The WCW/ECW Invasion angle looked good on paper, as somehow WWE seemed to keep both promotion, at least in name only, alive after purchasing them, and could make the acquired talent come over into their new promotion with the loyal fanbases they had. Unfortunately, as any fans around the time will remember, the angle fell apart and seemed to be more of a humiliation ritual for most of the stars from WCW and ECW involved.
"It was ridiculous," Eric Bischoff expressed about The Invasion angle during an episode of his "83 Weeks" podcast, slamming the utilization of Shane and Stephanie McMahon's roles in the storyline. "There's no 'why,' and what little 'why' there was in regard to Shane and his motivation, and Stephanie hers? It was so poorly developed and executed, and it just wasn't believable."
Bischoff further expressed that the McMahon siblings going against their father as the 'owners' of WCW and ECW was cheesy, but could've been really good, but neither of them seemed committed to their characters.
"There's no tension. There's no conflict. There's no pretense of conflict," he added, further criticizing the storyline, or rather lack thereof, in his opinion, and again maintained that nobody bought into the angle at all.
"You got no story. You have no anticipation. You got no reality. Looking for a surprise somewhere down the road? And yeah, you're going to give us some action, but right now you're batting one out of five," Bischoff opined.
Continuing in his assessment of what went wrong, Eric Bischoff addressed the theories of WWE burying WCW talent, and explained why his opinion on this differs from the norm.
"I don't believe the stories about, you know, burying WCW guys, yes that happened and probably was, to an extent, true, but it also was a right of passage on whose team you were on," he explained, noting that WWE largely wanted to see how committed the acquired talent was before allowing them to be completely brought into the promotion.
"I could see situations where guys were put in less than great spots as a gut check," he added, claiming that WWE tried to see who could be a team player or not. "But regardless of that, to the extent that was true, whatever that was, there just wouldn't be a creative, emotional commitment to the potential. Just because of the way that they perceived the brand itself, they're still in denial, dude."
Bischoff then claimed even some of his close friends are in denial about what exactly happened in The Invasion, adding that WCW beating WWE as badly as they did was likely why things went the way they did.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "83 Weeks" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
