Raw is War - June 25th, 2001

The Invasion begins!

Raw opens with Mr. McMahon who marches to the ring. He crows about Stone Cold having retained the WWF title last night and moves on to the WCW invasion and the attack by WCW champion Booker T last night. They’ve made a really big deal about the fact that tonight’s Raw is in Madison Square Garden which was/is the WWF’s spiritual home for decades. That’s something Vince touches on too and promises that no WCW talent will ever set foot in MSG. He makes fun of Booker T and asks what the T stands for - Temporarily Employed, which is what everyone who works for WCW is. Vince introduces a soppy video about his father, Mr. McMahon Senior which is narrated by my boy Todd Pettigil. The live crowd is respectful and cheers for Vince Senor, Freddy Blassie and Gorilla Monsoon. Vince actually comes across as a total babyface here, rallying the crowd against the WCW invasion and promises us many great moments tonight in Madison Square Garden.

In the opening match, Test defends the Hardcore title against Rhyno (who gets a big pop from the New York crowd as a former ECW main eventer). A lot is made of the fact that Test originally won the title thanks to WCW interference by Shane McMahon and Stacy Kiebler. This is a pretty great brawl that goes backstage and Test gets a near fall with an awesome elbow from some scaffolding onto two tables. Amazed that wasn’t the finish. In the end, Rhyno regains the Hardcore title with a Gore into the wall which didn’t look great but ends the match. As he celebrates, he’s attacked by former ECW and WCW talent Mike Awesome who powerbombs Rhyno onto a nearby ladder and covers him to take advantage of the 24/7 rule. WCW’s Mike Awesome has just won the WWF Hardcore title in Madison Square Garden! The powerbomb looked - no pun intended - awesome. 

Back in McMahon’s office he’s flipping out about WCW’s interference earlier. Stone Cold and Debra show up oblivious to what’s happened tonight. He screams at Austin that he has been “raped” which is VERY poor form. Austin doesn’t like being yelled at and fires up and the fans actually cheer him showing colours of the old Stone Cold. Austin makes Vince promise that he cares about him and they hug as Debra rolls her eyes. 

The show is peppered with Paul Heyman narrated video packages about all the Madison Square Garden history, spotlighting the big stars of the past. All this focus on stars of the past must have caught on with the crowd as later during the Edge and Billy Gunn match the crowd started chanting for Hogan pretty loudly. At this point in the WCW invasion, it was unclear who would and wouldn’t be making the jump. The fans expected Hogan, Hall, Nash, Goldberg, Sting and Flair. They didn’t get them. 

Later Vince seems in a much better mood as he shares a snack with Stone Cold and Debra. Kurt Angle comes in to see them and Vince gives Kurt lots of praise and says he’s proud of him for what he did to Shane last night in their street fight. Kurt’s banged up and has a concussion. Austin gets in Kurt’s face and calls him pathetic and says he had a harder night. They bicker like children over Vince’s attention and the boss invites Kurt to sit and join them. Later as Kurt enjoys the snacks, a jealous Austin calls Vince aside and asks him to make Kurt leave. Kurt is hilarious being oblivious that he’s not wanted. Kurt tries to bond with Austin and says they’re basically brothers, munching carrots and celery.

JR throws to WWF New York where we expect it to be Perry Saturn and Terri but instead it’s WCW owner Shane McMahon. He taunts Vince and then brings out his guest, the WCW Champion Booker T! Shane officially launches the WCW invasion here, saying that since Vince has used his influence to block WCW from appearing on any TV network, they’ll just invade the WWF instead. Shane says his granddad would be proud of him for putting his dad out of business, just like Vince did to him. Booker T calls out the WWF Champion Stone Cold and tells him to come to WWF New York and face him man to man! Back in the McMahon office at the arena, Austin is furious. Vince points out that WWF New York is only a few blocks from MSG. (i’ve been to New York and it’s true, it's only about a 10 - 15 minute walk). Austin wants Vince to come with him but McMahon isn’t keen and suggests he take Kurt Angle instead. Kurt’s into it and the WWF Champion and Olympic Gold medalist go off to WWF New York to kick Booker T and Shane’s ass! 

Elsewhere backstage, Bradshaw and Faarooq lead the charge of the WWF locker room, riling everyone up with a speech about how WCW rejected them and failed and now they want a bail out. This is very much a big “WWF is all babyface now” moment. I’m sure there was a lot of real life sentiment about not wanting to welcome or accept the WCW guys backstage too. Of note in the crowd is Haku with his hair slicked back, the now Right to Censorless Bull Buchanan and clean shaven Godfather, and Esse Rios who I was sure had already been released.

In a couple of backstage segments, Austin and Kurt call to check in with Vince seemingly lost on the way to WWF New York. “Yeah i know he’s a dork but he’s our dork, he’s a dangerous dork and he’s your back-up dork” which got a laugh. Vince has a plan and heads down to the ring after telling Stone Cold to “wait for his signal”. That leads into the main event segment as Mr. McMahon struts back down to the ring. Vince introduces the footage and we watch on the titantron as Austin and Angle storm into WWF New York only to find out that Booker T and Shane have left already. Austin gets up on the stage and promises to whip Booker T’s ass. He’s furious and fired up, and the fans are VERY loud and practically blow out the mics.

Back at the arena, Shane McMahon’s music hits and the owner of WCW comes out (complete with WCW spotlights on the ramp, which you’d have to wonder how he set up in kayfabe). Shane circles the ring keeping Vince distracted allowing Booker T to come through the crowd and drop Vince with a series of punches and a Scissors Kick! He busts out a little break dance (the Spinarooni) and he and Shane sprint off through the crowd as the WWF locker room fills the ring in defence of their boss and Madison Square Garden. The Invasion is in full swing! 

King Edge

After a skit with Regal and Tajiri carrying the big heavy King of the Ring trophy backstage, they go down to the ring so that the Commissioner can present it to the winner of the King of the Ring. After some build up about royalty in America, Regal brings down Edge and Christian. Christian takes a moment to talk about himself and his hardships but does eventually hand the mic to Edge. Edge gets a big babyface cheer talking about being King as Christian holds his trophy for him. Before Edge can say much, he's interrupted by the 1999 King of the Ring Billy Gunn. He’s furious that he missed the 2000 tournament due to his shoulder injury, but he was left out of the 2001 tournament. He heels out on the New York crowd and calls Edge a “talentless joke”. Edge is funny in his reply, pointing out that Billy was a terrible King and achieved nothing and says that later tonight his first royal duty will be to “totally annihilate Billy Bitchcakes”. 

2001 King of the Ring Edge (with Christian, still carrying Edge’s huge trophy like its his own) takes on 1999 King of the Ring Billy Gunn. In 2001, Billy was a bit of a joke as the least successful King of the Ring in history. In 2024, he retains that title. This is a decent match but between the “Hogan” chants I mentioned elsewhere and a boring chant, the fans don’t care. That’s Billy’s fault, not Edge’s. With a little help from Chistian (which Edge didn’t really need) Edge picks up the victory and Christian continues to treat the trophy like it's his. 

DDP still wants to be Famous

The Undertaker (with Sara) teams with Intercontinental Champion Kane to challenge The Dudley Boyz for the WWF Tag Team titles. Sara and Taker both look a lot more relaxed after dealing with the stalker Diamon Dallas Page at the King of the Ring last night. I’m SURE they’ve seen the last of him (wink). The Dudleyz have committed to the heel life now, dropping all of their crowd pleasing antics from their entrance and matches. No more Wazzup or “get the tables”. The Brothers of Destruction seem to have this match well in hand until X-Factor’s Albert slips in unseen and plants Kane with a Baldo-Bomb allowing D-Von to pin him and retain the titles. Kane immediately sits up and chases after Albert, and with Undertaker alone Bubba tries to beat him down but the Deadman plants him with a chokeslam and sends the Dudleyz packing. As Undertaker leaves, he’s jumped from behind by DDP with a steel chair. After laying out Undertaker, Page grabs Sara (who does her best to defend herself) and tears a chunk of her hair out, leaving both her and Taker distraught. 

The Hardyz in singles action

Jeff Hardy defends the Light Heavyweight Championship in a King of the Ring rematch against X-Pac. Their match on the PPV was very close and X-Pac did almost win the title so a rematch seems fair enough. This is a decent match and the crowd are really into it. Jeff Hardy is super popular but with a roll up and using the ropes for leverage, X-Pac wins the Light Heavyweight title! This isn’t the end of Jeff’ singles run though.

Backstage, Big Show approaches Trish Stratus and awkwardly flirts with her. He says he’s going to win the European title tonight and then he’s going to go on a European vacation and wants her to be at ringside and then come on the vacation with him.

Matt Hardy defends his European title against The Big Show (with his custom “Big Show with an arrow pointed at his crotch” t-shirt) with Lita and Trish in their respective corners. Trish hops onto the apron and kisses Matt to distract him which brings Lita around to fight with her. Lita shoves Trish and then kicks Show low, causing a disqualification. Matt retains and he and Lita leave together, with Trish and Show in the ring. I didn’t think Trish was interested in Big Show and she’s been a babyface since Wrestlemania so this kind of reeks of “we don’t know what else to do with her, lets have her feud with Lita again”. 

Other Happenings

• It’s missing from the WWE Network version of this show (understandably) but there was a video package about the fact that Chris Benoit has suffered a serious neck injury and will be out of action for a long time. I mentioned this at the King of the Ring but he needs the same surgery as Stone Cold had. 
• Steven Richards dressed in all black comes down to the ring and calls New York a cesspool. That brings out New York native Tazz who gets a big reaction who quickly chokes Richards out with a Tazzmission and wins the match in about 8 seconds.
• In the Commissioner’s office, William Regal addresses last night’s rumour that either Jericho or Benoit would be leaving for WCW. Benoit is out with an injury for the foreseeable future so that leaves Jericho. Regal suggests possible opponents for Y2J tonight but Tajiri volunteers. These two are very funny together. 
• Tajii debuts his own theme song as he makes his way to the ring to face Chris Jericho. As Y2J walks to the ring he promises that his quest to become WWF Champion has not ended. This is a short but very enjoyable match - Tajii is amazingly good. So crisp and fluid with his movements. Regal takes down the referee and tries to help his manservant win but when Tajiri debuts his green mist spray, Jericho ducks and it hits the Commissioner in the face instead! Jericho follows with a Lionsault to pin Tajiri in a fun match. Taj furiously apologises and tries to help his boss get his eyes cleared. Dropping from the WWF title feud and PPV main event to this on the following night’s Raw feels like a huge demotion for Chris Jericho.

