WCW's first chance to present their own branded product (rather than simply running in on the WWF product) came on July 2's edition of RAW. For the final, main event segment, the show was transformed into a WCW program, complete with unique logos, WCW announcers Arn Anderson and Scott Hudson, and the whole she-bang. In the RAW main event, Booker T defended the WCW Title against Buff Bagwell... and the crowd hated every minute. Whether it was an uninspired in-ring performance or just the fact that they were getting a WCW main event on a WWF show, fans turned violently against the entire WCW concept that night.

The WWF quickly re-thought its options, and changed course radically the following Monday. On July 9, Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer ran in out of the crowd to interrupt the show; the ECW mainstays were quickly joined by 8 other former ECW workers who had infiltrated the WWF and WCW rosters. After a killer promo by Paul Heyman, it was obvious that ECW was back and had its sights set on taking down the WWF. The show continued with Vince McMahon befriending son Shane in an attempt to join forces with WCW to eliminate ECW. Shane agreed, and contributed 5 WCW wrestlers to join 5 WWF wrestlers in a main event match against all 10 ECW invaders.

In the main event, the WCW workers instantly turned on the WWF, and revealed that they were in business with ECW. The WCW/ECW was strengthened later in the week when it was revealed that while Shane was leading WCW, his sister Stephanie was leading ECW, and together they wanted to take their father down.

The fans finally did respond as intended to WCW at this point, as the Alliance were pure heels against the fan favorite WWF roster. The shift did necessitate some shuffling of the face/heel alignments in the WWF, however, as Vince McMahon recruited heels like Kurt Angle and Steve Austin to join his Team WWF. Austin agreed to join Team WWF, and even got huge babyface reactions for his returns to beer-drinking and ass-kicking... but it was all a swerve.

The first ever "interpromotional" pay-per-view event was headlined by a 10-man Inaugural Brawl, in which Austin feigned an injury early in the match, and sat out the majority of the contest. Late in the match, however, he attacked Kurt Angle, allowing Booker T to get the pinfall win for the Alliance. Austin was re-established as a heel, and at the same time, Angle (exclusively a heel in the WWF up till this point) was firmly placed on that babyface side of the ledger as Austin's primary foe.

As the month wore on, Vince had to resort to even more desperate measure. Vince implored the Rock to return to the WWF and help eliminate the invaders, even though he had -- in April -- been party to several brutal attacks on the Rock prior to suspending the Rock indefinitely. The Rock returned to WWF TV on June 30, after a three month lay-off, and did wind up pledging his allegiance to the WWF... although he also took the opportunity to leave Vince McMahon lying in the middle of the ring, a victim of the Rock Bottom.

The return of ECW didn't come without its speed bumps, however... a sidebar in July had ECW shifting its bankruptcy proceedings from Chapter 11 ("Reorganization") to Chapter 7 ("Liquidation"), which meant that all ECW assets were to be sold off in an attempt to appease creditors. It also meant -- for the fourth or fifth time in 2001 -- that any fans holding out any lingering hope that ECW could rise from the ashes had those hopes dashed as ECW's death looked more permanent than ever.

Despite the return of ECW to WWF TV, nobody thought that was anything but a return in name for the group... and even that was put into question as the WWF throttled back the use of the ECW identity in the weeks following the initial splash. Legal entanglements meant it was unclear if the Fed was entitled to use the ECW name and logo in its presentations, and creditors (including Acclaim) got kind of pissy about it. Finally, those gripes settled down amidst rumors that the WWF had made penalty payments and later outright purchased the ECW name (and tape library, as ECW footage eventually appeared in Rob Van Dam's entrance video) for a nominal fee.

As a precursor to appearing on TV, the WWF got some WCW wrestlers involved on house shows before their 7/2 RAW debut; Booker/Buff actually played to good crowd heat...

The first WCW Title change on WWF TV was Billy Kidman's Cruiserweight Title win over Shane Helms, on July 3...

UFC quietly returned to action in early July, holding an event in Atlantic City that was broadcast on a PPV-basis only to satellite/dish owners...

Less than one week after being a part of WCW's debut match on WWF TV, Buff Bagwell was unceremoniously dumped by the WWF; the split was portrayed as a "mutual decision," and a parting on good terms, but it was widely suspected that Buff's sub-par showing against Booker T on the 7/2 RAW was the primary motivation behind what would be more accurately described as an out-and-out firing...

Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer both made WWF debuts, helping to jumpstart the ECW portion of the Invasion; Van Dam would later break out as a major star after a stellar WWF PPV debut against Jeff Hardy...

Jerry Lawler was all set to return to WWF TV as the color commentator for WCW segments of the show, and even had his tickets in hand; however, the deal fell apart when the WWF decided to go back on a promise to allow Stacey "the Kat" Carter to appear with him on TV as an escort. Arn Anderson was used as Lawler's replacement. Later in the month, Lawler and the Kat separated, and speculation began that Lawler would now be free to accept a WWF offer (albeit after he got his personal life in order)...

A funny little faux pas from the WWF website: an original report on the ECW/WCW joint invasion had Jerry Lynn as part of Team ECW. In reality, Rhyno was added into the mix and Lynn written out, but the change was not reflected on WWF.com until hours after the initial recap of events...

With the failure of the original Invasion concept, the WWF scrapped ideas to maintain the live SmackDown! schedule that had been set up in prior months, and at the same time, killed off the possibility of WCW (or the Alliance) of getting their own 2-hour prime time slot any time in the foreseeable future...

