The Invasion (professional wrestling)

[3] An "Inaugural Brawl" took place at the Invasion pay-per-view, where WWF's top star Stone Cold Steve Austin defected and joined The Alliance.

Shane McMahon, however, appeared on Nitro and announced in kayfabe that he had signed the contract and purchased WCW out from under his father's nose,[1] planting the seed for what was considered a lucrative future storyline opportunity.

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!

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.

[10] This incident marked the official start of the Invasion storyline; Raw Is War commentator Jim Ross announced, "The battle lines have been drawn!

"[10] WCW Tag Team Champions Chuck Palumbo and Sean O'Haire then made their WWF debuts on June 28, by invading SmackDown!

[12] In a podcast interview with Stone Cold Steve Austin in 2015, Bagwell expressed his suspicions of the WWF's true plans for the WCW product, stating his confusion as to why his match with Booker T took place in Tacoma, Washington (very much a pro-WWF area) instead of on the following week's Raw Is War show at the Philips Arena in Atlanta (the former headquarters city of WCW), where the match likely would have received a more positive fan reception.

One example was the heel gimmick of WCW wrestler Diamond Dallas Page, whose first WWF appearance was built up over several weeks in a storyline in which he was portrayed as an anonymous stalker sending invasive videotapes to then-babyface, The Undertaker and his wife.

[15] 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.

As the move was being applied, however, Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer ran through the audience and into the ring and started to beat on Kane and Jericho.

[3] Heyman talked about how tired he was sitting beside Jim Ross and discussing WCW versus WWF, stating that he felt that everyone had forgotten about ECW and announced, "This Invasion just got taken to the extreme!".

[19] 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.

Austin, fearful for his life, broke down in tears and agreed to give Angle a title shot at the upcoming pay-per-view, Unforgiven.

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.

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.

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.

[29] 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.

[31] 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.

[5] As this was occurring, Angle ran to the ring, picked up the WWF Championship belt, and nailed Austin with it, revealing himself to be the defector to which Mr. McMahon was referring to the entire time.

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.

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.

[35] 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 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.

On TSN's Off the Record, host Michael Landsberg asked Booker T why the Invasion – which he stated should have been one of the biggest money angles in wrestling history – was in his words a failure on pay-per-view.

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.

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.

[45] As for WCW's other top wrestlers, Sting remained under contract to AOL Time Warner until March 2002, and did not join WWE until late 2014, while Lex Luger and Randy Savage never reappeared on WWF/WWE television.

Other ECW wrestlers such as Shane Douglas, Masato Tanaka, Terry Funk, New Jack, Steve Corino, and Mikey Whipwreck also did not participate in the storyline and would never go on to wrestle for the WWF/WWE on a full-time basis.

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.