Smackdown! - June 28th, 2001

The Invasion is Official! 

Smackdown opens with Vince McMahon who says he’s no longer happy to be in Madison Square Garden (where they are again tonight) as it stinks of WCW. He calls out the Invasions by new Hardcore Champion Mike Awesome, WCW Champion Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page on Raw. He says he’s doing everyone a favour by blocking Shane from being able to launch WCW and that’s no excuse for them to invade WWF TV. Unlike Raw, tonight Vince welcomes the Invasion and dares Shane and his WCW talent to show up. Instead of Shane it’s his mother Linda who comes to the ring. It’s not a great promo (Linda isn’t very good) but the key points are that in the interest of fairness, she insists that Vince support their son by allowing WCW matches to occur on both Raw and Smackdown from next week, and that the Fully Loaded PPV is now replaced by Invasion which will be WWF vs. WCW. Vince accepts the PPV. Michael Cole and Tazz spent the rest of the show talking about how this PPV is a dream come true and he’s wanted to see WCW vs. WWF since he was a kid. 

Backstage the APA continues to lead the charge against WCW. Faarooq rallies everyone up to kick WCW’s asses and not let what happened on Raw happen again. Bradshaw tells everyone to take their positions, guard the doors and that there’s going to be a big fight in the Big Apple tonight! 

Backstage as Stone Cold steams to Debra about how he wants to beat Booker T so badly he’ll go to jail for manslaughter (Jesus) Vince walks in and they talk about how Steve feels about Invasion. Austin encourages Vince to let WCW matches happen on WWF TV afterall. Vince is dead against it but Austin tries to talk him into it, and is successful. Vince agrees to whatever Stone Cold’s plan is. Throughout the show, Michael Cole was quick to stress that while the PPV will be WWF vs. WCW matches, the ones on Raw and Smackdown will be WCW vs. WCW matches. 

Back in the McMahon office, Kurt Angle arrives. Austin jumps up and gives Vince a hug before staring out Kurt. Funny. Vince seems convinced that he could kick Booker T’s ass but neither Austin nor Angle believe him. Kurt says that the rumour is that Booker T is here tonight. Later after DDP’s interference in Kane’s match, Vince says that he blames Undertaker for the invasion as he’s the one who insisted on DDP being allowed access. These segments with Angle and Austin playing off each other and fighting for Vince’s attention are very funny. All during this show, they were very heavily pushing the idea of Stone Cold vs. Booker T in a Champion vs. Champion match. 

After several weeks of run-ins, Kane defends the Intercontinental title against Albert in a no disqualification match. This is a physical match which Kane has well in hand with a chokeslam but DDP arrives and drops Kane with a Diamond Cutter, presumably motivated by his issues with Kane’s brother the Undertaker. Albert follows with a Baldo-Bomb and wins the Intercontinental title in what I’d consider a big upset! Two members of X-Factor now have singles titles but the three men haven’t actually interacted on TV for a few weeks. 

In a match with no build (apart from their previous 800 matches against each other of course) The Hardy Boyz challenge The Dudley Boyz for the Tag Team titles in a Tag Team Table match. During the entrances it occurs to me that this is a rematch of the first ever tag team table match between these same teams and in this same arena at Royal Rumble 2000. Ok that makes more sense. Amazingly even though they only won the titles on the previous Smackdown, this is Bubba and D-Von’s third title defence. There’s a couple of awesome table breaks as Matt dives off the top to put D-Von though one on the outside and Bubba backdrops Jeff up and over the top rope through another. Before Matt and Bubba can continue, they’re attacked by the WCW Tag Team Champions Chuck Palumbo and Sean O’Haire! They drop both men with superkicks and Sean gives Matt a huge Swanton Bomb of his own.

The WWF locker room rushes down the ramp and the WCW tag champs try to leave through the crowd but are cut off by more WWF Superstars. In a hilariously unfair sight, about 30 WWF Superstars work together to drive both O’Haire and Palumbo through tables in the ring. It's a bit silly to see someone like Haku (who was in WCW until January) and Jery Lynn (who only debuted two months ago) playing die hard WWF stalwarts in this crowd scene. 

As Austin, Angle and McMahon sit together and discuss the hypothetical Stone Cold vs. Booker T match, Dave Hebner comes in and tells them that someone from WCW wants to speak to him. All three rush off assuming its Booker but discover Torrie Wilson instead. She meekly says that her WCW Contract is up and she wanted to talk about joining the WWF. Torrie is gorgeous, and all three are funny as Kurt introduces himself and tries to flirt, Austin feels threatened and pushes her out the way to hug Vince and neither of them can read the room and keep trying to be part of Vince’s “private meeting” with Torrie. 

In the final backstage McMahon, Austin and Angle segment, Stone Cold finally gets sick of all of Kurt’s comments about Booker T and decides to go to the ring and call out the WCW Champion himself. Vince asks Kurt to go with him. “He doesn’t need my help. He’s Stone Cold Steve Austin. He’s the WWF Champion”. Stone Cold is pretty awesome - his angry, pissed off promos were always the best ones. Austin counts to ten and demands Booker come out to face him. As he rants and raves about the WCW Champion, Tazz on commentary stands up and gets into the ring. He’s mentioned it a couple of times during the show but Tazz is pissed off at the champ for what he did to Michael Cole last week and it seems like he’s decided to do something about it. Tazz demands that Austin apologise to Cole - a good friend of his. He insists that the WWF Champion go and shake his hand and make good with him. Austin smiles when the footage is shown and refuses to apologise.

Tazz tells him that if he doesn’t apologise he’ll beat one out of him. He says he’ll beat him and beat him for the WWF title right here tonight! Austin would rather fight Tazz than apologise and accepts…but not tonight. He hits Tazz with the WWF title belt and gives him a vile beating with a steel chair. The fans chant for “Booker T” as Cole checks on Tazz. Austin tells Cole that he’s next as the fans chant “asshole” at him. Stone Cold tells Cole he better start running and when he refuses, he makes him get into the ring. He’s going to beat up Michael Cole again. He’s still got a big bruise on his face from last week. As he continues to berate Cole, Booker T comes through the crowd and drops Austin with a shot to the face from the WCW title belt! The WWF locker room empties and gives chase but unlike with O’Haire and Palumbo earlier they don’t manage to catch him. Out in the parking lot, Booker sprints and he and Shane just barely escape in the WCW 1 limo! 

Return of The Worm

As William Regal yells at Tajiri about the errant green mist on Raw (he hasn’t been able to clean it off yet), Chris Jericho enters and says since he’s beaten them both in singles matches maybe they’d like a tag team match tonight. Regal laughs at Jericho for not having a tag team partner and Tajiri - who doesn’t really understand what's happening - joins in.

After Commissioner Regal and Tajiri enter, Chris Jericho brings out his mystery partner. It’s my boy, the returning Scotty 2 Hotty! Grandmaster Sexay is no-more and while Rikishi is a babyface again he’s also out with an injury so Scotty is on his own. He gets a great reaction and gets the crowd clapping along. He was always the better wrestler of the Too Cool boys and has the most over finisher in all of wrestling with The Worm. To my shock, the spotlight is really put on Scotty as he runs through Regal and beats Tajiri with The Worm. 

Other Happenings

• Edge and Christian take on newly heel Billy Gunn and his partner in a one night only DX reunion, new Light Heavyweight Champion X-Pac. In a short match, Edge and Christian pick up the victory. 

• Molly Holly and Spike discuss the romantic time they’ve had in New York. They run into Perry Saturn who is still carrying around the mop he bonded with during a Hardcore match last week. Moppy is his friend now. No word on if it's platonic. Spike is interrupted by Molly’s cousin Crash who breaks the news that they’ll face him and Jaqueline in a mixed tag match later. Crash also mentions Jackie being a judge on Tough Enough this is just this week’s segment to promote the show on MTV.
• JR has a sit down interview with The Undertaker and Sara. The Deadman doesn’t say anything and Sara does all the talking. She basically threatens DDP - it's not great.

• When Spike and Molly enter for the mixed tag team match, I’m struck that Spike is still using the same theme song as Bubba and D-Von. I do like his t-shirt though - it's one of Bubba and D-Von’s with a big white X over both their faces. Crash and Jackie put up a good fight and try to set up a spike piledriver on Crash but it backfires and Molly pins Jackie with her flipping Molly-Go-Round off the top rope. The boyfriend/girlfriend team wins their first match tonight.
• In a commercial promoting the 13 finalists for Tough Enough we get a glimpse of some familiar faces - future commentator Josh Matthews and eventual winner Maven. 
• The Big Show still has Trish Stratus with him. They clearly had no idea what to do with Trish and this pairing with Show really makes no sense. He’s facing Perry Saturn in a match which came about as Show tried to use Perry’s mop to clean up a mess and then snapped it over his knee. Perry is distraught at the loss of Moppy, and when he enters he still has Terri with him who he ignores. Moppy has a bandage on what’s left of…his…her? handle. There’s a skirmish on the outside between Trish and Terri and in the chaos, Show plants Perry with a chokeslam to win the match.

Raw is War - July 2nd, 2001

WCW Takes Over Raw is War

Raw opens with Mr. McMahon who tells us all about how much he’s looking forward to the Invasion PPV. He promises a dominant victory for the WWF on that night and gets some shots in at the city they’re in to remind us all he’s a bad guy. He’s about to guarantee victory until Kurt Angle interrupts him. Kurt sucks up to the boss, calling his words inspiring and joins in on bashing the WCW Champion Booker T before showing the footage of all the trouble Booker has caused. It’s all footage of Booker attacking and beating up Stone Cold and Vince (by outsmarting Austin). He says that Booker T has made the WWF Champion look like a jackass. That brings out the man himself and Stone Cold Steve Austin powers to the ring looking very pissed off. Austin shows shades of the old Stone Cold as he intimates Kurt and gets some cheers doing it, but then says that he and Vince are a team and that they don’t want or need Kurt Angle. It's hard to describe it but if it wasn’t for all the stuff with Tazz and Michael Cole on Smackdown it would feel like Austin is trying to turn himself babyface again and take Vince with him. Kurt and Austin argue like children until Vince stops them and tells them that if they want to fight so badly they should just do it!

