The Evolution of Sting in WCW, 1996 - 1998

[KNUBB]

I love this thread. Sting is by far my favorite wrestler of all time. Back when I watched wrestling

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

These stories are getting massive hits on VOW, which i'm going to use as evidence to put Sting over the top for the WON HOF.

 

[s@ppisgod]

These stories are getting massive hits on VOW, which i'm going to use as evidence to put Sting over the top for the WON HOF.

In your face, Lanza!

 

[KNUBB]

I WANT MOAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[EmpireWF]

<B>April 7, 1997
Nitro</b>

*Night after Spring Stampede which had nWo infighting and stuff like that.

1:35:00 of this video has Sting rappelling down to the ring to save DDP from the nWo. Sting points his bat at Hogan again and they go off the air.

<B>April 14, 1997
Nitro</b>

Luger vs. Nash main events and of course, ends in 4 minutes due to interference.

nWo beat on DDP, Luger and the Giant….then STING is here to save the day with a bunch of bats for his buddies. nWo high tails it outta there and the show goes off the air.


<B>May 5, 1997
Niro</b>

Early in the show, Hogan and Bischoff call out Sting but he doesn't show up (this is after two weeks go by without an appearance).

The main event never starts as the nWo arrives. DDP gets beat up, Giant, Harlem Heat & Piper's group too. Flair goes after Syxx while Hogan and Eric commandeer the announce table and poke fun at Sting who doesn't show up for the 3rd straight week.


<B>May 12, 1997
Nitro</b>

Bischoff is apparently going to interview Sting on this show. Sure.

In the main event, Bischoff brings out Fake Sting and they do some more jokes at the real one's expense.

Finally, STING shows up and scorpion death drop's the phony Jeff Farmer…Bischoff leaps out of the ring and bolts to close the show.

<B>May 19, 1997
Nitro</b>

Bischoff says Sting will NEVER wrestle Hogan, blah blah blah, . (48:00 of the video)

Sting cuts through the ring from the floor and scorpion death drops Bischoff. FTW!

<B>May 26, 1997 (One year anniversary of Scott Hall's debut)
Nitro</b>

Hogan and Bischoff call out Sting, a Fake Sting comes up from under the ring to act like a fool. Real Sting rappels from the ceiling and drops Bischoff. The imitator is begging. Sting trips Hogan over the fake one who is revealed as Buff Bagwell.

Hogan escapes and the nWo plans to get them some of Sting.

Except….Sting reattaches his cord and returns to the ceiling (1:32:44 of the video)

 

[EmpireWF]

<B>June 9, 1997
Nitro</b>

A big brawl, Hogan attacks DDP and knocks him out with the WCW/nWo Championship. In the middle of the chaos, Sting rappels, takes DDP and ascends to the heavens. (1:33:42)

<B>June 23, 1997
Nitro</b>

DDP vs. Scott Hall main event ends in minutes due to interference from Savage. The nWo beats up DDP (again) until Sting comes out of the crowd and scares them away.


(video was taken down by WWE)


<B>June 30, 1997
Nitro</b>

nWo is beating down DDP (again). A Fake Sting is in the crowd, but REAL STING rappels from the ceiling and Hogan dances backwards. Sting saves DDP (again).

*In unrelated happenings, Raven and Curt Henning both debut.

<B>July 14, 1997
Nitro</b>

The nWo surrounds the ring with Luger in it….Sting walks out and backs his boy up to end the show.

<B>August 4, 1997
Nitro</b>

*Lex Luger beats Hogan to win the WCW Championship….he'd lose it days later, back to Hogan, at the Road Wild PPV.

Earlier in the night, JJ Dillon attempted to get Sting to sign a WCW contract (what?). Sting showed up but Dillon offered him a match with Curt Hennig and Sting was not interested.


<B>August 11, 1997
Nitro</b>

Dillon is back and wants Sting to sign a WCW contract so he can wrestle the nWo in a sanctioned match. Sting rappels down after Schiavone says last week's Sting was not the real one.

Dillon says the contract is for a match with Syxx….Sting tears up the paper. Mene Gene asks who does he want and the crowd chants HOGAN! Sweet.

(no video)


<B>August 18, 1997
Nitro</b>

Dillon tries again, wanting Sting to say who he wants. The douchebag doesn't hear the crowd. Anyway, Sting shows up and points to the crowd (they're chanting and they have their signs).

Finally, Sting retrieves a sign from a fan that says Hulk vs. Sting.

