10 Worst WCW ‘On A Pole’ Matches
5. Sting Vs. Jake Roberts - Halloween Havoc 1992
Object atop: a coal miner's glove.
The worst thing about the dreaded Coal Miner's Glove match was its unrealised Bullseye what-you-could-have-won promise. The match between Sting and Jake Roberts was a Spin The Wheel, Make A Deal affair - the antecedent to Raw Roulette, in that the eventual stipulation was only revealed on the night via game of (supposed) chance.
The choices were thus: Texas Bull Rope; Spinner's Choice; Russian Chain; Dog Collar; I Quit; Barbed Wire; Cage; Lumberjacks With Belts; Prince Of Darkness; Texas Death; First Blood; or, as was depressingly decided, Coal Miner's Glove.
Fans wanted to play 21, but they were dealt 22. In effect, WCW dangled the carrot of crimson and lacerated flesh - and instead lumbered its audience with a match far heavier on psychology than excitement. Even that assessment is a stretch; when Sting climbed the pole at the midway point, he was some ten feet above the concrete. Roberts, the vicious heel, should have sent him crashing at that point, but gently lowered him down because he didn't want to paralyse him in real life, understandably. The pole match, even out of Vince Russo's hands, defied suspension of disbelief. Perhaps that's why he loved it so.
The finish saw Sting retrieve and strike Roberts with the glove, which in turn confused a snake into biting Roberts' face. That was the intention, anyway; the spot, like everything else, looked naff. The contrast between it and the Randy Savage cobra bite a year earlier was telling. And that cobra was fake.