Kurt hugs Vince, which upsets Austin so he hugs him too! They have a hug battle which makes the crowd laugh. As the two bicker over who loves Vince more, Shane McMahon comes out onto the stage. WCW are allowed to be here tonight as they have their own match scheduled for tonight - Booker T defends the WCW title against Buff Bagwell. Shane mocks Angle and Austin for their childish behaviour and then suggests Invasion’s main event, basically a big multi-man Tag Team match called the Inaugural Brawl and officially announces the main event for Raw tonight.

WCW’s Torrie Wilson makes her way through the backstage area wearing a distractingly revealing outfit. She’s stopped by Howard Finkle who introduces himself a little too enthusiastically and asks if she’s joining the WWF, before pointing her to Mr. McMahon’s office.

In the McMahon office as Austin and Angle continue to bicker, Torrie arrives and asks Mr. McMahon for a private chat about a contract. Austin and Angle are hilarious here both assuming they’re included but when Vince leaves with Torrie solo and Debra says that McMahon is one again trying to cheat on his wife and “hasn’t changed” Kurt suggests maybe Debra is the issue. Austin get another big laugh from the crowd as he side eyes her.and then concedes Kurt is right. 

In their “private meeting” Torrie Wilson stresses that she’ll “do anything” to become a WWF Superstar as Vince leans in all creepy and makes her say it again. Her acting isn’t bad as it's clear to us, the viewers, that she’s leading him on a bit and he’s falling for it. Stone Cold arrives to play an awkward third wheel and tries to get Vince refocused on Invasion so Vince takes her off to somewhere else to continue their meeting. 

In the next Vince and Torrie private meeting segment, he takes her into what is clearly a very small cleaning cupboard. He’s super creepy and as he kisses her neck, Kurt Angle bursts in and like Austin is totally oblivious. He shows Torrie his gold medals, and they go off to find another private meeting space.

In another Vince and Torrie segment Vince against makes one of the most beautiful women in the world make out with him on TV. This is all even more gross in hindsight with everything that came out about Vince years later. This time Perry Saturn emerges from the bathroom nearby having created a nasty smell to ruin their mood. 

Backstage, Shane McMahon wishes Buff Bagwell luck in tonight’s main event. Buff says he doesn’t need luck and he’s going to use all his skill to become the new WCW Champion.

Another Vince and Torrie segment and this is making me angry now. They’re really beating us over the head with this. Vince suggests they meet at his hotel after the show but she has an idea on somewhere private they can go at the arena.

All throughout the show, JR and Heyman had discussed the tension backstage as the WWF and WCW talents try to coexist.

At ringside, commentators Jim Ross and Paul Heyman hand over to WCW commentators Scott Hudson and Arn Anderson. The logo in the corner changes to WCW, we get WCW logos all over the arena and renewed pyro like at the start of the show. They go all out with the presentation change as we even get WCW nameplates and ring aprons. Shane McMahon comes down to the ring first and welcomes us all to history and to WCW. That gets a mixed reaction from the crowd. He introduces the WCW commentators and the special guest ring announcer Stacy Kiebler. Stacy’s music is badly dubbed on the WWE Network. I’m not sure what it was originally. She introduces WCW referee Nick Patrick (who gets a boo - fans of WCW will know that he was an evil referee in league with the nWo). WWF Commissioner William Regal comes out and says while the WCW match has to take place, Shane doesn’t have to be here and so he has security escort Shane O’Mac out of the building. Shane says he has no problem with that - WCW isn’t about him, it’s about the WCW wrestlers. Haha, imagine if that was true. Scott Hudson and Arn Anderson are pretty awkward on commentary and keep misspeaking, saying WWF and WCW interchangeably.

The match itself is legendary for all the wrong reasons - the fans in Tacoma Washington didn’t know these two guys and certainly didn’t care about them. They were at best restless and at worst downright hostile. These two plodded through a dull 10 minute match to “boring” and “this match sucks” chants in a performance that resulted in this being Buff Bagwell’s one and only WWF appearance, and Vince McMahon completely altering all his plans for this Invasion behind the scenes. More on that at the Invasion PPV. Booker hits Buff with his Scissors Kick finisher and the Spinarooni gets its name from Scott Hudson as he break dances. WWF Champion Stone Cold and Kurt Angle rush to the ring and attack Booker T, causing this match to end in a no-contest and destroy the WCW Champion. Buff Bagwell gleefully joins in and the three of them beat Booker T up through the backstage area. The camera cuts to the final Vince McMahon and Torrie Wilson segment as she finally has him somewhere alone. He takes off his wedding ring and this builds up to his wife Linda walking in and literally catching him with his pants down with another woman!

That was Torrie’s plan all along - it was a setup by WCW and it worked. I’m just sad we had to sit through so many segments of Vince kissing a woman less than half his age. At least Raw ended with him getting humiliated. Meanwhile, and more importantly, the three on one beating on Booker results in him being thrown out of the arena. At that point Austin and Angle realise Buff is there and they beat him up and throw him out too.

Mole Hunting with the APA

Backstage, Bradshaw and Faarooq discuss their conspiracy theories. Someone is helping WCW, giving them tip offs and letting them into the arenas and WWF New York. The APA decides to go Mole Hunting.

The APA’s investigation into a Mole leads them to Hardcore Holly. He successfully deflects from himself and points out who wasn’t there when they beat up Palumbo and O’Haire and when they chased Shane and Booker T is a likely suspect.

Backstage Booker T (with his WCW title belt) tries to use the vending machines and bumps into Test. He’s friends with Shane so they’re friendly and Booker asks if Test would come to WCW. Test wishes him luck in his title defence later.

Later, the APA comes to the conclusion that Test is the Mole. He wasn’t there on Smackdown when they were chasing the WCW interlopers and it seems like he’s friends with Booker T! 

Test faces Rhyno in a match which Paul Heyman explains is for the number one contendership for the Hardcore title and the winner will face WCW’s Mike Awesome for the title at Invasion. Spoilers but none of that ends up happening. The match doesn’t last long before the WWF locker room walks down to ringside. It seems like the APA have convinced everyone that Test is the Mole they’re looking for. They surround the ring and after costing Test the match, swarm the ring and beat him up 16 on 1. 

In the APA’s office, the WWF locker room congratulate themselves for what they did to Test and share beers. Sgt. Slaughter comes in and says that Test can’t be the Mole, he was with him the whole time. It seems like paranoia is getting to the WWF Superstars. 

Attempted Payback

Albert defends his newly won Intercontinental title against the brother of the man he beat for it, The Undertaker. Taker still has Sara with him, protection from DDP’s continued assaults and stalking. Paul Heyman lays on the Jew references pretty thickly for his fellow Synagoge attender Albert. He’s funny, calling his finishing move “the Mishooginator”. Undertaker dominates Albert and has the match won until Diamond Dallas Page arrives with a chair shot to the spine and a Diamond Cutter. He tries to leave without going near Sara so she chases him and shoves him, showing no fear. As Page taunts her, Kane comes down the ramp from behind and catches him unaware! The fans explode as Kane beats the hell out of Page and brings him back to the ring. Sara plants a big kick right between Page’s legs and he’s thrown back into the ring for a waiting Undertaker to continue the beating. Albert decides to get involved and that allows DDP to escape but Albert pays for his interference as Kane and Taker send him packing. 

Royal Jealousy

In the locker room, Christian is admiring his reflection in the King of the Ring trophy and suggests that if the brackets had been laid out differently, he’d have won the tournament. Edge seems a bit hurt by that. Christian says he needs to win the Light Heavyweight title tonight so they both have some singles glory. Edge promises he’ll be there to help and Christian goes off to polish “their” trophy.

Christian (with Edge) challenges X-Pac for the Light Heavyweight title. Justin Credible is also at ringside which is a surprise to me as X-Factor haven’t interacted much with each other lately. I talk about it all the time but I am happy to see the Light Heavyweight title on TV and being regularly talked about and defended. 2001 has been that title’s best year so far. This is another big sign that Edge and Christian are babyfaces now. The writing was on the wall before King of the Ring and Edge’s victory and coronation the next night made it official. Christian has the match won but when Credible tries to interfere and Edge stops him there’s some miscommunication as it looks to Christian like Edge is distracting the referee. X-Pac uses the title belt as a weapon to win and retain the championship. 

Other Happenings

• Crash Holly faces his own cousin Molly in an intergender match. He has Jacqueline with him after teaming with her on Smackdown. Molly has her boyfriend Spike Dudley with her for support. Much like on Smackdown, some miscommunication between Jackie and Crash leads to Molly hitting a Molly-Go-Round and winning the match! She leaves with Spike and a frustrated Jackie beats up Crash and plants him with a tornado DDT. 
• In the Commissioner’s office as William Regal gives Tajiri tips on how to avoid The Worm when he faces Scotty 2 Hotty later, The Dudley Boyz come in and asks why they as Tag Team Champions are fighting Chris Jericho in a handicap match. Regal says that its punishment from Mr. McMahon for threatening to go to WCW before the King of the Ring. Bubba and D-Von are happy to put him through a table.

• WWF European Champion Matt Hardy and his girlfriend Lita face The Big Show and Trish Stratus in a mixed tag team match. This whole story has been so odd as initially Trish seemed like she wasn’t interested in Big Show but has now seemingly doubled down on being his manager and basically a heel again. Lita has devolved into boring “jealous girlfriend” territory. It just feels like they’ve got no idea on what to do with these women. Big Show is made to look like a big goof until he loses his temper and devastates both Matt and Jeff Hardy on the outside. He tries to hit Lita with a chokeslam but Matt saves her and she follows with a messy looking Twist of Fate on Trish and a moonsault for a victory for Team Xtreme. After the match, Big Show is nasty to Trish for losing so Jeff Hardy takes him out with a missile dropkick and rescues her. 

• Scotty 2 Hotty, who returned on Smackdown, faces Tajiri in a singles match. The Light Heavyweight division is pretty full at the moment which I love to see, and of course WCW was famous for its Crusierweights. Tajri did debut his own theme song last week but he comes out to Regal’s again here. This is a good but very short match with a cool finish as Scotty performs the Worm, Tajiri sprays his Green Mist into Scotty’s face as he falls and that’s enough for the victory. 
• Chris Jericho faces WWF Tag Team Champions The Dudley Boyz in a handicap match. Y2J puts up a good fight and actually has the match won with a Walls of Jericho on D-Von but Bubba pulls the referee out of the ring and he doesn’t see the tap out. They try to use a table but Spike Dudley arrives just in time to stop that and gives Bubba a Dudley Dog, landing him on D-Von. Jericho follows with a Lionsault and wins the match, thanks to Spike Dudley! 
• To my shock, there’s a video package about Chris Benoit’s injury and neck surgery during this Raw. It was removed from an earlier episode so I’m shocked it was left in here. I got quite emotional watching it as in the video we see Chris’ wife Nancy. I don’t want to dwell on it but if you’re unclear why this is all so surprising or why seeing Nancy is very sad, look it up online.

