Post by Eskimo Joe on Apr 27, 2008 1:22:15 GMT -5
I was about to post in the "Who should have been in the nWo" thread, but when I got to the WWF version of the nWo I thought it would be more fun to book the Invasion so I'm starting this thread.
How would you have booked the Invasion from 2002? You can use anyone you want because WWE has the money to make just about anything happen. I'm only going to use talents that they've actually brought in since then just becausen I think it makes it more fun. Those include:
Ric Flair
Hulk Hogan
Kevin Nash
Scott Hall
Curt Hennig
Eric Bischoff
Scott Steiner
Bill Goldberg
Ultimo Dragon
Jamie Noble
Sandman
Sabu
Tony Mamaluke
Terry Funk
Super Crazy
Juventud Guerrera
Psychosis
Rey Mysterio
Ernest Miller
Balls Mahoney
Axl Rotten
and a few others I probably missed.
First of all, I would have made no mention of Shane McMahon owning WCW. I would have had Vince McMahon announce on Raw that he'd purchased WCW and was going to kill and let it die forever. There would be no further mention of the company until after the last match at WrestleManiaX7.
Vince McMahon would have interfered in the match on the Rock's behalf, but Stone Cold would have overcome it beaten the Rock clean. The Texas crowd is going wild, and just when it looks like the evening is over, Eric Bischoff appears on the Titan Tron. Vince, The Rock, and Stone Cold all forget their differences and look at the screen dumbfounded as he speaks, appearing to be breaking kayfabe. He says that WCW is not dead and he is going to beat Vince just like he did eighty-four weeks in a row. The war is on! The lights go out and when the come back up, Bill Goldberg, Diamond Dallas Page, and Booker T are in the ring with steel chairs. They take out the Rock and Austin, leaving Vince alone in the ring. Vince takes a chair shot strait to the head from Goldberg and goes down, leaving the WCW invaders in the ring posing above him. They leave through the crowd as WWF wrestlers (both heel and face, such as Triple H, Undertaker, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, and Kane) chase them off. The show goes off the air.
The next night Raw opens with Vince McMahon in the ring with police officers surrounding him. He says that Eric Bischoff and his men are not WWF employees and he will be pressing charges for their actions. If they try to show up again tonight, they will be arrested. Stone Cold's music hits and he makes his way to the ring. He tells Vince that he's never liked him, and he wants nothing to do with him after last night, but he's always believed in WWF. And if WCW wants a fight, then he is going to give them one. He is about to leave when one of the police officers attacks him and Vince McMahon. He takes of his helmet and reveals himself to be Scott Steiner. The police are about to arrest him when Undertaker comes out and tells them to back off. He tells Steiner that if he wants a piece of the WWF, he can take it up with him personally. The two brawl until Undertaker gets the upper hand and Steiner exits through the crowd.
Things persist in this manner for a couple of months, bringing in guys like Flair and some midcarders, culminating in a full on Invasion PPV. I would book both sides as tweeners so the fans would actually be challenged to support one side. The upper card of the Invasion Pay-Per-View would look like this.
Winner Take All- Eric Bischoff d. Vince McMahon
WWF Championship- Bill Goldberg d. The Rock
I would have had WWF guys win other big matches on the card to they wouldn't look incredibly weak, but I'd have WCW come out on top with the biggest championship and control of the company. The next night on Raw (or Nitro, I guess) Eric Bischoff would open up the show claiming that he was going to have Vince McMahon bow down and kiss his feet on live television. Vince would come out and say that he would sooner walk out on WWF forever with a loss than bow down to Eric Bischoff. Vince would admit defeat, say goodbye to the fans, thank them, and being leaving the ring. Just as he was at the top of the ramp, he would turn around and mention that The Rock has a rematch clause four the WWF Championship. Bischoff says that that doesn't matter, because this is WCW now and he is going to throw the WWF Title in the trash tonight and crown Goldberg the new WCW champion. Goldberg's music hits and he comes to the stage. He tells Bischoff not to tell him what to do, and he is not going to disrespect the legacy that was WWF. To honor the memory of the company, he is going to give the Rock one last rematch. If the Rock wins the title tonight, at least a little of the WWF will live on. Bischoff is in the ring looking pissed.
