When you say the word “Invasion” to a wrestling fan, memories of the infamously disappointing story that should have been great come flooding back, with WCW and ECW looking to take over the WWF. But Wrestling has had a number of Invasions throughout history, with a lot being some of the biggest moments in the sport. As the WWE looks to capture the Invasion magic once again, with Retribution running roughshod on Raw and Smackdown, we take a look back of the best Invasions in wrestling…
When Scott Hall first arrived on Monday Nitro and uttered “you know who I am, but you don’t know why I’m here” nobody could have known the impact that this moment would go on to have on the wrestling business. He would soon be joined by Kevin Nash to form the Outsiders, whose presence on the show was treated as if they had infiltrated the show before running roughshod throughout the promotion.
But the Outsiders would tease a third man that would be helping to destroy WCW from within, and that man was Hulk Hogan. As Hogan entered the ring and turned his back on WCW by dropping the leg on Randy Savage, the landscape of wrestling changed forever. Hogan had ditched the stale say your prayers and eat your vitamins act and trade the yellow and red for black and white, helping to usher in the era of cool heels.
The NWO would continue to dominate WCW and even take over the company, amassing a total of 62 members and even earning their own pay-per-view. What makes this the biggest invasion of all time is the fact that the NWO actually did take over WCW, becoming bigger than the promotion itself, with every crowd flooded with NWO merchandise.
The effects of the New World Order can still be felt in modern wrestling, with Prince Devitt, Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga and Karl Anderson taking everything cool about the NWO to create the Bullet Club. From the Too Sweet to being 4 Life to the black and white t-shirts, the Bullet Club took the cool factor of the NWO to become one of the biggest factions in wrestling today.
The New World Order changed the wrestling landscape, for better and worse, and swung the Monday Night Wars in favour of WCW before taking over the entire company.