WWE Rivalries: The Alliance vs The WWF (Aired September 2020)

or superstars, it's between two factions. And that's right. We're going all the way back to two thousand and one and the rivalry between Team WWF and the Alliance. And you know, this is a special rivalry for me. I think that two thousand and one was one of the

best years in wrestling for a lot of reasons. Even though many felt that this rivalry and this invasion angle was lackluster in a lot of ways, I still do feel like it was extremely important the climax of a lot of superstars' careers, the breakout year for a lot of guys as well. And yeah, I just think it's very important to go back and touch on a time in wrestling that changed the path for a lot of guys.

But before we get into that, as I always do, I just want to give a couple of my quick thoughts on the current product and give my opinion on something. So we'll start with SmackDown, And I gotta say I am a real big fan of SmackDown. Right now, SmackDown feels really good. It feels like they're hitting it out of the park with a lot of storylines. Maybe safe for the whole heavy machinery Miss Morrison thing, but even

that it's not too too bad. I just kind of wish that Otis didn't have the money in the bank briefcase or else it would be kind of a decent lower card comedic storyline. But even that isn't too bad. The mid card looks really strong right now. I love what they're doing in the IC title picture. Sammy Zain coming back has added a real nice breath of fresh air into that mix. AJ styles, Jeff Hardy, I'm expecting. I think as many are threat match for the Innerconnell

Championship at Clash of Champions, so that'll be cool. I like what they're doing with Seamus and King Corbin. I think they have established themselves really nicely as upper card heels, and well, what can you say about Roman Reigns and the slow burn heel turn. I think that his matchup with Jay Ouso at the upcoming pay per view is just gonna be yet again another stepping stone of him going completely.

as well as the Bailey thing. Like I thought, she cut an A plus promo as per usual. I'm really looking forward to that program whenever Sasha Banks does return. As for Raw, look look Raw isn't bad, but it's really starting to get redundant. Like for me, I was super excited for the Randy Orton and Drew McIntyre program. It has since felt very cooled off for me. I like I said last week, I love Keith Lee, but I just do not really get why he is in this program. He's like the third wheel, and I know

that they want to attach him to star power. I know they want to make him feel important, and he is a budding megastar in we there's no doubt about that. But I just don't understand why he is in this program right now. He doesn't need to be in this program. The McIntyre and Randy Orton didn't need him to be in this program. I just feel like he would be better served elsewhere right now. Like I still feel like he could have been the perfect ying to the hurt

businesses Yang. To me, that would have been a good feud. But in talking about the Hurt business. I gotta say they are one of my favorite things going in WWE right now and my favorite part of Monday Night Raw. I gotta say I love it. I think it's one of the best factions they've done in quite a few years. What can you say about MVP When he came back, I was really down on him. I trashed him a lot following his return at the Royal Rumble. I didn't

understand why they brought him back. I was never the biggest fan of him with his inaugural run with the company in the mid to late two thousands, but man, he has really made me shut my mouth. He is one of the best talkers in ww right now. I would honestly say that as of right now, after Paul Hayman, MVP may be the best promo that WWB has going right now. He has made Bobby Lashley feel extremely relevant. He has brought Shelton Benjamin out of his obscurity since

he returned to WWE in twenty sixteen. I think that this is gonna do worlds for Cedric Alexander. I like the fact that they are a heel faction, but they they're badasses. At the same time, I love that they came out and stood up to retribution. I find their gimmick really cool, coming out in the big suits, expensive gear, like the bling like. I love it. I love everything about it. I think it's one of the best things WWE has going right now. I'm really really hoping that

they put the tag team championships on them. I don't know if it would be Shelton and Cedric or Cedric and MVP. Obviously not Bobby as he has the US Championship, but I really want them to get the tag team championships in the her business, so I'm looking for that. But I got to say kudos to WWE. They have done a mass world job building up that faction. Another thing, I really like Naya and Shana Basler. I find them

a really cool women's tag team. They're probably my favorite women's tag team champions since the Belt got debuted in what was it early twenty eighteen? Yeah about that, so two and a half years ago. So I really like that they've made Naya feel relevant again. I don't hate her on my television screen. I think this was a nice change of pace for Shana Basler, who cooled really way off after her inaugural feud with Becky Lynch entering WrestleMania thirty six. Yeah, thirty six.

