What Could Have Been: What If The Alliance Won The Invasion At WWE Survivor Series 2001?

The invasion storyline of 2001 is often regarded by fans as one of the biggest missed opportunities in wrestling history. The Monday Night Wars had people across the world choosing to plant their respective flags in the ground for either WWE or WCW, so much so that had an invasion of either company happened in the late 1990s, or if someone had thought of the term "Forbidden Door" 25 years earlier, a rivalry between WWE and WCW would have made so much money that it could have genuinely got Vince McMahon and Ted Turner on the same page.

Of course, that isn't what happened. WCW was purchased by WWE in March 2001, and a storyline where WCW would invade their greatest rivals would start to unfold in the weeks and months after WrestleMania 17. As time went on, it was clear that some of the names people actually wanted to see involved such as Sting, Goldberg, and the New World Order were more than happy to collect the rest of the money on their guaranteed contracts, leading to the main event scene in WWE going up against a group of WCW wrestlers who just needed a job at the time.

This prompted the arrival of ECW, which had gone bankrupt in April 2001, to bolster the storyline and give it an extra edge, and in July 2001, The Alliance was born. The group had one goal in mind: kill WWE. That was naturally very difficult since everyone in The Alliance was under WWE contract at the time, but they marched on with their objective regardless, and it all came to a head at WWE Survivor Series in November 2001, where WWE finally put WCW and ECW to rest once and for all, ending one of the most lackluster storylines of all time.

But what if Survivor Series 2001 ended a different way? What if WWE didn't get the job done? What if The Alliance won the war? That's what we're here to discuss today.

Using what knowledge we have of what actually happened after Survivor Series 2001, and combining that with a little bit of speculative fantasy booking, allows us to construct for you a world in which The Alliance won the invasion storyline in 2001.

To make a victory for The Alliance feel real, WWE would have had to undergo a complete makeover almost overnight. Shane McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, and Paul Heyman wouldn't want to give people the same tripe that WWE had been feeding fans for years, so things would naturally have to change, and the biggest change would have come the day after Survivor Series. All of the TV listings would still read "WWE Raw," but for the fans who tuned in to TNN on November 19, 2001, they would have been greeted with a different introductory package; they would have just tuned in to watch "WCW Monday Nitro."

You could make the argument that Heyman would want to really stick it to WWE for what happened to ECW in 2000 and have "ECW on TNN" be the first thing people see after Survivor Series, but "Nitro" was a far more recognizable entity at the time, and it's a Monday, so it works very nicely. As for "WWE SmackDown," that would have been changed too, and to even things out and not make it too WCW-centric, ECW would have occupied Thursday nights on UPN with "Hardcore TV." However, there is always a world where "WCW Thunder" took the place of "SmackDown." For shows like "Sunday Night Heat," "Jakked," and "Metal," they could have also been transformed into familiar WCW shows like "WCW Worldwide" and "WCW Saturday Night," and ECW would have probably just taken one for themselves because Heyman had a number of ideas for ECW that he never got to do.

It wouldn't just be limited to the weekly programming either, and it would have actually been perfect timing as well, as December was always a big month for WCW, as that was when Starrcade would take place. The Alliance could change whatever December pay-per-view WWE had in mind at the time (it was Vengeance in 2001, but it had been Armageddon and various In Your House shows previously) and make it into a true showcase of what WCW was all about with Starrcade. If you liked the idea of the Royal Rumble, you would love WCW's version of it, World War 3, with double the competitors and three times as many rings. ECW would take the February pay-per-view, and for a few months, it would genuinely feel like you were watching a completely different product.

One thing that really prevented the invasion storyline from hitting the heights that it should have was the guaranteed Time Warner contracts many big WCW names were under when the company was purchased. They could either take a risk and have their contracts bought out so they could be involved in the invasion, which is what DDP and Booker T did, or they could sit at home, rest up, and earn a boatload of money for doing absolutely nothing. As you can imagine, most of them sat at home, with Jeff Jarrett even calling the summer of 2001 "The Summer of No Worries."

However, by the end of 2001 and the start of 2002, a number of those contracts would have expired, and for those that hadn't, seeing WWE willingly change their entire product to fit the narrative that WCW and ECW had gotten one over on them would have been very enticing. Sting famously noted that he wanted no part of the invasion based on a segment where The Rock buried Booker T on "WWE SmackDown," and thought if they could do that to Booker, what would they do to him? Having WCW and ECW get the victory at Survivor Series could have been the thing that sealed the deal for Sting to join WWE at the time, and he wouldn't be the only one.

In reality, the original version of the New World Order, comprising Hollywood Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash, joined WWE in February 2002, but in a world where The Alliance won the war, the nWo would have most likely made an appearance much earlier and played a major part in the storyline. The likes of Eric Bischoff, Rey Mysterio, and Scott Steiner all ended up in WWE by the end of 2002, but they could have easily popped up after Survivor Series if the lay of the land looked appealing to them.

Stars like Goldberg were a bit more complicated, as his Time Warner contract ran a little longer, meaning that he could have still said no to joining the invasion even if The Alliance were on top, but the idea of making even more money being part of the biggest storyline ever would have probably been too great to turn down. As for the ECW alumni, they weren't really a priority in the grand scheme of things, and fans would have been more inclined to tune in for the nWo than the bWo, but guys like Sabu, The Sandman, and Steve Corino could have gotten healthy paydays with an Alliance victory.

