TNA Impact 7/15 spoilers

[Youre All Hypocrites]

Looking back, the "inVasion" storyline was pretty damn entertaining overall and had A LOT of great moments, but I think the reason a lot of people call it disappointing is because they keep thinking of what the angle could have been if a few things were different (and yes, it would have been a bazillion times better). Like if WCW was really WCW and not some weird version of the nWo led by Steve Austin. Missing superstars from WCW was a big thing too. If they couldn't get a hold of guys like Sting, Goldberg, Nash, etc. for whatever reason, then that's one thing, but they had DDP and they turned him into a psycho stalker instead of letting him be the massively over character WCW fans love. To put it in perspective, the invasion version of WCW would be like if WWF had died, WCW brought them back as a heel stable on their program, and that team was missing The Rock, Steve Austin, Triple H, and The Undertaker, and they used Chris Jericho as an evil doctor or something for no apparent reason.

And yeah, the fact that it basically boiled down to another McMahon vs. McMahon feud was fairly gay as well.


Off the top of my head, these are the good things I recall about the angle:

- The matches.

- The best work of Austin's heel character from that era, especially comedically.

- Jericho's blossoming into a main-event level superstar, as well as the power struggle between him and The Rock for leadership position of Team WWF.

- The last Nitro.

- The surprise emergence of ECW.

- The awesome push of Angle as a legitimately patriotic character following 9/11.

- Countless great segments.

[Marty]

One of my favourite episodes of RAW during the Invasion era was the night of the Stone Cold Faxes, which blow away the GM emails as far as entertainment goes.

From CRZ at the time: http://slashwrestling.com/raw/011001.html

Heyman drops his headset in shock at the paper that came from the FAX machine - perhaps he's wondering how a FAX machine could actually WORK, given that there aren't any phone lines actually extending out to the commentary table, NAAAAAAH. Anyway, Heyman stands on the commentary table and addresses the masses.....oops, but his mic doesn't work. Well ain't THAT a pissah. Somebody finally flips a switch, and Heyman says where we can hear it, "Ladies and gentlemen, please - I have a FAX from Stone Cold Steve Austin! 'I, Stone Cold Steve Austin, resent the hell out of the accusations that I am embarrassed or ashamed because I am no longer World Wrestling Federation champion.'" We see a "COMMUNICATING VIA FAX: STONE COLD" graphic - a picture of Austin and his Tron video, placed in front of what looks almost *exactly* like the MSNBC "America on Alert" graphic spun into an endless loop (just before any identifying words would fade in, it starts over) "'I, Stone Cold Steve Austin, resent the fact that each and every one of you people want to belittle me, humiliate me, and make fun of me, just because I am no longer World Wrestling Federation champion.' What? Oh, I get it. 'I resent the fact you are all against me. What? I resent - what? - I resent that you openly and gleefully cheer for a man who stole my title, Kurt Angle, knowing how this must make me feel, and because of that, I most resent all of you, just for being you. Signed, Stone Cold Steve Austin.' Thank you very much."

'I (Stone Cold Steve Austin) recognise that I am the greatest superstar in the history of sports entertainment. I further recognise that I am a man among men, an American icon, and the leader of the Alliance. Therefore, I recognise Booker T and Test as the NEW WCW tag team champions, and congratulate them for their success. I further recognise that Rob Van Dam is a lucky, ambitious, talented star who is attempting to follow in Stone Cold's footsteps, and while imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I would remind RVD that NO ONE can fill Stone Cold's shoes. Get someone to hold the--'" Heyman calls ring announcer HOWARD FINKEL over. "Hold the mic. 'I only ask--' Hold this! That's my microphone. 'I only ask RVD to recognise that there's only one leader of the Alliance, and his name is (pointing to self) Stone Cold Steve Austin!' Thank you."

'I (Stone Cold Steve Austin) object to the degrading and disrespectful comments that have been made about me tonight by Jim Ross. I am not a coward! I am a courageous man! A man who has paved the way for other valiant men of honour to follow. In spite of what JR has said, I have not lost my self-respect. I have gained even more respect for myself because of who I am, and I respect the rights of others. Lastly, I am certainly not a bully. I hate bullies. I have hated bullies all of my life. I am a sensitive human being who respects the rights of others. Therefore, further degrading and disrespectful comments by Mr. Ross will result in me stomping a mudhole in Mr. Ross' ten gallon head. Signed, Stone Cold Steve Austin.'"

[Youre All Hypocrites]

^ Oh my God, I just remembered all of that. LOL!

[hitman89762000]

other than the rvd-hardy matches and the alliance songfest this is the best moment of that feud:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpC71HrK60w

freddie blassies promo = goosebumps

[Marty]

Yeah, Blassie's promo was great and helps back up a point I made earlier. He's a bigger name than Palumbo and O'Haire obviously, but I'm not sure most fans at that time knew Blassie all that more than Palumbo/O'Haire and a lot of the other younger WCW guys. But that speech got over very well too.

The lesson learned from that (as well as the Nexus story right now) is that it doesn't matter if fans know a guy or not (although knowing them does help), if you present someone as someone who truly cares for what they do and is not a joke, there's a good chance they'll get over.

[Chris Jericho]

My god I totally forgot about all that!

Alls I remembered was Austin returning later that night. The tag-match that had a bunch of WCW guys come out and beat up the few WWF guys in the ring, then more WWF troops ran out to wail on WCW, than ECW came out and turned the tides and than Austin comes in and gives everyone a stunner! Predictable but proberly my favorite Austin moment.

Topped only a week or so before when ECW envaded. The whole Rhino, Dudleyz, and Raven coming out to save Jericho and Kane from the ECW beatdown. Again, predictable but just an awesome moment.