like the women's tag Team Championship scene right now. But on a side note, when to speaking about the tag team division and the women's division, I've kind of thought something for quite a while now, given the lack of depth in each of those divisions, and to take it back to the Attitude era or Ruthless Aggression era rather when they also had the brand extension and it was

very abided by. I remember that they had the Cruiserweights exclusively on the SmackDown brand and the women's division exclusively on the Raw brand, and they did have women on SmackDown, and they did have some women's matches on SmackDown, but the Raw Women's Championship belonged exclusively to the Red brand, like we saw with the Cruiserweights on SmackDown. So, given the lack of depth in each of the tag in both,

rather in both the tag and the women's divisions. I'm kind of thinking that maybe WWE should do the same, maybe send this the tag division over to SmackDown and keep the women division on Raw, because I think what you're seeing now is a lot of cross promotional brand matches where we saw the Bar not the Bar, Cizarro and Nakamargo up against the Street Profits. There's pretty much no tag teams on Raw right now after the Street Profits because you know, Ivar got hurt, so the Viking

Raiders aren't a thing anymore. Ricochet and Cedric Alexander broke up, Angel Garza and Andrade are no longer a thing. Even Zelena bailed on them. So I'm almost thinking that WWE may be trending to unifying the tag team belts, and if that's the case, I think the Tag division should be exclusive to SmackDown. I think SmackDown for a long time has been the better and the stronger of the two in that regard.

couple months. We know that she's not gonna win. Lacy Evans has really cooled off after a hot debut last year against Becky Lynch Alexa Bliss seems preoccupied with a side storyline with the Fiends. So I think WWE would be best served to at least consider making the women's division exclusively on Raw, because if that's the case, you would have so many more opportunities for fresh matchups, more

storylines Like Look, I love Osca as Women's champion. I think she's one of the best in WWE right now, especially with Charlotte and Becky out. I think she's second to Bailey, But at the same time, she really has no one to tangle with right now, and even Bailey after they do the Sasha program, who would really be

next in line for that women's championship. So to close it out, I think WWE should really look to making the tag division exclusive to SmackDown and the Raw Division and the Women's division exclusive to Raw, much like they did with the Cruiserweights and the women's divisions back in the early to mid two thousands during the Ruthless Aggression era.

So enough of that, Let's get to the reason why you're here, and that is rivalries, and I'm gonna I wanted to do this for a while with the Alliance versus Team WWF because, as I said in the opening, this was a key year for a lot of superstars, specifically Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Booker, t the rock Stone, Cold, Steve Austin, Shane McMahon. Even there's a lot of guys who benefited from this year, even if the program as a whole was lackluster, and it took up pretty much

I would say eight months. It started in March and it culminated at Survivor Series in late November, so it ate up the vast majority of the year two thousand and one. So this really started at the build up to WrestleMania seventeen when Shane McMahon returned to face his father, Vince McMahon. And what happened was is that Vince was pretty much running Roughshaw on WWE or WWF at that time.

And I don't know if you remember, but this is when there was the whole Linda McMahon sitting dated Angle when he she would get wheeled out in a wheelchair and she was supposedly hopped up on meds and she couldn't how would you say, she couldn't respond to anything? And Vince was dating Trish. I remember there's that infamous scene of Linda sitting in the wheelchair on the top ramp of SmackDown and Vincent Trish making out in front of her. So Shane came back to, you know, fight

for his mother's honor. So they come back, challenges his dad to a street fight and they and that match happened at WrestleMania seventeen and it was actually officiated by Mick Foley. But one thing that happened en route to WrestleMania seventeen in real life was Vince McMahon buying wc W and one of the most historic moments in the history of the wrestling industry. There was a simulca between Monday Night Raw and the last ever WCW Monday Night Nitro, and it went something like this.

