Should Adam Copeland have one last run with WWE after this AEW stint? Let us know in the comments below!

@frankrappa4765

5 ай бұрын

Absolutely! Bring Christian back too ❤

@stewiegriffin88

5 ай бұрын

No absolutely not. He had his final WWE run and would rather see him leave after he gets his run with/against Jay

@shoresy6927

5 ай бұрын

No. I feel like that was where it should end. He already has his HoF ring and send off. Don't be like Flair and Sting keeling it going when it should just end on a good note. I'm thankful for Edge's work with WWE.

@mikem10481

5 ай бұрын

Edge will always be welcomed in WWE.

@Cam_Mac80

5 ай бұрын

Edge was in a very fortunate position to have his career end the way it did. I always think of Edge in the same mind as Bret Hart as a professional. It's not worth running the risk of it ending poorly. Come back as a personality or a referee or even an announcer? Sure. But the end was too good to bring him back as a wrestler.

1997-2001. What a time it was to be a WWF fan. Back when you couldn’t miss an episode. The whole world was watching.

@zlinedavid

5 ай бұрын

I was in high school during that time, and I can remember it being right after football or baseball practice....everyone tearing ass to someone's house to watch Raw. Good times.

@videovagrancy8526

5 ай бұрын

Same here. We would all pile into a friend's living room and be on the edge of our seats the whole episode. Same for the PPV's. It really was a magical time. Graduated High school in 2002, every year was like that.

@johnbubbaloo436

5 ай бұрын

I knew it was big because I would go visit my parents (who never watched wrestling before in their lives) and they were watching it religiously.

@stewiegriffin88

5 ай бұрын

Yep and now even with Punk returning, still doesn't really matter if you miss an episode lol those were the days for sure, too bad they're long gone

@fpshooterful

5 ай бұрын

For me 2000 to 2001 was peak. Because now you have WWF/Vince buying WCW, ECW, then Vince started another company XFL. Even though we didn't get Goldberg, Hogan, etc, during the invasion. I still enjoyed it, because i was seeing new talent. When Lance Storm won the IC title. I thought it would be a start of something special. But, then ofcourse..... all ended at the SS ppv. If only Vince booked the Invasion angle to go one more year. Because, by then, we would get Bish, Hogan, NWO, Goldberg, and most likely Sting.

For those wanting to AEW to go out of business don’t remember how unwatchable WWE was getting before they came around.

@pinkribbonskies5731

5 ай бұрын

100

@shoresy6927

5 ай бұрын

... and? Thats not WWEs fault if AEW goes out thats AEWs fail. TNA tried, WCW, AEW, ECW, etc haven't been able to deliver the KO blow. AEW has had very little impact on WWE. They got all their old wrestlers and characters that simply aren't ready for the stage WWE offers. I blame WWE for their slow years until recently. We can see the mentality of the company shifting. They care more about the performers and actually have been trying to fix bridges they burned.

@Filip_emo_music

5 ай бұрын

@@shoresy6927 doesn’t mean people should root for it to happen. If you love wrestling which I don’t know if you do based on your prior “pro wrestling is dead” comments

@kamfisher1714

5 ай бұрын

Nobody is rooting for that, Aew fans make up false narratives

@shoresy6927

5 ай бұрын

@Filip_emo_music I don't see why people can't root for it. Also I don't recall specifically saying wrestling is dead honestly. If you seen it I'll have to take your word for it. I can only say that wrestling isnt the same because the magic, mystery, and my childhood wonder is gone. I like that there are other promotions sure. But when they start to use their platform to get cheap reactions mentioning WWE every week it gets kinda boring and old. I liked TNA before Hogan came by and they made all the changes. So honestly I'm not exactly rooting for AEW to die, just their terrible mindset.

I think lots of people, including those in WWE don't realize how much brand loyalty there was for WCW. Don't get me wrong, the invasion arc was fun, but imagine being a diehard WCW fan and having all your all time favorites either be jobbed out, made to look like a joke (or a stalker in some cases), and then just have some guys plain not be there. It was a slap in the face for any WCW fan, and they lost true diehard fans because of it.

@jonharrison9222

5 ай бұрын

The guys that weren’t there had big guaranteed contracts that would be paid even if WCW folded. They sat it out.

@Filmation77

5 ай бұрын

And this is what modern fans fear for AEW right now. When the @sshole in the IWC want AEW to FAIL,which is the most stupidest thing(Cause you don't see this in any other genre)

@NoelComiX

5 ай бұрын

As a WCW die hard… yup

@MichaelHemotoxin

5 ай бұрын

WWE does that in general

@kvinche8120

5 ай бұрын

Well put! Exactly how I felt and I was a WcW guy

Vince was so focused on winning the Monday Night Wars that he never stopped to imagine a world without it.

@renafan3333

5 ай бұрын

Yeah they are definitely suffering because of it.

@yoholmes273

5 ай бұрын

No

@NoxWyatt

5 ай бұрын

@@yoholmes273Yes.

@rogelioarmentasolorzano3848

5 ай бұрын

Yes that is why he did the Brands splits Raw vs Smackdown and made them compete with each other.

@deadend1041

5 ай бұрын

He didn't need to imagine a world without it. WCW didn't go under, it was murdered by the time Warner AOL merger, a terrible business move that hurt everyone.

