[1997-12-28-WCW-Starrcade '97] Hulk Hogan vs Sting

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I hate criticizing conditioning of athletes because it seems like something I have no right to say unless I feel like I'm in better shape. Still, looking at Sting, I get Hogan's point. He had gotten a little soft and should have showed up to have the match of his life (I know, it's Hogan, but I think you know what I mean) and didn't do that. Even if Hogan had put him over clean, Sting didn't have the drive to succeed as a long-term draw. He is sucking wind quickly and once they locked up, this just fell really flat.

 

They couldn't deliver a match that lived up to the nearly two years of hype. The crowd wasn't nearly as hot as they should have been for something this big. And after completely being repackaged, why would Sting still hang on to stale moves like the Stinger splash? And why would they lay out a match to give Hogan this much offense? To me, this match really just proves that even if you develop a character people care about and are the benefit of great booking, in the end, the results will be limited if you can't deliver a satisfying match in the ring.

 

Nick Patrick does the legendary fast count that isn't a fast count, but Bret stops the timekeeper from ringing the bell and sends Hogan back into the ring, restarts the match and the match continues. Sting finally does his big comeback and wins the title.

 

Everything about this -- booking, in-ring action, crowd reaction -- is pretty horrible. The post-match celebration is a great moment but it wasn't really earned.

[Gregor]

...this just fell really flat. They couldn't deliver a match that lived up to the nearly two years of hype. The crowd wasn't nearly as hot as they should have been for something this big... To me, this match really just proves that even if you develop a character people care about and are the benefit of great booking, in the end, the results will be limited if you can't deliver a satisfying match in the ring... The post-match celebration is a great moment but it wasn't really earned.

Sorta feels like it could've been lifted from the 1990 yearbook.

[Kevin Ridge]

Sting's skinny arms remind me of Hogan in 93. This match should have been Sting fighting off the NWO right off the start. Maybe have Bret and DDP help out to clear things out. Once everyone is out of there just have Sting destroy Hogan for the clean win. They had this super long build up to Sting versus Hogan and there is so little hatred in this match. Hogan dominates the match and gets the clean three count. What a joke. Not even close to a fast count but Bret had to act like it was another match with someone getting screwed. Fuck you Hogan for pulling this shit. Sting is immediately destroyed on his return match.

[Zenjo]

Despite what Tony Schiavione might have said this was the biggest match in the history of WCW. It was so easy to book as well. Just have Sting go over clean and everyone is happy. Maybe have Hart run off some NWO interference. The action was pretty bad, but it usually was in WCW main events and that didn't seem to matter much. The non-fast count destroyed the whole thing and made everything that came after a joke. You could point to this as one of the key events in WCW's demise.

[cowboy hats]

The talk of Sting's conditioning and arms is funny because Schiavone specifically mentions Sting's arms when he's first in the ring with Hogan. Wish I took down the quote, but the point was Tony thought Sting was lookin' good.

 

The horribleness of everything about this can't be overemphasized. Hogan beats up Sting outside for a bit, hits the legdrop, taunts the crowd and then gets a clean pin. At least it was short? Not that they were going 25+, but I'll take what I can get after watching 2.5 hours of a lame ppv.

[soup23]

What a mess this is. The crowd is not near as hot as it should be even with Hogan giving one of his best entrances. I think having a backstage pre-tape of Hogan telling the NWO that he is going at it alone would have went a long way. The actual body of the match is not good but not really horrible either with Hogan willing to bump and looking good. I don't mind him on offense for much of the match as much as I did in the Bischoff/Zbysko match because of how inactive Sting has been. I agree that Sting should have trained hard and had the match of his life and this simply was not the case. The finish is where things really go downhill. Patrick's count is not slow at all and the crowd is in shock. Bret feels extremely shoe-horned in and we get the NWO B-Squad trying to interfere to save the day with Bret just standing there. Finally, Hogan submits and the celebration is good but the moment is really ruined and in a banner year, this feels like a miss in every sense of the word.

[El-P]

YOU FUCKED UP !! YOU FUCKED UP !! YOU FUCKED UP !!

 

Yeah. The action is not that bad because Hogan is working pretty hard, to show up a completely depressed looking Sting. Man, he is eating him alive or what. Godawful finish aside, WCW totally failed to produce this to make it like the biggest thing ever. Even the entrance are flat, Hogan should have come to the ring along with the Outsiders and Savage & Liz, on a gigantic Harley Davidson, with huge boas on his shoulders. And Sting should have dropped from the ceiling instead of walking like a zombi looking like "fuck, I have to actually work a match now ?". This is the point where Hogan has became poisonus to the company, and the goodwill and efficiency he showed during most of the nWo angle will now be replaced by an evil insecurity that will end up killing any chance of being productive again. The only exception would be the job to Goldberg. That being said, Sting just doesn't look like a guy who is going to be your ace at all. It would take a few months before he would get back into his groove. But still, Hogan's creative control killed this match. As far as attention to detail goes, something that had been so great during the initial part of the nWo angle, one of the first guy entering the ring to celebrate with Sting is the Renegade. Fuck. And Bret Hart in all this mess having to work the first of many Montreal referential angle. I guess he saw the writing on the wall immediately. You've got one year WCW, and once chance left. Then, you're going down. Down where ? Down there : http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/19237-wcws-highway-to-hell/

[PeteF3]

I have little else to add here--even "little moments" I noticed like the Renegade being in there have been touched on. (Though I think I saw Louie Spicoli in the celebration as well, which was weirder). The match isn't good and certainly doesn't live up to the hype, but it could have still been memorable in a Hogan-Andre sense. But there, they had a specific plan of what they wanted to do, what they wanted to get over then and for the future, and had a sense of how to build to the memorable moments. This just feels incredibly disjointed--Sting draws a huge pop for popping up from a suplex and freaking Hogan out, then Hogan immediately cuts him off anyway. Hogan hits the big boot and does his trademark of cupping his ear and stalling for time to make his opponent look even weaker before hitting the legdrop. Nick Patrick's fast count that isn't. Bret Hart suddenly teleporting to ringside, being such a big deal and monumental signing that no one even noticed him. And speaking of Sting not having the drive to be a promotion's ace, why break character and break your silence to the camera just to say *that*? It may not sound like much, but a bunch of these complaints in isolation "aren't much." Put everything together, though, and you have an underwhelming payoff to the year's climax and a bad, bad sign of things to come. If the NWO takeover on Nitro and hour loss was WCW's THE RUSSIAN'S CUT moment, the WWF is about to pick them up and give them a Balboa spinebuster between rounds.

[cactus]

Sting's presentation looks top-notch and Hogan knows how to stall in an entertaining manner. The opening face-off and Sting no-selling the suplex were also cool moments. Sadly that's all the good I can say about this. Sting gets gassed early and it becomes clear that the only thing Hogan can do by this point is stall and play to the crowd. Hogan can't work an interesting control segment to save his life. We get chants of 'Boring!'.  Hogan hits a leg drop out of nowhere and pins Sting clean. The crooked referee was meant to count fast, but we get a fair count instead. This made the following moments even dumber. The ring bell doesn't ring as Bret Hart stops the timekeeper. The match is restarted with Bret as the referee ...because reasons and Sting taps out Hogan. The WCW locker room empties out and celebrates with The Stinger, as the crowd throws garbage into the ring. This was also Bret's WCW debut. What a shit show. This started off with a lot of promise and blew up in the most spectacular way. A total car crash of a main event. ★

[Zero]

What was Patrick's explanation for the slow count? This stinks. Everybody in this looks like a goof by the end. A monumental build up brought to a screeching halt, as it only gets worse from here.