right before their match at WrestleMania seventeen. So WrestleMania seventeen comes and goes, Shane beats his dad in the street fight where he I believe that was the debut of the Coast to Coast that sham Man has used for the follow that shame at Men used for the following nineteen years and still uses at to date. Linda mit Mahn stood up out of her wheelchair, kicked Vincent the nuts, and then Shane beat him with the Coast to Coast

counted one, two, three by Mick Foley. But if you guys remember that match, which I really encourage you to go back and watch, or if you haven't watched it ever, do yourself a favor watch it. But shame it Man came out and addressed the WCW wrestlers who were in attendance at the Houston Astrodome in Houston, Texas.

but it wasn't the ones you were hoping for. You were seeing guys like Sean Stasiac and Sean O'Hara, and Chuck Palumbo and Billy Kidman, and then the only two real big names that you saw was Diamond Dallas Page and Booker t Those were the only two guys that were like relatively big names coming over from WCW. And you know, fans were kind of looking at like the guys that were showing up, and Buff Bagwell was another one,

the infamous Buff Bagwell. But you fans were watching and seeing all these guys, and they were kind of like, well, where's the nWo, Where's Rick Flair, Where's Goldberg, Where's Sting?

And it was really unfortunate because for years fans had dreamt about like dream matches and pointing together to like big brawls, and none of those big names were showing up, and in real life, what had happened was that WWE chose not to inherit those ironclad contracts that time Warner was paying all these guys, So those guys stayed home and just collected money not to do anything instead of

wrestling for WWF. And eventually a lot of these guys came over, like the nWo came over in two thousand and two, Scott Steiner showed up in late two thousand and two, Goldberg came over in two thousand and three. Hal Rick Flair even showed up in late two thousand and one. He showed up right after the Invasion angle closed,

albeit not as a performer. But so you saw these guys showing up, and while it was really cool to see these wrestlers showing up and invading the WWF, there was something left to be desired, and I think WWE realized that because a bit into this Invasion angle, they

brought in the element of ECW. And at this time, if you guys don't remember, Paul Hayman was the color commentator to Jim Ross on Monday Night Raw, and I remember what happened was is that they the WCW guys were were beating up the WWF guys in the middle of the ring, and a bunch of the WWF locker room came running out and stood toe to toe with the WCW guys and then turned on the WWF guys

in the ring and just performed this massive beatdown. And these guys included the likes of Rhino and the Dudley Boys. But what do you know, those were former ECW guys and they joined the Invasion angle, hence the alliance between ECW and WCW, which was later revealed that Stephanie McMahon was the new owner of ECW, so you had Shane

owning WCW and Stephanie owning ECW. And while I thought it was cool that they brought ECW into the mix, obviously ECW had and continues to have a massive fan base, I think WWF did this more out of necessity, like Vince and Creative made this happen, and out of necessity because they just simply did not have the WCW star power to make the Invasion angle plausible, to make it realistic that these WCW invaders could overtake the WWF, because in reality, you had a lot of former ECW stars

who were in WWF by the time this angle rolled around. Like I mentioned, you had Rhino, you had the Dudley Boys, you had a guy like Taz like. These were all guys who had been in WWF for at this point a couple of years, and you had and they were former ECW guys, and the crowd already knew them. There was name recognition because a lot of these WCW guys that came over, they were mid to lower card guys.

So if you were strictly a WWF fan at the time, like I was, or I believe like Matt was, and I'm sure like many of you guys were, you didn't know the lower card guys. You didn't know the mid card guys. Like even as a diehard wwfan, I knew about Staying, I knew about Goldberg, I knew about the nWo, But you didn't know about Sean Stasiac and Chris Kanyon. You didn't hear about these guys or the Disco Inferno or what have you.

back pocket as well. So they went ahead with ECW, And look, I could be completely off, maybe ECW was part of the plan the entire time, but I just I believe as just an opinion, and like I just said, I don't know this to be fact or not. I truly believe that Creative did this just to legitimize the angle.