As good ole JR said at the time, !"You dont bother running if no ones chasing ya!"

The problem with the Invasion is that the whole thing was rushed. If they had waited a year they could’ve had a true WCW Invasion with all the big WCW and nWo names as well as Bischoff. To me, the best thing to do would’ve been giving WCW a seperate show and slowly have guys from each show invade and set up dream matches for a yearly invasion PPV. But it was obvious WWE wanted to completely bury anything WCW. It’s a shame too because if it had been done properly it could’ve been huge for years making way more money.

@Lord_Bibulous

5 ай бұрын

Even with the people they had they could've made some moves to give the InVasion a little more credibility. They had Booker T & DDP. Two homegrown WCW stars that made it despite the system. The younger guys rally around them and slowly build up. But you're right Vince rushed it and made sure we never would see WCW as a credible threat.

@briangoodie3420

5 ай бұрын

Vince should kept wcw buy out hush, hush. Shane should not show up on nitro. Vince should have worked it out to keep wcw on tbs like nothing ever happened, so this way they could start doing invasion angles.

@5150crazyfun

5 ай бұрын

@@briangoodie3420 I completely agree Vince should've worked out a deal to keep WCW on TNT and TBS so he could've made it look like Shane left WWF to join WCW. At least then it would've given them time to get all the big WCW stars back to do a proper Invasion angle.

@PaulDiaz730

5 ай бұрын

With the AOL/Time Warner merger and the state of WCW '99-'01, TNT/TBS wanted no parts of wrestling on their network. Without a TV deal in place, Vince's only viable option was to feature them on Raw & Smackdown...but neither resepctive network (USA for Raw & I think UPN for Smackdown) were willing to see either show become solely WCW branded. All that and Vince jobbed all the WCW guys out as a statement. Sad to think how we missed out on an epic angle because of a bunch of egos from all sides.

@Lord_Bibulous

5 ай бұрын

@@briangoodie3420 That couldn't happen. Two reasons. #1 WWF/E went public in '99. AOL/TimeWarner was also a publicly traded company. No way to keep the deal hush hush. #2 As has already been pointed out AOL/Time Warner did not want wrestling on their networks. It was why Vince was able to buy it for so cheap. Or else Eric Bischoff's investment group would've bought it as was the original plan.

He's totally right in his assessment. It was during the WCW Invasion angle when I stopped watching wrestling. I knew there was no way Vince McMahon was going to put any of the WCW guys over and he was just going to make them take a back seat to the WWE roster. Making Stone Cold the leader of the Alliance also was beyond stupid.

@andresgarcia-jc4mf

5 ай бұрын

and it didnt trip u out to watch it at least

@AU-rp4fp

5 ай бұрын

Honest question do you lot think that would be the case with Punk tho he was a WWE guy with the bad history and coming from AEW is he gonna go over many guys or is he gonna put people over?

@andresgarcia-jc4mf

5 ай бұрын

not sure bro , im old school ,but ya it didnt really trip out , cool tho@@AU-rp4fp

@ClaraFinn

5 ай бұрын

Based on who they had available the best choice was Booker T. But without any of the NWO, Sting or Flair in charge, it was never going to look like a legitimate WCW faction.

@pastorneil9125

5 ай бұрын

But WCW guys had solid careers with WWE. Benoit, Jericho, Eddie, Mysterio, Booker T, even Flair had a pretty decent run despite his age. (Those are off the top of my head.) That being said, yeah the WCW Invasion turned me away. I came back for a little bit during the Kurt Angle/Brock days. I was a WWE first guy, but I liked WCW too. I always wanted a cross-brand moment. I didn't want a buy out, necessarily. What we got from the invasion was pretty underwhelming. We didn't see Sting, Goldberg, or the NWO, the face's of WCW's Monday Night War. It was just underwhelming. But, there were WCW guys who had success eventually. (In some cases, more success then they did in WCW. Do you think WCW would ever have given Rey Mysterio the heavyweight title?)

In hindsight, the Invasion angle was just Vince taking a victory lap for winning the Monday Night Wars. Everything related to WCW since (HHH beating Booker, HHH beating Sting to name a few) is just Vince feeling the occasional need to remind us.

@faizfuad8361

5 ай бұрын

Yep it was a burial ritual

@mike62464

3 ай бұрын

I loved every second of it

I remember being so hyped up about the invasion angle, then I see they make Stephanie in charge of ECW and then think to myself, "Oh boy, this is going to be the drizzling shits".

@mikematthews3409

5 ай бұрын

Agreed once Stephanie became involved it became so cringy

@meteornome2556

5 ай бұрын

Which was stupid because Paul Heyman was right there and instead he became her lacky. Just another instance of Vince making everything about his family as if the previous years 1999-2000 didn't already milk that angle enough.

@Rschr101

5 ай бұрын

She looked good tho

@jeff-ds2pr

5 ай бұрын

Don't get me wrong, Steph was great as a heel back in the day (and hot), but her in charge of ECW was a terrible miscast. It's like having Mick Jagger try to front Megadeth. @@Rschr101

@redrick8900

5 ай бұрын

@@jeff-ds2pr As if that wouldn't make Megadeth sound twice as good.

