Invasion

I remember seeing this pay per view in Champs Sports Bar with a crowd of about 100 people. Every match on the car was entertaining and captivating as WCW, ECW and the WWF battled for supremicy. How approtiate that this pay per view should take place in the same arena the WWF was at the night Shane McMahon announced his purchase of WCW the night the invasion began.

Match #1 pitted ECW's Mike Awesome and Lance Storm against the WWF's Edge and Christian. A great tag team opener!

Match #2 pitted WCW Senior Referee Nick Patrick against the WWF senior offical Earl "I Can't Count To 3" Hebner with Mick Foley as a guest referee. A boring match but good for a few cheap pops and laughes from Foley.

Match #3 pitted WCW's Sean O'Haire and Chuck Palumbo against the WWF's APA. Boring match. Better than the referee's match but not by much.

Match #4 pitted WCW Cruiserweight Champion Billy Kidman against the WWF Lightheavyweight Champion X-Pac. Both men put on an excellent match. One the best matches on the card.

Match #5 pitted WWF Commissioner William Regal against ECW's Raven. A fairly decent match but nothing to get too excited about.

Match #6 pitted WWF's Big Show, Billy Gunn and Albert against WCW's Kanyon, Hugh Morrus and Shawn Stasiak. This match was just thrown in to take up time on the pay per view. But it was a good match.

Match #7 pitted ECW's Taz against the WWF's Tajiri. A good match with plenty of stiff kicks from Tajiri and suplexes from Taz. Plus the use of the infamous green mist.

Match #8 pitted ECW's Rob Van Dam against the WWF's Jeff Hardy for the WWF Hardcore Championship. This was by far the best match on the card and reason enough to buy the video or dvd. Lots of high flying hardcore mayhem. Plus an insane van-daminator to Jeff Hardy knocking him off the stage!

Match #9 pitted WCW's Torrie Wilson and Stacy Kiebler against the WWF's Trish Stratus and Lita in a tag team bra and panties match with Mick Foley as a guest referee (way to go Mick!). Lots of laughes from Foley and eye candy bouncing around the ring. Would have been better earlier on the card though.

Match #10 pitted WCW/ECW's Booker T., Diamond Dallas Page, Rhyno and the Dudley Boys against the WWF's Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Kane and The Undertaker. This match was great but several factors could have mad it better. The Rock, could have gotten involved but he was off filming a movie (in mean suspended). Triple H. could have been a great addition to team WCW/ECW seeing how his supposed wife is Stephanie McMahon owner of ECW, but he was injured. The ending was a real shocked since every one expected Jericho to turn WCW/ECW since it was rumored at King of The Ring, but it never happened. The heel turn was given to... If you want to find out you'll just have to buy the dvd.

Very good PPV, though I wish they didn't add the match between Hebner/Patrick, and the Women's match, which after it the WWE women (Trish and Lita) almost fell off the ramp which was split into 2 different ramps.

Best match would of had to have been the RVD/Hardy match for the Hardcore Title, this guys did an amazing job, the PPV I felt could of been better then the way it turned out.

The ending was too obvious, which I am not going to get into for those who have not seen this event yet, but if you have watched WWE programming that year you would already know what happened.

Anyway, it's a shame about the lack of attention the WCW wrestlers got, apparently the WWE ring crew stuffed up at the time and forget to tighten the ropes, because a couple of wrestlers stuffed up moves on the ropes.

Over all it wasn't a bad PPV, but it could of been WAY better, they needed a couple of better matches then the ones that I have pointed out already.

The first match Storm/Awesome Vs E&C was a fairly good one, a couple of missed spots, and a stuff up, but that was too be expected with guys working with each other for the first time.

The Referrees match was a complete dud, Mick Foley was the special ref for the match, but it was dull and boring. It you want to be bored to death, then you watch this match, I however recommend you fast forward past this match.

Stacy/Torrie Vs Lita/Trish another dud, I usually enjoy watching Lita's in ring work, this match didn't do it for me.

The rest of the card was pretty good, I would of rather have seen Kanyon in a singles match, so he could apply his amazing in ring skills into singles action.

Considering the Invasion angle was a poor start (Booker T vs Buff Bagwell anyone?) WWE really did manage to produce a very good PPV which attracted a whopping 770,000 buys. I even stayed up and watched this PPV on Channel 4 till 5 o clock in the morning! Results from the PPV: - Edge and Christian defeated Lance Storm and Mike Awesome in a decent opener.

