Not the best wrestlemania ever but it was pretty good. The Gimmick Battle Royal was one of my favorite things ever. It also marked the end of the attitude era and it'll forever be tainted to those who felt that was truly the greatest era of wrestling. I tried to keep up with the invasion era but it wasn't the same. I loved Jericho while he was in the WCW and was happy that he left after being so underutilized. He had the greatest debut of any wrestler ever. They spent a couple months playing this "Countdown to the Millennium" video and it was totally worth the hype. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DGsBRImD0po" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Here are some other great moments: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/A4ZmHCYOgvg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KybuIy0wKXk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> And the greatest video made about wrestling ever: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SX4_Imj_B1M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Man I remember meeting all these guys as a kid when they came to town. I actually snuck into the hotel guests area and found them and got autographs. At that time it was dominated by Razor Ramon, Diesel, Undertaker, Mankind, Stone Cold, Kane had just joined, Kona Crush. My favorite autograph was from mankind aka Mick Foley. I caught him in the jacuzzi next to the gym and got his autograph while he was in the tub haha. I still have the picture of me outside and him in the tub doing the crooked finger thing he used to do. I imitated the voice he used to do he was cracking up at my kiddish voice!! Crazy how time flies.
This storyline is the last storyline that I vividly remember from watching wrestling as a kid. It wasn't long after that that I stopped watching altogether and never picked it back up. There wasn't really any cause and effect there. For whatever reason, I just moved on. There was a ton of potential with this storyline. It was basically any wrestling fan's dream. I'll never forget being so excited to turn on Raw just to see who else from WCW or ECW was going to show up, and every time someone would turn up, the pop was incredible. And yet, the storyline really kind of ended with a thud. Someone with a better memory than I for stuff like this can correct me if I'm wrong, but most of the WCW and ECW talent ended up getting buried (or worse) during the acquisition. Booker T and RVD ended up having nice runs in WWE afterward, but I feel like those were more of the exceptions rather than the rule. Sure, the WCW roster was pretty thin by that point, and not getting Sting to make the move hurt, but it really looked like the WWE went out of their way to make sure their guys were clearly pushed as superior.
Two of the greatest at the top of their games. Back when they could improv the hell out of talking **** on the mic. This right here was pure gold! <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zPE_Mlpc6Yg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dVSpJjEs82U" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Sorry forgot the embedded.
The Invasions storyline had a lot of potential, but McMahon screwed it up to prop up his ego. Most of the WCW guys that came over with the merger didn't get much of a push (a couple did, like Goldberg and Booker T, but if you buy WCW and then don't push Goldberg, you are just r****ded). Vince didn't want any challenge to the superiority of WWE. He didn't want it to look like he simply won on the business side, but rather that he had a superior product in all ways. What he should have done was have WCW come in and wreck shop, much like the nWo did in WCW (how hard would it be to see how well that worked). Then you have the WWE guys fight their way up from an underdog position, have changing loyalties on both sides, and eventually the WCW talents are fully integrated at the levels they belong. Instead Vince basically torpedoed everyone from WCW and all he got out of the deal was a lack of competition.
Invasion failed because the contracts WWF/E picked up were the younger guys, not the top guys like Goldberg, Hall, Nash, Hogan, Flair, Sting. Everybody showed up almost a year (except Sting, he showed up 13 years later at Survivor Series 2014) after the invasion when their original WCW contracts were up. They tried to compensate the star power when they merged ECW with WCW stars since Dreamer and RVD made their debut during the Invasion. It just didn't work out. From my understanding, Paul Heyman owed Vince so much money, when they went bankrupt, he basically gave him the company because of that reason. For anybody that doesn't have the network yet, I'd HIGHLY suggest watching the 20 episode (1 hour each) Monday Night Wars series they have on the WWE Network. If you don't want to subscribe to it "For just $9.99/month no contract", they released it on Blu-ray/DVD last year.