Interesting to hear the perspective of someone who was in the company at the time and lived thru it while being apart of the business. You always hear the fans perspective or opinion on it but don’t always get a super honest answer like this. Love it

I've always said that the "Attitude Era" ended at Wrestlemania X-Seven

@razorramon7573

5 ай бұрын

Exactly!

@lordkain9529

5 ай бұрын

I personally feel that it ended sometime around late summer early fall of 2000 myself.

@yoholmes273

5 ай бұрын

It's 17. X-7 is mark talk. And the Steve Austin heel turn was one of the WORST wrestlemania moments ever. Just soooo dumb.

@meteornome2556

5 ай бұрын

I agree and that's the ideal end point. The remainder of 2001 had some lingering Attitude era influences, but you could tell it was pretty much over. 2002 (much like 1993 was to the Golden Era into the New Generation era) is the transitional year into the Ruthless Aggression era beginning with the Brand Extension at the start of the year and going full blown by August.

@didgya

5 ай бұрын

​@@yoholmes273Stone Cold becoming the bosses bitch was AWFUL and put the nail in my viewership.

I can't say I blame the guys who were still getting paid by Time Warner to just sit it out on their guarantees. A whole year of getting paid and you can take the chance to rehab any injuries, any personal problems, spend time with your family (When joining WWF would have been an even more intense schedule than WCW).

@marchveris

5 ай бұрын

Low key, the guys that sat out were got to keep their honor in a sense that WWE couldn't job them off or ruin their gimmick.

@AD-ur1fk

5 ай бұрын

I think booker was the only one with a time Warner contract who joined

@lukethomas6900

5 ай бұрын

@@AD-ur1fk Pretty sure DDP was on one those contracts as well. I remember him even saying in a shoot years later that he gave up big money to take a chance in WWE instead of "sitting at home". I'm sure the only three guys that came in from the WCW buyout that had Time Warner contracts were Booker, DDP, and Buff Bagwell (but we all know what happened with him lol).

@theonlyakpochino

3 ай бұрын

@@lukethomas6900Maybe Kanyon as well

Yes, some of the dumbest moves during the Invasion angle was Creative putting a bunch of random WWF guys (mostly mid carders) on the WCW and ECW side just out of the blue, and many diehard fans saw right through that bullshit and began tuning out, as nothing was really making much sense anymore by September/October of 2001.

@phillipwattsjr.4714

3 ай бұрын

Not to mention making it about the McMahon family. The moment Stephanie was introduced as the new head of ECW, a lot of people checked out.

@theonlyakpochino

3 ай бұрын

After SummerSlam 2001 nothing made sense

@MrJonnyl123

3 ай бұрын

Stone cold as the head of the wcw alliance was beyond a farce 😂

There was a few really good years after Invasion. I remember Smackdown in particular being amazing with Lesnar, Angle, Benoit, Eddie etc.

@mkhanman12345

4 ай бұрын

Not as good as the Attitude Era. They had some decent stuff around 2005 but I miss the Smackdown with the circle entrance.

@yamamafav1643

3 ай бұрын

@@mkhanman12345 meh

@mkhanman12345

3 ай бұрын

@@yamamafav1643 more like yeh

@yamamafav1643

3 ай бұрын

@@mkhanman12345 meh

@vb2806

3 ай бұрын

Not close to attitude era, mini wrestlers like Rey were put in the title picture

I'm happy that Adam is finally getting to work with Sting, you can just see in his face how much he is loving it, working with a childhood hero.

WWE Ratings were going down in September of 2000. The IWC have revised history so badly especially with that.

@kimchi2780

5 ай бұрын

Go watch the attitude Era back and it's bad. The IWC is to reliant on nostalgia.

@ronniemacdonald2768

5 ай бұрын

@@kimchi2780 Yeah the biggest boom period in wrestling history that the WWF is still living off 25 years later was terrible.

@night6724

5 ай бұрын

@@ronniemacdonald2768 No the Hogan era was the biggest boom. I won't say the AE was horrible but there was a lot of garbage in it. Russo's crash TV was the definition of throwing shit at the wall and hoping it sticks. He just got lucky to have thrown a hell of a lot of shit that stuck and everyone collective forgot the bad stuff that flopped

@BradAaronTaylor

5 ай бұрын

That relatively small decline was largely due to the fact that _Raw is War_ moved from the USA Network over to TNN (which became Spike TV) in September 2000.

@BradAaronTaylor

5 ай бұрын

​@@night6724Money and ratings say otherwise. Them's the facts, and they're unimpeachable. Besides, Russo was WCW-bound by 2000.. which was _amazing._

Had they just waited one year into 2002 with the arrival of Ric Flair, the NWO, Scott Steiner and the architect Eric Bischoff and then Goldberg, with trying persuade the likes of Sting to join, I think the Invasion storyline would have been much stronger and have Triple H play the Chris Jericho role. And I wish they didnt make DDP a damn stalker, because that was bad. Unfortunately, Bret Hart's career was done by that time but him coming back in the Invasion angle would have been fun with Shawn Michaels also returning a changed man from 1998

@danielrierson6683

2 ай бұрын

I think they tried but guys had walked out and got injured. I don’t laugh at Kevin Nash’s quad tear because it caused a lot of down fall in the company

100% true. Look at the Invasion PPV and look at the drop off from after (which did fantastic) 775,000 to Sumer Slam 565,000 to unforgiven 350,000 to No Mercy 325,000. no PPV in 2000 went for under 420,000. Money talked, and people had no interest in the invasion. Turning Austin twice didn't help either. Unbelievably they didn't get ANY WCW audience and at least 33% of your own to never get them back. Crazy to think

WCW going out of business was the worst thing to ever happen to wrestling I wonder how many more years the Attitude Era would of lasted if WCW didn't go under.

