diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 645ba388c52..3739e29b0db 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ Looking for changes that affect our C API? See the [C API Changelog](lib/c-api/C
 - [#3008](https://github.com/wasmerio/wasmer/pull/3008) Add a new CI check that uses cargo public-api to track changes in the API between master and the last deployed version on crates.io
 - [#3003](https://github.com/wasmerio/wasmer/pull/3003) Remove RuntimeError::raise from public API
 - [#2999](https://github.com/wasmerio/wasmer/pull/2999) Allow `--invoke` CLI option for Emscripten files without a `main` function
+- [#2997](https://github.com/wasmerio/wasmer/pull/2997) Fix "run --invoke [function]" to behave the same as "run"
 - [#2946](https://github.com/wasmerio/wasmer/pull/2946) Remove dylib,staticlib engines in favor of a single Universal engine
 - [#2949](https://github.com/wasmerio/wasmer/pull/2949) Switch back to using custom LLVM builds on CI
 - #2892 Renamed `get_native_function` to `get_typed_function`, marked former as deprecated.
diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 26b7f0fb2b8..60d861ac094 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -3074,6 +3074,7 @@ name = "wasmer-integration-tests-cli"
 version = "2.3.0"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
+ "rand",
  "tempfile",
 ]
 
diff --git a/lib/cli/src/commands/run.rs b/lib/cli/src/commands/run.rs
index d6f4de250a0..1605009736f 100644
--- a/lib/cli/src/commands/run.rs
+++ b/lib/cli/src/commands/run.rs
@@ -226,8 +226,34 @@ impl Run {
         };
         #[cfg(not(feature = "wasi"))]
         let ret = {
-            let instance = Instance::new(&mut store, &module, &imports! {})?;
-            self.inner_run(ctx, instance)
+            let instance = Instance::new(&module, &imports! {})?;
+
+            // If this module exports an _initialize function, run that first.
+            if let Ok(initialize) = instance.exports.get_function("_initialize") {
+                initialize
+                    .call(&[])
+                    .with_context(|| "failed to run _initialize function")?;
+            }
+
+            // Do we want to invoke a function?
+            if let Some(ref invoke) = self.invoke {
+                let result = self.invoke_function(&instance, invoke, &self.args)?;
+                println!(
+                    "{}",
+                    result
+                        .iter()
+                        .map(|val| val.to_string())
+                        .collect::<Vec<String>>()
+                        .join(" ")
+                );
+            } else {
+                let start: Function = self.try_find_function(&instance, "_start", &[])?;
+                let result = start.call(&[]);
+                #[cfg(feature = "wasi")]
+                self.wasi.handle_result(result)?;
+                #[cfg(not(feature = "wasi"))]
+                result?;
+            }
         };
 
         ret
diff --git a/tests/integration/cli/Cargo.toml b/tests/integration/cli/Cargo.toml
index 068c50fec82..b3ea4e06b0f 100644
--- a/tests/integration/cli/Cargo.toml
+++ b/tests/integration/cli/Cargo.toml
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@ repository = "https://github.com/wasmerio/wasmer"
 edition = "2018"
 publish = false
 
+[dev-dependencies]
+rand = "0.8.5"
+
 [dependencies]
 anyhow = "1"
 tempfile = "3"
diff --git a/tests/integration/cli/tests/run.rs b/tests/integration/cli/tests/run.rs
index 07fddc86564..45e1901f06b 100644
--- a/tests/integration/cli/tests/run.rs
+++ b/tests/integration/cli/tests/run.rs
@@ -43,7 +43,6 @@ fn run_wasi_works() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
 }
 
 #[test]
-
 fn run_no_imports_wasm_works() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
     let output = Command::new(WASMER_PATH)
         .arg("run")
@@ -63,6 +62,56 @@ fn run_no_imports_wasm_works() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
     Ok(())
 }
 
+// This test verifies that "wasmer run --invoke _start module.wat"
+// works the same as "wasmer run module.wat" (without --invoke).
+#[test]
+fn run_invoke_works_with_nomain_wasi() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
+    // In this example the function "wasi_unstable.arg_sizes_get"
+    // is a function that is imported from the WASI env.
+    let wasi_wat = "
+    (module
+        (import \"wasi_unstable\" \"args_sizes_get\"
+          (func $__wasi_args_sizes_get (param i32 i32) (result i32)))
+        (func $_start)
+        (memory 1)
+        (export \"memory\" (memory 0))
+        (export \"_start\" (func $_start))
+      )
+    ";
+
+    let random = rand::random::<u64>();
+    let module_file = std::env::temp_dir().join(&format!("{random}.wat"));
+    std::fs::write(&module_file, wasi_wat.as_bytes()).unwrap();
+    let output = Command::new(WASMER_PATH)
+        .arg("run")
+        .arg(&module_file)
+        .output()?;
+
+    let stderr = std::str::from_utf8(&output.stderr).unwrap().to_string();
+    let success = output.status.success();
+    if !success {
+        println!("ERROR in 'wasmer run [module.wat]':\r\n{stderr}");
+        panic!();
+    }
+
+    let output = Command::new(WASMER_PATH)
+        .arg("run")
+        .arg("--invoke")
+        .arg("_start")
+        .arg(&module_file)
+        .output()?;
+
+    let stderr = std::str::from_utf8(&output.stderr).unwrap().to_string();
+    let success = output.status.success();
+    if !success {
+        println!("ERROR in 'wasmer run --invoke _start [module.wat]':\r\n{stderr}");
+        panic!();
+    }
+
+    std::fs::remove_file(&module_file).unwrap();
+    Ok(())
+}
+
 #[test]
 fn run_no_start_wasm_report_error() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
     let output = Command::new(WASMER_PATH)