The rest of the night goes on with a ton of build for the match and Bischoff making deals with all the heel wrestlers to let them keep their jobs. A few faces even sell out and beg for their jobs. Guys like Jericho, Benoit, The Undertaker, and Stone Cold refuse to work for Bischoff; guys like Angle, Eddie Guerrero, Triple H, Edge, and Christian jump on board. There is a huge atmostphere for the main event. The Rock's music hits and the crowd goes nuts. He dukes it out with Goldberg for a nice long bout. In the end, Goldberg hits the spear and wins. It is truly the end of WWF. Vince McMahon is at ringside looking emotional. Goldberg shakes the Rock's hand and The Rock does the People's Eyebrow one last time. Eric Bischoff comes out, not ruining the moment, but still a little cocky, and says he wants to say goodbye to Vince McMahon. He bids Vince and The Rock farewell and is left in the ring with Goldberg. Eric Bischoff says that he is about to ignite a new era in professional wrestling with WCW leading the charge as he looks triumphantly at Goldberg. Suddenly, Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall run in from the crowd and jump Goldberg. They spraypaint nWo on his back at Bischoff's command.
SmackDown would be billed as Thunder. From this point on the shows are billed as the old WCW titles and have completely different sets. The show opens with Eric Bischoff and the nWo coming to the ring with the WWF Title and a trash can. They talk about how they've finally done what they originally set out to do, conquer WWF and WCW. They spray paint nWo on the WWF title and are about to throw it away when Stone Cold's music hits. He sprints down to the ring stuns all four men, grabs the WWF Title and exits through the crowd. As the show progresses it comes out that Bischoff is going to keep his roster of WCW wrestlers and WWF wrestlers who sold out to him, but only because the company can't generate money without them. Eric Bischoff's WCW continues to function normally as months go on, with Eric and the nWo on top and Hulk Hogan as champion. During this time, no one who stayed loyal to WWF is seen. Bischoff would publicly fire Goldberg and The Rock, Vince, Stone Cold, The Undertaker, Kane, Jericho and others would remain off TV. There is lots of hushed up talk on screen between the wrestlers about meetings with Bischoff's biggest enemy, alluding to Vince McMahon. Eventually "Save_Us" style video packages begin airing, talking about the revolution to come. They culminate with one that announces the return of Bischoff's greatest foe the night after Starrcade.
Nitro opens up and Eric Bischoff makes his way to the ring with the nWo. He says that there is no way Vince can show up, there are cops all over the building and he will be treated like rail jumper, because he is nothing but a fan to Eric. The lights go out in the building and the video packages air hyping the revolution. The lights come back up and on the stage is none other than... Paul Heyman.
Paul Heyman gets on the mic at the top of the ramp and starts going on about how Eric Bischoff stole everything he ever had from ECW. He says that he has sat back and watched Bischoff screw over countless people, steal talent from WWF and ECW, and step on everyone who was in his way on the way to the top. While Eric Bischoff was stealing his stars, he was scrambling around trying to get the money together to pay the guys who hung around in ECW, Vince McMahon was giving him air time on national television to hype ECW's first ever pay-per-view. Though Vince took his idea's too, Vince wanted to help him, and now he's here to do the right thing and pay him back. And he didn't come alone. Then Rob Van Dam, Tommy Dreamer, Sabu, Sandman, Raven, Justin Credible, Terry Funk, The Dudley Boys, Mike Awesome, Lance Storm, Stevie Richards, Taz, The Dudley Boys (Spike included), and Rhino rush the nWo and Bischoff from the audience with chairs. They clear out the ring and head back to the crowd with Heyman as the security guards go after them.
The ECW guys start appearing on Nitro and Thunder, always coming out of a separate entrance. Bischoff originally looks at them as a bunch of jobbers, especially because he's fired most of them at one point. But they begin upsetting his WCW wrestlers. The faces are always respectful when they wrestle ECW guys, the heels are always cocky.
Heyman keeps fighting the battle to revive WWF and end Bischoff's rule. Bischoff soon realizes that the ECW wrestlers can't be stopped because they can hang with the WCW roster and aren't afraid of the police. He eventually concedes to give Heyman a match with any ECW wrestler of his choosing against Hollywood Hulk Hogan at Souled Out. If Hogan wins, ECW and WWF go away forever. If Heyman's wrestler wins, Vince gets another shot at WCW. Hogan gets on the mic and gets cocky, saying they can even make it an extreme rules match. Heyman immediately accepts and announces that since it will be an extreme rules match, he is choosing none other than the hardcore legend himself, Terry Funk. Terry comes out onstage and gets a mic. He says there's nothing he would enjoy more than whipping Hogan's tail, even if it is for Vince McMahon's well being (whom he's never gotten along well with), but if there's someone that is going to bear the weight of ECW and WWF on their shoulder's, it can't be him. There's someone who has a better chance at winning than he does. He is bowing out of the match and will personally be in the corner of his replacement: Rob Van Dam.
