North Vs South: The Invasion Storyline You Never Heard Of

Brian Damage

We all remember the WCW “Invasion” angle in the WWE back in 2001. To say it was an utter disappointment would be an understatement. For the most part, the WWE guys were booked to look stronger than the WCW guys. Speaking of WCW guys, the majority of talent that came over from the WCW buyout were undercard guys. The bigger names like Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Goldberg, Scott Steiner, Ric Flair and Sting would either come after this storyline played out…or in Sting’s case…never came at all.

Believe it or not, there was a much better inter-promotional war the WWF was embroiled in in the early 1990’s. It featured wrestlers who were heels in one promotion and babyfaces in another. Multiple title switches between companies and the early debut of one of the WWF’s greatest villains. It was also a feud that if you didn’t live in the Tennessee area…you most likely never saw and perhaps never knew existed. It was the World Wrestling Federation versus the now defunct United States Wrestling Association(USWA)

The back story was that the USWA…which was originally formed to compete with both the WWE and WCW as a national promotion…had fallen on some hard times financially. In an effort for the USWA to stay relevant and afloat, a working agreement and talent exchange was started with the WWF. Memphis’ biggest star at the time…Jerry “The King” Lawler went up north to the WWF.

It was there that Jerry Lawler ignited a feud with Bret “The Hitman” Hart…claiming to be the ONLY King of wrestling. A feud many fans thought was just confined within the WWF rings…when in actuality it also spilled over into the USWA. The big difference between the feud in the WWF and the simultaneous feud in the USWA was Jerry Lawler was a heel in the WWF and a face in the USWA…the opposite scenario with Bret Hart.

The war soon expanded to include USWA and WWF wrestlers like Jeff Jarrett, Brian Christopher, Eddie Gilbert, Lex Luger, The Harlem Knights, The Orient Express, Koko B. Ware and Shawn Michaels. The USWA World title would change hands between Jerry Lawler and WWF stars like Tatanka, Owen Hart and Randy Savage. All the WWF stars were heels when they wrestled in Memphis. An interesting side note…Tatanka was billed as an undefeated star for over a year within the WWF. However, his first legitimate loss as a WWF star came while wrestling down in Memphis as a part of the USWA war.

The most interesting aspect of the storyline was the development of what would turn out to be one of the WWE’s greatest heels a few years later…Mr. McMahon. Yes, even Vince McMahon was inserted into the feud as a heel owner of the WWF. Vince would appear several times on USWA television mocking Jerry Lawler, the USWA and the city of Memphis, Tennessee.

Vince played a heel to perfection as he would use his money and power to corrupt a USWA referee named Paul Neighbors to give his stars the upper hand in matches. Vince also went as far as to mock USWA fans by wearing the USWA title in a taped vignette.

All in all, a very entertaining and more meaningful invasion storyline then the WCW one a few years later. The WWF and USWA continued their working agreement into the mid to late 90’s until the promotion finally went bankrupt and folded.