<B>August 25, 1997
Nitro</b>

Finally, Dillon says Sting will wrestle Hogan. But, Bischoff is not happy and whines saying it will never happen.

Sting shows up and puts a Hollywood Hogan shirt down Bischoff's throat. Never saying a word…but he does SMILE!

 

[s@ppisgod]

Everything about this angle was money. He'd show up on Nitro and smile or point to a sign or repel from the ceiling, and it was all equally crazy over.

 

[EmpireWF]

<B>September 1, 1997
Nitro</b>

Sting's not in town so Hogan attacks JJ Dillon instead.

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<B>September 8, 1997
Nitro</b>

Sting's not there again, but this week, the nWo makes fun of him with a mannequin (8 months before Owen's accident…stupid in hindsight)

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<B>September 29, 1997
Nitro</b>

Sting returns as the nWo attacks a group of WCW guys, clearing the ring of nWo guys. Nobody touches Sting.

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<B>October 13, 1997
Nitro</b>

The famous Sting Army. Watch it for yourself.

---------------------------------

<B>October 20, 1997
Nitro</b>

No video but DDP and Piper dressed as sting attack Savage and Hogan. Then the real Sting rappels down and attacks the nWo to close the show.

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<B>October 27, 1997
Nitro</b>

Hogan and DDP ends prematurely and there's a big brawl with DDP getting his ass kicked to no surprise. Sting comes out of the crowd and cleans house again.

*Guess I should note that the nWo had been doing several tricks where fake Stings would pop up and cost WCW guys matches here and there. I didn't include it because fuck that….it was stupid then and it's stupid now.

 

[EmpireWF]

<B>November 3, 1997
Nitro</b>

The Hogan/Sting press conference for Starrcade

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<B>November 10, 1997
Nitro</b>

*The night after Montreal…..

This one's worth a note because Sting gets stopped FOR THE FIRST TIME by the nWo here. Problem was….Sting acts like he was shot when all it was….was a single punch to the back by Hogan.

nWo beats Sting up as the show ends.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1h7cd_nwo-beats-down-sting-for-the-first_sport#.Ub5r1vaY4dI

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<B>November 24, 1997
Nitro</b>

Another stupid gimmick with the nWo attacking a Sting dummy.

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<B>December 8, 1997
Nitro</b>

With Sting nowhere in sight for about 3 weeks now, funny shit happens. Such as the lights going out and when they come back on, Savage is out cold in the ring with a sting mask on his face.

At 9:23 of this video, you'll see the clip. They do the Sting dummy gimmick again as it crashes from the rafter. But when Hogan goes to take the mask off…..it's the real Sting and Hogan pisses his pants. Sting lays out the rest of the nWo.

--------------------------------

<B>December 15, 1997
Nitro</b>

No video but Sting plays more mind games, going around the arena when the lights go out. Show goes off the air as Sting walks to the ring for Hogan.

----------------------------

<B>December 22, 1997
Nitro</b>

The go home show for Starrcade. Bret Hart shows up and the controversy is whether he's nWo or not.

Hogan receives a gift and it's a fake head of his. Hogan's acting is shit. Sting meanwhile shows up on top of the entrance and zip lines to the ring, somewhat slowly, as the show ends.

That's the last image before Starrcade.

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<B>December 28, 1997
Starrcade</b>

<i>650,000 PPV buys
17,500 attendance
$543,000 live gate</i>

It's funny. WCW would reach strong heights in 1998 due strictly to Goldberg. But, this was something WCW had never done before with the way they built up the match. As you can tell from everything leading up to this, a lot was repetitive. Some was corny.

Nevertheless, this was the most profitable PPV in WCW's history.

I can vividly recall my father being so interested in Sting vs. Hogan that we ordered the PPV that night. My brother and I were only casual viewers of Nitro at the time (and before this the only WCW PPV we got was Hog Wild 1997….again b/c of our dad), full fledged WWF fans. But this fever caught our household.


Now the match has been dissected ever since that night. Sting evidently was not in top notch ring shape (was it a case of just ring rust having not wrestled in a year? The Rock's return last year had some rust but he did a pretty damn good job all things considered…) and the psychology of the match was out of whack.

After all the build, the majority of the match was spent with Hogan getting heat on Sting. Not Sting whooping his ass. Then, they do the shitty overbooked finish, which if executed properly MAYBE would have been okay. It was not. Nick Patrick, a great ref, happens to fuck up by counting at normal speed. This makes Bret Hart's involvement look ridiculous since he's supposed to be evening the playing field for Sting. So, for no good reason, the match restarts and only then does Sting get to pin Hogan and the big celebration happens.

