Hogan/Sting Starrcade reaction at the time?

[THE FVNKER]

In the “Same Angle…” thread on this board a fellow member had posted this:

Apr 29, 2024 8:48:59 GMT -5 James Fabiano said:

Apr 29, 2024 0:41:06 GMT -5 Rave said:

I remember them doing Montreal with Hebner several times, and all of them were bad.

Since he was obviously involved in the original, any time Bret did a Montreal offshoot (Starrcades '97 and '99)?

Which led me to wonder..

I was 6 at the time this actually happened, so the only reception I’m familiar with of the Hogan/Sting finish is that it was panned/terrible, the usual fare you hear every time it’s brought up on the internet.

What I’m wondering is, how was the finish received at the time? Curious to hear if anyone was watching it live, or has any memories of it. The bigger question then is, if it was panned and such a let down finish.. what in the world happened that they decided that yet another screwjob finish at the SAME PPV just two years later seemed like a good idea?

[Lizuka #BLM]

Apr 30, 2024 5:15:49 GMT -5 THE FVNKER said:

what in the world happened that they decided that yet another screwjob finish at the SAME PPV just two years later seemed like a good idea?

It was WCW, they were at no point ever in the business of making sense.

[CeilingFan]

I felt disillusioned when I saw the PPV. The Giant didn't squash Kevin Nash because Nash didn't show up, and there was no epic battle between Hogan and Sting.

The rest of the PPV was good.

[tirtefaa]

It was fine.

Ideally, not a smart move, but considering WCW was white hot at the time...it was at least forgiveable.

Where you start to see the cracks is when Savage is used as a liaison to get the belt back on Hogan a few months later, the war with WCW becomes the war between two factions of the nWo. Sting is relegated to soldier in the Wolfpac along with Lex, while Giant nonsensically is aligned with nWo Black and White...meaning DDP is the only person still representing WCW. And while it was a major departure, it was still recoverable. Obviously the company was going to use Goldberg to finally give WCW the big win over the nWo.

When it's clear that it's over is the Fingerpoke of Doom. Goldberg losing is one thing...but to yet again put the belt back on Hogan and reunite the nWo...that was stupid. Absolutely stupid. We'd been through this enough and it was tiring. I think a lot of people gave up around this time because it was clear WCW was just going to keep doing the same thing over and over and over.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Apr 30, 2024 5:15:49 GMT -5 THE FVNKER said:

In the “Same Angle…” thread on this board a fellow member had posted this:

Apr 29, 2024 8:48:59 GMT -5 James Fabiano said:

Since he was obviously involved in the original, any time Bret did a Montreal offshoot (Starrcades '97 and '99)?

Which led me to wonder..

I was 6 at the time this actually happened, so the only reception I’m familiar with of the Hogan/Sting finish is that it was panned/terrible, the usual fare you hear every time it’s brought up on the internet.

What I’m wondering is, how was the finish received at the time? Curious to hear if anyone was watching it live, or has any memories of it. The bigger question then is, if it was panned and such a let down finish.. what in the world happened that they decided that yet another screwjob finish at the SAME PPV just two years later seemed like a good idea?

To answer the bottom question - the original Screwjob made WWF hot again, more or less, and their replay of it in 1998 helped make the Rock a certified main eventer. So repeating it was not *that* stupid an idea, on paper. It's the execution, though...

[tirtefaa]

Apr 30, 2024 7:50:36 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

To answer the bottom question - the original Screwjob made WWF hot again, more or less, and their replay of it in 1998 helped make the Rock a certified main eventer. So repeating it was not *that* stupid an idea, on paper. It's the execution, though...

The Montreal Screwjob didn't make WWF hot again. There was some uptick after the event, but you don't see a huge bump until after Austin becomes champion at WrestleMania. The Screwjob did help push Vince (reluctantly) to become a heel, which is why I'm guessing they've gone back to it time after time after time after time.

[tafkaga]

It was confusing. The count didn't look fast. It kinda looked like, after more than a year of build, that Sting got his ass kicked and only won the belt thanks to shenanigans, which I can't believe is what anyone (other than maybe Hogan?) was hoping the end result to be.

I've heard stories that there was so much confusion on the night of Starrcade around what they even wanted the finish to look like, and Patrick actually went out there not knowing exactly what he was supposed to do.

[Lizuka #BLM]

Apr 30, 2024 7:05:12 GMT -5 tirtefaa said:

It was fine.

Ideally, not a smart move, but considering WCW was white hot at the time...it was at least forgiveable.

