Shane McMahon, SmackDown Crash Raw and the Top WWE Invasions of All Time

This year's Survivor Series is doubling down on the brand-warfare theme, and Shane McMahon took the first shot when he brought most of the SmackDown Live roster to Raw for a good old-fashioned invasion.

Babyfaces and heels united to deliver beatings to several Raw stars backstage. It was odd seeing The New Day and Becky Lynch acting like goons, but it drove home the "bleed blue" mentality they were supposed to have.

This might be the most recent example of a pro wrestling invasion, but it's hardly the first. We have seen everything from Triple H driving a tank to The Sandman spitting beer in Savio Vega's face.

This kind of angle worked a lot better when WWE had competition in WCW and ECW. It's a lot harder to create the illusion of controversy when CEO Vince McMahon has to start invading his own shows.

Let's take a walk down memory lane and look at the best invasions in WWE history.

The Bullet Club Invades Raw

When it comes to a group of wrestlers attempting to pull off a real invasion of another company, only two examples come to mind.

The most recent incident involved The Bullet Club showing up outside the arena where Raw was being held in late September. Cody Rhodes led the group that once included WWE Superstars AJ Styles, Finn Balor, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows.

Of all the different invasion angles, this ranks as the weakest because the group didn't try to do anything. All they did was post pictures on social media with fans.

While it worked to get the New Japan Pro Wrestling stable some attention, it didn't create the kind of controversy Rhodes and his crew were hoping for.

The WCW and ECW Invasion of 2001

The most prominent storyline about wrestlers trespassing happened in 2001, when Superstars from ECW and WCW joined forces against Vince's WWE machine.

By this point, WWE had bought both promotions and shut them down, so there were dozens of wrestlers looking for a new home.

Instead of slowly introducing a few new people to the WWE Universe, McMahon opted to have wrestlers from both companies join forces as a stable.

The whole thing was set in motion when Lance Storm appeared on the May 28 episode of Raw, but the angle was sent into overdrive when Booker T attacked Steve Austin at King of the Ring 2001.

As the story slowly unfolded, ECW and WCW united to become The Alliance and attempted to take down the company it blamed for driving everyone else out of business.

Unless another promotion becomes successful and WWE purchases it, we will never see an angle like this again.

SmackDown Invades Raw

Shane McMahon having the majority of the SmackDown roster rough up some members of the Raw roster came out of nowhere, but it was effective.

Watching a mob of wrestlers storm the backstage area for some gang warfare created an intriguing scene, and it instantly made Survivor Series more interesting.

While it was strange to see rivals like Dolph Ziggler and Bobby Roode teaming up and Chad Gable attacking Jason Jordan, it solidified the blue brand as a cohesive unit.

The red brand didn't respond the following night, but it's just a matter of time before Kurt Angle puts together his own hit squad and attempts to get some retribution.

Nexus Destroys John Cena

The first season of NXT under its original format introduced the WWE Universe to Wade Barrett, David Otunga, Heath Slater, Darren Young and Daniel Bryan.

Barrett won the inaugural contest to earn a WWE contract, but nobody knew what would come of the other contestants until June 7, 2010.

It all went down during the main event of Raw in a match between John Cena and CM Punk. The group surrounded the ring and proceeded to dish out one of the worst beatings of Cena's career.

Nobody at ringside was safe. Justin Roberts, the announcers and the referee weren't spared as the group known as The Nexus made an impact nobody would ever forget.

It's interesting to see where these Superstars ended up. Bryan is an authority figure, Otunga is a member of the announce team at pay-per-view pre-show panels, Slater and Young are still plugging away in the ring and Barrett, Michael Tarver, Justin Gabriel and Ryback have quit or been released.

ECW Invades Raw

When WWE went to Philadelphia for King of the Ring 1995, the fans made sure to let WWE know it was in ECW territory.

This sparked an interest in McMahon to work with the blossoming promotion, so at In Your House: Mind Games, Paul Heyman brought some of his biggest stars for the first invasion in WWE history.

Savio Vega was fighting JBL in a Strap match when The Sandman appeared at ringside and spit beer into Vega's face in front of the camera.

McMahon played it off on commentary as a local wrestling promotion looking to make a name for itself, but it was a joint effort between Vince and Heyman to cross-promote their shows.

The moment benefited ECW much more than WWE, but it helped launch a partnership that would last a few years until Heyman was forced to close up shop and sell everything to McMahon.

The New World Order Gets Its Start

Some might not consider the New World Order as an invading force, but the then-WCW President Eric Bischoff wanted everyone to think it was in the early stages of its development.

When Scott Hall and Kevin Nash showed up on Nitro those first few weeks in 1996, many fans assumed they were still working for WWE and had legitimately invaded WCW.

This was before the internet was widespread and everyone knew kayfabe had died years earlier, so there was a sense of mystery surrounding their appearances.

People eventually figured out what was going on, but by that point, they were hooked. The storyline became one of the most successful in pro wrestling history, but it also ended up contributing to WCW's demise once the size of the stable got out of control.

DX Takes the Fight to WCW

What wrestling fan could ever forget the night WWE Raw and WCW Nitro were being filmed just a short drive away from each other on the same night?

McMahon saw this as an opportunity to show up the company he had been fighting in a ratings battle by having his most popular act pretend to be an invading military force.

Triple H, X-Pac, Chyna, Road Dogg and Billy Gunn drove a tank to the Norfolk Scope in Virginia and proceeded to taunt Bischoff and WCW.

They weren't allowed into the arena, and no WCW talents appeared in the segment, but it established WWE as the edgier brand.

They interviewed fans about being given free tickets to Nitro in an attempt to make it look like WCW couldn't sell out an arena, and it worked.

Among all the different invasions throughout the years, DX storming Nitro with a tank is the most memorable and the only event worthy of topping the list.