10 Wrestling Matches Ruined By One Botch

2. Hulk Hogan Vs. Sting - WCW Starrcade 1997

Regal Kidman SSP Botch
WWE Network

WCW, what a mess you were. Despite incredible popularity and bucketloads of momentum, the long-defunct promotion still managed to stay on top of reinventing the term 'f*ck up'. No episode of Monday Nitro or monthly pay-per-view seemed to pass without one major botch or another.

They don't come much bigger than a botched finish in what should have been the biggest match in company history. If the finish to Sting vs. Hulk Hogan at WWE Starrcade '97 had gone as planned, who knows what the current wrestling landscape might look like? Sure, WCW would have surely put itself out of business eventually, but what would WWE look like?

We all know what should have happened, and we all know what happened. Hulk Hogan should have been awarded the victory thanks to a fast count by dastardly nWo referee Nick Patrick, only for Bret Hart to mark his debut by restarting the match, allowing Sting to win via submission. The so-billed 'Match of the Century' should have ended with Sting as WCW World Heavyweight Champion and the nWo done for.

Alas, Nick Patrick "forgot" to count slow, and the whole thing fell apart in trademark WCW style: because Hulk Hogan was an egomaniac.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.