Sting vs nWo was an anomaly for being a story that went for a year and a half, remained engaging and captivating and came so close to sticking the landing. After so much build up, Sting finally met Hollywood Hulk Hogan at Starrcade 1997 and the fans were at fever pitch. It was from then that everything started to go quite wrong. In the lead up to the event, Hogan had played the cowardly heel afraid of Sting, but he overpowered and dominated Sting for large sections of the match. Hogan got the three count when he hit the Atomic Leg Drop, but Bret Hart came out citing a fast count and restarted the match. Hogan surrended to the Scorpion Death Lock and Sting was the new World Heavyweight Champion. The controversy came from the quickness of the count. Nick Patrick was supposed to count fast as he was the nWos bought referee, but he counted at a regular pace. Many speculate that Hogan either paid him in real life or intimidated him to do this, but regardless it completely screwed with the planned finish of the match. Bret Hart, who was fresh off the Montreal Screwjob was supposed to come out to make sure another screwjob didnt happen, but ended up screwing Hogan out of the title. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x74sdk_hogan-vs-sting-starrcade-1997-part_sport In the end, WCW could not ignore the mistake that had happened and had to embrace it. The WCW World Heavyweight Championship was vacated, only for Sting to regain it two months later. WCW were so close to pulling off this epic story, and through either wrestler ego or referee incompetence, they stumbled at the last hurdle.
