5 Times WWE Was Invaded

On this past week’s Friday Night SmackDown the stars of NXT caused an invasion and wreaked havoc on FOX.

However, this has not been the first time the flagship shows of WWE have been invaded by a number of wrestlers.

Whether it be brands, factions or entire promotions, WWE has always been the target of mass attacks. Today we look at five spectacular occasions, where WWE found itself under siege.

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5. The Elite Invade Raw

In September of 2017 The Elite invaded Raw. Or at least they tried to.

In what was more of a parody of the infamous DX invasion on WCW in 1998, the group that now runs All Elite Wrestling invaded a Raw episode in Ontario, California.

Although they did not actually get into the building it got Jimmy Jacobs released from his contract and The Young Bucks got a cease and desist order from WWE for using the ‘Too Sweet’ gesture.

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4. The Radicalz

In late 1999 WCW talent became more and more frustrated with the promotion.

Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn, Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko were at the forefront of wanting out and therefore looked for a way to get to the WWF.

The group of insanely talented gentlemen, which included the WCW World Champion in Benoit, all moved to the WWF in early 2000.

They were sat in the crowd watching RAW is WAR, before getting into a brawl with the New Age Outlaws, while still technically being WCW talent.

In typical WWE fashion the interesting group, known as The Radicalz, was split soon afterwards.

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3. ECW Invasion

Way before ECW would be part of the now infamous WWF Invasion angle in 2001, ECW talent was seen on the USA Network.

Still in the process of building his promotion, Paul Heyman landed a small working relationship with Vince McMahon. While the WWF used ECW to perfect the craft of some of its talent, ECW also sent stars as well.

In February 1997 ECW then officially invaded Raw with the likes of The Sandman, Tommy Dreamer and Sabu.

Jerry Lawler kept referring to ECW as ‘Extremely Crappy Wrestling’, which fuelled the anger of the extreme stars. However the angle was dropped soon thereafter and would not be picked up again for several years.

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2. The Nexus

The original NXT invasion angle – back when the show was a competition.

After the first season of NXT finished, the eight former FCW athletes, invaded Monday Night Raw in one of the most brutal angles in WWE history.

Not only did they attack the talent in the ring (John Cena, CM Punk, Luke Gallows), they also destroyed Jerry Lawler and ring-announcer Justin Roberts as well as Matt Striker and timekeeper Mark Yeaton.

The entire ring area looked like a wasteland after the ambush. The Nexus went on to attack the likes of Vince McMahon, The Undertaker and Bret Hart.

At SummerSlam 2010, only a two months after debut, Vince McMahon decided that a group of WWE wrestlers had to defeat The Nexus.

The group lost all momentum, disbanded and was released one by one. Today only Daniel Bryan (who was released then re-signed), David Otunga (as an analyst) and Heath Slater still work for the company.

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1. The WCW Invasion

The mother of all invasions.

When WCW folded in 2001 and was bought by WWF Chairman Vince McMahon, many fans had high expectations in the WCW wrestlers joining the WWF.

However the WWF was lacking creativity and also talent, because the WCW’s biggest stars like Goldberg, Sting or Scott Steiner were not willing to sign.

Therefore the planned WWF Invasion pay-per-view was filled with a mix of WCW’s midcard and ECW talent, which was also bought by the WWF.

The new group named ‘The Alliance’ invaded the WWF, but was unable to live up to the hype. To this day it is considered one of the biggest flops in wrestling history.

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