...No idea how so many people here can stomach the current shows compared to the current Raw and SmackDown to 10 years ago.

[Steven Y2T Taylor]

Yeah I really liked that Austin segment. I remember him smashing the pool cue and going crazy. I'd definitely take 2001 WWE over current WWE any day. The only reason I am not completely bored with WWE right now is because of the Nexus angle.

[mainstream84]

I'm pretty sure they could have bought them out of their contracts with AOL Time Warner if they had really wanted them.

I don't think they could have afforded many of them. And even if McMahon could have, buy-outs wouldn't have made much sense at the time. Hogan's contract at the time was more expensive than the entire purchase of WCW. McMahon had stated a few times after giving Bret Hart a 20 year contract, that he'd be very careful in the future with signing big-name talent.

I agree that had WWE gone the extra-mile to bring in Sting, nWo, Goldberg, Flair, etc. it would have been HUGE at the time. But I don't know if an influx of big contracts would have been wise. Especially when the talent he had on the roster (Austin, Rock, Taker, HHH, etc.) didn't have those ballooned contracts.

[TMG]

Yeah I really liked that Austin segment. I remember him smashing the pool cue and going crazy. I'd definitely take 2001 WWE over current WWE any day. The only reason I am not completely bored with WWE right now is because of the Nexus angle.

I agree I'd take 2001 over now, but I find the Nexus storyline to be what is most wrong with the WWE right now.

[Marty]

I actually don't mind too much of either 2001 or current WWE. The low point of WWE for me came around late 2002 to around 2005, just before Rey and Eddie got their feud going. 2004 was actually the absolute low point for me, aside from a few things on Smackdown.

[TMG]

Yeah, a few years there it was hard to watch, but I've watched for so long that you just have to stick with it through the bad parts.

[David Thomas]

I was just thinking about the Invasion angle the other day, so I'm quite glad there's this discussion about it.

I thought, overall, the WWE vs WCW/ECW Alliance storyline was awesome. I had only been watching wrestling for about a year, maybe a bit less, when it started. The Raw episode that Steven alluded to before, where WCW and ECW joined forces and Stephanie was revealed as the ECW owner, remains my favourite episide of Raw of all time because I've never been so shocked at so many things that had transpired on one particular show. I had no knowledge of any behind-the-scenes stuff in wrestling at the time, I didn't have the internet, so all I knew was what I was watching on TV.

At the time, I was just amazed at the prospect of seeing WWE vs WCW/ECW on Raw and SmackDown every week. I was so into the storyline and wanting the WWE Superstars to win, I didn't like it when my favourite WWE Superstars defected to the Alliance, everything that happened kept me hooked on the edge of my seat. It was, without doubt, the greatest era of wrestling for me.

Looking back now, I realise it could have been better. I personally would have liked to have seen the storyline go on longer and not had as many Superstars defect back and forth, but at the time I didn't think like that and just thought the whole angle was awesome.

[rockecy layfield]

I totally agree with David. I had very little internet access at the point and I believed everything I saw on TV. Actually life without internet made it even more interesting. I really thought WCW and ECW can take over WWF if they lose. I was also a huge Rock, Austin, Kurt and Jericho fan at that time. So it was the best time for me to watch all of them together. I started watching WWF from early 2000 and really enjoyed it till 2003. After 2004 it went downhill for me. Some of the great alliance moments were -

Ryhno speared Jericho into the smackdown set
The song for the leader of alliance - It was so funny with all these guys singing for Austing in the middle of the ring looking crap.
When Rock came back and gave a rock bottom to vince and then went to shane but rock bottomed his as well.
The whole Austin and Kurt truck and gold medal fight

[Marty]

Reluctantly back on topic (as I've enjoyed reminiscing 2001 with everyone). From the Observer, which seems to indicate reasons for the ECW reunion show:

It is believed that TNA Wrestling's May and June pay-per-view events, Sacrifice and Slammiversary, drew approximately 8,000 buys apiece. The gross sum per event would total to approximately $111,000 for the company, though that is before the expense of running a live pay-per-view event is factored in.

By comparison, TNA drew in the neighborhood of 25,000 to 30,000 pay-per-view buys when iMPACT! was airing at 11 p.m. on Saturday nights. And when World Championship Wrestling was on its death bed, the company was still garnering approximately 40,000 buys per pay-per-view.

On top of that (in case people thought many are just getting the show for free via streams):

According to a source in monitoring, there are usually thirty to fifty unique live streams for wrestling pay-per-view events with an average of 1,000 viewers per stream prior to its termination. For last week's Victory Road pay-per-view, there were only five streams across the major live streaming sites — Justin.tv, Ustream.tv and freedocast.com). Victory Road garnered less than 1,500 viewers. Live streams for WWE events are in the triple digits with most averaging 60,000 viewers, and UFC events tends to have live viewers in excess of 200,000.

[Trip]

So in other words nobody wants to watch their ****** product.

[AMG]

(I wasn't watching in 2001 so I can't reminisce. Damn it all! All I remembered at the time was channel surfing and seeing a skit with Steve Austin being with 'The Alliance'. I had no frickin' clue who they were. I just knew Austin was in it.)

ECW vs. TNA in an EXTREME Retirement match. Losing promotion gets to retire from the wrestling business forever. Why has this not been booked yet? And end in a double-DQ for no reason to swerve us all?

[Wodi]

russo has to come out and say all ecw titles are now vacated... and then given to some random celebrity. given it is tna, arquette is too good... maybe the new ecw champion could be bob saget.

[mainstream84]

russo has to come out and say all ecw titles are now vacated... and then given to some random celebrity. given it is tna, arquette is too good... maybe the new ecw champion could be bob saget.

Bob Saget is a God compared to David Aquette, TNA, or Russo.