@domkilluminati1036

3 ай бұрын

I absolutely agree

@vitaliydubkov4008

3 ай бұрын

Actually if you look up WWF's 99-01 storylines and matches, nearly everything WWF could do, was already done (and guys like Brock/Cena/Orton/Batista weren't ready at all) while WCW started to turn around with new young talents (to establish them they needed some time, sure) and ECW folded with guys like RVD, Rhino and Corino wanting to join WCW and not WWF. If WCW managed to live 1 more year, this could be a very different story.

@namikstudios

3 ай бұрын

@@vitaliydubkov4008 don't forget that AJ Styles signed with WCW and wrestled on Nitro and Thunder just before the end. If WCW continued on, TNA would never have existed and AJ would've spent all that time in WCW instead. The sale of WCW by AOL TimeWarner was a huge mistake.

I was 15 in 1999 and here in the UK not even football could touch WWF at that time. It was absolutely insane just how good that period was. So good, at almost 40 now my mates and I when drinking together bring up our favourite moments from that period on youtube to watch like we're 15 again... Nothing post invasion being honest.

Attitude era started when Scott Hall debuted in WCW in May '96. Then ended when Scott Hall (with Hogan and Nash) re-debuted in WWF in February '02

@attiepollard7847

3 ай бұрын

Nope I cannot call it the attitude era in that timeline. It needs to come up with another name let's call it the time of unpredictability

@Eyeyamgod

3 ай бұрын

No the attitude era started at the king of the ring when Austin beat Jake the snake roberts and during the interview off the cuff he created the Austin 316 speech. The very next Monday night raw there were whoop ass and Austin 316 signs everywhere. No one wanted to cheer for good guys after that. Things became more realistic and in your face, reflecting Austin's don't give a dam attitude. Hence the attitude era.

@attiepollard7847

3 ай бұрын

@@Eyeyamgod still can't call it the in 96. Remember Vince did not want to go in that raunchy direction yet he still had to wait until at least maybe late 97

@theonlyakpochino

3 ай бұрын

The night Raw debuted the attitude arena and Bret cussed out McMahon in the cage was Day 1-Draft Day 2002

@attiepollard7847

3 ай бұрын

@@theonlyakpochino nope I still can't call that the attitude era in in early 97 when he cussed out McMahon because we just thought that that was just a regular pg thing

Agree with Edge here. Nothing else to add except the Reign of Terror that followed kept people away.

@EGarrett01

5 ай бұрын

Yup. It had begun by then though. HHH went over at Wrestlemania 2000 when he was a heel and it made no sense whatsoever. That was when I realized something was wrong and I stopped caring. I almost came back during the invasion angle but as mentioned that quickly turned to s--t and I was gone for the rest of my life after that.

The invasion was never going to work. Not because it was a bad idea, but because Vince used it as a way to celebrate his victory over his slain opponent called WCW. That is all it was - a victory lap. He was willing to destroy the name of WCW and display his fresh new kill, even if going the other way would have made more money for him.

@tp2005

3 ай бұрын

Yep. It was ego and pride above everything else for Vince.

I agree with what Edge is saying, even if the top dawgs of WCW were able to come to WWE, I think there is just a million reasons why it wasn't meant to be, best case scenario I could see WCW working as a separate brand for a time but beyond that...I don't think it's meant to be.

Edge wouldn't admit this because it was his and Cena's era, but most people stopped watching weekly during 2005-06. A few factors: Stone Cold and The Rock left and couldn't be replaced, the flagship show was being main evented by Cena and Edge who just weren't as good as main eventers we were used to seeing, also we had already been sick of Triple H being involved in everything since 2004. Smackdown was pretty good still, but creatively it wasn't much better. It never recovered and their ability to create stars has only gotten worse.

@puertoriconnect4611

4 ай бұрын

I can only speak for myself but I literally stopped watching because of Cena. It felt like he was the eternal champ and the everyone else was just a background character. The reason why WWE is good now cause like, in the attitude era, everyone on the show had something to do. Instead of only focusing on Roman they’re actually focusing on other people now. Cody, Jey, Sami, Punk, Seth, Drew, Dom, Priest, etc.

@PARZ90s

4 ай бұрын

The Ratings went up in 2005. Do your research. Batista drew more than Chris Benoit. Edge drew big numbers when he was with Lita. The decline started to kick in more around 2008-2010

@Name-jw4sj

4 ай бұрын

The decline happened during late 2001 which Edge referred to. Then it really went bad around 2003. Then it went really south after Cena was the main guy then they had to rebrand themselves to be more PG.