• Earl Hebner defeated Nick Patrick in a crap match with Mick Foley as referee. After the match Foley slapped the mandible claw on Patrick.

• The APA (Bradshaw and Faarooq) defeated Sean O'Haire and Chuck Palumbo in a fair match.

• Billy Kidman defeated X-Pac in a grand match. However Kidman hurt his knees during the match and was out of action for about 8 months after.

• The Big Show, Billy Gunn and Intercontinental Champion, Albert defeated Hugh Morris, Shawn Stasiak and Kanyon in a passable match.

• Lita and Trish Stratus defeated Stacy Keibler and Torrie Wilson in a boring match.

• Raven defeated William Regal in a crap match.

• Tajiri defeated Tazz in a fair match.

• Rob Van Dam defeated Jeff Hardy to win the Hardcore title in a fantastic battle.

• Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, The Dudley Boyz and Rhyno defeated The Undertaker, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin, Kane, Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho when Austin turned heel and stunnered Angle.

Overall Grade B

Everything was well build-up, the tension was here and the stakes were high. Given that both WWF and WCW-ECW had their 10 best superstars in the main event, the rest of the card did suffer from it. While it's not a great PPV, it was not bad either.

Match 1: Edge & Christian vs. Mike Awesome & Lance Storm Solid match...nothing special but a good way to get off with Invasion. Lance Storm could have been a top wrestler IMO ..shame he was so underused in WWF. 5.5/10

Match 2: Earl Hebner w/ WWF Referees vs Nick Patrick w/ WCW Referees Special Referee - Mick Foley Hahaha..wth? Great to see Mick Foley. The fans were actually pretty much into the "match". The match was horrible of course but it was fun. 3/10 (3 for the fun and Mick foley)

Match 3: APA vs. Chuck Palumbo & Sean O'Haire Match I love APA and the passion they showed in the Invasion angle. Chuck and O'Haire can be quality as well. Like the opener, it was solid but not great. 5.5/10

Match 4: X-Pac vs. Kidman I expected a little more from these two high flyers (well if you can consider X-Pac so)...again not bad but not great either. 5.5/10

Match 5: Raven vs. William Regal Like Storm, I think Raven was underused by WWF, specially in the Invasion angle. The match was forgettable. 4/10

Match 6: Shawn Stasiak, Chris Kanyon, and Hugh Morrus vs. Big Show, Albert, and Billy Gunn Good to see Billy Gunn back on PPV. Nothing special in the match. 5/10 (pretty average PPV so far)

Match 7: Tazz vs. Tajiri Match Not bad at all. Tajiri is great...love those kick. 6.5/10

Match 8: Hardcore Championship-Rob Van Dam vs. Jeff Hardy Fantastic and exactly what I was expecting from these two great wrestlers. Had it all...match of the night. 9.5/10 (should have been a little longer)

Match 9: Bra and Panties Match -Trish Stratus & Lita vs. Stacy Keibler & Torrie Wilson How hot are these four? I actually enjoyed this a lot...but I wanted all four to lose.:D Quote of the night; Michael cole "Why am I calling wrestling moves?!?" 7/10 (7 for reason other that wrestling)

Match 10: Inaugural Brawl Team WWF (Austin, Angle, Kane, Taker, Y2J) vs. Team WCW/ECW (Booker, DDP, Dudleys, Rhyno) Highly enjoyable contest with a lot of tension..I really liked it. The ending (shocking for some, predictable for others) was a nice twist in the plot. Good. 8/10

Invasion 2001 was a pretty good wrestling event. The theme was that WCW had invaded the WWF and at this event the WWF would be fighting for it's existence. Of course, everyone knew that the WWF owned WCW in reality. Civil war is probably a better term than Invasion for this PPV.

The matches were very good. I found the referee's match very amusing. I also liked the bra and panties match between Lita/Trish Stratus and Torrie Wilson/Stacy Keibler.

Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy also had a great match which was almost as good as the main event itself.

The main event was brilliant-and it had a surprise ending (wrestling is only exciting when there are surprises). Austin, Angle, The Undertaker, Chris Jericho and Kane had a wild match with Rhyno, the Dudleyz, DDP and Booker T. It was a brilliant way to end the show.