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Invasion (also typeset as InVasion) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the then World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) (WWF/WWE) and presented by PlayStation. It took place on July 22, 2001 at the Gund Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. This event was originally planned to be called Fully Loaded 2001, as it was advertised at the King of the Ring 2001 event, which immediately preceded Invasion. Invasion was the first pay-per-view to feature the ongoing Invasion storyline, which featured wrestlers from the WWF taking on a combined force of wrestlers from World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), later known as The Alliance. The event featured WWF wrestlers facing WCW and ECW wrestlers. The main event, dubbed the "Inaugural Brawl," was a five-on-five tag team match between Team WWF and Team WCW/ECW. The other main match was a singles match for the WWF Hardcore Championship between Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy. == Background == On March 23, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) bought out its long-time rival, World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The last episode of ''WCW Monday Nitro'' aired on March 26, dubbed the "Night of Champions". ''Nitro'' started with WWF Owner Vince McMahon announcing a simulcast with ''Raw Is War'' later that night to address the future of WCW, during which it was revealed that Shane McMahon had bought WCW. At WrestleMania X-Seven on April 1, Shane defeated Vince in a Street Fight with some of the WCW talent in attendance while sitting in the upper level seats at the Reliant Astrodome. During May and June, WCW wrestlers interfered in matches on WWF programming. At the 2001 King of the Ring, Booker T interfered during a Triple Threat match for the WWF Championship and tossed Steve Austin through the announcers table, nearly costing him the title. On the following night, the June 25 episode of ''Raw Is War'', Shane declared his intention to invade the WWF, and the Invasion storyline started with Booker T performing a scissors kick to Vince. On the June 28 episode of ''SmackDown!'', it was decided that Fully Loaded was to be changed to Invasion, and would feature matches between WWF and WCW. The ultimate goal, reportedly, was for WCW to "take over" one of the WWF's two primary programs, either ''Raw Is War'' or ''SmackDown!'', and rebrand it as its own separate entity. To test the waters for this, the final twenty minutes of the July 2 ''Raw Is War'' telecast was given over to WCW, which brought in its own commentators (Scott Hudson and Arn Anderson), ring announcer (Stacy Keibler), referee (Nick Patrick), ring apron, and Chyron graphics, to present a match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for Booker's WCW Championship (which he had won on the final episode of ''Nitro''). This continued on ''SmackDown!'', where Gregory Helms lost the WCW Cruiserweight Championship against Billy Kidman and Booker defended the WCW Championship against Diamond Dallas Page. The Booker/Bagwell title match, however, was very poorly received both by television viewers and the live crowd in the arena, with the two other WCW matches receiving a similar reaction. The decision was thus made to make WCW a heel group who was out to destroy the WWF. On the July 9 on ''Raw Is War'', when then-face WCW owner Shane was scheduled to face Page in a street fight against the Undertaker. The two instead attacked The Undertaker, turning Shane heel (Page had already debuted in WWF as a heel, as part of a stalker angle with Undertaker and his wife). Later that night, Chris Jericho and Kane (from the WWF) fought Lance Storm and Mike Awesome (from WCW) in a tag team match. It ended in a no contest when the ECW Alumni from both the WWF and WCW along with the debuting Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer made their way to the ring. As it looked as though they were going after Storm and Awesome, they instead attacked Jericho and Kane. This led to the ''Raw'' color-commentator Paul Heyman leaving the announcer's booth and declared that Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) has joined the invasion and stated that the invasion has been taken to the extreme, leading to some WWF and WCW wrestlers (including Lance Storm, Rhyno, The Dudley Boyz, and Tazz) defecting to ECW. Shane appeared to co-operate with Vince against ECW, but later that night, it was revealed that WCW and ECW have merged, and that Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley (who was last seen on the May 21 episode of ''Raw Is War'') now owned ECW. Earlier in the year, Austin had a change in character, becoming more emotional, and friendly with Vince. On the July 12 episode of ''SmackDown!'', Vince said he needed the "old" Austin, an anti-hero tough character, to lead the WWF at Invasion. After Vince pleaded with him, Austin shook his head and left. During the July 16 episode of ''Raw is War'', Austin was shown drinking in a bar. Later that night, a fight started between many WWF wrestlers, and WCW and ECW wrestlers. As WWF seemed to be disadvantaged, Austin arrived, and returned to his old character, fighting off the WCW and ECW wrestlers. The WWF wrestlers (Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Kane, The Undertaker) then cleared out the ring, and were left standing tall. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「WWF Invasion」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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