@six6thdisciple

4 ай бұрын

SAYING EDGE WOULDNT “ADMIT”…AS A SIMPLE WRESTLING FAN AS IF EDGE IS LYING SHOWS HOW POMPOUS WEIRD WWE FANS ARE SMH

@OfficerDoofyInTown

4 ай бұрын

Facts. I've been watched both WWF and WCW since 1997 and the final nail for me was - Cena/Edge feud back in 2006. But i never thought it was Edge's fault. Honestly he did his best to make the product watchable. I quit because of Cena.

I went to both wrestling events in stl in 2001. In feb was raw and oct the no mercy ppv. I can completely understand where Edge is coming from as the ppv didnt have as many ppl as the raw did from earlier that year.

Where do you find the full interviews from ITR?? Can’t find them on KZread, Podcasts, Google search etc??

I remember watching live when Vince announced the war was over and he owned WCW. I was over the moon imagining all the dream matches to come, but became so disappointed with how badly they botched creative. The idea to have DDP stalking Undertaker’s wife says it all. I really think it was a rib to put those guys in the worst situation possible just to stroke Vince’s ego. It was Dusty Rhodes all over again.

Had Goldberg, Ric Flair, NWO, Sting, DDP and Booker T been involved properly in the angle, you could’ve had the peak of Wrestling post WM17.

@nikhilhembrom8952

2 ай бұрын

It might even surpass mcmahon vs Austin storyline and maybe even nwo

What annoyed me was how much good talent came over that got buried, not for a better product, it was all so HHH could bury them all one at a time.

@jeff-ds2pr

5 ай бұрын

All for Vince's ego. I remember Kevin Nash saying something in an interview, after Vince buried the NWO, Vince was like "See, I finally got you guys!" (or something stupid like that). Kev just rolled his eyes, and was like dude, the wars were over years ago, you're just stomping on a dead corpse that you NOW OWN and bragging about it.

@cumexolaf3276

5 ай бұрын

It was because they WERE NOT GOOD ENOUGHAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!

@leemcnamara2560

5 ай бұрын

@@cumexolaf3276 booker t (pre king) mike awesome, ddp, lance storm, sabu, taz, rob van dam was the most over star in the company almost and didn’t get his due for years 😂 u have no argument

@shantb6548

Күн бұрын

@@leemcnamara2560 Don't forget Perry Saturn and that "Moppy" BS while wearing a dress! I was so mad at the time! I like him in WCW.

Both WCW and ECW got mega-buried and the WWF did a giant double victory lap during it...gee I wonder why the angle fell flat?

Invasion storyline was all kinds of fubar instead of focusing on dream matches it was all about Vince's ego, he wanted fans to know he won and that his victory was absolute. When you have the three McMahon's heading the three factions with Vince supposedly being the babyface of the three, the invasion was botched hard RVD not getting a starring role considering how over he was, Christian turning heel and joining the Alliance making no sense. Best idea for an Invasion scenario, creatively would have been DDP comes in his all black attire Backlash or whatever the PPV and lays out Triple H and Stone Sold in one night doesn't take off the mask to reveal himself just stands there over the bodies for a second then using spray paint writes WCW on Stone Cold's back and ECW on Triple H's back then just leaves through the crowd. Makes a statement at the start and makes the fans pop wondering who this guy is. The Raw following the pay-per-view Vince issues threats on the attacker while surrounded by Triple H (note this would be before his infamous quad tear), and Stone Cold. The black masked individual appears again only not by himself three more masked men follow him jump Stone Cold and Triple H again, leaving Vince by himself two of the masked men grab Vince and before anything can happen to him, Shane runs in with a steel chair he drives back three of the Masked men they leave the ring just take a few steps back Shane edges towards them while the last Masked guy still hold Vince by the arms, Shane raises the chair at the three standing men, he then pivots and lays his father out. The three new Masked men reveal themselves to be Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Chuck Plumbo. The last guy stays masked, Shane sits down on the chair he just clocked his father with Buff giving him a mic, Shane looks down at his father grim look on his face brings the mic to his lips, "I learned a lot about American History in those exemplary Greenwich, CT schools you and mom sent me to, Dad. But my favorite was the Civil War, when I procured WCW ahead of you pops. I gained an army, so consider this and last night a Declaration of War."

@zaryalace7475

2 ай бұрын

Totally. An invasion storyline should be like a ninja ambush.

Edge made a point I find myself thinking about when did I stop watching wrestling and it was actually around that time and many fans like myself were enthusiastic about the merger but many of star wrestlers weren’t being utilized to their full potential and also many dream matches never happened or lacked performance

@attiepollard7847

3 ай бұрын

I think you stopped watching wrestling because there was other things that was grabbing your attention like sports and the growing UFC. We got to admit in 2001 things was changing and you have more options.

There a full video for this?

Booker T and DDP are awesome cause they decided to come over anyways even though they could have sat home. Much respect for that.

No Mercy 01 was in St. Louis (Edge and Christian had a ladder match in it too), wonder if that was the show he was referring to where it began going downhill. I could see it....Invasion angle had long ran its' course by then and gotten far too muddled with heel and face turns back and forth.

