Pro wrestling is about telling a story with a huge payoff for the fans. The story of good vs evil in wrestling more often than not ends with the good guy winning fair and square.

This struggle gets the fans excited with the outcome being predictable yet satisfying. But sometimes even this simplest of bookings can be messed up. This was the case with WCW’s big angle involving nWo Hulk Hogan and Sting.

For around a year, WCW built Sting as its savior from Hulk Hogan and his nWo faction. But when the time for payoff came at Starrcade pay-per-view in 1997, the finish was botched. The underwhelming finish left the fans confused.

Recently, in an interview, the icon Sting touched upon the angle and his match with Hogan and shared his insights on what went down.

Sting said he and Hulk Hogan didn’t deliver

Hulk Hogan ran roughshod as a heel with nWo in WCW from 1996. For almost a year, nWo was built as an unstoppable force with the villainous Hogan at the helm. At the same time, the company started presenting Sting as its sole challenger.

Steve Borden donned the all-black attire with white face paint. He played a brooding character who would terrorize Hogan without even saying a word. The fans would go crazy every time he appeared and took out the nWo all on his own.

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Finally, after a year of teasing and build-up, Hogan was going to defend his WCW World title against Sting at Starrcade 1997. This was a match for the ages.

This was the ultimate good guy vs bad guy story. Sting standing up for his company against the evil Hogan. Sting had to win and win clean for all this to make sense. However, in a strange turn of events, WCW botched the situation.

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Referee Nick Patrick who was aligned with nWo was supposed to do a fast count when Hogan covered Sting. But Patrick ended up doing a normal count, making it look like Hogan defeated Sting clean.

Then afterward Bret Hart came out and ordered a restart which saw Sting submit Hogan to win. By this time, the fans were confused as to why the restart had taken place.

Speaking on the infamous match on The K&C masterpiece Sting said that the storyline was really well done but the match failed to deliver. He also took the blame on himself and Hogan for the match being underwhelming.

He said, “To be honest, I think it was a package deal. We had a great buildup for a good solid year, storyline-wise, and the truth of the matter is, we did not follow the buildup. Hogan and I did not deliver in that match.”

Although Sting is brave to shoulder blame for the match underperforming, it is the booking of that time that is to be blamed. Moreover, after the match ended, WCW vacated the title the next night on Nitro, rendering the whole finish at Starrcade meaningless.

This type of booking characterized WCW’s final days as WWE overtook them in the race to be the number one wrestling promotion.

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