Getting into the weeds of the story itself, one moment that The Alliance would have had fall into their laps is the return of Triple H. "The Game" returned to WWE in January 2002 after tearing his quad eight months earlier, and having him not be a part of the storyline was a real miss, as the main event scene had one of its heaviest hitters go down with injury. He would get arguably the biggest pop of his career when he returned at Madison Square Garden, and for the first quarter of 2002 was the most popular guy in WWE, but would he stay loyal to WWE?

With The Alliance on top, the main crux of the story would be the WWE roster being pushed around and bullied unless they did what the WCW and ECW stars wanted them to do. If they fell in line, they would be rewarded, but if they didn't, they would be buried beyond belief and probably beaten up on a weekly basis. Triple H, a WWE guy through and through, wasn't around for the invasion, so he wouldn't know much of what was going on, and he certainly wouldn't want to simply bow down to the overlords of WCW and ECW, especially if ECW was owned by his estranged wife Stephanie McMahon.

Given where the story would likely conclude, it would feel a bit rushed, but what WWE would have on their hands is their own version of what WCW created with Sting and the nWo in 1997. A dominant group having one thorn in their side that they can't get rid of because he wants to fight the good fight for WWE and not join The Alliance. With Stone Cold Steve Austin also being at the forefront of The Alliance from an in-ring standpoint, a throwback to Austin and Triple H's feud from a year earlier would be the natural step forward, and a huge showdown between the two would be set up through "The Game" being the fly in the ointment of The Alliance as he would be the one to win the World War 3 battle royal, earning himself a shot at the Undisputed World Championship at WrestleMania 18.

Despite undergoing a complete rebrand to fit the aesthetic of WCW and ECW, there is one bone that The Alliance would throw for WWE, and that would be that WrestleMania would still be on the schedule. In real life, you could put this decision down to WrestleMania being set in stone a year in advance, so it would make no logical sense to take the biggest wrestling event of the year and have ECW Living Dangerously take its place at the Toronto Skydome. In storyline, though, whether it be Shane, Stephanie, Heyman, or even Eric Bischoff, if he has an authority role at this point, if there is one thing that The Alliance likes just as much as getting one over on WWE, it's money, and WrestleMania brings in a lot of money.

WrestleMania 18 would have been built as the event that Survivor Series 2001 was meant to be. It would have been the show to finally put an end to the rivalry once and for all, with a stipulation that each match would have counted towards the end result. An 11-match card where each winner wins a point for their respective side, and whoever has the most points at the end of the night gets put to rest for good.

You would have still gotten the iconic clash between Hollywood Hogan and The Rock, but Sting taking on The Undertaker would have been a real possibility as well. Goldberg could have taken on Kurt Angle, for example. The Outsiders were in and around the main event scene, but a spot in a big tag team match could have worked too, and then there is the main event. Triple H vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin for the Undisputed World Championship, a match that probably should have main evented a WrestleMania at some point anyway, and a good enough storyline and feud that Austin wouldn't have walked out of the company just a few months later.

In the end, WWE would have gotten the win back over The Alliance and won the night, with Triple H ending WrestleMania 18 in the same way he did in real life as the Undisputed Champion. The Alliance would be no more, the story would have gotten the time and care that it deserved, and people wouldn't be calling it the biggest missed opportunity in recent memory.

Once the dust had settled on WrestleMania 18, WWE started to slowly transition back into normalcy. All of the WCW and ECW branding would be gone as "WWE Raw" and "WWE SmackDown" would return, as well as the monthly pay-per-views. If the likes of Jim Ross and Michael Cole were replaced by Tony Schiavone and Joey Styles on commentary, they would get their jobs back in an instant, and above all, Vince McMahon would once again be in charge of the day-to-day running of WWE.

Outside of that, there are actually a lot of ways that you can get back to the way things actually panned out in real life. Hollywood Hogan might have gotten the same reaction against The Rock, and once The Alliance was no more, Hulkamania would make a return. Vince could finally get rid of Shane McMahon for basically starting the whole invasion storyline by buying WCW from under his father's nose, but he could keep Stephanie, Heyman, and Bischoff around to maintain order on "Raw" and "SmackDown," much like they did in reality. Vince could still do the brand extension that came into play in 2002, albeit a little later on, saying something like "competition never ends" or "we killed The Alliance with RUTHLESS AGGRESSION, and that's what I need from the roster now."

As for the stars of the show, Triple H could start his title run as a beloved babyface, but over time transition into "The Cerebral Assassin" that he eventually became. To get rid of the deadwood left behind by The Alliance, and to freshen things up on both shows, the OVW class of 2002 would be brought up in the same way that they did in real life, with Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Randy Orton, and Batista all achieving the same amount of success. For those still left on the roster, it would then be a case of role reversal as those who were favored by The Alliance would have to work twice as hard when working under the WWE umbrella.

It's unclear whether business would drop as much as it did in real life, with the argument of WCW and ECW fans simply choosing to stop watching still being extremely valid. With that said, it's plain as day that had the invasion storyline been a success, WWE and the wider wrestling landscape would look a lot different compared to what we see today.