10 Great Wrestling Feuds With Awful Payoff Matches

1. Hollywood Hogan Vs. Sting

Kane Undertaker WrestleMania XIV
WWE Network

Since its formation at Bash at the Beach ’96, the New World Order decimated the entire roster of WCW for the next year or more. Whomever the nWo set their sights on, the group would either completely destroy that person or somehow convince them to join the famed back ‘n’ white.

Away from the in-ring action, one man slowly started to cast his steely gaze on what Messrs Hogan, Hall and Nash were up to. That man, of course, was the WCW’s franchise player, Sting.

Having undergone a drastic revamp, The Stinger was now a mute who sat in the rafters. In an example of just how great WCW’s storytelling was at one point, week by week audiences would see this tale play out at a methodical pace. From Sting sitting in the rafters, to Sting picking off certain wrestlers, to Sting’s eventual match with Hollywood Hogan at Starrcade ’97.

This was it, this was the big one, this was finally the time that Hogan and the nWo got their just desserts for all of the carnage they’d caused throughout WCW. And technically, yes, it was. Sting did indeed step up and defeat Hogan for the WCW Championship on that night, but the match was utter garbage.

Quite frankly, this hotly anticipated battle between two behemoths was awful. Despite Sting being the avenging babyface, Hogan dominated the entire match bar the final sequence - the eventual payoff to this being Sting's victory looking like an undeserving fluke.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.