Smackdown! - July 5th, 2001

WCW Takes Over Smackdown

Back in Vince McMahon’s office he’s very upset after the end of Raw and being caught literally with his pants down. Stone Cold and Debra arrive and after telling off his wife for saying that Vince deserved what he got, Austin tries to cheer him up with a gift - they open matching boxes and have matching white cowboy hats! They love their matching hats and when Kurt Angle arrives he feels a little left out. Stone Cold cheers him up by showing him that he’s got a gift for Kurt too! He opens his and it's a much smaller, clearly a child’s cowboy hat. 

This is a pretty well remembered segment and probably the peak of this genuinely hilarious Austin/Angle sibling rivalry stuff that's been going on for a couple of weeks. 

There’s some “earlier today” footage of the WCW Champion Booker T arriving and walking past a parade of unfriendly, threatening WWF superstars. He’s going to defend the WCW title tonight against DDP. The match got booed loudly when they put the graphic for it up on the titantron. Booker plays it as a proud babyface and Bradshaw and Faaooq give him the old “respect” nod. 

In the McMahon office, Kurt lets a lawyer in who serves Vince with a summons. He has a court date on the 23rd of July to discuss Linda’s “settlement”. That just so happens to be the date of Raw the night after Invasion. I’ll talk more about what that means at Invasion.

In the next “WCW on WWF TV” match, Scott Hudson and Arn Anderson have again taken over commentary for Billy Kidman challenging Shane Helms for the WCW Cruiserweight title.

These guys get a warmer reception that Booker and Buff did on Raw but Smackdown is pre-taped with a ton of fake crowd noise so it's hard to tell if that’s real. The referee for this match is Charles Robinson who still referees for the WWE 20+ years later. WCW was famous for its cruiserweight division and these two have a great match. WWF Light Heavyweight Champion X-Pac is shown watching from backstage. Billy KIdman blocks the Vertebreaker (a move that’s been banned since) and with a version of Christian’s Unprettier wins the WCW Cruiserweight title!

Backstage as Vince continues to stress about being caught out by Linda and what that now means for his marriage and more importantly financial settlement, he says he’s going to go to the ring and “clear things up”. 

The cowboy hat wearing Mr. McMahon struts down to the ring to “clear things up and tell the truth” about what actually happened with Torrie Wilson on Raw. Vince waffles on for a bit about how he was never going to take it “that” far with Torrie and gives a grovelling apology to Linda. Kurt Angle and Stone Cold are shown watching backstage and looking a little disturbed and taken aback by Vince’s words. He continues to apologise and drops to his knees saying he’s sorry for even being born! Commissioner Regal runs to the ring and tells Vince to pull himself together and says that HE’s the victim and he has nothing to be sorry for. Vince gives Regal a big hug and does as he was told! He says it’s not his fault that women love him, that he’s irresistible or that he’s a self made billionaire! (literally no such thing but don't get me started)

Austin and Angle keep being shown backstage - at first both bothered by Vince hugging Regal, and then in total disbelief at Vince’s self aggrandizing rant about how amazing he is. Mr. McMahon has got his mojo back. This was all pretty weird. When he gets backstage, Vince says he’s going to go and celebrate being Vince McMahon and takes the rest of the night off. He takes Tajiri with him to go to a “nudey bar”. Austin and Angle wait til he’s gone and tell off Regal for daring to hug Vince McMahon. Austin and Angle start to bicker again and you can see Regal trying hard not to laugh.

Backstage the APA and the WWF locker room apologise to Test (whose face is all bruised and bashed up) but he doesn’t seem to accept it and walks off. As he does. Stone Cold and Kurt Angle walk in and rally the troops calling this WCW Invasion an infection and a virus. He asks Bradshaw how to kill a snake. You cut its head off. Booker T is the head of the snake and they’re going to make an example of him tonight. Kurt then jumps in and tries to back up Stone Cold but he does a bad job of it, taking all the air out of the room and accidentally insults them all so they all leave to get a beer and wish Austin luck, since he can do it all by himself anyway.

In a strange segment, one of the WCW referees wishes DDP luck and he arrogantly says he doesn’t need luck. He also shows intimate knowledge of Sara’s whereabouts - he knows she’s not here and neither is Kane as he’s on guard duty but Undertaker is here tonight and he wants to “cut his head off with the Diamond Cutter”. 

In the Austin/Angle locker room, Stone Cold talks about how he’d easily kick Booker T’s ass. He gets Kurt all worked up and after getting Kurt to passionately talk about breaking his ankle, sends him off to do it instead. Austin is great in all these segments as he talks a big game but is clearly intimidated about fighting Booker one on one. 

In the main event, DDP enters first for the WCW Championship match.

Between the commentary and his presentation so far Booker T is a big babyface hero. Passionate and noble. Humble and hard working. It's all pretty bland for a pro-wrestler but it gives you an idea of what the long term plans for WCW as a brand are. This is a much better match than Booker’s efforts with Buff on Raw but the fans are just as unforgiving. Even the heavily edited Smackdown crowd reaction can’t hide it. Booker weirdly hits his Scissors Kick finisher in the middle of the match and DDP kind of no-sells it. The Spinarooni isn’t over yet and doesn’t get a reaction but we’ll get there. DDP grabs a steel chair in frustration and after shoving the referee down, plants him with a DDT onto it. The referee didn’t see it and Page covers but Book kicks out. The Undertaker runs to the ring to get his hands on DDP and the distraction allows Booker to win with a roll up and retain the title. Undertaker chases DDP out of the building and Kurt Angle picks that moment to attack Booker T. He escapes the Angle Slam and puts Kurt down with a Scissors Kick and then a title belt shot to the face! The fans boo Booker despite the fact that he just valiantly fought off a sneak attack by one of the company’s top heels. Out in the parking lot, DDP has lured Undertaker into the parking lot where an army of WCW talents (including the WWF Hardcore Champion Mike Awesome) are waiting. They attack and beat down Taker and leave him laying. In the crowd we also have Lance Storm, Chris Kanyon, Shawn Staziack, Chavo Guerrero and WCW Tag Team Champion Chuck Palumbo. WCW Owner Shane McMahon shows up to stop the assault on The Undertaker so hes also beaten down, as is WCW Champion Booker T when he tries to intervene!

There is a clear divide between the heels and faces even within the WCW faction, but that sadly doesn’t last long. Smackdown ends with the focus back on DDP and The Undertaker. 

The Hardyz - Ladies Men

In The Hardyz locker room, Trish Stratus goes to thank Jeff Hardy for saving her from the Big Show on Raw. There’s some tension with Matt and Lita as she leaves. The commentators have really been hammering home how much women love Jeff Hardy lately - they aren’t wrong, you should hear the girls scream every time he and Matt take their tops off during a match. 

Matt and Jeff Hardy (with Lita) taken on the makeshift team of Billy Gunn and The Big Show. Michael Cole and Tazz explain on commentary that Gunn and Show seem to have come together over a shared bitterness at being forgotten and overlooked recently. And of course Show has had his issues with Matt and Jeff on the previous two shows. Show is once again made to look like a big goof as The Hardyz pretty easily take him down with a Twist of Fate and Swanton. He’s out cold but thanks to Billy Gunn taking out Jeff and planting Matt with the One and Only, Show and Gunn pick up the victory. 

Other Happenings

• In the opening match of Smackdown Chris Jericho teams with Spike Dudley - who helped him beat Bubba and D-Von in a handicap match on Raw - to challenge his big brothers for the WWF Tag Team titles. Jericho and Spike put up a good fight but the team work is the difference and with a 3D, Bubba pins Spike to retain the tag team titles. They want to keep the beating going but Y2J rescues Spike from his big brothers.

• Just like on Raw when JR and Heyman discussed the backstage tension of all these WCW and WWF stars being together we get footage showing that it's even affecting the referees as the two factions come to blows led by head referees Earl Hebner and Nick Patrick respectively. 
• Crash Holly in another intergender match takes on Jacqueline. They lost a mixed tag match last week due to some miscommunication and Crash lost on Raw for the same reason. Jackie has been on TV a lot this month with a lot of focus on her toughness as a way of promoting Tough Enough. She’s a judge/mentor on the reality show. Jackie wins a short match clean as a whistle with a tornado DDT. Crash even comes out of the match with a bloody nose for his troubles.
• In their locker room, Edge tells Christian that he’s not allowed to be at ringside for his Intercontinental title match later. Christian seems upset and says he’ll just wait backstage with “their” trophy, and he hugs it to his chest.

• Albert (who has his Uncle Kracker song on this episode of Smackdown, the underpaid intern WWE has removing copyrighted music from these shows much have missed this episode) defends the Intercontinental title against 2001 King of the Ring Edge. Edge is in full babyface mode cutting a Chris Jericho style promo as he walks to the ring, saying no one will see his big title win because everyone changes the channel when they hear Albert’s brutal theme music. Maybe that’s why they left it on this episode of Smackdown. Albert wins a short match with a low blow and a Baldo-Bomb.
• Scotty 2 Hotty takes on Dean Malenko. These two had one of my favourite matches of 2000 at Backlash so it's nice to see them again. Dean has Perry Saturn, Terri and Moppy with him for backup. Perry gets over excited and tries to give Dean the Worm. He throws his partner out but the distraction allows Scotty to hit the real thing and win the match. 
• There’s a video package all about this week’s Tough Enough. It looks like they treat the contestants really badly! Maybe I’ll do a little feature on it….we’ll see how long the coverage continues.