And if they had inherited the likes of the nWo and Goldberg and Sting and Flair right off the bat, they would have not have included ECW, because at the end of the day, ECW never really held a candle to WWF or WCW. They were always just kind of like the ugly third stepchild in the I guess wrestling wars of the mid to late nineteen nineties. But nevertheless, it was a good element given the cards that were dealt to the WWF and the talent they had at

their disposal. So this Angle starts and they build up to the Invasion pay per view, which happened in July of two thousand and one. And I gotta say I own this dvd, YEP, a dvd that I bought, I believe in two thousand and two, and I have to say I've watched it over fifty times, so I know this pay per view like the back of my hand. And I'll just give you the overview for this card. So it started with on Sunday Night Heat, which was

always the pre pay per view show. I bet I guess because Heat was recorded between before Monday Night Raw and with air on Sunday nights back in the day. So Chavala Gerrero the Alliance defeated Scotti Twohati at the w WF Edge, and Christian defeated Landstorm and Mike Awesome. Earl Hebner defeated Nick Patrick in a referee versus referee match. The APA defeated Chuck Palumbo and Shawn O'Hare of the Alliance in the tag team champions match of each brand,

Billy Kidman defeated XPOC. Raven of the Alliance defeated William Regal. Raven was another guy who had been in WWF for a while at that point, but was a former ECW guy. Chris Kenyon, Hugh Morris, and Sean Stacy. The Alliance defeated Albert big Show and Billy gunn Ty. Jerry defeated Taz Rob Van Dam of the Alliance defeated Jeff Hardy in a hardcore match. Go back and watch that match. That was a hell of a fight. Tristratus and Leda defeated Tory Wilson and Stacy Keebler in the oh so popular

bra and panties match. God, I know Matt has talked about this quite a few times. Imagine having those types of matches nowadays. WOW would not go over well in the current political climate, that's for sure. And then the main event was the the WCW and ECW coalition that was Booker, t Bubba, Ray Dudley, Devon Dudley, Diamond, Dallas Page and Rhino versus Team WWF Chris Jericho, Kurt angle Stone,

Cold Steve Austin and The Undertaker. So you hear both teams and obviously, if you was strictly by star power, the WWF was vastly outweighed the Alliance, and again you look at Team Alliance and you have Diamond, Dallas Page, Booker T, the Dudley Boys, and Rhino. The only true non WWF guys in that on that team are Diamond, Dallas, Page and Booker T. Rhino and the Dudley Boys were WWF guys and they had been ECW guys years before. So just in the main event itself, you saw that

WCW and ECW were lacking their own star power. And just to say, when Diamond, Dallas Page and Booker T are your two biggest names from WCW, given the names I have previously mentioned, it's unfortunate, but again they're they were doing the best they could with the hands that were dealt, and they had to use some actual WWF guys and play and book them as ECW guys, And to be fair, they were once upon a time and

on the on the WWF side of things. So obviously of Undertaker and Kine, who were very hot baby faces at this time. They were the brothers of Destruction. The crowd loved them, and Undertakers the most WWF guy one off of all time. Then you have Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho, who I mentioned before really benefited from this angle, because you gotta remember at this time, Chris Jerry Triple h Rather was out with injury. He had just got

a long term injury to his squad. The Rock was away filming The Scorpion King, So this really opened the door for these two guys to shoot up the ranks, and Stone Cold Steve Austin was in the midst of his heel run. He had just turned heel at Wrestling A seventeen and formed with Vince McMahon. So the build to this match was really centered around the fact that Steve Austin couldn't be the old stone cold Steve Austin.