@mrphilosopher3

5 ай бұрын

Couldn’t have been a great Cardinals season that stopped us from going to No Mercy, right? Regardless, I remember that show too - crazy to think he noticed the decline when he came to the Kiel (pretty sure it was still called that back then)

@ajk

5 ай бұрын

@@mrphilosopher3 Cardinals were eliminated from playoffs by then looking at the date, so couldn't have been that. This was just a month past 9/11, so idk if that woulda had an impact, but suppose it could have. Interesting stuff all the same though for sure.

@ericebjonesii1378

3 ай бұрын

@@mrphilosopher3it was savvis center by that point actually lol

@Speedyreedy1218

3 ай бұрын

RVD should have won the title at No Mercy.

EDGE is referring to: No Mercy 01 - St. Louis, MO - Savvis Center - October 21, 2001 Attendance ~15k, capacity >18k.

This is def a case of be careful what you wish for. When you run the only game in town, you get complacent and things suffer.

Should serve as a message to all business when you eliminate competition

01:11 🤼‍♂ Competition between WCW and WWF fueled the wrestling industry, but the lack of competition after WWF bought WCW led to a loss of urgency. 02:19 📉 The WCW invasion storyline didn't live up to fan expectations and caused a decline in interest in wrestling during that period. 03:03 💰 Buying out WCW stars' contracts to bring them to WWF might not have been feasible due to the large paychecks they received for doing nothing. 03:45 🎭 Even if WCW stars had joined WWF, creative decisions and a sense of "we won the war" might have hindered their success. 05:08 📈 The decline in wrestling's popularity became evident when arenas started having empty seats, signaling a change in the industry's success.

I watched it during that whole era. The issue wasn’t the invasion angle. The issue was turning Austin heel and making him a comedy act with Vince. That was the issue

Also we got to face the fact that after 2001 when you didn't have WCW anymore our attention if you between the ages of 18 to 35 at this time was on someplace else like the increase popularity of the NFL, NBA and the growing UFC.

The WWF talent still carried it through the Invasion angle, after that it was dead in the water, by 2003/04 i'd lost all interest. I see clips every now and again of the current product and it's hilariously bad. The digital era also hurt it.

Turning Austin heel sent wrestling into decline ever since

@SN27671

5 ай бұрын

Ratings were declining in the second half of 2000 when Austin came back. The signs were already there that the boom period was going to end. The heel turn and the botched invasion storyline only sped up the process.

@Michael-cz6ob

5 ай бұрын

@@SN27671 Still though Austin was the biggest draw in wrestling history and all fans casual or hardcore identified and believed in him and tuned in to see him whoop ass. Having him randomly just join vince and end up hugging and crying was just ridiculous to many fans and kayfabe just got thrown out the window for good. Ratings never improved after they only slowly declined. Smackdown 2004 to early 2004 was still very good but again with no Austin magic it just wasn't the same

@didgya

5 ай бұрын

So true. They could have made him a heel without being Vince's stooge. 😮

@allencollins5666

5 ай бұрын

​@@SN27671All Because Of Vince McMahon Trying To Buy WCW In The Fall Of 2000 And Sending Vince Russo To Destroy WCW. Karma A Bitch.

@blueblur2273

5 ай бұрын

​@SN27671 Exactly! By the late 2000, the WWF and wrestling in general began losing it's novelty to the general public. Nothing felt new anymore as the storylines were no longer as compelling as they use to be, we'd had seen all the crazy stunts and matches there was to see and most importantly there was no new megasuperstar wrestler or wrestlers for fans to get behind for the 1st time since 96.

Team ECWCW at Survivor Series had three WWF guys on it. That's all you need to know.

I checked out because of the brand split.

nah i think majority stopped watching 2006-2008 after eddie and benoit died and it turned to complete nonsense soap drama with vicky guerrero as gm, 2000-end of 02 might of had some boring segments and crappy storylines, they struggled for talent and had pretty much same people wrestle every week for alot of months in that time but its also when it was turning their product into something great focusing on improving the entrance sets, featuring sick music in all their ppvs and games promoting the best rock bands, improving their superstars entrances and themes like eddie n chavo coming down in low riders, overall it just got better every year in terms of product quality but just a shame their stories and new wrestlers didn't match that

@ben1ben2ben1

3 ай бұрын

Ratings plummeted way before that. When it was clear Rock and Austin were on their way out ratings and fan interest dropped like crazy

@ANUBASS

3 ай бұрын

yeah after invasion arc most likely and them butchering all the wcw/ecw talent and all their main talent getting injured or trying to retire to hollywood still alot of good stuff 2002-2004 though but even then 2002-2003 is when it started to become weird and soap opera like mainly due to stephanie running smackdown and bringing in a bunch of jobbers and treating them as main event carders

Edge is completely right. Competition makes companies better.

I agree with edge here. Especially with the very 1st thing he said. Monopoly’s are bad in any genres of business…as inferior as WCW was to the WWF. The competition Brought out the best of the best

It’s sad that when he makes his entrance now he only has one side he’s able to run to.

@SWOTHDRA

5 ай бұрын

😂😂😂 talk about empty seats

Competition keeps people honest. The best days of WWE was when WCW was strong.

the reason Vince never signed WCW wrestlers at the start, was basically down to the XFL losses, that's what PH says on his DVD

Couldn't agree more. Last angle I watched was invasion story

They should have held off on an invasion until those big name players were available. Bring in the smaller players but dont bring them in as wcw invaders, just bring them in as new wwf talent and have fresh fueds. And then once the big name players were there, bring them in along with bischoff and flair, nwo, steiner, goldberg, hogan and THEN have them invade with the mindframe of "you put us out of business, now were gunna put you out of business" and then you can have people joining for fear of losing their job or being on the losing team etc. The recent wcw small player signees from a year earlier could jump on the bandwagon. It could have worked if they were patient.

