5 iconic invasions of WWE

Invasions are kind of a weird thing in the world of WWE. In terms of story, they involve an individual group (more often than not from a rival wrestling promotion) appearing on a promotion's show in an attempt to take them over or destroy them. It would be like if Pepsi employees all went to the offices of Coca-Cola and started beating everybody there up.

The most successful of these is, without a doubt, the New World Order in World Championship Wrestling. Ironically, its success may have led to WCW's eventual downfall, as the company was unable to replicate that success and relied on it far past its expiration date.

Over the years, promotions used this concept numerous times and to various degrees of success. Not all of these involved other promotions, but they were all presented as legitimate threats to the show's existence. Well, except for one, but that wasn't really an invasion, per se and... look, we'll get to that.

Anyway, here's 5 iconic "Invasions" of World Wrestling Entertainment.

Honorable Mention: The Radicalz invade WWE

There's a bit of an unfair misconception about WCW that the company wasn't interested in creating new main event talent. They've been accused of just relying on wrestlers who made their names in WWE, and holding back the rest.

Of course, that doesn't take into account guys like Goldberg, Diamond Dallas Page, Booker T, Big Show (The Giant) and, to a lesser extent, Scott Steiner. After all, three of those names are WWE Hall of Famers, and another most certainly will be someday and, finally, Scott Steiner. All of them were main-event names.

But they were the exceptions, and it became obvious that most guys in the locker room had reached the ceiling in terms of success in WCW. That's when Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko, and Eddie Guerrero jumped ship together.

The four men, who had been grouped with Shane Douglas as "The Revolution" in WCW, appeared on RAW on January 31st, 2000. Seated at ringside as "free agents," they were dubbed The Radicalz and, in the beginning of their WWE careers, worked cohesively as a unit.

While the goal of The Radicalz was never to "take over" the promotion - on the contrary, they wanted to work there - it's an example of wrestlers associated with a different company suddenly arriving, and having that association being a main focus.

#5 The NWA invades WWE

In 1998, WWE was in the midst of a transformation. In an effort to keep up with a red-hot WCW, the company turned to edgier, more risque, and more violent content. This was vital in its attempt to not just compete with rivals, but to simply remain in business.

So it would make sense to work with the one promotion that most represents everything old school and traditional about pro wrestling: the National Wrestling Alliance.

We could write a whole book on this whole angle - how it mirrored what WCW was originally doing with the nWo, how it all came about, how it all dissolved - but we have four other entries to write and this thing is past the deadline already. So, the video above will help you catch up.

What started out as WWE simply hosting a title match for a different promotion turned into a faction in of itself. Led by manager Jim Cornette (who, ironically, had nothing to do with the creation of this angle), WWE's NWA would count Jeff Jarrett, The Rock and Roll Express, Barry Windham, and Dan Severn as members.

Cornette also debuted a new version of one of his most famous charges, the Midnight Express. This time, this "New" Midnight Express consisted of Bodacious Bart (Bart Gunn) and Bombastic Bob (Bob Holly).

None of this went over particularly well, and hardly anybody really cared. Eventually then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Severn, who had a following outside of wrestling due to his success in UFC, amateur collegiate wrestling, and other combat sports, was brought in to create interest.

This didn't work either, and both the group and the angle were dropped six months later.

#4 ECW invades WWE (the first time)

If you're wondering why WWE and Vince McMahon would take a chance on featuring a different wrestling promotion on their show, there's a very good reason for it. Because it worked before - and less than a year earlier.

The 1995 King of the Ring took place in Philadelphia, PA, home to Extreme Championship Wrestling. During the main event - the tournament final between Mabel and Savio Vega - fans in the audience began to chant "E-C-Dub" loudly and Vince McMahon took notice.

Unlike its competition in Atlanta, ECW didn't really pose a significant threat to WWE. However, it was also expanding and was confident in presenting its very first Pay-Per-View event, ECW Barely Legal, in 1997. McMahon, knowing a win-win when he sees one, brought Extreme Championship Wrestling to the WWE audience - and gave his company the "cool factor" it was clearly missing.

Things kicked off in September 1996, at In Your House: Mind Games. Once again in Philadelphia, representatives from ECW (The Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, and Paul Heyman) sat at ringside. During a match between Bradshaw (aka JBL) and Savio Vega, Sandman spat beer right into Vega's face. According to Dreamer, Bradshaw wasn't made aware of the planned attack and had to be restrained by Vega from attacking the ECW trio.

Two weeks later, ECW arrived at the Manhattan Center in New York City for an episode of RAW. ECW matches were held, Paul Heyman was at commentary (even offering Vince McMahon an announcing job with his promotion if "this WWF thing [didn't] work out"), and promoted their upcoming debut pay-per-view.

ECW stars arrived on WWE programming over the coming weeks, and most were loyal to their extreme brand. All but Rob Van Dam, who decided to turn on the company, sided with ECW's main antagonist during the angle, Jerry "The King" Lawler; and would dub himself "Mr. Monday Night."