Raw is War - July 9th, 2001

The Invasion gets Extreme

Raw opens with two huge match announcements - the first ever WWF vs. WCW match as Undertaker fights WCW talents Lance Storm and WWF Hardcore Champion Mike Awesome but before that, WCW Owner Shane McMahon takes on WCW star Diamond Dallas Page. This came about due to the end of Smackdown as Shane stepped in to try and defend Undertaker from a wild beating from his WCW performers led by DDP. Shane enters first for the opening match but rather than DDP, it’s The Undertaker and Sara who come out. Undertaker says that “with all due respect, Page is mine” and Shane is happy to step aside and let him take his place in this street fight. DDP enters with a steel chair in hand and has his entrance pyro. The match begins and Undertaker hammers Page in what is officially the first WWF vs. WCW sanctioned match of this Invasion. Undertaker prepares to plant Page with a chokeslam but WCW Owner Shane O’Mac cracks Taker from behind with a kendo stick! He hits the Deadman with the kendo stick over and over until the American Badass has had enough and blocks it. He throws Shane around the ring as JR decries this heel turn and Heyman talks about how this is “Shane’s true colours as a McMahon!” It seems that Shane’s morals have gone out the window in favour of winning this interpromotional war. DDP hits Taker with a steel chair and the two beat down Undertaker two on one. Sara gets in the ring and hits Shane with a kendo stick but she pays for it as DDP spikes her with a Diamond Cutter! Shane and DDP leave as a distraught Undertaker tends to his fallen wife.

A shocking turn to open a very eventful episode of Raw - Shane has made it clear that nothing is more important than WCW winning this war with the WWF. Sara is stretchered out of the ring.

Backstage, Shane tells DDP to take the rest of the night off for doing such a good job and he steals Undertaker’s motorbike and rides out of the arena.

Elsewhere, Undertaker gets into the ambulance with Sara and also leaves the arena.

In the McMahon office, Vince stresses out about the goings on tonight. Austin mimics his body language and keeps repeating what he’s saying. Vince is being very serious but Austin is getting big laughs.

Kurt Angle shows up - still wearing his kid’s cowboy hat from Smackdown - and it's his turn to have presents for them. He’s got them both their own sheriff badges. They’re tiny but in comically oversized parcels. Kurt’s is much bigger, and gold “to match his medals”. Austin loses his temper. “Badges! We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!” (That's a movie quote and gets a big pop from the crowd). Austin gets all serious and calls out Kurt for being unable to break Booker’s ankle on Smackdown like he promised. He says that if he was in Kurt’s shoes he’d go and kick down Booker T’s locker room door and demand a match tonight for the WCW title! 

Kane is shown just arriving at the arena, unaware of what happened to his sister-in-law at the start of the show. Later, Kane goes to see Commissioner Regal (Tajiri is funny, hiding behind Regal and whimpering). Kane demands to take Undertaker’s place in the scheduled handicap match which Regal accepts.

After the Intercontinental title match, Kurt does as Stone Cold suggested and challenges Booker to a WCW title match tonight. Booker, like a proud babyface, accepts while making fun of Kurt’s little cowboy hat from Smackdown.

In the McMahon office as Kurt warms up for his WCW title match. He and Austin bicker over who will be the leader of Team WWF at Invasion. Vince says they’re both on the team, as is The Undertaker. Chris Jericho walks in and finally addresses the rumours that he was going to leave for WCW at King of the Ring. He denies them, says he’s WWF for life and asks to be on Team WWF at Invasion. Austin and Angle don’t trust him and say they’ll think about it. 

Shane McMahon hypes up Booker T backstage. Booker is the WCW Champion but he’s also the WCW United States Champion and this is the first time we’ve seen that title belt too. Shane has Booker worked up into a frenzy and goes to the ring with him.

Vince and Austin hype Kurt up to beat Booker T and take the WCW title tonight! Austin says he’ll come to ringside with him but Kurt says he doesn’t need him and cuts a big babyface promo about how he won the gold medal alone and he’s going to defend the WWF all alone too! 

Being for the WCW title, this match gets the WCW ring aprons and logos on the screen presentation but the commentators don’t bother switching out - I don’t think Anderson and Hudson impressed anyone. Once the match starts, Shane hits Kurt in front of the referee and WCW referee Nick Patrick says nothing, letting it happen. Booker is getting booed a lot as this match continues but the fans in Atlanta (WCW’s old home base) cheer for the Spinarooni. JR and Heyman talk a lot about the historical significance of this match and what it would mean for a WWF superstar to win WCW’s main title. Kurt has the title won with an ankle lock but WCW referee Nick Patrick ignores it. He gets knocked down and Kurt hits the Angle slam. WWF referee Earl Hebner runs down to count and Nick Patrick pulls him out of the ring to stop the count. The two referees start to furiously brawl. Shane hands the WCW title belt to Booker who uses it as a weapon and a second WCW referee runs down and gives a fast count! Booker keeps the title by hook or by crook and Shane and Booker leave as more referees join the brawl at ringside. Afterwards in the McMahon locker room Kurt is angry at Austin and Vince for not coming out to help him despite him telling them not to! Austin says he IS the leader of Team WWF and they’re going to kick ass at Invasion.

Kane enters first for the handicap match. Mike Awesome is still the WWF Hardcore Champion which is a huge blow to the WWF (in kayfabe at least). Kane is extra motivated to hurt someone after what happened to Undertaker and Sara at the start of the show. After his WCW opponents enter, Chris Jericho’s music hits and he comes out to back up Kane. Does he want to prove his worth to Team WWF, or is he up to something? Kane accepts his help and we’ve got a WWF vs. WCW tag team match. Chris Jericho and Lance Storm know each other incredibly well - they had their respective first ever matches against each other and have been tag team partners and friends for their entire career. None of that is mentioned here, that’s just me giving you some trivia. During this match, JR also mentions that the 24/7 rule on Awesome’s Hardcore title has been suspended until after Invasion. This is a good match - the action between Jericho and Storm and Awesome respectively is very smooth and crisp. As Kane and Jericho look to have the match won, ECW’s Tommy Dreamer and Rob Van Dam arrive through the crowd! Awesome and Storm join them and the four former ECW talents beat up Kane and Jericho two on one. A bunch of WWF superstars run to the ring but it quickly becomes clear that it's all former ECW talents - The Dudley Boyz, Tazz, Rhyno, Raven and Justin Credible.They turn and join in the attack on Kane and Jericho! There are now 12 former ECW talents beating down the WWF’s Chris Jericho and Kane! Paul Heyman cheers them on, before getting up off commentary and gets into the ring to provide some answers. It’s funny that Mike Awesome is with ECW here, and I’ll explain why at Invasion. Paul says that he’s sick of sitting next to “that pig” like a corporate sell out talking about the WCW invasion. These men were too extreme for Shane McMahon’s WCW, or Vince McMahon’s WWF. These men have all joined ECW. “This Invasion just got taken to the Extreme!”. This was an awesome segment, and the old ECW theme song plays which kind of shatters the illusion that this wasn’t planned but nevertheless, great stuff. 

Backstage there’s a tense meeting between Vince and Shane and they agree that tonight for one match only, they’ll put their differences aside to deal with ECW. 5 WWF guys and 5 WCW guys working together against the now 10 ECW guys. They’ll settle their issues at Invasion but need to deal with ECW first.

Backstage ahead of the main event 20 man tag team match, Vince and Shane give a pep talk to their troops. The five WWF guys are the new WWF Tag Team Champions the APA, Hardcore Holly, Big Show and Billy Gunn and the five WCW guys are Chris Kanyon, Shawn Staziak, Mark Jindrak and WCW Tag Team Champions Chuck Palumbo and Sean O’Haire.

Shane McMahon leads his guys to the ring, but Vince stays backstage. HIlariously, Lillian Garcia doesn’t know any of the WCW guy’s names and badly trips over them and confuses some surnames. The two rival factions get into an argument and start brawling with the WWF guys kicking the WCW guys out of the ring. The ECW team make their way to the ring through the crowd. I’ll need to find a natural point to discuss all of these guys and their histories - it’s difficult to keep up with so many new faces appearing on TV all at once. The 10 ECW guys easily beat up the 5 WWF guys and kick them out of the ring and then rather than fight, the 5 WCW guys hug and embrace the ECW guys. Shane McMahon grabs a mic and provides live commentary as the ECW and WCW contingent take turns hitting moves on the WWF talents while being cheered on by Paul Heyman. Shane says that he can’t compete with his dad’s check book but he can outsmart him. Shane says he’s personally responsible for WCW and for ECW being here and the merger between WCW and ECW tonight. He brings out ECW’s new owner - Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley! Invasion is now the WWF vs. WCW and ECW combined. What an amazing episode of Raw. They burned through about 4 months worth of storylines in a single episode of Raw but what a rollercoaster two hours. JR screams about how the sins of a father are costing everyone in the WWF as his two children team up to run him out of business. Stephanie has some explaining to do - she was friends with Vince when we last saw her! I feel like I’ve missed out a lot of context and introductions for people during this Raw but forgive me - a LOT happened, very quickly. 

Build to Bra and Panties

Jeff Hardy faces The Big Show one on one. Shortly into the match, Trish Stratus comes down to ringside to get a closer look at the action after her dealings with Show and Jeff lately. Show easily beats Jeff by catching a dive and turning it into a slam. Trish gets in the ring and kisses Jeff afterwards, leaving him confused. As much as women seem to love Jeff (and don’t get me wrong - the man is gorgeous) it seems unlikely he’d be Trish’s type? But what do I know?

At WWF New York, the European Champion Matt Hardy and his girlfriend Lita. JR asks how she feels about another match signed for Invasion - a tag team bra and panties match against WCW’s Torrie Wilson and Stacy Kiebler. Lita is teaming with Trish and says she doesn’t trust her but will work with her for one night and then pulls Matt in for a kiss.

Scott Hudson interviews Torrie Wilson and Stacy Kiebler. Torrie calls Vince a disgusting old man and it was a pleasure to humiliate him. Stacy promises that the women of WCW always “come out on top”. 

Other Happenings

• The Dudley Boyz defend the WWF Tag Team Championships against the APA. Bradshaw and Faarooq have presumably been rewarded with this title shot as a thanks for leading the charge against WCW, rallying the troops and hunting out the Mole. We also learn that on Smackdown during the tag team match with Spike Dudley and Chris Jericho, Bubba and D-Von broke Spike’s leg (a fracture in his tibia). The Dudleys are in control and try to use a table by Spike, with a walking cast, heads down to the ring and hits Bubba with a crutch! It distracts D-Von who walks into a Clothesline from Hell and The APA win the WWF Tag Team titles! The first time they’ve held those titles in two years in fact. 

