JBL On Why the Invasion Failed, Not Knowing If WWE Would Survive Monday Night War

On the latest episode of Something to Wrestle, JBL looked back at the WWF’s 2001 Invasion storyline on its 25th anniversary. The storyline occurred after WWE bought WCW and ECW, turning it into a promotional “war” within WWE. The storyline is considered one of WWE’s biggest misses in terms of squandering opportunity.

JBL spoke about how WWE talent didn’t know during the Monday Night War whether they would be the ones looking for work, and that the Invasion was doomed because neither side had its top stars involved. You can check out his comments below:

On Not Knowing Which Side Would Survive:

“When the fight was happening and we were losing those 83 weeks, we didn’t know if we were the ones that were going to lose and would have to go down there, hat in hand perhaps, to get a job. Not that those guys came hat in hand; they didn’t. They were recruited, because we certainly wanted all those guys. But we didn’t know what was going to happen. We thought we might be the one that was going to lose.

“Then all of a sudden the tide turned, and we realized we were going to win this battle. And then things went really far south down there, and I’m not just talking geographically. I’m talking creatively. Things got really bad down there, and we knew it was just a matter of time. And we knew how bad that was for the business. You went from having territories where you could go anywhere in the world and work, and make decent money to basically one place. We still had ECW around a little bit, but it was starting to tail off. You knew there was going to be one sole survivor, and that’s not good.”

On Having Nowhere Else To Go:

“Vince was always one of the best pay guys in the world, so we weren’t as worried as if we’d had a real tight boss who was known as a penny pincher. Vince was exactly the opposite of that. But you knew how bad it was when all the competition was gone. There was nowhere to go. If you got in a fight with the one guy, and that was Vince, you had no options. We knew how bad it was for the business and for the guys, and it turned out to be that way. When there wasn’t competition, WWE creative wasn’t that good. You tend to get lazy. Vince was always about day-one thinking, but that didn’t happen. Having that competition made things so much better.”

On the Invasion Being a What-If:

“That’s what people wanted, and they didn’t get that. So was it one of the biggest what-ifs? Yeah, 100%. And I understand why those guys didn’t want to come. They had guaranteed contracts and were making a ton of money. They got to sit home and not have to worry about anything. And they always figured they could go to work after the contract ended, which a lot of them did. I don’t blame them for that. But yeah, it’s one of the biggest what-ifs in history.”

On the Expectations Going In:

“It felt huge. To have them simulcast and have McMahon on their television down there at the same time we’re doing a show in WWE with McMahon on television with us, it felt absolutely huge. The expectations were very high. None of them were met, but the expectations were very high.”

On Why It Was Doomed From the Start:

“I had my trepidations about whether it would work, because we weren’t getting any of their main event guys, and they weren’t getting any of our main event guys, by the way. You didn’t have Kevin, you didn’t have Sting, you didn’t have Goldberg, you didn’t have Bischoff. But they didn’t get Rock, they didn’t get Stone Cold, they didn’t get Undertaker, they didn’t get DX. It wasn’t a war where we were going to send our very best guys to fight your very best guys. That didn’t happen. Those guys were in other storylines, so I think it was doomed for failure from the start.

“WWE never did an integration very well. The first one they’ve done well, by the way, is AAA. Vince always had this mindset about territories — for very good reason, because they were trying to put him out of business. He had to be the guy who fought from underneath, and he was never going to put over another group. That mindset continued, and that’s why we never had integrations that worked very well. I don’t think this one ever had a chance of success.”

On the Creative:

“It was snakebit from the very beginning, but not because of the Tacoma match and not because of where they did it. The geography made no difference. It was snakebit because I didn’t think the creative was that good. Even with different audiences, you’re going to know Booker and Bagwell, but you know who represents WCW. You’ve got Sting, you’ve got Goldberg, you’ve got Kevin, you’ve got Scott, you’ve got Bischoff, you’ve got Hogan. Those main stars are what you wanted. It would be like pitching the New England Patriots back in the day with Belichick, and Brady doesn’t show up, or Moss doesn’t show up. You still have the franchise, but you don’t have the main players. And the people against them from our side weren’t Rock and Stone Cold and Undertaker and DX.”

On How WWE Handled WCW & ECW:

“I thought the whole storyline didn’t work. ECW didn’t work; WCW didn’t work. You’re trying to make chicken soup out of chicken s**t, and that has nothing to do with their talent. I’m saying it over and over: we didn’t get their main event guys, and they didn’t get ours. They were representing something that wasn’t what people saw as those companies, so none of it was going to work.

“Look at what we did with ECW, how we ran it and how bad it was. This was one of the greatest companies in the history of wrestling, and we turned it into a watered-down version that didn’t work. We took companies that were pretty good companies and ran them into the ground when we took them over. I think it was the old mindset of Vince that he was not going to put over another territory, because he was still in that battleground mindset. ‘I’m still fighting Verne, I’m still fighting Eddie, I’m still fighting Fritz, I’m still fighting Crockett.’ He was fighting them for talent, for arenas, for WTBS, for USA. WCW was a great company. ECW was a great company. WWE ran them terribly.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Something to Wrestle with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.