I remember that was a theme that Vince was pleading with Austin to be the old beer drinking rattlesnake because for a couple of months at this point he had kind of been a kiss ass to Vince McMahon. He was heel stone Cold Steve Austin, and Vince was pleading with him to come back to fight for Team WWF because w CW and ECW were running roughshot on the whole operation. So on the go home raw to the

Invasion pay per view, a massive brawl takes place. A massive brawl and w CW and ECW are really taking it to Team WWF. And during this raw you saw clips of Stone Cold Steve Austin at a local bar. And what happened at the end of this raw maybe the biggest pop in wrestling history. And I'm gonna give you guys a listen.

you heard, WWF was getting their asses beat. The Undertaker, Caine, Kurt Angle, and Chris Jericho were being outmatched by ECW ANDWCW guys, and before Austin made his way to the ring, he actually showed up in his pickup truck, went intercepted a few brawls going on backstage, beat up WCW and ECW guys en route to the ring, and he shows up and he clears the ring. He stone cold stunners about four or five different guys and really sets the

tone heading into Invasion. So the inaugural Brawl, which is what it was called, the five on five match, main events the Invasion pay per view, and it was a really good match. I really encourage you guys to go back and watch this because it wasn't a typical five on five elimination. It was first fall to the finish

that was it. First fall wins the match, So it really set up for you know, a lot of spens throughout it, and because I think sometimes in five verse five elimination matches, it sometimes gets a bit saturated because you know that they have to get a certain amount of falls in at certain checkpoints and time checkpoints in the match. So the fact that it was like first ball wins it really set up anticipation, at least for myself. So the Invasion main event ends with WWF surprisingly losing

Stone Cold Steve Austin to Team Alliance. Yeah, Vince McMahon and Creative doubled down on the Austin heel turn in two thousand and one, and when it looked like Kurt Angle had the match one for Team WWF, he had Booker T in an ankle lock after giving him the angle slam. Austin comes in the rings Stone Cold stunners, Kurd Angle pulls Booker T on top and gives the Team ww Alliance rather the victory and turns heel. Joins Shane Stephanie and Paul Hayman as a member of the Alliance.

Closes out the Invasion pay per view drinking beer, pouring beer on Vince McMahon, and it was it was really something. And a side note about that match, that match was

the Kurd Angle Show. I gotta say, if you go back and watch that because at the end of that match, all hell kind of broke loose, like it was just a big brawl, like DDP and Undertaker fought off into the crowd and they had a really cool underlying feud going on during this whole Angle as well as DDP was stalking the Undertaker's then wife, so they went fighting

off into the crowd into the backstage area. Caine got double souplex through a take the announcement on the outside, Jericho sent himself and Rhino through the table on the outside, and Kurt Angle. I gotta say he really really shined in this match, and towards the end it was the Kurt Angle Show, like I said, ends with Austin turning

heel and joining the Alliance. And again to kind of build off what I said earlier in the program, I think WWE did this and Creative did this because of the lack of star power on the side of WCW, because, as I mentioned previously, when your top guys are Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page and that's to say not to shit on DDP and Booker T, because they were great guys for WCW, and Booker T specifically at a

really solid run with WWE in the succeeding decade. But at the end of the day, Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page at this time were on the level of the upper mid card guys that WWF had. You know, they were on the same level of guys like Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho. And albeit that Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle were in this match, but when you have the likes of The Undertaker and Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock who would return two weeks after this match,

there was just simply no matchup. So I think that is why you saw Stone Cold Steve Austin make the jump to wcwwwe's creative doubled down on his Heel turn in two thousand and one and made the switch to the Heels brand and the Alliance. So, like I said, the Rock makes a return two weeks later on Monday Night Raw as Vincmentman lifts his suspension and The Rock comes back. He is lobbied by both Shane McMahon and Vincent Men to join the respective brands in the Alliance

or Team WWF, and The Rock chooses Team WWF. As he Rock bottoms vincementmanh looks like he's going to join the Alliance. Then rock Bottom Shane and gives him the People's elbow and then makes his proclamation that he is back to lead Team WWF.

and the WWF Championship. So you head into SummerSlam two thousand and one and Kurt Angle and Stone Cold Steve Austin clash for the WWF Championship, which Stone Cold Steve Austin retains, and The Rock goes up against Booker T for the WCW Championship. And I gotta say the Rock verse Booker T was one of the more underrated feuds and isn't talked about a law because haus it kind of got lost in the shopfold during the whole invasion Angle.

