jakecronus8 wrote:The rumor about Hogan/Sting botch was that Hogan paid the ref to do a standard count and not a quick count like he was supposed to. Sounds funny and absurd but it’s C*nt Hogan so I believe it
That's gotta be one of the craziest things I've ever read. So Hogan paid off Bret Hart??? And he didn't lose
by being pinned he lost by submission clean to the Scorpion Death Lock after tapping out and Bret Hart calling for the
bell. As for the stuff with Nick Patrick I was always under the impression that for storyline reasons the nWo had
been screwing over WCW guys for over a year and now it was WCWs turn to screw Hogan/nWo over and Bret was
supposed to be about "justice" because he had just been screwed by Vince in WWE and wouldn't let it happen
in WCW. Thunder was debuting a week later and Bischoffs mantra is "Controversy creates cash" so they went with
a Dusty finish.
It was a unique situation you have the Montreal Screw Job like 3-4 weeks before this or whatever it was. Most of
WCWs top feuds and matches were already set in motion for Starrcade. It's like Kenny Omega leaving AEW and
joining WWE a month before Wrestlemania with everything already set in stone. You have to figure out how to
incorporate him somehow and make him feel important and like a big deal. They were most likely trying to
capitalize off the Screw Job in Montreal which also had a controversial finish that's what they were going for.
Bret was supposed to be sick of the BS and wanted to make sure it didn't happen anymore with the nWo so
he took justice into his own hands and prevented Penzer from ringing the bell.
Sting reported to that match a mess as he had not been working out or had even been tanning which most white guys
were required to do for TV back then. Sting was going through major problems at home with his family and around this
time is where he "found god" like HBK. Actually there is a youtube video of Sting and HBK from the late 90's talking about
how religion saved them and their careers.
As for the finish the babyface won in the end with the heel tapping/quitting in the middle of the ring and the new
acquisition was involved in the main event of the biggest PPV of the year. Also it set up a rematch at Super Brawl a
couple of months later so you get a little extra juice from all the hard work you spent building up that match.
Throwing in Bret Hart into the storyline at the last minute put a whole new wrinkle into it and kind of prolonged
the storyline instead of giving it that one big payoff. Instead of having one big PPV with a big buyrate now the viewer
has the incentive to wanna watch the rematch at Super Brawl while also turning into the new show Thunder.
It made a lot of sense with what they did under the circumstances it's just the match itself was a major dud and
the use of Bret Hart after was just horrendous. Sting has taken blame but $hit happens he's a great guy that everybody
respects and there was never any animosity towards him about it. After Starrcade they had the seeds planted for
Hogan vs. Bret and also Sting vs. Bret and just completely botched it. Also the rapid rise of Goldberg at this time may
have messed with their long term booking plans but they completely screwed it up. One of my biggest problems with
WCW was the constant never ending finishes that almost always resulted in run-ins ending in a DQ nobody wanted
to lose clean in that company and Bischoff was more interested in being one of the boys then being the boss.
That match/PPV was the highest buyrate in WCW history they just started to fumble the ball and start panicking
with hot shot booking with WWE bringing in Tyson shortly after this and gaining major momentum with the
Attitude Era kicking into high gear.