Souled Out arrives with Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs. Rob Van Dam as the main event in an extreme rules match. The match progresses with run-ins from tons of nWo and ECW guys. Cactus Jack even makes a run in on Van Dam's behalf. The match ends with a Van Terminator followed by a Five Star Frog Splash on Hogan for the win.
Nitro opens the next night with all the ECW guys in the ring. Paul Heyman is talking about how nobody ever thought they'd see the day ECW saved WWF, but it happened. He is cut off in the middle of his speech by Jerry Lawler's music. The King comes out looking pissed. He gets in the ring and there is obvious hostility between the him and the ECW guys. However, he grabs the mic and says it takes a man to admit his mistake. He says that it's hard for him to admit, but he was wrong about ECW and wants to be the first to shake Paul Heyman's hand. He does and they proceed to welcome back the WWF. Austin and the Rock appear on stage and Austin hands the WWF Title over to the Rock (Austin saved it from the trash, but Rock was the last champion). They are followed by Vince, Undertaker, Jericho, Kurt, Kane, and all the rest of the WWF guys who've been off TV. Vince and Heyman shake hands and Vince thanks Paul for all that he's done. Eric Bischoff interrupts the celebration from the stage saying that just because WWF and ECW are back doesn't mean that they are going to stay. Since he's always wanted to beat his competition, he's going to give Vince and Paul one final shot at victory. He'll even give Vince the homefield advantage and let the event be called WrestleMania. Bischoff announces it will be a four vs. four elimination showdown between WWF and WCW.
At the February PPV Heyman would break his alliance with Vince and announce that he did the right thing by bringing back WWF, and now he wanted to take the underdog victory over WWF and WCW at WrestleMania. It becomes a three way Four vs. Four vs. Four elimination match, winner take all, at WrestleMania.
With this many stars on the roster, every single match at WrestleMania would be huge. The main event would look like this:
Team WCW
Hulk Hogan
Ric Flair
Bill Goldberg
Diamond Dallas Page
Team ECW
Terry Funk
Tommy Dreamer
Rob Van Dam
Sabu
Team WWF
Stone Cold Steve Austin
The Rock
The Undertaker
and a returning Shawn Michaels
I thought about putting Cactus Jack on Team ECW to give them more big stars, but he wasn't as big of a part of ECW as the rest of the guys were and ECW was never about the big stars. If those guys were built right, they would be able to be seen as a threat to the big shots of pro wrestling. I would have heels and faces alike on the teams, so it wouldn't be like one side was the good guys. I'd have the match come down to Funk and RVD fighting for ECW; Hogan, Flair, and Goldberg for WCW; and Stone Cold for WWF. Flair eliminates Funk with a chairshot behind the ref's back. RVD eliminates Hogan with a Frog Splash. Goldberg eliminates RVD with a spear. ECW is dead and it's Steve Austin vs. Flair and Goldberg. The match is gruelling, Flair eventually gets eliminated with a Stunner. It is Austin vs. Goldberg. Tons of near falls with the fans on edge. Bischoff runs down the ramp with a chair to attack Austin, but Goldberg spears him, wanting to win clean. The match goes on for ten more minutes or so, Austin hits the stunner and goes for the pin. Bischoff pulls the ref out of the ring. Vince runs down to the ring and beats the living crap out Eric Bischoff. Nick Patrick runs in to make the count, but does it painstakingly slow (obviously paid off by Bischoff) and Goldberg gives him the jackhammer. Austin catches Goldberg with a Stone Cold Stunner and Earl Hebner runs in to count the three. The fans go crazy, Austin and Goldberg shake hands, and for the first time ever, Stone Cold Steve Austin hugs Vince McMahon in the middle of the ring.
The next night on the return of Raw, Vince announces that he is not going to put all the WCW wrestlers out of a job, he learned his lesson the last time he tried to do that. He is going to honor all of their contracts. He then announces that there will be a draft and a fresh start in the wrestling business. SmackDown, however, will not be returning like Raw. Vince states that even though Paul Heyman turned his back on him, he respects his desire to win, and without him there would be no WWF to speak of today, which is why he is splitting the spoils of his victory with him. Vince gives Paul fifty percent of WWF (kayfabe of course) and replaces SmackDown with ECW. The draft occurs next monday, and the wrestling business moves on.