But I gotta say they had some pretty good interactions and I'm gonna give you a sneak peek or I'm gonna give you a listen rather on their first ever encounter on an episode of SmackDown, and Matt, I gotta say, this is pretty damn funny.

But while this is going on, they were actually really pushing Rhino as a legitimate maybe not main event guy, but an upper mid card guy, because, like I said, they were really trying to get legitimate stars on the Allion's side of the fight to match up against WWF. And at this time, Rhino and Chris Jericho were engaged in a feud and they actually went head to head

at SummerSlam two thousand and one. So on another raw leading into SummerSlam, you had Booker Tane, Stephanie McMahon, and Rhino, who had almost become kind of like the bodyguard or sidekick to Stephanie McMahon who was the co leader of the Alliance alongside her brother Shane. So while they're cutting this promo, they are interrupted by The Rock and Chris Jericho.

And I know I'm maybe giving you guys a bit too much audio as opposed to my usual shows, but there are just so many underlying segments during this Invasion

angle that were just so damn funny. And one thing that I feel like got lost in the sauce was the Rock in Chris Jericho's chemistry alongside one another and actually eventually going head to head against one another during this time in the WWA, But on this particular night, they were both standing side by side, and I gotta say they had some funny chemistry going on at the expense of Stephanie McMahon.

working with The Rock. So the Rock wins the WCW Championship at SummerSlam, Stone Cold Steve Austin retains the WWF Championship. So now you have the lead of Team WWF with the WCW Championship and you have the leader of WCWECW with the WWF Championship. So kind of contradictory a bit, but it was a pretty cool angle that they had.

The following pay per view at Unforgiven, the Rock retains his WCW Championship against Booker T and Seaye McMann in a handicap match, and Kurt Angle actually wins the WWF Championship against Stone Cold Steve Austin for his second ever WWF Championship win. But as this is going on, you kind of start to see a bit of tension on

the WWF side of things. Chris Jericho and The Rock, who were pretty much almost like the co leaders at this point, along with Kurt Angle, really start to go head to head with one another, and at No Mercy two thousand and one, Jericho actually defeats The Rock for the w CW Championship, and at the same pay per view, Austin regains the WWF Championship against Kurt Angle and Rob Van Dam in a triple threat match, and during October and early November, Kurt Angle actually makes the jump and

turns heel and joins the Alliance. And again I think this was this had to do with the lack of star power on the side of Team Alliance. I really do believe that because now that The Rock was back, and you still had the Undertaker and Kine on that side, and Chris Jericho was really on a meteoroitic rise at this point, as was Kurt Angle, And like I said, these two guys Angle and Jericho were the two biggest beneficiaries of this whole invasion Angle and the whole feud

between the Alliance and the WWF. I think that even though the Alliance had Stone Cold Steve Austin and you had Booker t and Diamond Dallas Page, that the star power on WWF was just still too big, and they made Kurt Angle jump to the Alliance, and The Rock regains the WCW Championship back from Chris Jericho on a Monday Night Raw in late October, I believe and along the way, those two actually won the Tag Team Championships. So it was a really love hate relationship between Y

two J and The Rock. And now that Angle was on Team Alliance, much was the same between Kurt Angle and Stone Cold Steve Austin. So you're entering into Survivor Series season with Angle and Austin leading the Alliance, the Rock and Jericho leading Team WWF, and both of those teams of leaders are really having some internal problems. So with Survivor Series right around the corner, and Survivor Series always has, as the pre always has the previously mentioned

five on five elimination matches. Vince McMahon throws down the challenge against Stephanie and Shame, and I'm gonna give you a sneak preview into the five versus five winner take all match between Team Alliance and Team w w F.