Where you start to see the cracks is when Savage is used as a liaison to get the belt back on Hogan a few months later, the war with WCW becomes the war between two factions of the nWo. Sting is relegated to soldier in the Wolfpac along with Lex, while Giant nonsensically is aligned with nWo Black and White...meaning DDP is the only person still representing WCW. And while it was a major departure, it was still recoverable. Obviously the company was going to use Goldberg to finally give WCW the big win over the nWo.

When it's clear that it's over is the Fingerpoke of Doom. Goldberg losing is one thing...but to yet again put the belt back on Hogan and reunite the nWo...that was stupid. Absolutely stupid. We'd been through this enough and it was tiring. I think a lot of people gave up around this time because it was clear WCW was just going to keep doing the same thing over and over and over.

What's funny is that that doesn't really seem to have had any real impact on the ratings; the show went up that week and stayed up the next few. It was the March 1st show where the ratings collapsed then never recovered.

[tirtefaa]

Apr 30, 2024 8:07:51 GMT -5 tafkaga said:

I've heard stories that there was so much confusion on the night of Starrcade around what they even wanted the finish to look like, and Patrick actually went out there not knowing exactly what he was supposed to do.

Patrick has gone on record saying he was approached by three people that night. Sting told him to count nice and fast. Hogan told him to count nice and slow. And Bischoff told him to count normally. Patrick counted normally since Bischoff signed his paychecks.

[tirtefaa]

Apr 30, 2024 8:15:47 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

What's funny is that that doesn't really seem to have had any real impact on the ratings; the show went up that week and stayed up the next few. It was the March 1st show where the ratings collapsed then never recovered.

The unfortunate thing about a wrestling fan is that they give too much hope to the company they support, and many times the company takes advantage of this by refusing to change or not doing the thing that will make the fans happy.

While I'm not a fan of Goldberg, deciding to completely screw him out of the title picture and refuse to change course after almost 3 years of the same thing, fans eventually gave up hope when they tuned in and it became clear that it didn't matter.

Fortunately in 1999, there was WWF to get your fix if you wanted. Unfortunately 10 years later when WWE is pulling the same "we'll do what we want" nonsense, there wasn't a company (TNA doesn't count at that point) that you could rely on as an alternative.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Apr 30, 2024 8:07:42 GMT -5 tirtefaa said:

Apr 30, 2024 7:50:36 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

To answer the bottom question - the original Screwjob made WWF hot again, more or less, and their replay of it in 1998 helped make the Rock a certified main eventer. So repeating it was not *that* stupid an idea, on paper. It's the execution, though...

The Montreal Screwjob didn't make WWF hot again. There was some uptick after the event, but you don't see a huge bump until after Austin becomes champion at WrestleMania. The Screwjob did help push Vince (reluctantly) to become a heel, which is why I'm guessing they've gone back to it time after time after time after time.

I was being reductionist to make a point - the Screwjob laid the groundwork for their later boom

[James Fabiano]

Does Solomonster still do RSPW Rewind videos? I'd love to see this.

[chronocross]

I was at a friend's house who had a Starrcade 97 party watchalong, and it didn't bother me at the time because Sting won the title that night.

What bothered me more was they did the Sting/Hogan rematch the next night on Nitro going off the air without showing the finish.

Then they announced on Thunder a week later that the title was being held up, that annoyed me more honestly.

[tirtefaa]

Apr 30, 2024 9:00:28 GMT -5 chronocross said:

Nitro going off the air without showing the finish

So your standard Nitro ending?

That became a joke with my friends at the time. We'd look at the clock and see there was maybe 5 minutes left of the show. What a total waste of Michael Buffer to make some match feel special, only for the nWo to run in and become an all out brawl, with no resolution at all.

[chronocross]

Apr 30, 2024 9:17:07 GMT -5 tirtefaa said:

Apr 30, 2024 9:00:28 GMT -5 chronocross said:

Nitro going off the air without showing the finish

So your standard Nitro ending?

That became a joke with my friends at the time. We'd look at the clock and see there was maybe 5 minutes left of the show. What a total waste of Michael Buffer to make some match feel special, only for the nWo to run in and become an all out brawl, with no resolution at all.

Pretty much but they had never ended a show in the middle of a match like they did with Sting/Hogan.

They treated like it was this rare occurrence and then they showed it was just the standard post match brawl.

[salz4life]

I remember being excited Sting won.... but at the same time was like WTF was that ending and obviously linking it to Survivor Series the month before. I was 19 at the time.