How would you have booked the Invasion from 2002? You can use anyone you want because WWE has the money to make just about anything happen. I'm only going to use talents that they've actually brought in since then just becausen I think it makes it more fun. Those include:
Ric Flair
Hulk Hogan
Kevin Nash
Scott Hall
Curt Hennig
Eric Bischoff
Scott Steiner
Bill Goldberg
Ultimo Dragon
Jamie Noble
Sandman
Sabu
Tony Mamaluke
Terry Funk
Super Crazy
Juventud Guerrera
Psychosis
Rey Mysterio
Ernest Miller
Balls Mahoney
Axl Rotten
and a few others I probably missed.
First of all, I would have made no mention of Shane McMahon owning WCW. I would have had Vince McMahon announce on Raw that he'd purchased WCW and was going to kill and let it die forever. There would be no further mention of the company until after the last match at WrestleManiaX7.
Vince McMahon would have interfered in the match on the Rock's behalf, but Stone Cold would have overcome it beaten the Rock clean. The Texas crowd is going wild, and just when it looks like the evening is over, Eric Bischoff appears on the Titan Tron. Vince, The Rock, and Stone Cold all forget their differences and look at the screen dumbfounded as he speaks, appearing to be breaking kayfabe. He says that WCW is not dead and he is going to beat Vince just like he did eighty-four weeks in a row. The war is on! The lights go out and when the come back up, Bill Goldberg, Diamond Dallas Page, and Booker T are in the ring with steel chairs. They take out the Rock and Austin, leaving Vince alone in the ring. Vince takes a chair shot strait to the head from Goldberg and goes down, leaving the WCW invaders in the ring posing above him. They leave through the crowd as WWF wrestlers (both heel and face, such as Triple H, Undertaker, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, and Kane) chase them off. The show goes off the air.
The next night Raw opens with Vince McMahon in the ring with police officers surrounding him. He says that Eric Bischoff and his men are not WWF employees and he will be pressing charges for their actions. If they try to show up again tonight, they will be arrested. Stone Cold's music hits and he makes his way to the ring. He tells Vince that he's never liked him, and he wants nothing to do with him after last night, but he's always believed in WWF. And if WCW wants a fight, then he is going to give them one. He is about to leave when one of the police officers attacks him and Vince McMahon. He takes of his helmet and reveals himself to be Scott Steiner. The police are about to arrest him when Undertaker comes out and tells them to back off. He tells Steiner that if he wants a piece of the WWF, he can take it up with him personally. The two brawl until Undertaker gets the upper hand and Steiner exits through the crowd.
Things persist in this manner for a couple of months, bringing in guys like Flair and some midcarders, culminating in a full on Invasion PPV. I would book both sides as tweeners so the fans would actually be challenged to support one side. The upper card of the Invasion Pay-Per-View would look like this.
Winner Take All- Eric Bischoff d. Vince McMahon
WWF Championship- Bill Goldberg d. The Rock
I would have had WWF guys win other big matches on the card to they wouldn't look incredibly weak, but I'd have WCW come out on top with the biggest championship and control of the company. The next night on Raw (or Nitro, I guess) Eric Bischoff would open up the show claiming that he was going to have Vince McMahon bow down and kiss his feet on live television. Vince would come out and say that he would sooner walk out on WWF forever with a loss than bow down to Eric Bischoff. Vince would admit defeat, say goodbye to the fans, thank them, and being leaving the ring. Just as he was at the top of the ramp, he would turn around and mention that The Rock has a rematch clause four the WWF Championship. Bischoff says that that doesn't matter, because this is WCW now and he is going to throw the WWF Title in the trash tonight and crown Goldberg the new WCW champion. Goldberg's music hits and he comes to the stage. He tells Bischoff not to tell him what to do, and he is not going to disrespect the legacy that was WWF. To honor the memory of the company, he is going to give the Rock one last rematch. If the Rock wins the title tonight, at least a little of the WWF will live on. Bischoff is in the ring looking pissed.