Terry "Bamm Bamm" Gordy -- best known as one of the original Fabulous Freebirds, died on July 16...

Toronto's SkyDome leapt ahead of Florida's Tropicana Field in the race to secure the rights to host WrestleMania X-8...

Main Event Championship Wrestling started some big talk in July, claiming they would soon be a viable national alternative to the WWF... however, despite flying in talents like Curt Hennig, Buff Bagwell, and the Public Enemy for some initial appearances, many began to question the legitimacy of the group's financial backing...

Kurt Angle became the first WWF wrestler to hold a WCW title, when he beat Booker T for the WCW Title on July 24...

A 2-hour late night Saturday wrestling block is seen on advance TNN schedules, spawning rumors that WCW might finally be getting its own show; those rumors are quickly squashed when the show is officially announced as a new WWF show, replacing TNN's two weekend morning hours...

NWA New Jersey promoter Dennis Coraluzzo -- a participant in memorable cross-over angles with both SMW and ECW -- died on July 29...

"Booker T successfully defended his WCW Title against Buff Bagwell in a match that ran third from the top. Reports I got were that the crowd was really into this one, with Buff's heel shtick getting over well." -- OO foolishly gets your hopes up that Booker T vs. Buff Bagwell might not suck, 07/02/01

"The WWF's live crowd turned vehemently against the previously well-received Booker T and against the entire WCW concept. The WCW Title match main event and all its participants were showered with either apathy (if you were lucky, like the venerable Arn Anderson) or with boos. Steve Austin and Kurt Angle's heelish run-in to cause a no decision schmozz ending was greeted with cheers." -- OO on the reality of how Booker vs. Buff turned out, 07/04/01

"Bagwell vs. Booker wouldn't have drawn as a Nitro main event. So why should it be warmly received when it's bumped up to the bigs as a RAW main event?" -- OO with a simple reason why Booker vs. Buff didn't work, 07/04/01

"You want a possible "surprise appearance" for tonight's RAW? Think more along the lines of Rob Van Dam..." -- OO accurately predicts a surprise appearance amidst silly rumors of Bret Hart or Ted Turner showing up on RAW, 07/09/01

"Jeff's proven himself in multiple matches with the Dudleys and Edge/Christian, and no matter what happens here, the next time he's in the ring with them, it's marketable. Most fans, however, have only HEARD about Rob Van Dam. Now he's gotta SHOW them the buzz was deserved." -- OO on how important RVD's WWF PPV debut will be to his future, 07/18/01

"If I had to take a guess, I'd say Trish and Lita will get the win; Stacey and Torrie get stripped down in some sort of perverse "initiation" to the ways of the WWF..." -- OO accurately predicts the winner of the Invasion Bra and Panties match, though no evidence exists to support its reason why, 07/20/01

"My stupid aside comment about Big Show and Billy Gunn adopting a 'Beavis and Butthead' dynamic from Wednesday got me way more responses than I would ever have guessed. They even included proposed dialogue like...

Billy: 'Dammit, Show, you're fat.'
Show: 'No way, Bitchcakes, I'm just big boned!'
Billy: 'I told you to stop calling me that! [pause] Huh huh, you said Big Boned...'
Show: 'Oh yeah, mheh heh heh heh. [pause] I said Bitchcakes, too.'
Billy: 'Dammit, Show, that's it!' [starts slapping Show around]
Show: [shrieks like a girl, then starts slapping back]

Hell, if Edge and Christian can riff on Bill and Ted for 18 months, what the hells wrong with using B&BH's uniquely abusive co-dependence to get Show and Gunn over? Coming soon to a TV screen near you: Biggis and Asshead! Hey, if they're good in their new roles, they could even solve the current color commentator shortage... who needs JR when you can have such incisive observations as 'This match sucks, Biggis... go get me some nachos' and 'Asshead, Asshead! I think I saw a boob!' instead?" -- OO on how Billy Gunn and Big Show could get over as a tag team, 07/27/01

WWF/WCW/ECW Invasion (07/22/01) -- Steve Austin turned on his Team WWF teammates, attacking Kurt Angle to help Booker T secure a win in the 10-man Inagural Brawl main event of the show; Austin feigned an injury and sat out the majority of the match before revealing his true colors. Other match results: Edge and Christian beat Mike Awesome and Lance Storm... Earl Hebner pinned Nick Patrick... the APA beat Chuck Palumbo and Sean O'Haire in a non-title match... Billy Kidman defeated X-Pac in the only match where the fans cheered the WCW guy and booed the WWF guy... Raven beat William Regal... Chris Kanyon, Hugh Morrus, and Shawn Stasiak beat Billy Gunn, Albert, and Big Show... Tajiri got a win over Tazz... Rob Van Dam beat Jeff Hardy in an outstanding contest to capture the WWF Hardcore Title... Trish Stratus and Lita beat Stacy Keibler and Torrie Wilson in the first ever tag team bra and panties match.

Billy Kidman beat Shane Helms to win the WCW Cruiserweight Title (7/03)... The Acolytes beat the Dudley Boyz to win the WWF Tag Team Titles (7/09)... Lance Storm beat Albert to win the WWF IC Title (7/23)... Kurt Angle beat Booker T to win the WCW Title (7/24)... Booker T presented the WCW US Title to Chris Kanyon (7/24)... Booker T beat Kurt Angle to regain the WCW Title (7/30)... X-Pac defeated Billy Kidman to win the WCW Cruiserweight Title (7/30).