15 Exact Moments WCW Booking Stopped Making Sense
7. Sting Is “Fast Counted” (Except He Isn’t)
Starrcade 1997 was going to be it. That pay-per-view, WCW's biggest to date, would be the night Hollywood Hogan and his power mad nWo faction received ultimate comeuppance from a dark knight who'd stalked from the shadows but could stay silent no more. Sting had transformed into Brandon Lee's The Crow for this very moment, and it was going to be perfect.
Surely, WCW would do everything they could think of to protect the Stinger's fresh coat of paint and stick the World Title on him without any hiccups. Come on now. Behave. You know by now that wasn't going to happen. The company were always going to find new ways to scupper their own carefully-constructed booking and chip away at the heroic babyface's exterior so Hogan and the nWo could continue reigning supreme.
The story of the match called for evil New World Order ref Nick Patrick to fast count Sting following a Hulk pin, but he didn't. No, Patrick used his normal cadence, which only made Sting look like a loser when he couldn't kick out and stay in the match. Once things got restarted, he rallied to win the belt from Hogan, but the damage had already been done.
Why on earth did Eric Bischoff, Hogan and WCW as a whole think this was a grand idea? It's possible that Patrick made a mistake, but nah - his count was far too deliberate. Something was up here, and it didn't do much to make the Stinger look capable against the head of the nWo menace when push came to shove.
They had one job: Make Sting look unstoppable.