Where's the full thing?

I’m probably one of few to say this…at the time, I was sucked in to the storyline of the Invasion. It was cut and thrust, BUT when I look back at it, it wholly sucked.

What the hell is he talking about? The invasion was one of the best eras. The decline came in 2004 when JBL was champ

Vince could've made money more if he allowed a lot more draws or countouts. Because the tension could build well. It was WCW vs WWE!

Great clip

We always dreamed of a WWF Vs. WCW Wrestlemania. Those dreams were dashed, and what we got from the invasion was just a huge disappointment. I stopped watching because of it (and the "WHAT?" chants every second). Seeing AEW become WCW's spiritual successor has breathed life into my lifelong fandom.

Idk i think if they booked the invasion angle better we could have gotten a better product out of the dudes they got.

@jcrider392

5 ай бұрын

I personally don't think Vince wanted it to be good, only focused on making WWE look so much more dominant than WCW or ECW. That was his mission and he's the boss with now no competition so didn't really care how it looked. Just my thoughts

It declined when Austin left, Rock sold out, and HHH came back and beat everybody.

It's a shame that no talent would ever come right out and say that creative tanked the minute Stephanie McMahon was put in charge of it. She was a woefully unqualified, nepotism appointment and from the minute she was made Head of Creative in the Fall of 2000, the rot began for WWF/E. The botched invasion angle happened on her watch. Sadly I doubt any talent will ever say as such as that's not a bridge anyone wants to burn.

He’s right. I stopped watching wrestling around 2003. I watched the VHS with my dad of old wrestlemanias. I then became glued to wrestling in 97 flip flopping back and forth between wcw and wwf. Invasion story line was lame looking back at it.

I can’t believe that they went this route. The NFL and AFL were going head to head, and eventually merged. Can you imagine if instead of simply merging the two entities the way Vince did, he made wrestling everyday? You say you won’t switch to WWF? Fine, keep your WCW, but you will be moved to Tuesday. Monday Night Raw, Tuesday Night Nitro, Thursday Night Smackdown, Friday Night Whateverthefuck, TWO PPV’s a year, and then for Wrestlemania, you have your Super Bowl. WWE tag team champions vs. WCW tag team champions, WWE heavyweight champion vs. WCW heavyweight champion, all to earn the title of unified wrestling champion. An annual title that no one can take away from you. This was a REAL possibility, and Vince pissed it all away to be petty.

That’s when most ppl in my elementary school stopped watched. They’re were absolutely no talks about wrestling in my school after the invasion.

It just lost its magic when The Rock and Stone Cold left, huge void

Seeing wrestlers that were fired or let go by WCW, side with WCW, made absolutely no sense. Or, as Edge said, wrestlers that were never in WCW, joining the WCW stable.

Austin's heel run didn't do a lot to help the cause during that time as well.

1998 was the last year WCW was interesting. They got Bret Hart and they signaled some end in sight for the nWo with the Wolfpac. But by the end of the year after literally doing nothing with Hart and the finger poke of doom reinforcing the tired storyline of nWo and bailing on the reformation of the four horsemen, when 1999 rolled around there just wasn’t anything to care about anymore

WWE should have waited 1 more year to implement the Invasion angle. Then they would have had all the big players from WCW. The booking would have been incredible and they could have made the storyline last for much longer than it did. The Attitude Era shouldn't have stopped either and that was a huge part of the ratings drop.

Let's not forget the fact that Hogan, Goldberg, Nash, Hall and many others who had Time Warner contracts decided to sit on their lazy arses and collect the money until their contracts expired while guys like Booker T and DDP chose to buy out of their Time Warner contracts and actually worked to establish names for themselves in WWE instead of living off of old reputations. That's the reason fans didn't get those dream matches. Those guys are all about the money, not the fans.

Agree 💯. A huge fan base left when the WWF bought WCW. It wasn't a good move. It was weird and I believe it hurt the wrestling business

As a wrestling fan who was a kid during the “Monday Night Wars”, those shows were great! Just the best wrestling you could imagine actually… when Vince bought them out, my first thoughts were “oh man! Nwo vs DX, Sting vs Taker, Austin vs Hogan, Goldberg vs whoever”… it was a dream of mine! I always wanted to see top guys from both companies to fight it out… it wouldn’t had been sting and taker vs hogan and rock either… none of that intercompany crap… just wwf vs wcw… instead what we got was a lot of jobbers from wcw (not including booker t, Benoit, Guerrero and DDP)… then thinking we could get DDP and Booker T as top 10 guys in the company, they were made to be way beneath ANY WWF talent! It was a sham and an insult to WWF fans intelligence! Even as a WWF kid, I knew DDP was GREAT! And was Booker T,.. never really cared for Guerrero or Benoit… stone cold and the rock had my favorite “fighting style”… Vince “won” the wars and wanted to shove their faces in it! Period… that’s all it was… and because of his universe sized ego, he RUINED an era of wrestling and made it way worse… luckily it’s on the climb now… not a coincidence it’s only AFTER he’s gone…

Thumbnail is hilarious

I agree that even if WWE had brought in Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Sting and Goldberg in 2001 I don’t think it would have made any difference because you look at what WWE ended up doing with those guys when they eventually did come in.