• Albert defends the Intercontinental title against Rhyno, who as of now also has a shot at the Hardcore title at Invasion. Albert is accompanied by Light Heavyweight Champion X-Pac. During their entrance, JR says that on Sunday Night Heat, Albert and X-Pac had a lot of fun at Justin Credible’s expense so it seems that he may no longer be a member of X-Factor. This is a decent big man vs. big man match - Rhyno is pretty good - but X-Pac distracts (and gets a Gore for his trouble) and allows Albert to hit a bicycle kick to retain the IC title.
• Backstage the APA tell Bubba and D-Von that they didn’t want to win the Tag Team titles that way and asks if they want to come for a beer, and even offer them a rematch on Smackdown. Bubba mysteriously tells them to “ask again at the end of the night”. (see the main section as to the meaning behind this)
• X-Pac defends the Light Heavyweight Championship against Scotty 2 Hotty. A decent but short match which X-Pac wins with a roll up and grabbing the ropes for leverage.

Smackdown! - July 12th, 2001

Team WWF in disarray

Here’s a video package from the start of this episode which recaps the chaotic events of the previous Raw. Hopefully it adds to the description I gave. 

Backstage, Vince McMahon strikes a deal with The Undertaker. In exchange for giving him Shane McMahon and DDP in the ring tonight he’s agreeing to be on Team WWF at Invasion. He does have to suffer having Kurt Angle as his partner tonight though. Taker promises that someone is going for their Last Ride tonight on Smackdown. 

The show opens with Shane McMahon leading the entire WCW crew to the ring. Of note is dual champion Booker T (WCW world and United States) DDP, the WCW Tag Team Champions Palumno and O’Haire, Cruiserweight Champion Billy Kidman and a bunch more lower card guys. It’s hard to ignore the fact that most of WCW’s main eventers are missing from this Invasion. The fans better get used to that. Shane hypes up his WCW guys and then introduces - led by Paul Heyman and the new ECW owner Stephanie McMahon - the ECW team. The only two new faces there are Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer. They also have Mike Awesome and Lance Storm from WCW, and every former ECW talent under WWF contract (apart from Tajiri). JR and Michael Cole are very mean about these turncoats and traitors. Heyman says that Vince McMahon and the WWF stole all of ECW’s ideas and attitude and concepts. They even took their talent roster. He is right, honestly. The WWF even took their TV network which drove them out of business. It’s more complicated than that but that’s true too. Heyman says that he took Vince McMahon’s children, and paints himself as the mastermind and the one who’s been in their ears and giving them advice. He hands over to Stephanie who talks about Shane’s brains to buy WCW and says that neither of them could wait for Vince to die and so they bought their own companies and they’ll put him out of business by force. Shane, Stephanie and Heyman all say variations of the same thing. They’re going to put the WWF out of business.

Stone Cold Steve Austin arrives and says he has a surprise for Mr. McMahon. He gets an acoustic guitar and says that he has a song for the boss that will brighten his spirits and cheer him up. The Rattlesnake starts to strum and sing “kumbaya”. He’s absolutely tone deaf, but it gets a laugh from the crowd as Debra and Vince try to discreetly cover their ears. During the show, JR and Cole would talk about how it seems like the WWF Champion is not taking this Invasion seriously.

Kurt Angle arrives to find Stone Cold singing to Vince. After a short argument about who the better singer is, Austin dares Kurt to show him and so he takes the guitar and sings “Jimmy crack corn” badly off key. 

Mr. McMahon rallies the troops and we get a good look at who Team WWF will be at Invasion - Stone Cold, Kurt Angle, Undertaker, Kane and Chris Jericho. Austin keeps repeating the last word of Vince’s sentences and enthusiastically slaps Taker’s chest, then slaps Kurt and blames him for it. Austin is too funny to take any of this seriously or for him to stay heel. Jericho looks like he’s trying very hard not to laugh at his antics. It’s a rousing speech - he needs them all to stand tall for the WWF.

Vince heads down to the ring to address the fans live. JR does his best to turn Vince babyface talking about how much he doesn’t like a lot of his actions over the years, he respects and supports him in this fight. Vince introduces “the greatest WWF Champion of all time” Stone Cold Steve Austin. Vince that people say that since Wrestemania, Stone Cold has changed. He says that he’s become a brown noser and a such up and a coward. Vince agrees that Austin has changed - as WWF Champion he’s changed for the better. He says that when it comes to Invasion however, he might need another change. He says he doesn’t need the Stone Cold who gives him hugs or sings him songs. He needs the OLD Stone Cold (which gets a huge pop and gave me goosebumps). Austin doesn’t look sure. He might not have that inside him anymore. He needs the beer swilling, foul mouthed Stone Cold who doesn’t take any shit (it's beeped) from anyone! He needs the Austin who’d knock him on his ass for parting his hair the wrong way. He needs the OLD Stone Cold to lead Team WWF into Invasion. He dares Austin to kick his ass right now! The fans pick up as it looks like the WWF Champion might finally snap back to his old self. Vince screams “if you want to see Stone Cold beat the hell out of me, give me a Hell Yeah!” and it gets a monster pop! But Austin…he shakes his head. The Rattlesnake looks so sad. He thought Vince liked the new Stone Cold. Austin hands his head and sadly walks out of the arena. Vince pleads with him to come back, to turn around, to drop him with a Stunner! Austin leaves as a tearful Vince begs for a Stone Cold Stunner, before giving up and sadly heading to the back himself. This was a great segment and you'll see the highlights of it as I've captured the video of it that opened the next Raw.

Austin leaves the arena with Debra, and Vince hops in his limo to go and look for him. Kurt asks if he wants to stay and watch his match and offers to be the leader but Vince is more focused on getting the Old Stone Cold back to lead Team WWF. 

In the WCW/ECW locker room, Shane, Stephanie and DDP have a laugh over the replay of him giving Sara a Diamond Cutter on Raw. He’s stalked Undertaker’s wife and now hospitalised her. 

In the back, what's left of Team WWF talk strategy. Undertaker takes a leadership role and after telling Kurt to keep his head out of his ass, tells Kane and Chris Jericho to stay backstage and watch for any attempted WCW or ECW interference. That leads into the main event.

Undertaker and Kurt Angle form an odd couple tag team to face WCW Owner Shane McMahon and Diamond Dallas Page. Page throws Shane to the wolves and keeps his distance from both Kurt and Undertaker until Shane gives a distracted Kurt a spear and DDP feels comfortable taking over the match. The match breaks down and after Undertaker spikes Shane with a Last Ride, WCW and ECW troops come through the crowd to attack the ring. Undertaker and Kurt put up a good fight but as more and more of them swarm the ring in waves even the arrival of Chris Jericho and Kane as back up can’t help. The odds are massively against the WWF as a sea of 30 or 40 WCW and ECW stars beat down the four members of Team WWF. Smackown ends in this chaos as JR and Michael Cole plead for the Old Stone Cold to arrive and save the day while Paul Heyman, Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley pose triumphantly on the ring apron. 

More matches for Invasion

JR joins Michael Cole on commentary to replace Tazz who has defected to ECW. 

In the Commissioner's office, William Regal rants about how Shane and Stephanie should be ashamed of themselves. He thanks Tajiri for his loyalty and asks if he’d like anything as a thank you for staying with the WWF. Tajiri asks to be a commentator, and Regal says since he can understand him better than Tazz he can do it. Tajiri and Regal are great together, as Tajiri speaks only Japanese and Regal always replies like he understands him.

Tajiri goes out and joins the commentary team for the next match and got a really big laugh from me when he said “business is about to pick up” in broken English. He dots a few of those though the next match like “BBQ sauce”. 

Tazz takes on Hardcore Holly. Michael Cole tugs on the heart strings as when he enters he explains that his kids call Tazz “uncle Tazz” and want to know why he turned on the WWF and left for ECW and he doesn’t know what to tell them. Holly is super aggressive in this match but Tazz wins clean with a Tazzmission and then afterwards goes out to confront Tajiri and chokes him out with a Tazzmission too, I guess for daring to take his spot on commentary.

In the third ECW vs. WWF match, Rhyno takes on Kane. The WWF referee gets knocked down and when Rhyno rolls up Kane and uses his tights for leverage, WCW referee Nick Ptrick runs down and gives a fast count and Rhyno the cheap victory. 

In a segment in the Commissioner’s office, William Regal books two more matches for Invasion - he tells senior referee Earl Hebner to challenge WCW referee Nick Patrick to a match after his antics in screwing over Kane earlier and Kurt Angle on Raw. He also books Tajiri vs. Tazz so he can get revenge for being choked out during his commentary stint. 

Later, Earl Hebner and a team of WWF referees go to challenge Nick Patrick and make their Invasion match official and it turns into a locker room brawl.

Xtreme meets Extreme

WWF Hardcore Champion Mike Awesome berates the seamstress about how he needs new ring gear made that says “Awesome” all over it. Cut to Edge and Christian watching on a monitor in disgust. He is totally NOT awesome, his gear should say “chumpstain”.

Jeff Hardy challenges ECW’s Mike Awesome for the WWF Hardcore title. This is the only title which has crossed company lines so far. What’s funny is that JR spends a lot of this match talking about how Jeff might be out of his element as he never saw him as the “hardcore type”. I assume he wasn’t watching any of the TLC matches or tables matches that he commentated on. This is a good match and as Awesome prepares to throw Jeff into a ladder with a powerbomb, Edge and Christian run to the ring and stop him with a chair shot to the ribs and then a con-chair-to. Jeff follows with a Swanton Bomb and brings the Hardcore title back to the WWF. Edge and Christian had some unkind words for Mike Awesome earlier but this was more about them defending the WWF.

Other Happenings

• Backstage as Trish flirts with Jeff Hardy they’re approached by Matt Hardy and Lita. Lita says that since she and Trish have to team up at Invasion it might be a good idea to get their issues settled tonight which Trish has no problem with and agrees to the match.
• Lita vs. Trish Stratus is the only WWF vs. WWF match on this show as these two babyface women work to get their issues out before Invasion. Matt and Jeff are shown watching on from backstage and Matt seems bothered by the fact that Jeff is cheering on Trish. Lita was always a decent wrestler but Trish deserves a lot of praise. She did eventually become known as one of the best women’s wrestlers of all time but even this early in her career you can see how much she’s improved. Lita wins the match with a Twist of Fate and moonsault combo. Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keiber approach Matt and Jeff backstage and flirt and plant little kisses on them - something that confuses The Hardyz but Lita and Trish see on the titantron and clearly pisses them both off. 

