ppv content is awesome, but there's just not a lot of it here. Wrestling Bios does nothing but old shows/ppvs
Correction on Chyna
She was not off TV since Wrestlemania - she defended the Women's Championship against Lita a couple months later at Judgment Day... with the infamous nip slip
The commentary during the Immunity Battle Royal is still my favorite to this day.
"Heyman: you know back during the old WCW/NWA days, throwing a man over the top rope was an automatic disqualification"
JR: "......yeah?
Heyman: WHAT THE HELL IS TAZZ DOING OUT HERE?!
I don't get it
And one of the double turns happened the following night, Kurt angle the man that saved wwf was treated as a villain while Stone cold Steve Austin the guy that almost puts wwf out of business received a hero’s welcome
Cause hes Stone Cold dummy
Funny at the time this happened I was bitching non-stop about the company going downhill, whereas nowadays I'd kill for wrestling to be this good and popular again, we didn't know how good we had it in a way.
Well, this was the beginning of that downhill ride WWE has been on for 20 years.
Just goes to show that things can get much, MUCH worse
PPV buyrates plummeted after WrestleMania X7 with only a few WrestleMania's getting amazing numbers again. Statistically the Spring of 2001 began the decline still felt today.
“And on behalf of myself, it’s been miserable working with you.” - Paul Heyman 2001
*yells Last Rites in Heyman*
He and JR had me laughing throughout the Immunity Battle Royal lol
I have to say I love it every time you're reviewing a Rock match and you say "The Rock does a him bottom". It gets me every time.
I had this on VHS as a kid and I watched it all the time.......LONG LIVE THE ALLIANCE!
test got his karma back when mick foley attacked him before entering the royal rumble 2004 an foley took his spot
I remember being on holiday as a kid when this first aired. We had it set to tape and I remember being so nervous that the alliance would win, haha.
The Rock with the Him Bottom 🤣
12:20 : I think D-Von put himself on the table specifically to bait Jeff. He knew he wouldn't be able to resist. lol
It used to be fun seeing Stephanie McMahon involved in it seeing what they could do to her next lol
Her facial expressions were always hilarious
Pity she always sounded like a tone-deaf banshee on helium.
@@PBK1977 that was her heel voice. when she first turned heel it's not like she had a deep chest of wrestling to pull from, she had to be inventive to come up with ways to grate on people's nerves, so she came up with that god awful voice.
Nice little Star Fox reference at the end there. It was a nice touch. 👍
I think the reasoning for Angle turning on the Alliance is that he wanted to cozy back up to Vince so he could get the world title back from Austin. I think that kind of got implied on the Raw after.
Vince saying he takes calculated risk is interesting when the XFL was dead by that point.
"The risk I took was calculated, but man am I bad at math."
Considering all the screwiness of 2001, the Raw after Survivor Series was simply life balancing itself again
@Awesome Sauce Also Heyman getting fired, Lawler coming back, and Regal kissing Vince's ass. 😂
24:46 - 25:34 All the things happen
The entire invasion storyline was just one big transitional phase.
Forreal. It wasn't quite the Attitude era anymore but it wasn't the Ruthless Aggression era yet either.
and to this day people still cry and cry about it because they have a hard time grasping that they weren't going to spend millions upon millions upon millions of dollars to buy out all those AOL contracts
That it was, you can definitively tell it now. Good luck telling it to people back then.
@@lutherheggs451 I kinda get where they're coming from. I mean let's be real, the Invasion angle would have carried alot more weight as a storyline if they actually had WCW's top guys at the forefront rather than just Booker T and DDP and a bunch of lower mid-card guys. Plus most of them, outside of Sting, wound up in the company right after this (Scott Steiner, N.W.O, Goldberg, Ric Flair, Rey Mysterio and Eric Bischoff)
@@lutherheggs451 Vince should have waited for those contracts to end. Sure, you can say that striking while the iron is hot makes sense, but Vince had to be aware that he wasn't gonna hire any of those wrestlers before the contracts ended.
