There are matches I’d like to go into more during “Into the Vault” without it becoming an e-fed show results write-up. Sting vs. Hollywood Hogan at WCW Starrcade 1997 is one such match.
Normally, I watch the shows while also recording my thoughts on the match before doing the “Into the Vault” reviews. Let’s look at this match and see what it scored on the things that contribute to its rating—and the show as a whole’s rating.
The Build-Up of Sting vs. Hollywood Hogan
This was the best part of the storyline. For roughly a year and a half we saw a transformation in Sting. He went from the blonde surfer the Stinger, to this midway point of what I just call Nitro Sting, into “The Icon” or Crow Sting.
During that time, we have Hollywood Hogan and his nWo faction were running roughshod on WCW television and PPV. They were racking up belts, wins, and ambushes on WCW faces.
The new World order was a real problem that left many beaten and broken wrestlers in their wake. All of the Big Boys were taken down in that 1996 to 1997 window—except for Sting.
Nitro Sting had seen that there wasn’t enough unity for WCW to combat the new World order and decided to leave the company to its own devices. Sure enough, WCW was struggling.
WCW had wins here and there but with the likes of Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, Lex Luger, DDP, and at times the Giant being the strongest of WCW defenses there was no one that WCW would back. The nWo was unified but WCW had guys with their own groups or going solo.
Only one person could and did successfully solo the new World order: Sting. Yeah, Sting spanked Hogan’s crew in ambushes with a bat but he was spanking multiple guys at once—including some of the heavy hitters.
Overall, I just enjoyed the build-up to their Starrcade 1997 showdown. The anticipation was high, Sting was made into something similar to the Undertaker, he was the Soul of WCW, “The Icon,” the Biggest Boy Where the Boys Play.
There was mysticism around him without going full-on fantasy. The guy just lurked the rafters with a blunt weapon and engaged in in-house vigilantism. That’s just the laziest form of vigilantism.
Technically, Sting was being a parent and the new World order was being too loud in the house after he’d already pulled several stitches off the bush outside.
Build Verdict: Gold Medal (9/10)
Was Sting Ready for Starrcade?
So, on 83 Weeks, co-hosts Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson discusses Starrcade 1997 and a heated discussion began about the main event. Bischoff took the stance of “We needed to get to the end result” and pointed out that the ending was changed the night of Starrcade.
Bischoff said that during the build-up, he and Sting connected and he seemed enthused about the storyline. Shortly before the event, Sting reportedly became distant and on the night of the event, he just seemed out of it.
Conrad was irritated by Bischoff’s explanation. As a fan, he—like myself—watched the main event and it did not live up to the storyline. He wasn’t pleased with Sting lacking a tan and being out of sorts as a reason for the plan switch.
Sting would touch on this being a period when he had problems in his personal life and Bischoff confirmed as much without revealing anything that wasn’t his to share.
The referee in the match—Nick Patrick—talked with former WCW ring announcer David Penzer in 2017 and said that one person wanted a fast count finish as an out while the other said it was to be a normal count. He didn’t say who was who but the fast count as an out was the backup plan.
The WCW World Heavyweight Championship Match at WCW Starrcade 1997
Conrad also stayed on the point that Sting lost the belt only to regain it in February 1998. He really wanted to know what would’ve changed in the Stinger’s life in two months where he would be Starrcade-ready at Super Brawl.
He has a point: it was pretty much the same Sting in February 1998 as it was in December 1997. In the Starrcade match, we basically got a run-of-the-hill Hogan match and all Sting did was his hits in the match.
Actually, Hogan just did the hits as well. It was what you’d expect and it would’ve worked perfectly but the way this went down didn’t work. There was some brawling on the outside during the match—would’ve loved more of that—but ultimately, it played out like a Nitro main event on the company’s biggest stage.
The extra stuff involving a fast count and a restart with Bret Hart was pretty meh. See, plan B was a screwjob finish and since the screwjob was fresh on modern fans’ minds, this was something that could end up ham-fistedly done.
We all would’ve had an inkling of what was about to go down but that moment could’ve been bigger. However, we got a count that wasn’t fast at all. It was actually on the slow side and that made the false ending look awful.
Bret stops Penzer from ringing the bell on a legit pin by Hogan. There were no dirty tactics leading into the pinfall. He belts Nick Patrick who didn’t like his call being questioned, throws Hogan back in the ring, and watches as Sting finishes him off for the World Championship.
This could’ve been a match that was right in the middle if not better than mid. However, the finishing stretch was flubbed and finished off with an anticlimactic ending.
Match Verdict: Bronze Medal (3.75/10) Final Verdict: Silver Medal (6.37/10)
I’d say that the match itself wasn’t anything special but everything around the match as it played out was stellar down to how the crowd exploded when Sting won. Bischoff had achieved his mission. It wasn’t the cleanest landing but the plane was landed and there weren’t many casualties.
I didn’t expect an athletic, technical clinic, or a high-flying classic. What would’ve been nice was a heated, ugly super brawl. This was the biggest story in WCW, after all. Why not go for the war to end all wars in-ring?
We ended up with Sting hitting his surfer-era hits with some basic brawling. His year-plus of watching the new World order should’ve seen us get a different Sting who fought like the nWo to counter them.
Opportunities were missed in Sting vs. Hollywood Hogan for sure.
CHECK IT OUT: To get The Overtimer’s Hottest Stories, Breaking News and Special Features in your email, CLICK HERE!