The rest of the night goes on with a ton of build for the match and Bischoff making deals with all the heel wrestlers to let them keep their jobs. A few faces even sell out and beg for their jobs. Guys like Jericho, Benoit, The Undertaker, and Stone Cold refuse to work for Bischoff; guys like Angle, Eddie Guerrero, Triple H, Edge, and Christian jump on board. There is a huge atmostphere for the main event. The Rock's music hits and the crowd goes nuts. He dukes it out with Goldberg for a nice long bout. In the end, Goldberg hits the spear and wins. It is truly the end of WWF. Vince McMahon is at ringside looking emotional. Goldberg shakes the Rock's hand and The Rock does the People's Eyebrow one last time. Eric Bischoff comes out, not ruining the moment, but still a little cocky, and says he wants to say goodbye to Vince McMahon. He bids Vince and The Rock farewell and is left in the ring with Goldberg. Eric Bischoff says that he is about to ignite a new era in professional wrestling with WCW leading the charge as he looks triumphantly at Goldberg. Suddenly, Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall run in from the crowd and jump Goldberg. They spraypaint nWo on his back at Bischoff's command.
SmackDown would be billed as Thunder. From this point on the shows are billed as the old WCW titles and have completely different sets. The show opens with Eric Bischoff and the nWo coming to the ring with the WWF Title and a trash can. They talk about how they've finally done what they originally set out to do, conquer WWF and WCW. They spray paint nWo on the WWF title and are about to throw it away when Stone Cold's music hits. He sprints down to the ring stuns all four men, grabs the WWF Title and exits through the crowd. As the show progresses it comes out that Bischoff is going to keep his roster of WCW wrestlers and WWF wrestlers who sold out to him, but only because the company can't generate money without them. Eric Bischoff's WCW continues to function normally as months go on, with Eric and the nWo on top and Hulk Hogan as champion. During this time, no one who stayed loyal to WWF is seen. Bischoff would publicly fire Goldberg and The Rock, Vince, Stone Cold, The Undertaker, Kane, Jericho and others would remain off TV. There is lots of hushed up talk on screen between the wrestlers about meetings with Bischoff's biggest enemy, alluding to Vince McMahon. Eventually "Save_Us" style video packages begin airing, talking about the revolution to come. They culminate with one that announces the return of Bischoff's greatest foe the night after Starrcade.
Nitro opens up and Eric Bischoff makes his way to the ring with the nWo. He says that there is no way Vince can show up, there are cops all over the building and he will be treated like rail jumper, because he is nothing but a fan to Eric. The lights go out in the building and the video packages air hyping the revolution. The lights come back up and on the stage is none other than... Paul Heyman.
Paul Heyman gets on the mic at the top of the ramp and starts going on about how Eric Bischoff stole everything he ever had from ECW. He says that he has sat back and watched Bischoff screw over countless people, steal talent from WWF and ECW, and step on everyone who was in his way on the way to the top. While Eric Bischoff was stealing his stars, he was scrambling around trying to get the money together to pay the guys who hung around in ECW, Vince McMahon was giving him air time on national television to hype ECW's first ever pay-per-view. Though Vince took his idea's too, Vince wanted to help him, and now he's here to do the right thing and pay him back. And he didn't come alone. Then Rob Van Dam, Tommy Dreamer, Sabu, Sandman, Raven, Justin Credible, Terry Funk, The Dudley Boys, Mike Awesome, Lance Storm, Stevie Richards, Taz, The Dudley Boys (Spike included), and Rhino rush the nWo and Bischoff from the audience with chairs. They clear out the ring and head back to the crowd with Heyman as the security guards go after them.
The ECW guys start appearing on Nitro and Thunder, always coming out of a separate entrance. Bischoff originally looks at them as a bunch of jobbers, especially because he's fired most of them at one point. But they begin upsetting his WCW wrestlers. The faces are always respectful when they wrestle ECW guys, the heels are always cocky.
Heyman keeps fighting the battle to revive WWF and end Bischoff's rule. Bischoff soon realizes that the ECW wrestlers can't be stopped because they can hang with the WCW roster and aren't afraid of the police. He eventually concedes to give Heyman a match with any ECW wrestler of his choosing against Hollywood Hulk Hogan at Souled Out. If Hogan wins, ECW and WWF go away forever. If Heyman's wrestler wins, Vince gets another shot at WCW. Hogan gets on the mic and gets cocky, saying they can even make it an extreme rules match. Heyman immediately accepts and announces that since it will be an extreme rules match, he is choosing none other than the hardcore legend himself, Terry Funk. Terry comes out onstage and gets a mic. He says there's nothing he would enjoy more than whipping Hogan's tail, even if it is for Vince McMahon's well being (whom he's never gotten along well with), but if there's someone that is going to bear the weight of ECW and WWF on their shoulder's, it can't be him. There's someone who has a better chance at winning than he does. He is bowing out of the match and will personally be in the corner of his replacement: Rob Van Dam.
