8 Wrestlers Who Didn't "Earn" Their World Title Shots
8. Sting Starrcade 1997
Night of Champions isnt even the first time The Man Called Sting has found himself with a championship match that he didnt exactly earn. At the time of Starrcade 1997, Sting hadnt wrestled an official match in a year and a half. Hed been working dark matches at house shows here and there to keep the ring rust at bay, but outside of delivering the occasional baseball bat beatdown the viewers hadnt seen him in action in quite some time. By that logic, he had no business challenging Hulk Hogan for the WCW world title in what was their biggest pay-per-view of all-time, but thats exactly what he did. Wrestling is a business and there was no bigger match that had been built up longer and better than Hogan vs. the brooding, rafter-dwelling anti-hero. It wouldnt have made any sense to have Sting come back and start knocking off opponents so he could climb the ladder of contention, proving himself worthy of a title shot. No one wanted to see that. We wanted to see Hollywood eat a Scorpion Death Drop and The Stinger celebrate with the gold.
Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.