The entire feud came to a head at ECW's Wrestlepalooza 1997 that June. Following a Loser Leaves Town match that saw Dreamer send his long-time rival Raven packing to WCW, Van Dam and his cohort, Sabu, came to the ring to attack the Innovator of Violence. Joining them in the ring was none other than Jerry "The King" Lawler.

As we'll see, while this was the end of the "original" ECW invasion, it would hardly be the last time the hardcore brand and WWE collided.

#3. The Nexus invades WWE

It's always weird to write about The Nexus, as it also requires writing about the original NXT in WWE. So let's do that real quick.

In 2010, WWE launched a "hybrid sports entertainment/reality" show called NXT. The first season featured a handful of talent from the promotion's then-developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW).

Each week, these "Rookies," each aided by their Superstar "Pro," would compete in both matches and other different challenges. One of these competitors would be voted off, and the winner would get a main roster call-up and a championship match.

Current NXT color commentator Wade Barrett won the first season of the show, but he didn't arrive on Monday Night RAW alone.

On The July 7, 2010 edition of the show, Barrett came to ringside during a WWE Championship match between John Cena and CM Punk with his fellow NXT season one competitors Daniel Bryan, David Otunga, Heath Slater, Darren Young and the rest. The group would go on to attack everyone and destroy nearly everything at ringside.

They declared themselves "The Nexus" and stated their main goal was to get main-roster contracts for those eliminated from the show. They spent weeks attacking just about everyone on RAW, including Vince McMahon and GM Bret "Hitman" Hart.

The wheels on the Nexus angle really started to come off at SummerSlam that year. A 7-on-7 elimination tag team match was booked between the faction and "Team WWE," an alliance of both faces and heels united against them. The stakes of the match were, well... pretty vague. Not that it mattered, as Cena made Barrett submit to win the match for his team.

The match did give us the return of Daniel Bryan following his uncerimonious firing following that original frackus on RAW.

There were plenty of attempts to salvage the angle, despite the fact that not having Nexus win that match was a major goof-up. Over the course of the group's existence, we saw John Cena forced to become a Nexus member, get fired for not helping Wade Barrett win the championship, and even CM Punk taking over leadership of the group at one point.

The Nexus would officially disband following Punk's WWE Championship win - and subsequent "leaving" of the company - at Money in the Bank 2011. An exciting story at the time, The Nexus is also an example of wasted potential.

#2 The nWo invades WWE

Ah, the New World Order. It's pretty much the Invasion angle of all Invasion angles. It changed the landscape of pro wrestling and forced WWE to adjust its product drastically. That led to the Attitude Era, the rise of Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, and eventually, World Championship Wrestling getting purchased by the same company it tried to put out of business.

Not long after that, there was a power struggle between Vince McMahon and Ric Flair, where both men essentially owned half of the company. In McMahon's mind, if he couldn't control the entire company, he would destroy the company - with a lethal dose of poooooooisonnnnn!

At No Way Out 2002, Hollywood Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall opened the show.

While this angle didn't really work out the way Vince McMahon expected, it still led to some great moments. Most importantly, it led to the legendary Hollywood Hogan vs The Rock match at WrestleMania X8. That was followed up by one last world championship run for Hogan and also, well... Mr. America.

Of course, it wouldn't be the last time we'd see the nWo. At WrestleMania 31, Hogan, Nash, and Hall would come to the ring to back up Sting (of all people) against Triple H and D-Generation X. The faction was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2020.

#1 The Invasion of WWE

On March 26, 2001, the Monday Night War ended. Simulcast along with WWE RAW, the final episode of WCW Nitro aired from Panama City, FL. Vince McMahon was now the owner of his once biggest rival. So... now what?

In terms of the promotion's ongoing TV narrative, it was revealed that Vince's son Shane, and not the elder McMahon, had purchased WCW. This served two purposes: to build upon the Shane vs Vince match at WrestleMania X-7 and to still keep WCW as a separate entity.

Following WrestleMania, many performers associated with WCW would interfere in matches on RAW and in the main event of that year's King of the Ring. While the WCW contingent were supposed to be the faces in this story, it became pretty evident that the hardcore WWE crowd simply wasn't going to cheer for WCW wrestlers, not even against Vince McMahon (who is arguably the greatest heel of all time).

There's an important note to make here. While WWE purchased the rights to the WCW name, intellectual property, and tape library, WCW's wrestlers were still employed by AOL Time Warner. This meant that any WCW star who wanted to wrestle for Vince would have to void that contract. Since a lot of those stars were making some pretty decent guaranteed money, that didn't make a lot of sense.

This is why some of the biggest WCW stars - like Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Goldberg - didn't reappear on WWE television until well after this invasion angle was finished. It's also why ECW was added (combining the two companies into one "Alliance"), and then a number of WWF stars, as well. Stone Cold Steve Austin was revealed to be the leader of the Alliance, while other stars like Kurt Angle, Test, and Christian joined up, despite never having wrestled for either company.

Overall, the entire storyline landed with a thud. It wasn't completely without its high points, however. Both Booker T and Rob Van Dam would end up as world champions and later, Hall of Famemrs. It also gave us this classic moment.

Do you have any other Invasion angles - both in and out of WWE - that you can remember? Let's talk about them in the comments below.