Tom

Time to fire up the Invasion ….
Occasional column by Tom Zenk

How long can King Vince go on without a sustained effort to save his floundering, blundered Invasion angle, that should be making millions. 

There are growing rumours of support inside WWF for the launch of a fully-fledged separate version of WCW in the hope of winning back the former Nitro viewership – those wrestling fans in their millions who failed to make the cross-over to WWF after the sale of WCW in May.

But wait just a minute -  does anyone really think WWFE can run two promotions and two PPV’s a month? When they can't book anything right now!!

Think of the brutal schedule involved in working two towns a night, travelling through airports with heightened security, with exhausted and frustrated workers pulling in low or downsided contracts! I don’t think so!! My guess is the WCW/ECW Alliance will be abandoned sooner than later. Rumours to the contrary are possibly being circulated to boost locker room hopes that VKM ‘really’ does have “something for everyone” and give credence to those over-generous profit predictions for WWF’s under-performing stock. Meanwhile VKM proceeds with plans for major layoffs sometime in the near future.
 

PAUL E stirs the pot?
Meantime, it’s interesting that Dave Meltzer is talking up angles to kick-start the supposed ‘split’. Dave suggests an angle where Shane and Steph get swerved or manipulated out of the WCW/ECW Alliance and get majorly humiliated by a "higher power" – a good talker that people can hate for manipulating them. Enter Paul E as the only guy who knows how to give a great promo for the Alliance. Alternatively, Dave suggests Bischoff for the “higher power”, with Flair perfect in the role of the guy that WWF recruits to combat Bischoff - given the long-standing hatred between these two men.

David also seems to like Brock Lesnar and suggests WWF should feed him like Goldberg…. but protect him. He goes into possible angles for Brock as a monster guy, who looks great, and no selling. The two promotions go into a bidding war for him, back and forth, until he goes to the heel side, etc.

Clearly someone’s been on the phone and computer many hours to cook this stuff up!! With things really bad in the Empire just now, these scenarios could really fire up the colosseum- and jump-start things for the spluttering Invasion.

But, wow!!! Things must be really bad in WWF idea land for David to be putting ideas out there for them. Or is Paul E stirring the pot?
 

Down the toilet …
Either way my fingers and toes are crossed they can bait Bischoff, like they successfully baited DDP. 

VKM could tell Eric some really great lies like “Let’s forget about the past … I’m a bigger man…. Turn the other cheek … I always like to give a second chance” and so on.

And if VKM can successfully bait Easy E, then I bet Hall, Nash, Hogan would feed in too - for sure!! So what price will these guys be forced to pay for not  "paying dues daily" and quitting on VKM for more money. Hall and Nash, by defecting to WCW in 1997, publicly exposed VKM as the cheap guy he really is. And for the first time, caused him to lock up talent with contracts. I don’t think he’ll forgive them easily or quickly for that. 

There’s talk of Nash joining Hall in New Japan to help create a buzz and parlay it into a big money contract with WWF. But currently they’re punishing Hall in Japan by jobbing him to young boys. Truth is Japan could care less about him. He has no effect on the gate and he’s being pigeonholed for what he really is. In the circumstances, what chance for Nash and Hall, tagging in Japan on their own terms?

With business so terrible and VKM’s ego so huge, he can’t possibly let these two guys back on top, and take top money away from the others who stayed loyal. The locker room won't stand for their insubordination. And nor will Vince. Instead he’ll use them to his advantage to get back on top. Maybe lure Hogan in as well and then ……. FLUSH the toilet!

You think they had fun with Bagwell and DDP?  Just wait ……. Vince wants the last laugh. And, like he said on TV, he always gets it. It’s good to be the King …..