According to Prichard, WWE’s business was in a strong place and the company didn’t want to deal with the “headaches” of many WCW stars. On top of that, the decision on whether to buy WCW or not came down to the last minute, with the creative team scrambling to come up with a storyline that would fit, resulting in the Shane McMahon character purchasing WCW.

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“Look, the last [WCW] show and the Cleveland show that we had, it was a spectacle in history, so I get it,” Prichard continued. “But without the WCW stalwarts, I don’t think that an invasion would’ve worked, and obviously it didn’t with what we had.”

The WCW invasion angle lasted from March 2001 through November of that year, culminating at WWE Survivor Series. By that point, various performers had changed sides, with the lines between WWE and WCW becoming too blurred for the storyline to remain believable. In the years since, it has become commonly accepted that the WCW invasion angle was a failure, with wrestlers from Lance Storm to Eric Bischoff sharing various opinions on why it did not work.

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If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Something to Wrestle” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.