AEW's Jim Ross On How Some WCW Talents Were Being Underutilized In WWE

WWE's Invasion storyline is widely regarded as one of wrestling's biggest missed opportunities. It presented the perfect opportunity to bring together the stars of WWE, WCW, and ECW for a compelling cross-promotional war, only to result in stars from the latter two companies being made to look weak under the guidance of Vince McMahon's all-encompassing ownership. This is the view of WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross, who feels that WWE missed the boat with some former WCW performers.

"I thought that we [WWE] were underutilizing some talents, and it was going to be hard to get them jumpstarted again and move forward in a positive way," he said on the "Grilling JR" podcast. "It seemed that some WCW weren't even getting the benefit of the doubt as far as you can get over, and we need you to get over. But the way we're using you makes it very damn challenging."

The Invasion era is synonymous with WWE stars "defecting" to WCW and ECW, along with the absence of many major players from both of the invading companies. These reasons have been highlighted as key contributors to the storyline not getting over with wrestling fans. Furthermore, there is a widely held belief that McMahon had no interest in pushing WCW and ECW stars as he wasn't responsible for creating them.

Former Eric Bischoff is of the belief that the storyline lacked star power, and he's explained how he'd have booked it differently if he was in charge. Bischoff thinks Sting and other main event WCW stars should have been involved, though some of them chose to stay out of it as they were still being paid by AOL after the company closed and was subsequently acquired by WWE.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Grilling JR" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.