Souled Out arrives with Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs. Rob Van Dam as the main event in an extreme rules match. The match progresses with run-ins from tons of nWo and ECW guys. Cactus Jack even makes a run in on Van Dam's behalf. The match ends with a Van Terminator followed by a Five Star Frog Splash on Hogan for the win.
Nitro opens the next night with all the ECW guys in the ring. Paul Heyman is talking about how nobody ever thought they'd see the day ECW saved WWF, but it happened. He is cut off in the middle of his speech by Jerry Lawler's music. The King comes out looking pissed. He gets in the ring and there is obvious hostility between the him and the ECW guys. However, he grabs the mic and says it takes a man to admit his mistake. He says that it's hard for him to admit, but he was wrong about ECW and wants to be the first to shake Paul Heyman's hand. He does and they proceed to welcome back the WWF. Austin and the Rock appear on stage and Austin hands the WWF Title over to the Rock (Austin saved it from the trash, but Rock was the last champion). They are followed by Vince, Undertaker, Jericho, Kurt, Kane, and all the rest of the WWF guys who've been off TV. Vince and Heyman shake hands and Vince thanks Paul for all that he's done. Eric Bischoff interrupts the celebration from the stage saying that just because WWF and ECW are back doesn't mean that they are going to stay. Since he's always wanted to beat his competition, he's going to give Vince and Paul one final shot at victory. He'll even give Vince the homefield advantage and let the event be called WrestleMania. Bischoff announces it will be a four vs. four elimination showdown between WWF and WCW.
At the February PPV Heyman would break his alliance with Vince and announce that he did the right thing by bringing back WWF, and now he wanted to take the underdog victory over WWF and WCW at WrestleMania. It becomes a three way Four vs. Four vs. Four elimination match, winner take all, at WrestleMania.
With this many stars on the roster, every single match at WrestleMania would be huge. The main event would look like this:
Team WCW
Hulk Hogan
Ric Flair
Bill Goldberg
Diamond Dallas Page
Team ECW
Terry Funk
Tommy Dreamer
Rob Van Dam
Sabu
Team WWF
Stone Cold Steve Austin
The Rock
The Undertaker
and a returning Shawn Michaels
I thought about putting Cactus Jack on Team ECW to give them more big stars, but he wasn't as big of a part of ECW as the rest of the guys were and ECW was never about the big stars. If those guys were built right, they would be able to be seen as a threat to the big shots of pro wrestling. I would have heels and faces alike on the teams, so it wouldn't be like one side was the good guys. I'd have the match come down to Funk and RVD fighting for ECW; Hogan, Flair, and Goldberg for WCW; and Stone Cold for WWF. Flair eliminates Funk with a chairshot behind the ref's back. RVD eliminates Hogan with a Frog Splash. Goldberg eliminates RVD with a spear. ECW is dead and it's Steve Austin vs. Flair and Goldberg. The match is gruelling, Flair eventually gets eliminated with a Stunner. It is Austin vs. Goldberg. Tons of near falls with the fans on edge. Bischoff runs down the ramp with a chair to attack Austin, but Goldberg spears him, wanting to win clean. The match goes on for ten more minutes or so, Austin hits the stunner and goes for the pin. Bischoff pulls the ref out of the ring. Vince runs down to the ring and beats the living crap out Eric Bischoff. Nick Patrick runs in to make the count, but does it painstakingly slow (obviously paid off by Bischoff) and Goldberg gives him the jackhammer. Austin catches Goldberg with a Stone Cold Stunner and Earl Hebner runs in to count the three. The fans go crazy, Austin and Goldberg shake hands, and for the first time ever, Stone Cold Steve Austin hugs Vince McMahon in the middle of the ring.
The next night on the return of Raw, Vince announces that he is not going to put all the WCW wrestlers out of a job, he learned his lesson the last time he tried to do that. He is going to honor all of their contracts. He then announces that there will be a draft and a fresh start in the wrestling business. SmackDown, however, will not be returning like Raw. Vince states that even though Paul Heyman turned his back on him, he respects his desire to win, and without him there would be no WWF to speak of today, which is why he is splitting the spoils of his victory with him. Vince gives Paul fifty percent of WWF (kayfabe of course) and replaces SmackDown with ECW. The draft occurs next monday, and the wrestling business moves on.
