The Alliance

The Alliance was a professional wrestling faction that lasted from May 2001 until November 2001.

The Alliance came about as a result of the WWF's purchase of the WCW. The ECW was brought in to help boost the presence of the WCW. Originally the Alliance were to be babyfaces, however fans continued to side with the WWF superstars so the decision was taken to make them a heel group. A wise choice as WCW was noted for it's "underhanded" tactics against the WWF in the 1990s.

At WWF Invasion, Team Alliance defeated Team WWF. Steve Austin joined the Alliance at this event. Austin's joining was an attempt to make-up for the lack of major WCW stars. Although Diamond Dallas Page (DDP) and Booker T had signed with the WWF, the likes of Goldberg, Kevin Nash, Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Sting were still under contract to Turner.

Despite a high fan reaction at the start of the storyline, interest slowly faded as poorly executed storylines resulted in less and less fans tuning in. Some fans complained that talent such as DDP was being wasted in badly written storylines, while Austin's heel turn never really caught on.

The Alliance came to an end at Survivor Series 2001 in a Winner Take All match. The final two combatants in the 10-man main event was Steve Austin and The Rock. A perfect example of the WWF's opinion of the storyline as neither a WCW or ECW superstar was one of the last two combatants.

Originally, the Alliance was to be an nWo style group, that would gradually take control of the WWF and then split into separate brands. However the failure of the Alliance to generate fan interest led to its early downfall, and the following year RAW and SmackDown! were split into separate brands.

The Alliance failed to live up to expectations for a variety of reasons. Vince McMahon's desire to not let WWF wrestlers lose too much to the Alliance wrestlers, lack of major WCW superstars signing with the WWF, badly executed storylines (such as turning DDP into the "smiling man"), and storylines being too heavily focused on WWF superstars. Some expected the Alliance to be the new nWo. Although it was larger than the nWo, it didn't make the impact that the nWo had made 5 years earlier.