Bro got classic Dunks on, respect to Edges Sneaker game!

I stopped watching after the brand split, there was something about it I didn't like.

@Rschr101

5 ай бұрын

This right here. 2002 was the beginning of the end.

he's right. no sense of urgency since the WCW buyout to the invasion. alot of fans were severely disappointed of how the angle played. it became Dangerous Alliance 2.0 w/ Austin leading it as shot caller not Heyman... yea it was a bad idea even Austin said it was bad.

Vince McMahon should have never been allowed to buy WCW. To me that was an obvious monopoly.

Without Vince buying WCW and messing it up… we probably wouldn’t have had TNA. There we got Sting, AJ Styles, Abyss, Bully Ray, XDivision, etc.

Being 13 when the invasion happened I remember enjoying it

@comradecam9530

5 ай бұрын

Because you were 13. Kids are stupid and easily impressed. I was the same. I never really saw WCW, so I didn't learn about the show etc until after it was over and realised how much more it could've been.

@Rschr101

5 ай бұрын

Same

@namikstudios

3 ай бұрын

As a WCW fan, trust me when I say it really sucked. Watching them bury DDP was the worst.

@nikhilhembrom8952

2 ай бұрын

​@@comradecam9530but even as kid you should realise they never bring any top stars and they will never going to last against stone cold rock Undertaker combined

The invasion storyline never bothered me, I'm not overdramatic like everyone else was when that story played out. I stopped watching after the storyline ended because I realized it was gonna continue being a chore watching wrestling because new storylines and wrestlers were gonna be introduced and I wasn't interested in keeping up. Wcw and ecw were gone, what could wwF conquer? The invasion never bothered me, but i was getting tired out with wrestling afterwards. Great run though.

The Katie Vick angle is when I couldn't justify watching regularly anymore as an adult. I actually turned the television off after being a die-hard fan for nearly 20 years when Triple H pretend-fornicated with the corpse of a dead girl. But that was around the Invasion time as well. And when the Invasion turned into just another McMahon Family angle, I started the tune-out. Cool of Edge to bring this up and nice to know I wasn't alone as a fan in hating this period.

@PhillipCummingsUSA

4 ай бұрын

I joined the Navy in 2002 and quit watching while in the service. I don't remember ever seeing it on TV anywhere. After getting out, 2007 or 2008, I saw Smackdown or Raw, and Rick Flair was wrestling. I'm like, "are you serious?" I did watch the Wrestlemania with SCSA. He was the main event and I didn't realize that. So I watched the entire 3 hours and it was long drawn out matches with wrestlers I don't know or care about. It was kinda boring. The Stone Cold "match" was pretty fun though. Nothing compared to his heydays but he's an old man now.

Edge was largely lost in the shuffle during Invasion. He's bitter. I LOVED the Invasion era, and I KNOW I'm not the only one who was wondering whether WCW would come out on top, and how that might change the weekly management of the shows, who the commentators would be, whether all the referees were going to be, etc.

Wow some of these are old. Edge looks 10 years younger

Yeah, it killed it for me. The whole no competition was a killer. It no longer mattered what they gave you. There was no other option. That's what kills me about these WWE only marks. Competition makes things better. That's why you hot Cena vs Orton for 10 straight years. Who's gonna buy a PPV for 50 bucks when you've seen that match 100 times.

4:06 i actually forget booker came from wcw, that’s how successful he was in fighting his way out of it.

For me, at the time i thiught it was going to be DC Vs Marvel! Superman Vs Hulk. batman Vs Ironman Daredevil vs green areow. but what we got was Batman Vs 3-D man and Superman Vs Asbestos Lady. If they could have waited a year or two before pitting the companies against one another it would have been amazing. Hogan vs Austin. The rock vs goldberg Taker vs DPP (but done right) The Hardys vs Thee count...

Lets not kid ourselves. WWF decline had more to do with Rock starting to look to Hollywood and Austin being hurt so much. They would have been better than ever if they both stayed

The biggest reason for the decline is they got complacent because they had no competition anymore…mainly WCW because their product went down the toilet and no ratings war driving creative superiority

No competition led to stale products. Its a marketwide phenomenon.

I think a slow invasion could have worked; just make it Booker T and DDP mixing with the main eventers at first, then as the Time Warner contract guys gradually come in, turn it into a full WCW onslaught.

I loved the invasion angle as a kid.

Sad. But. True

I hated the invasion storyline at the time and i was only 11. Looking back on it its even worse now.

When companies compete, especially wrestling companies, it's the fans that win.

He is spot on, Too much changed too soon.

The Invasion angle will always be the greatest disappointment in wrestling history to me. So many chances for so many great storylines…Austin-Goldberg. Benoit-Booker T, just to name a couple. But Vince threw it all away just to say to the fans, “I own it all now, so I don’t have to listen to you. Watch it, or don’t. I don’t care!!”