• In another ECW vs. WWF match, Lance Storm takes on Chris Jericho. Before the match, Lance cuts a promo. “If i can be serious for a minute….” which was his catchphrase in WCW. He says that he is not a cartoon character and he needs no bells and whistles. He is a serious competitor. That’s the joke with “If i can be serious for a minute…” as Lance is ALWAYS serious. I alluded to these two men’s real life history on Raw, and JR and Cole do talk about it here. They were tag team partners for many years in Japan and Mexico. Jericho retorts and mocks Storm and says he looks like Forrest Gump (he does a bit). Jericho wins a short entertaining match with a Walls of Jericho.

Raw is War - July 16th, 2001

The Old Stone Cold

Here’s the opening video recapping Vince’s attempts to bring back the Old Stone Cold on Smackdown, mostly because I loved it and the music choices are fantastic.

Stone Cold is shown sitting in a local bar - The Friendly Tap, which is owned by WWF referee Tim White - quietly drinking and processing his decision. The WWF needs the old Stone Cold but has he changed too much? 

Backstage as Kurt Angle practises asking Mr. McMahon to let him lead Team WWF at Invasion, Vince arrives and after learning that Stone Cold is in the area and at a local bar, goes to try and talk sense into the Rattlesnake.

Vince McMahon arrives at the Friendly Tap and after being told by Debra that she’s never seen her husband like this, he tries to get Austin to fire up and be the old Stone Cold. He apologises for putting him on the spot on Smackdown and explains how serious the situation is. He begs Austin man to man to be the man he needs and for his help. Austin turns his back and refuses to speak to McMahon. He seems broken. Vince asks Debra to try and talk some sense into her husband. It’s funny hearing JR and Michael Cole on commentary also beg for the old Stone Cold back like he hasn’t beaten them both bloody in the past couple of months. Later, Tim White is there and they finally acknowledge that it's his bar. He closed it for Austin tonight (got to explain why he’s the only one there or it’ll look like his business is failing) and he tells Austin that he’s his friend. 

In the ECW/WCW locker room, Shane, Stephanie and Paul finalise their five man team for Invasion’s main event. It’ll be Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, Rhyno and The Dudley Boyz. A strong team with what they’ve got - the only two main eventers this new WCW has on tap, and the three biggest ECW stars they have (mostly thanks to their recent WWF stints). 

In the WCW/ECW locker room, DDP talks to his tag team partner for tonight, Rhyno. They’re supposed to face Undertaker and Kane later. He has a VHS tape with him and tells Rhyno to “go and get some of the boys” as he has some unedited footage of Undertaker’s wife Sara to show them. That’s deeply sinister.

After the Hardyz and Dudleyz match, Bradshaw and Faarooq ask Vince McMahon what the plan is and he tells them to go and rally the troops for a big meeting. Returning from the commercial, Shane and Stephanie rally their own troops. They’ve sold their WWF stocks and this is all they have - the WWF will never take any of them so they have to rise up and worth together to succeed. Paul Heyman fires up Rob Van Dam and basically tells him to go and take the Hardcore title from Jeff Hardy, he tells Tazz that Tajiri might have spit in his family’s faces earlier tonight. He cuts an amazing promo and has everyone in the room riled up ready to kill for himself, Shane and Stephanie! 

Elsewhere Vince McMahon (flanked by the APA and Team WWF members Undertaker, Kane and Kurt Angle) give a similar speech to the WWF locker room. Bradshaw and Faarooq do most of the talking and have everyone all fired up. Vince addresses Stone Cold’s absence and Undertaker cuts him off. “To hell with Austin if he won’t fight for us!” There’s no shame in fighting and losing, but there’s no honour in refusing to fight. The Brooklyn Brawler wheels in Classy Freddy Blassie. A respectful silence calls over the locker room but the fans in the arena are respectful and cheer, and get louder when he stands up out of his wheelchair.

Back at the Friendly Tap, Stone Cold is shown watching on the TV and starts to fire up, slamming the pool cue down and walking out of the bar! Is he on his way to the arena?

The main event is a preview of the PPV’s main event as two members of Team WCW/ECW take on two members of Team WWF - DDP and Rhyno vs. Undertaker and Kane. This match doesn’t go long before the rest of these warring factions get involved. WCW and ECW fill the ring followed by some members of the WWF locker room (specifically, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, the APA and Jeff Hardy) but there’s too many WCW and ECW guys to name. The WWF is enormously outnumbered. Back in the parking lot, Hardcore and Crash Holly are being beaten up by three WCW guys when in the background, Stone Cold’s pickup truck arrives and armed with half a pool cue, he beats their asses and continues his march into the arena. The same happens to Shane Helms and Shawn Staziak as they beat up Edge and Christian - the Rattlesnake motors through them and goes to the ring. In the arena the fans chant for Austin until the glass shatters and the WWF Champion arrives to save the day. Is it the Old Stone Cold? I’ll let you decide as here’s the clip from WWE’s YouTube channel.

For anyone who doesn’t want to watch the video, Austin rolls to the ring and with a stream of Stone Cold Stunners single handedly clears the ring making all of WCW, ECW and even the WWF look like goofs next to the almighty Stone Cold Steve Austin. That’s not a knock - he’s the biggest star of all time! The Old Stone Cold is back and ready to lead Team WWF at Invasion. In a nice moment, Undertaker helps his long time rival Kurt Angle to his feet in a show of respect and unity. 

I thought the show would end there with Team WWF united in the ring but out in the parking lot as the Brooklyn Brawler wheels Freddy Blassie to his car, he’s stopped by Shane and Stephanie McMahon who tell him that just like the WWF itself, he’ll be dead soon. Nasty. 

Extreme Olympian 

Backstage as Kurt Angle complains to the Brooklyn Brawler about not being the leader of Team WWF, ECW’s Raven appears and mocks Kurt for wearing a child’s cowboy hat and challenges him to an ECW Rules match later.

Raven enters for the ECW rules match with his now trademark shopping cart full of weapons. Kurt Angle gets a big cheer when he comes out - the whole “WWF are the good guys” narrative is working, but also he’s been damn entertaining lately. His skits with Stone Cold and Mr. McMahon are hilarious. Kurt attacks quickly and shows some extra aggression as he tries to prove himself worthy of being the leader of Team WWF. Kurt hammers Raven and after making him submit to the ankle lock, shows off some more submission holds just stretching every joint on Raven’s body. He grabs a steel chair and continues to show off his new found aggression beating on him. More WCW and ECW guys come out to help Raven but after Chis Kanyon takes a stiff shot to the spine, the other troops don’t like their chances and leave Kurt to celebrate in the ring to big cheers. This felt like a pretty significant babyface moment for Kurt.

WCW title match ruined by more bad officiating

Backstage, ECW Owner Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley showers joint WCW and United States Champion Booker T with praise. Chris Jericho approaches and after making some jokes about hardcore movies and calling Stephanie a slut, Booker T steps up and defends her honour. Jericho challenges him to put the WCW title on the line tonight, which he accepts.

When Booker T enters for his WCW title defence, he has his new best buddy Shane McMahon at ringside with him. Despite spending several years in the company, this is Chris Jericho’s first shot at the WCW World title. Nick Patrick holds up both title belts before the bell indicating that both the WCW World and WCW United States titles are both on the line here. This is a good match but when Y2J has the match won with a Lionsault, WCW referee Nick Patrick pretends his arm hurts and he can’t count. They go back and forth and when Jericho locks Booker in the Walls of Jericho and he taps out, Nick pretends his knee hurts and he doesn’t see that either. WWF’s Earl Hebner runs down to fight Patrick, and Shane knocks out Earl (thanks Shane). In all the chaos, Booker gives Jericho a Scissors kick and Nick Patrick counts very fast to hand him a victory and he retains the WCW World and US titles. 

Busy Night in Dudleyville

In the arena, Spike Dudley with a walking cast and on crutches makes his way down to the ring to make a major announcement before asking his girlfriend Molly Holly to come down to the ring. She does and he sweetly tells her that he loves her too. She returns it and with a big smile, Spike presents her with a rose. She says she wants to give him something too and whispers it in his ear. Spike then quickly says its time to head backstage but before they leave the ring, ECW’s Paul Heyman comes down to the ring. Paul tries to convince Spike to rejoin ECW and tells him to kick Molly to the curb. Spike says that he is staying with Molly to Paul tells her to come too and says she just needs some liposuction and a boob job first. Spike fires up and wants to fight Heyman and that brings out his big brother’s Bubba Ray and D-Von. After goading him about always stealing their spotlights, they attack Spike two on one. Hyman holds Molly at bay until she hits him low and uses Spike’s crutch to say her boyfriend. It doesn’t work out and with Spike tied up in the ropes he’s forced to watch as his two big brothers drive poor little Molly through a table! 

European Champion Matt Hardy and Hardcore Champion Jeff Hardy take on ECW’s The Dudley Boyz. They’ve had a big night already putting Molly through a table and being officially appointed to Team WCW/ECW - their first PPV main event. This is a decent match between two teams who know each other very well but thanks to some help from Rob Van Dam, The Dudleyz win. The three ECW talents beat up The Hardy Boyz and to “RVD” chants, Rob Van Dam flattens Jeff Hardy with an awesome looking frog splash which he calls his “Five Star Frog Splash”. RVD never made it to the WWF or WCW but he was by far the biggest ECW star who hadn’t already made his way to the big leagues. He’s awesome. 

Other Happenings

• One half of the WWF Tag Team Champions Faarooq (with Bradshaw) takes on one half of the WCW Tag Team Champions Chuck Palumno (with Sean O’Haire). Palumbo and O’Haire’s theme music is pretty awesome. JR reveals that these two championship teams will face each other at Invasion (in a non-title match). With a little distraction from O’Haire, Palumbo drops Faarooq with a dropkick and wins the match.
• ECW’s Mike Awesome (with Lance Storm) faces 2001 King of the Ring Edge. Before the match, Lance Storm challenges “the two examples of everything wrong with this business” Edge and Chistian to a tag team match at Invasion. That brings out Edge and Christian. Christian mocks Storm and Awesome and accepts the challenge from Reek-o-saurous Rex Storm and “Mr. Totally-not-awesome”. With some help from Storm and the WCW referee getting involved and stopping a con-chair-to, Storm drops Edge with a superkick and Awesome steals the pin.

