Entry #800
Hollywood Hogan (c) vs. Sting
for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship
WCW Starrcade - December 28, 1997
This is it. The moment WCW was doomed to die. Not the Fingerpoke of Doom (which I will get to), not David Arquette, not Russo. This. The moment backstage politics got in the way of a proper conclusion to the hottest storyline in wrestling. Hogan vs. Sting. Starrcade 1997. The build speaks for itself. The vigilante for WCW finally taking on the nWo. It's unfuckupable and yet WCW fucked it up. Let's see what happened.
It goes wrong from the beginning of Hogan's entrance. He should be really bothered. He's scared of Sting, who can pop up anywhere. And yet he's coming out strutting, strumming his belt, ripping his shirt, like it's just another day in the office. And there's a big epic entrance for Sting, and Hogan's still trying to draw attention to himself. This seems like it'd fit with Hogan's character, but it doesn't fit with Hogan's interactions with Sting. At all. And Sting doesn't come from the rafters, he just... walks out. And Hogan's the face of confidence, acting like Sting is nothing to him. Bad sign from the beginning.
Oh yeah, there's a match! Crowd pops for Hogan tossing his bandana in Sting's face and Sting slapping him. Hogan starts stalling and a "Hogan sucks" chant begins. Hogan has Sting cornered but gets punched away. Louder "Hogan sucks" chants. And Hogan responds with a TEST OF STRENGTH spot, and he starts punching Sting about and Sting starts bouncing about. He's the picture of confidence, taunting Sting and telling him he's nothing. Back rake. Eye rake. Sting rolls away from a few elbows and hits a dropkick. That's his first real offence all match. And yet he does nothing with it, just staring at Hogan.
On goes a Hogan headlock, and then some OVW Rope Running Things end in Sting getting a couple more dropkicks and sending Hogan out again. Notice how Sting doesn't get sustained offence. It's Hogan getting the sustained stuff, and then Sting getting a shot in and Hogan rolling out to kill Sting's momentum. And not just rolling out either, getting right up Hawk-style and doing the most token selling before stalling. Sting slaps on a headlock, Hogan tries to drag him down. He finally escapes, another OVW Thing, Hogan clotheslines him down. Vertical suplex but Sting pops up. He's Stinging up, and now we see the cowardice we needed from Hogan all along.
Hogan is back on the offensive with eye pokes and Sting's sent TO THE OUTSIDE! Hogan abuses the announce table and uses Sting's bat to break his neck. Of course, since Nick Patrick is the ref, no problem. Hogan shows a shirt to Sting, but we don't see what it says. Sting whips Hogan into the guardrail but misses a Stinger Splash there. Sting's crotched on the guardrail and punched off. After we return to the ring, inverted atomic nutshot, big boot, leg drop for the three. Completely clean. No fast count. Nothing. Hogan just wins.
Except Bret Hart stops the timekeeper from ringing the bell, takes up the mic, and says no one's going to be screwed again. He decks the ref, sends Hogan back into the ring. Sting goes off, Stinger Splash. Sting clears off nWo interference, another Stinger Splash, Scorpion Deathlock, Hogan taps.
So, what went wrong? First of all, that Hogan gave Sting absolutely nothing in his crowning moment. It was basically a Hogan-sided squash except for maybe one minute before the restart. And then... no fast count! Hogan had gotten in Nick Patrick's ear legit and told him to do a regular count, just to bury Sting. And well, mission accomplished! Sting looks like a loser, Hogan looks screwed, and Bret Hart is the guy who screwed him! And the nWo storyline must continue despite the fact that it should have been given a severe time limit after this match. Political hand-wringing got in the way of the moment that should have defined the climax of what made WCW. And this was when everyone should have known. That nothing good would ever come of WCW because no one was willing to work with anyone. It managed to limp on for three years, but this was the moment the War was lost.
" written on it. That could have been a Sign Guy gimmick. He drinks some monk-brewed alcohol out of a flagon. The power difference here is noticeable instantly. Duffy rakes the eyes and tries to go for the piledriver but Ferguson backdrops him off and gives a leg drop. He pulls the ropes to send Duffy to the outside. Duffy's back in and is tossed about. Ferguson does a wiggly-knees monk dance while Bartlett (he's back) speculates on whether monks are the reason why wrestlers call each other "brother". Splash for two, but Ferguson lifts off the pin to bash him around more. This is dragging like hell. 