 

[s@ppisgod]

Good series, Empire. Very in-depth about a very, very well-built feud. Bischoff screwed up by having Hart involved in the first place, and forcing a stupid finish that nobody cared about. Aside from making a shit-show out of the finish, it detracted from the feud and made Hart look 2nd-rate. Funny, they were trying to capitalize on Hart's white-hot name at the time, but they ended up taking away both his AND Sting's momentum in one main event. He also used up Hogan's clean losses for the year with Piper and Luger. I don't for one second believe that Hogan didn't have any influence on Patrick, and I think that has to do with him being protective of his spot (and just generally a bitch), which sprouted from two very short-sighted losses.

I'm not entirely sure, but did you not cover the Clash of the Champions video? I don't remember seeing it, but I could be wrong. Epic all around.

And I wouldn't say that 98 was only because of Goldberg. Goldberg was a huge driving force, but that was the year that DDP took off and became a legit main eventer. The Wolfpac was very, very over, and that gets forgotten. You also had a good in-ring product with Jericho and Juvy having a very good feud, the great Benoit/Booker best-of-7 series, etc.

 

[EmpireWF]

I should add (didn't include it above b/c only saw it in an old flashback PW Torch post recently) that Hogan was apparently playing games at this time because some thought he was leaving for WWF.

Haven't been able to find out more, if there was legit concern at the time or just him using New York to get more power, money or whatever out of Turner.

Plus, it puts the Starrcade finish into a new light.

 

[EmpireWF]

<B>December 29, 1997
Nitro</b>

They do a rematch of the title fight after Hogan bitches about Bret Hart costing him the belt. So, Sting defends the gold.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxk586_sting-vs-hollywood-hogan_sport#.Ub_abfaY4dI

But, the match does not conclude on this episode. Yep. The biggest rematch in company history is given away less than 24 hours later and does not even have a finish because…………….

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<B>January 5, 1998
Nitro</b>

The reason is they want to promote the debut episode of WCW THUNDER (January 8, 1998 on TBS). So, on the first Nitro of the new year, the story is that Sting is the champion and the footage of the rematch is in the possession of a judge after the episode went off the air due to time constraints. It would be made available on the Thunder premiere days later.

FWIW, the nWo is conflicted with infighting at the end of the show and Luger & Sting stand tall in the ring. (yeah, they do nothing significant with Bret Hart…..)

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<B>January 8, 1998
Thunder (PREMIERE)</b>

Oh…my….god. These people have no clue what they're doing. The nicest thing you could say is the money was in Sting chasing the gold and nWo, so they didn't want him to have a long run as champion. The worst is that backstage politics fucked everything up and with tons of hands in the cookie jar, it was too easy.


[[[[[ Nothing to do with Sting but woah….a match between Ric Flair and Chris Jericho is in this video ---

]]]]]]]]]]]]]

Ref Randy Anderson gets knocked out of it and Sting gets Hogan to submit but then Nick Patrick comes out and Hogan ends up getting the 3 count on Sting. Then Anderson gets up and Sting once again gets Hogan to submit and Randy calls it. Match over, right? Nope.

They end up stripping Sting of the championship. Unbelievable.

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<B>Skipping to Superbrawl 8 (February 22, 1998)</b>

Sting beats Hogan to win the WCW championship again.

BUT, he loses it two months later at Spring Stampede (April 19) to Macho Man. Of course, the gold goes right back to Hogan the next night when Bret Hart turns heel and helps him.

The one positive was this allowed Goldberg to have his famous title win over Hogan at the Georgia Dome on Nitro. Yep, the big match was thrown away for free.

Do you really want to know when the next time the WCW title was defended on PPV? You must go ALL THE WAY to October (Halloween Havoc) when Goldberg defended it by beating DDP.

And yes, you know this tale already….Goldberg, the undefeated phenomenon which WCW stumbled upon was beaten at Starrcade in December by booker Kevin Nash. What happened the following week on Nitro? Why, Hulk Hogan got the belt right back with the infamous finger poke of doom.

Holy shit at this. Mind you, during all of this nonsense, WWF was the top promotion in the country (RAW won the ratings war in April for the first time in some crazy # of weeks).

To sum it all up:

The number of days Sting held the WCW championship between Starrcade 97 and the end of 1998? 67

The number of days Hulk Hogan held the WCW championship in 1998? 77