[1997-05-26-WCW-Nitro] Hulk Hogan and Sting

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Hogan has shaved the mustache and looks really bizarre. Hogan tells Sting the belt is on the line and to come take the beating he deserves. Bischoff says he hates to disappoint Hogan, but Sting isn't here because he's a coward. Sting pops out from under the ring and points the bat toward Hogan, but based on the hair, it's obviously a fake. He gets down on his knees when Hogan commands him to do so while Hogan taunts him. Sting finally comes down from the rafters and attacks Bischoff from behind with the scorpion death drop. Hogan slowly turns around and he's face to face with the guy. He takes off and Sting destroys the impostor. Hogan summons the NWO to the ring and they slowly surround him but Sting doesn't back down. Just as the NWO is about to surround him, he flies away again. Great hype.

[Kevin Ridge]

Bischoff and Hogan were good in playing to the fans that had the appropriate pro NWO signs. Bischoff takes a look under the ring to make sure Sting isn’t hiding there. But Sting appears under the ring but it is another fake. The real Sting drops from the rafters and Hogan is slow to recognize. Hogan calls out the whole NWO to back him up. We are still over half a year from these guys facing off. Great slow build.

[soup23]

Hogan was shaven on the movie set so he has busted out the 5 o clock shadow type concoction. You knew where this was headed but it was performed well. I don't know how safe it was, but Sting zipping down fromm the rafters so quick and repelling up was an awesome visual and its clear where the big angle is headed WCW wise months out.

[El-P]

Great angle again. I can't see Sting repelling down and up so suddenly without thinking about Owen Hart, and how badly they screwed up. I mean, when you watch Sting do these ultra-quick drop down every week, how hard was it to get some real security for Owen ? Anyway. Another thing, it's really amazing to think we're in late May and they still are slowling building to Starrcade by milking every confrontation as much as they can yet giving actual satisfactions to the fans on the way like with Bischoff being DDted. They really had the feud of the decade on their hands, and they screwed it up because of Hogan's insecurity. Really odd when you think they he was going all the way in term of stooging and bitching during the build-up.

[PeteF3]

There's nothing quite new here--we've seen bogus Stings worshipping Hogan before, we've seen Sting Death Drop Bischoff before, we've seen him come down from the rafters before, we've seen Hogan cower before...but damn, it just doesn't get old. We do get one new twist, as Sting flies back into the rafters as the NWO surrounds him. This is one of those segments I remember absolutely losing my shit over and a lot of details--Schiavone's "We are out of time!" "HE'S GONE! AND SO ARE WE!"--have stuck in my mind.

 

Incidentally, one thing I didn't remember was Hogan pratfalling over the bowed-over fake Sting. That was pretty funny.