obviously the battlefields are more even at this point. I think that even though the Team WWF still had more star power and the better team, you know, you had Stone Cold, Steve, Austin, Kurt Angle on that side to Brampton star power of Team Alliance, Booker T and Rob Van Dam. Rob van Dem in particular was an upbring and coming star at this point and shaming man. But again Team Alliance. There's really only two guys who were non WWF guys on that team with RVD and Booker T,

but was still a very good match. Came down to The Rock and Chris Jericho versus Stone Cold Steve Austin and Kurt Angle, and what happens is the Jericho gets eliminated and he actually turns on the Rock and he gives him a facebuster. It was pretty much exactly like the Misses skull crushing finale that Jericho was using at this point, almost an identical move, so basically turns on

Team WWF. And when it looked like the Alliance had the match one, because the match eventually came down to The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin, shocking the referee was down, Kurt Angle runs out seemingly to help Austin seal the deal for the Alliance, decks Austin over the head with the WWF Championship belt, who groggily takes the hit and ends up getting a rock bottom from the Rock obviously, and the Rock gets the one two three

to seal the deal for Team WWF. Vince McMahon comes on the stage and gloats with his fists raised in the air, hence closing the Invasion angle. And in you and you heard in the build that Vince McMahon was saying that an Alliance member was going to be defecting over to the team WWF. Well it turned out to be uh, Kurt Angle. And so that closes the book on the Invasion Angle, on the Alliance as we know it.

And like I said, a few guys really took off following this angle, specifically Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle, who in my mind legitimized themselves as main event players after this entire program. Because Kurt Angle had already had a run as WWO champion that he won the championship in late two thousand and lost it at No Way Out two thousand and one, but he kind of went back into the mid card following that, and he got a chance to be a main event player in this whole angle. And the same goes for.

Austin and Kurt Angle. And look, going into that pay per view at Vengeance, I think Chris Jericho was the least likely to win the Undisputed Championship, so maybe it was his, but this was the real coming out party

for Chris Jericho. And I think even though maybe the program and the Angle as a whole was lackluster because it lacked the nWo, it lacked Scott Steiner, Goldberg, Rick Flair sting all those guys, it really meant a lot for the likes of Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho, and even Rob Van dem Booker t got showcased a lot because he was pretty much the main WCW guy. So look, it wasn't great for a lot of reasons because I feel like wrestling fans missed out on a lot of

dream matches. But in the end, you know, we got a lot of the dream matches we were so hoping for, Like we got the Rock Versus Hull Cooga, and we got Triple H versus Goldberg. Maybe not the time and in the setting we wanted, but eventually we got them, we just had to wait a bit and it had nothing to do with the Invasion Angle. So look, as as a whole, I enjoyed the Invasion Angle, especially given the cards that WWE was dealt at the time. They

couldn't have done much better. Again, would I have liked to see Austin and the Rock fights side by side for Team WWF against the likes of Goldberg and the nWo, of course, but look, you know, the real life circumstances prevented it from happening, and I think given those circumstances, Vince mcmahnon creative did the best that they could, and like I said, we got to see a lot of guys get opportunities they otherwise wouldn't have because look, you think the Angle and Booker T and Van Dam and

Jericho would have gotten those opportunities in Showcase like they did if the nWo and Goldberg or even Triple H were around. No, probably not so. I think that for a lot of reasons, it was almost good that those guys didn't come over right away. But look, guys, I appreciate you listening to me. Again, I know this is a bit longer of an episode than usual. I know I played a bit more audio than I typically do.

I hope you guys enjoyed it. I just feel like, given the length and the different characters that were involved PA in this program, that it was needed to give you guys some insight and some funny moments on what transpired over the eight month run of this feud between the Alliance and Team WWF. And look, I've gotten your request for future rivalries as well. I got one for Guerrero versus Raymondsterio. I got one for Eddie versus curt Angle,

and I will be getting to those. I just had this one in the back pocket I wanted to do so. If you have any more suggestions, either at me on Twitter at a to Marco twenty five or email Matt at Real WWE Podcast or get him on Instagram, feel free to reach out. I love hearing from you guys, and I really hope you enjoyed this one of the Lions versus Team WWF. So you know what, guys, you enjoy your weekend and I'll talk to you next week