WCW has a lot of great history to look back on, but it's not a stretch of the imagination to say that this match is, arguably, the biggest one they've ever had. It was certainly one of the most anticipated, being Sting's first WCW match in 15 months (two "matches" against Rick Steiner to close out 1996 were nothing more than segments that ended in No Contests right away), after all of the build turning him into "The Crow" version of his persona. You could never say that this was Sting's best match, but none of his matches had this much buzz surrounding them. Not any of his World Title victories, pay-per-view main events, War Games appearances, or anything else he's ever done. It might only be topped by a possible WrestleMania match with The Undertaker, but even then, there's a pretty decently sized portion of wrestling fans who don't want to see that match at all. This match with Hogan was looked forward to and talked-about by everyone, whether you were a WCW or WWF fan. In hindsight, you'd probably want the match to have gone differently. Sting won, but it took a "screwjob" ending by Bret Hart, who was a Special Guest Referee in a match between Eric Bischoff and Larry Zbyszko earlier in the night (thanks to the WWF's No Compete clause not allowing him to have a match yet), to make it happen. Hogan actually dominated a large portion of the match, but Bret apparently had all encompassing power that night, because he overturned the match ending (Referee Nick Patrick's three-count, calling it fast), then restarted the match and made himself the new ref. After that, Sting got the submission victory and became the new WCW Champion. Sure, the title was vacated a week later because of the finish (only for Sting to defeat Hogan again for the title a month later, giving him an extra reign for no reason), but this match still went down the way it did... and now people are seeing more of why WCW is no longer around. Maybe you could just ignore all of that and wrestle the match in the game without all of the screwiness.
Columnist/Podcaster/Director at LordsOfPain.net for nearly seven years, with nearly 2000 total columns written. Interviewed and/or involved in interviewing the likes of Tyler Black/Seth Rollins (twice), Diamond Dallas Page, Jimmy Jacobs, Christopher Daniels, Uhaa Nation and more.