• In the Commissioner’s office as William Regal prepares for his match with Tazz later, Tajiri asks to be a commentator again tonight. He uses throat spray and gets a high voice and grooms his hair and during all of this Regal totally breaks character and giggles at Tajiri’s antics. He’s amazing.
• ECW’s Tazz takes on the WWF Commissioner William Regal. He’ll also face Tajiri at the Invasion PPV. As Tazz dominates Regal, Tajiri gets in the ring and pulls off his polo shirt to reveal an ECW t-shirt. The Japanese buzzsaw is defecting…or is he? He kicks Tazz in the back of the head and locks him in the Tarantula allowing Regal to hammer him about the head and shoulders with forearms! Tajiri pulls off the ECW t-shirt - it was a setup. 
• In Perry Saturn and Terri’s locker room as Terri prepares for her match with Trish Stratus, she tells Perry to stay in the back with Moppy (who he’s now added a face to) and leaves him to have a private chat with Paul Heyman. Paul tries to take advantage of Perry’s weakened mental state to make him jump to ECW. Perry stares at him blankly and doesn’t get it.

• In the only WWF vs. WWF match on this show, Trish Stratus faces Terri. They couldn’t do matches with Torrie Wilson or Stacy Kiebler to build up the tag team bra and panties match at Invasion because neither Torrie or Stacy are trained wrestlers but neither is Terri. She’s weaning flesh coloured ring gear so she looks naked as Trish easily throws her around to “we want puppies” chants. Trish wins easily with a Bulldog and then tries to symbolically strip Terri to her underwear to make a point. That brings out her PPV opponents Torrie and Stacy who attack Trish two on one and try to do the same. Trish’s tag partner Lita runs to the ring to make the save and with a Twist of Fate on Stacy Kiebler, clears the ring of the WCW invaders. Lita checks on Trish but then quickly leaves her alone. They are teammates but still aren’t friends.

Smackdown! - July 19th, 2001

Battlelines are Drawn

Smackdown opens with Shane McMahon leading his company to the ring - all of WCW including all the referees. They come out to Here Comes the Money because i guess WCW didn’t have a theme song yet. Then Paul Heyman and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley lead ECW to the ring to the classic ECW theme. Only Shane, Paul and Stephanie’s names appear on the name plates. They’re the stars here. Shane and Stephanie take turns saying roughly the same thing about how the WWF has run its course and that they’re going to put the company out of business. Heyman has the best promo as he basically says that Vince killed his own dad by taking the WWF from him. JR shouts over him in what sounded like audio that was added after the fact calling him a liar. Heyman reads the WWF its last rights in Latin and ends by screaming “DEATH to sports entertainment, DEATH to the WWF!”. Heyman was the best part about this promo.

Backstage, Vince McMahon is shown watching and a member of Team WWF arrives to check in on him - Chris Jericho. Vince says that actions speak louder than words and Stone Cold will lead them to victory at Invasion, and Y2J will pick up a victory over DDP tonight. He recounts his jokes at Vince’s daughter’s expense on Raw calling her a slut. Vince basically agrees and runs her down too and the pair share a laugh and shake hands. More on that match in the next section. 

Stone Cold Steve Austin arrives and Mr. McMahon is delighted to see the OLD Stone Cold. Austin does seem to be back to his old self as he is cold and distant with Vince first refusing a hug and telling him he’ll want some beer later but for now he can go and get him a water.

In the McMahon/Austin office an excited Vince announces that his divorce proceedings are now officially on hold and goes off to get a surprise for the silent and stoic WWF Champion. In the next segment we’d find out the surprise was a guitar and a song. He asks if Austin wants to sing a duet. He tunes the guitar and then smashes it over Vince’s head, knocking him out cold! He really IS the Old Stone Cold! Before the main event as Kurt checks on Vince he tells him that he’s fine - he has a big smile on his face! It seems like he’s just so happy to have this version of Austin back to lead Team WWF he’s happy with the pain too. 

In the backstage area, the McMahon children and Paul Heyman hype up Team WWF/ECW. Rhyno and Booker T are in the main event against Stone Cold and Kurt Angle and it looks like they’ll have DDP and The Dudleyz with them for back up. This is a historic main event as for the first time in history, the WCW Champion and WWF Champion are involved in the same match. There’s some trivia for you. Rhyno was the last ever ECW Champion so I guess we can technically say the ECW Champion is in this match too. Booker has Shane with him and Rhyno has Stephanie McMahon and Paul Heyman with him. Neither Kurt Angle nor WWF Champion Stone Cold have anyone with them and the fight begins as soon as Angle hits the ring. Hes immediately taken off his feet with a Gore and the two one one attack continues until Stone Cold runs down to make the save. Austin easily clears the ring and drops both Booker T and Rhyno with Stone Cold Stunners immediately. He’s distracted on the titantron as DDP has abducted his wife Debra and locked her in the boot of his car.

Austin runs off to save her but before he gets there Undertaker does first. The WCW and ECW troop show up, as do the rest of the WWF locker room and the backstage area looks like a warzone with all these warring superstars. DDP drives off with the car that has Debra in the trunk so Austin steals a car and goes after him too! Back in the ring, Kurt is beating up Booker T until The Dudleyz arrive to save their team mate and Rhyno recovers to hit a second Gore. Kurt is in the ring with four of the five men on Team WCW/ECW and they end the beat down with a 3D through a table.

Tajiri has some almighty back up

Back in the Commissioner’s office, Paul Heyman is in his chair with his feet up on Regal’s desk. After saying that Team WCW/ECW will run the WWF out of business at Invasion, he asks if William Regal wants to join the future with him, Shane and Stephanie. Regal pretends to consider it for a moment before slapping his feet off the desk and screaming in Heyman’s face that he needs to get out of his sight before he “performs acts of violence that would make the devil cry”. 

In the Commissioner’s office he tells Tajiri that he’ll have two partners tonight to face Tazz and The Dudley Boyz - Undertaker and Kane. They arrive and Tajiri excitedly talks away in Japanese.
Undertaker: What’s wrong with him?
Regal: He’s foreign
Undertaker: Ohhhh right.
Tajiri lays on the desk and mimics sitting up like Taker and Kane do. He is, as always, hilarious.

The Dudley Boyz (fresh off driving Molly Holly though a table on Raw) team with Tazz against their respective PPV opponents - Undertaker and Kane are opposite Bubba and D-Von in the Inaugural Brawl main event and Tazz faces Tajiri. Tajiri gets a great reaction when he comes out and there’s tons of Tajiri signs in the crowd. He is awesome, and he’s VERY excited to be teaming with Undertaker and Kane, marking out for them when they make their entrance. An entertaining match helped by how hot the crowd is for Tajiri and the Brothers of Destruction. Undertaker plants Tazz with a chokeslam to win the match for his team.

Build for all the non-wrestler Invasion matches

JR and Michael Cole make note of the fact that the referee for Chris Jericho vs. Diamond Dallas Page tonight is Nick Patrick who screwed Y2J out of the WCW title on Raw. This is a decent back and forth match but much like on Raw, Nick Patrick refuses to count Jericho’s fall. Y2J snaps and locks Patrick in the Walls of Jericho and gets himself disqualified. DDP grabs a steel chair but Jericho sees it coming and locks him in the Walls of Jericho too. Nick rescues Page by distracting Jericho and after a chair shot to DDP’s back, the two WCW talents escape.

Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keibler rub tan into their arms and talk about Torrie’s arm wrestling match with Trish later. A bruised and battered Nick Patrick comes in holding his back and says he’ll still be ok to referee that later.

In Trish and Lita’s locker room as they agree to put their differences aside and have each other’s backs tonight and at the PPV, Earl Hebner enters and says that Nick Patrick has cheated the WWF so much lately he’ll also be out to referee the arm wrestling match later.

For the women’s arm wrestling contest both WCW’s Nick Patrick and WWF’s Earl Hebner are there to officiate. Torrie and Trish do a terrible acting job as they hold hands and go back and forth teasing victories for what felt like minutes, pulling weird facial expressions as they do so. Nick Patrick punches Earl, Lita goes to check on him, Stacy helps Torrie win and Nick declares her the winner. The four women start to brawl as do the two referees. Trish and Lita get plenty of shots in on Nick Patrick too and he bumps around the ring like Ric Flair for the three of them. The WWF contingent stands tall. 

Other Happenings

• One half of the WWF Tag Team Champions Bradshaw (with Faarooq) faces one half of the WCW Tag Team Champions Sean O’Haire (with Chuck Palumbo). Pretty identical build to this PPV tag match as the one between Storm, Awesome and Edge and Christian with the pairs of singles matches on Raw and now Smackdown. Just like with the previous tag team build, it's the opposite of Raw as the interference backfires and Bradshaw finishes off O’Haire with a clothesline from hell to win the match.
• There’s footage of Lita’s autograph singing and one clip of this went on to become very famous as it features future WWE superstar and women’s champion AJ Lee as a teenage girl, weeping uncontrollably at the excitement and emotion of meeting her hero Lita. Pretty cool. And a little weird as the man AJ Lee ended up marrying and living happily ever after with - CM Punk - actually dated Lita at one point in between too. 

• Hardcore Champion Jeff Hardy teams with the Light Heavyweight Champion X-Pac - a very odd team - to take on WCW Cruiserweight Champion Billy Kidman and ECW’s Rob Van Dam. A preview of two singles matches at Invasion here as RVD will challenge Jeff Hardy in the only title match at that PPV (Pac and Kidman’s Champion vs. Champion match will be non-title, just like the Tag Champs vs. Tag Champs match). RVD debuts his instrumental WWF theme here - I always really liked that one. Van Dam gets a respectable “RVD” chant from the crowd as Jeff Hardy gets his usual all-female squeals from everyone who fancies him. This is a really good, fast paced match between four great workers. RVD shows off a lot of his trademark moves (which I’ll talk about at Invasion) but it’s Billy Kidman who pins X-Pac to win the match for his team.

• Lance Storm (with Mike Awesome) takes on Christian (with Edge). Much like on Raw, Storm cuts another “If I can be serious for a minute…” promo before the match. This is a good match - Storm is a very gifted in ring performer (even if the whole “boring” gimmick hurts him) and Christian was always criminally underrated. The finish is a flip of what happened on Raw as the corner men try to get involved but this time it’s Edge who gets in a shot behind the referee’s back to give Christian the victory.