Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Match # 83: Sting vs. Hollywood Hogan (Nitro 12/29/97)

This is how goofy WCW was getting. They built this whole match up over a year and a half, had it the night before at their version of Mania (Starcade), and had Sting win on a screwed up finish (Ref Patrick didn’t fast count the Hogan pin, making Sting look stupid when Bret Hart came out to ref a continuation of the match and eventual Sting win). So they used their biggest drawing match to basically set up the next night’s Nitro main event. The rematch. Here it is.

Crowd is out of control hot for this, so it plays better watching year’s later than live when you were thinking about how bad the booking was. It’s actually really cool to watch a lot of these matches without being bogged down with the hours of programming and bad booking to kill your enthusiasm. Hogan does work pretty hard in the Nitro main events he has once every blue moon. He gets the advantage with belt shots and stays on Sting until Sting decides he’s had enough and comes back hard on Hogan. Hogan powders out but Sting follows and beats him up on the outside.

Heenan and Teney are pretty good in the announce booth. Very dramatic and serious stuff. Hogan sells a nut shot great, I’ll give him that. Hogan’s actual wrestling doesn’t do it for me, but he’s motivated as all hell here. The big boot mid match actually looks quick/strong. The eb and flow of this thing is well played, and the fans are in love with Sting. He sells a little longer, getting a few hope spots, then comes back with the Stinger Splash and… we’re outta time. That’s it. It just ends like that. It’s the 6:05 TBS finish. Bummer. That was a really good Hogan match for the six minutes shown. 3 and 6/10.