Seeing Stephanie crying on her knees knowing they out of work was absolutely satisfying! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
If WCW didn't shoot themselves repeatedly in the foot, that could have been real
That's disgusting though naive given all the money she would get years later.
Temporary
It always brings me joy when Brian puts the Fink spin on “Main Event”
You know looking back Kurt being the double agent was kinda obvious I mean he tapped out very quickly
I knew I wasn't the only one who thought this!
He also was the last guy to defect and had a blood feud with the Alliance leader just a month earlier, lol.
I always loved this event the hype was real as a kid. Also of note the beginning of solid heel runs for Regal, Jericho and Taker into 2002
The first time I saw this, I remember having a distinct feeling that the entire storyline was done for the sole moment of Vince McMahon getting to celebrate, triumphant with his arms in the air.
I like to imagine Vince was in the match just so he could pin every member of team WCW because he needed one more chance to bury WCW.
The show was the began of the Indy wrestling boom period
And the death of the English language
I Thought 2016 Was The Beginning Of The Indy Wrestling Boom Period Because Of The WWE End Of Burial Of WCW At WM 31. The WWE Ratings Dropped To Below 3,000,000 Viewers Lower Than WCW 2000 Ratings And Never Got To 3,000,000 Viewers Again For Raw, Only One Smackdown, The Smackdown Debut On Fox. I Wouldn’t Say The Indy Wrestling Shit Was A Boom Period But The Worst Era By Far. WWE Burying WCW Made Him Become Way Worse Than WCW Lowests. The Invasion & McMahon Buying WCW Was The Beginning Of The End Of The WWE. Wrestlemania 31 Treatment Of WCW Made The WWE Get To Stat Of No Return. Only WCW Can Save Sports Entertainment.
Paul Heyman: "Why is everyone so hostile around me?"
J.R. "Cause you're easy to hate."
It's always a great day when the Classic PPV review drops. Thanks for all you do Brian.
Thank goodness that this was authentic payoff to The Invasion storyline.
4:38 Zane with an eye for the best time to "splicey splicey" such a lovely image in. Thanks, pal. Nicely done, as always.
Thanks for this Brian. I needed a distraction from my day. Greetings from Philly!
This was the first WWE DVD I ever purchased
I think my first wrestling DVD was Royal Rumble 2001
@@whaduzitmatr another great pay per view
Thanks for the new stickers in the mail!
DDP and rhino from being on the invasion main event to be part of the immunity battle royal what a downgrade
Really shows how little logic Vince was using. DDP was one of two legit WCW main eventers (along with Booker) that was hired. Instead of making DDP a major part of the Alliance story, they completely buried him with the idiotic Taker stalking angle.
DDP deserved so much better. His whole stalker angle just made me sad.
All because "The Master of the Diamond Cutter" gave Vince a hug.
Rhyno was injured, he wasn’t at the PPV
🎵You came to meee... In a dreeeam last night... You were standing... In a brilliant light... One minute heeeeere, but the next you were gonnne... I thought I could stay, but I was so wrong...
The end is heeeeeeeeeeere! The game is *OOOOOOveeeeer!* No more pretendiiiiiiing... No moooore... *NO MOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE!!!*
The end is heeeeeeere! The end is heyuhhhhhh! The end is heeeeeeere! *THE END IS HEEEEEEERE!!!*
... *THE END IS HEEEERE!!!*🎵
It's better than Temporary Secretary. :)
A good part about this was the aftermath with Shane taking the loss like a man and admitting he lost. It was some nice character work. Can't say the same for how Stephanie handled it.
"Congratulations. You won. And I lost. And I lost to the better man."
It's 3 AM, and I should be asleep, but I saw that Brian Zane notification, and here I am. 🤣
17:42 Chyna was last seen at Judgment Day 2001 in May, defending the Women's Title against Lita. 👍🦀
Also, yeah, it's weird how Kane's attire was only for this one night and NEVER wore it again.
thank god, it looks bad lol. Maybe if it was black instead of red, It’d look better.
