The Stuff That You Hated; I Liked

The WWE Network seems to have tonnes of stuff on, but nothing that keeps my attention for very long. I get five, ten, maybe even fifteen minutes into most stuff and find myself doing other things, so turn whatever I attempted to watch off.

This morning I find myself giving Invasion 2001 a chance, and so far it has my full attention. In fact, it got me thinking about that angle, in general.

Over the years, I've heard a lot of people bitch and moan about that angle, but I remember it very fondly. I was about eighteen at the time and remember being on holiday for a two week period of it, where I would find a TV to watch the Raw or Smackdown that was on that week (and, I believe, a PPV might have been around that time, too).

Most people's beef with the angle is that it didn't involve some of the big-time WCW players; your Goldbergs, Hogans, Lugers etc... this never really bothered me. I never really watched WCW anyway, so Booker T or DDP were more than good enough for me. Ultimately, they were WCW guys no matter how you look at it. To me it felt like an invasion; surely that was the point?

I'm not saying that heel turns should happen all the time, but around that time there seemed to be heel turns happening all over the place and I loved that the most: it was so unpredictable; you didn't know when someone would switch allegiances. Off the top of my head, Regal turned and became the WCW Commissioner, Kurt Angle switched to The Coalition, Christian did, too (although his was coming for a long time due to his uneasy situation with Edge). Obvously, the biggest turn that really started the war was when Stone Cold Steve Austin joined Shane and Stephanie after a short-lived face turn.

There are only about two eras, or long-term angles, that I remember with a smile. My return to wrestling at Wrestlemania XV in 1999 and the attitude that followed that year will always stay with me, and the Invasion angle was a rollercoaster ride that I LOVED. Yes, it could've been better with the addition of all the big boys of WCW, but that's easy to say looking back thirteen years. AT THE TIME, it was completely satisfying watching week after week; the bottom line for me was that WCW and ECW (a decent ECW roster, by the way) were 'invading' and that was the best thing that could've happened after the previous few years of the Monday Night Wars.

Let's face it, that was the end of any competition that WWE ever had. So saviour it for what it was!

I'll finish where I started: If anyone can point me in the direction of something on the Network that WILL keep me interested, please tweet me suggestions!

@jimmosangle