Welcome to the pinnacle of World Championship Wrestling. In December of 1997, WCW was flying high. It was unquestionably the world's number one wrestling promotion and it had the hottest angle that wrestling had seen in years, the New World Order. Hulk Hogan was at the helm of this heel stable and was hated by almost the entire wrestling fan population. Sting, on the other hand, had become WCW's biggest babyface without wrestling a match in a year. WCW wrestlers had turned their backs on Sting by believing he had joined the New World Order when, in fact, it was an imposter Sting that the nWo had hired. In response, Sting retreated into the rafters of the arenas. No longer dressed in his multi-colored outfits, Sting would adopt a Crow-like persona that never spoke and only appeared in the shadows. Soon, Sting emerged from his nest to confront the New World Order and set the wrestling world on fire when he pointed his baseball bat at Hulk Hogan and the WCW World title. A match was set for Starrcade 1997, unquestionably the biggest show that WCW had ever put on. The buyrate for the event was a mind-boggling 1.9, which equates to approximately 2 million buyers of the show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CKeFvwA4zU The match itself was both the high point of WCW and the start of its decline. In the match, Hogan was supposed to have paid off referee Nick Patrick, causing Patrick to administer a quick count when Sting was covered after Hogan's legdrop. Unfortunately, according to urban legend, Hogan got into Patrick's ear and convinced him to count at his normal pace, causing Sting to look like he lost 100% clean in the middle of the ring with no shenanigans. Bret Hart then made his debut and restarted the match, allowing Sting to win the title by submission with his Scorpion Death Lock. The botched finish was a sign of WCW's imminent decline a few years later but, for one night, WCW was the king of the mountain.