Vince and jr: the wwf is not shutting down
Months “later wwf had to change the name to wwe
I miss the point? Or the part where they shut down, since its not like they were going to talk about the world wildlife fund.
I mean they just changed name
I didn't really mind the Kurt Angle twist. It feels like a full circle thing when Austin did the same to Kurt at Invasion.
Kurt just got back.
Kurt joining the Alliance made zero sense until he turned on Austin, THEN it made sense.
What was silly, though, was having Angle be heel after being the guy who essentially saved the WWF.
@Kelltron Maybe Kurt thought let them become confident then bam
I’ve always hated tag-team cage matches because if I was one team I would gladly let one opponent climb out and then have a 2-1 handicap match and have a 95% chance of winning every time
That's what I always do when I play the video games, but even though it is the smart thing to do, there's nothing stopping the guy on the outside from getting back in if you're not quick enough.
@@BmanTheChamp but in real life they never do 😂😂
This very edition of Survivor Series also started a sparse tradition of having a Survivor Series match with something on the line.
The following editions I can think of which have had that are:
2001 (Team WWF vs. Team Alliance for the fate of the WWF)
2003 (Team Austin vs. Team Bischoff for Stone Cold's GM job safety)
2004 (Team Orton vs. Team HHH for who gets to control Raw for a month)
2014 (Team Cena vs. Team Authority for the job safety of *ALL* of Cena's teammates)
2017 (Team Raw vs. Team SmackDown for Angle's GM job safety)
What about 05 ? Brand Supremacy lol
@@lewisaino In a way, yes.
2002 survivor series had the elimination chamber so it had the sole survivor tradition in it
@@speedking7224 OK then.
It’s funny that a Classic PPV Review feels like the PPV We are supposed to be hyped for this Sunday.
I loved the cage match finish, Jeff was/is the risk taker, he wanted to go for the Swanton off the cage and Matt was reasonably pissed off, leading to their feud
4:58 Zane, I thought JR was talkin' about when "Willie Reegs (Regal)" fought at an early age to make a living.
But you aren't wrong neither, Z-Man.
Not going to lie, i completely forgot about Mick Foley in the Invasion, and im a HUGE Foley fan.
Had a terrible day, got fired but I've been looking forward to this video since the Rebellion review.
The Classic PPV theme is such a great beat. I legit can't stop myself from nodding along to it
Test really was such an underrated wrestler. He was a hell of a worker.
22:32 IIR Jericho said to RVD "slow down take it easy" I guess because Rob was going a bit to quick.
I miss Heyman and Ross together on commentary so much.
4:56
That’s some Celebrity Deathmatch shit, right there!
I forgot this PPV was in my hometown! Really cool that our stadium got to hold the climatic finish to a huge storyline!
I agree that RVD would have been a better choice as the mole in the Alliance. Even before the merger he thought he was above ECW as “Mr. Monday Night” and made several WWF appearances, and during the Invasion he was cheered by the WWF crowd and butted heads with Austin, so paying that off by having him be the one to get his revenge on Austin and kill off the Alliance would have made more sense than Kurt changing alignments three times in a month
RE: Jeff Hardy jumping off the cage, he was always more of a risk taker from what I recall, to the extent of costing them matches in the past. You could view it as Devon baiting Jeff with the perfect finish for an adrenaline junkie. Matt's not happy with the thrillseeking taking precedence over winning the match and bails, becoming the V2.0 we love.
Can I just say I think this is the best night by JR and Heyman? JR just sounds done with Heymans crap, and Heyman is doing his best to irritate him. It's at least the best back and forth night they had.
This was the first WWE thing I saw that finally started me on this fandom and... boy do I not remember a lot of these matches except the last one.
I know Steph is the centre of attention as the Alliance is defeated, but Jazz's pose of chin-on-hand glumness is just as enjoyable
Back when Survivor Series was an actual war of the brands ;(
It’s crazy that I remember Stacy distracting the Ref at the time. And it’s a damn shame.