[Jindrak Mark]

groups.google.com/g/rec.sport.pro-wrestling/c/e7jqm5V0cKA/m/XTmk579WFmsJ

Here's a taste. Search Starrcade 1997 then scroll back to the oldest results for more discussions.

Every few years I remember these groups are still online and enjoy seeing what the early IWC looked like. Some funny comments to read decades later.

And speaking of not jobbing, WHERE WAS KEVIN NASH? They
> advertise
> this match for months, and then Nash simply no-shows and we get Scott
> Hall
> getting beat up instead. Big f***ing deal. Let me guess -- he lost
> his
> smile? Lost his contacts? Was busy watching "Titanic" with Shawn and
>
> Hunter? What a prick. Fire him already. And people say Shawn is
> unprofessional..

Everything about this is glorious. A timely Titanic reference in 1997. Nash being lazy/unprofessional which I think was an IWC staple for years. And with HHH/HBK being referenced I bet this person's head would explode if you told them that almost 30 years later they'd basically be running wrestling but as executives.

Interestingly a lot of the other ones seem to be more about the PPV sucking in general rather than specifically focusing on Hogan/Sting. Over the years it's become the opposite. The PPV as a whole is almost forgotten and the Hogan/Sting debacle is all that's really talked about.

[tirtefaa]

Apr 30, 2024 9:48:24 GMT -5 Jindrak Mark said:

groups.google.com/g/rec.sport.pro-wrestling/c/e7jqm5V0cKA/m/XTmk579WFmsJ

Here's a taste. Search Starrcade 1997 then scroll back to the oldest results for more discussions.

Every few years I remember these groups are still online and enjoy seeing what the early IWC looked like. Some funny comments to read decades later.

And speaking of not jobbing, WHERE WAS KEVIN NASH? They
> advertise
> this match for months, and then Nash simply no-shows and we get Scott
> Hall
> getting beat up instead. Big f***ing deal. Let me guess -- he lost
> his
> smile? Lost his contacts? Was busy watching "Titanic" with Shawn and
>
> Hunter? What a prick. Fire him already. And people say Shawn is
> unprofessional..

Everything about this is glorious. A timely Titanic reference in 1997. Nash being lazy/unprofessional which I think was an IWC staple for years. And with HHH/HBK being referenced I bet this person's head would explode if you told them that almost 30 years later they'd basically be running wrestling but as executives.

Interestingly a lot of the other ones seem to be more about the PPV sucking in general rather than specifically focusing on Hogan/Sting. Over the years it's become the opposite. The PPV as a whole is almost forgotten and the Hogan/Sting debacle is all that's really talked about.

I mean, yeah....at the time Nash not being there was like....what? I mean, this was around the time when he was being treated like some unstable guy who would use the jackknife after breaking Giant's neck, and he'd get arrested. It made no sense.

I do like the idea of Nash and Shawn sitting closely watching Titanic though.



"Hey Kev, I want you to draw me like one of your Atlanta boys..."

[Ultimo Gallos]

Apr 30, 2024 5:15:49 GMT -5 THE FVNKER said:

In the “Same Angle…” thread on this board a fellow member had posted this:

Apr 29, 2024 8:48:59 GMT -5 James Fabiano said:

Since he was obviously involved in the original, any time Bret did a Montreal offshoot (Starrcades '97 and '99)?

Which led me to wonder..

I was 6 at the time this actually happened, so the only reception I’m familiar with of the Hogan/Sting finish is that it was panned/terrible, the usual fare you hear every time it’s brought up on the internet.

What I’m wondering is, how was the finish received at the time? Curious to hear if anyone was watching it live, or has any memories of it. The bigger question then is, if it was panned and such a let down finish.. what in the world happened that they decided that yet another screwjob finish at the SAME PPV just two years later seemed like a good idea?

Now I was 23ish by then. But a group of 20 to 40 of us would gather every Monday watch 1 hour of nitro,watch all of raw then catch the rest of Nitro on the replay. Buddy had a PPV box ,one of those you find at the swapmeet,so got every ppv.

Had to be 40 or more crammed in his tiny apartment watching Starrcade 97. Then that crap main event happened. And over the next few weeks we stopped watching Nitro,still would watch the WCW PPVs. But that was about it.

Pretty much killed most of ours fandom of WCW.

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

I remember the match sucked so bad that one of my friends I was watching it with swore a fake Sting was wrestling and the real Sting would come out before the end to toss out the imposter and beat Hogan for the title.