But yeah, looking at this show…and going forward everything was designed to tie up all loose ends and return things to as “normal” as possible for the WWF. Weird huh?
"JR calls Austin the inventor of the stunner, Johnny Ace would like a word"
Mikey Whipwreck: But I...*sigh* whatever
They literally threw 100s of millions away on this entire clusterf/ck of an angle
The whole thing just came off as Vince burying WCW.
They needed Goldberg and upped DDP
Omg yes. I've waited forever. This was one of my favorites at the time.
Finally been waiting for this one for a while
Lmao Stephanie crying in thumbnail😂😂😂
I’m going to say it, the Brock feud a year later was probably a “last chance” for Big Show. Had it bombed, he’d probably be looking at his release at the time because of how irrelevant he was in the time between WrestleMania 2000 and Survivor Series ‘02
I disagree, I think the reason behind his lack of TV time was the influx of new talent from the collapse of ECW, WCW and even the USWA. When you have so many wrestlers and you only have so much time on TV to showcase them, some will get lost in the shuffle. I think the brandsplit is what did wonders for him, he was a featured main eventer as soon as Smackdown was it's own brand. Plus there's no way they were going to release a 7'1" 500lbs guy with Vince's love of giants. Especially with how smart Big Show is.
I doubt it. Remember Big Show had a ten year contract.
JR even mentioned it during the main event that he could be a difference maker if he wanted to be....and not just kayfabe
@@Bigtmac2200 I mean he was drafted to RAW to begin with and did absolutely nothing really apart from win the hardcore title on a house show. Smackdown utilised big show in the best way and actually made him a threat again and more importantly believable again
@@Venemofthe888 Ah, I forgot about his stint on Raw. Either way, it's not like he's the one writing the show. He can only do what the writers have told him to do. Paul Heyman had control over Smackdown's writing and direction and saw how to utilize Show, so once he got to the blue brand he had much more to work with.
Considering that you talked about Edge going from IC Champ to US Champ between one PPV and the next, I'm surprised you didn't discuss the baffling list of title switches that led to the Tag Title Unification match.
Between No Mercy and Survivor Series, the Hardys went from WCW to WWF champs, and the Dudleys did the opposite (with teams like Booker & Test and Rock & Jericho winning titles in the meantime). They actually could've had no title changes after No Mercy and still ended up with with the same match, just with the titles reversed, lol!
Zane doing test voice it’s hilarious "She wants me"
Also test pin taker or rock clean he benefited greatly from the invasion he won gold and was the top bad guy
2001 was his best year he won the European, hardcore, intercontinental, and tag team championship that year.
@@kristopherbrown2145 truly an underrated performer
I remember watching this PPV at a bar for $5. All I can think of is the missed opportunity to do something memorable and historic. All it felt like was a missed opportunity.
Test had a helluva spear.
First pay per view my parents ever ordered for me. I guess I watched enough wrestling in the years before to have them justify it finally. Thanks mom and dad!
I just came here to hear Brian say something funny. Dude makes me laugh all the time! 🤣
LOVE THE CLASSIC WRESTLING WITH WREGRET THERE DEFINITELY THE HIGHLIGHT OF MY WEDNESDAYS 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
“If you lose you’ll be total shitheads and everyone will hate you!!”
Lol gotta love Vince’s “pep talk” to his troops.
Test was such a big star in 2001. I liked how Edge was the man back then. He was at the top of his game and was a mid card work horse.
Thanks for the upload Brian. I appreciate you.
Chyna had been off TV since ‘Judgement Day’, not WrestleMania.
I do wish they had done more with Test since he won the immunity battle royal since JR mentioned it a lot yet nothing.
So true! At most he used it to harass the women for a month, then did the Un-Americans angle afterwards.
Excuse me, where's the Jeff Hardy beard?
Damn it, Zane....you really need to throw a previously recorded message on the screen.