In the previous edition of From The Desk of..., I talked about the simplicity of pro wrestling. Gone are the days it seems of logical, straight forward booking ideas. Now we get convoluted finishes, swerves at every turn, and by the end of it, your brain hurts and your switching the station. At the end of the last edition, I said that I would talk about some of my favourite feuds, many of which seem to go along with famous Memphis booker Jerry Jarrett's philosophy - Keep It Simple, Stupid.
I spoke in that column about the classic sibling rivalry between Bret and Owen Hart, and the tremendous episodic booking of Austin vs. McMahon, the disgruntled employee up against the over-bearing boss. I also promised I'd delve into some other pretty simple story-lines I've enjoyed, that also drew big money. For a number of years, Sting was the franchise of WCW. Sporting bleached blonde hair, colourful face paint and ring attire, and plenty of charisma, Sting wowed many a WCW audience, holding numerous titles and most famously feuding with the legendary Ric Flair over the World Heavyweight title. When Scott Hall and Kevin Nash first made their presence felt in WCW, Sting was the first to stand up to them, and along with Randy Savage and Lex Luger, faced Hall, Nash and a mystery partner at Bash at the Beach 1996.
The mystery partner ended up being Hogan, and for the first time for many wrestling fans, they were seeing Hogan as a heel. As time went on, this new regime in pro wrestling - the New World Order - recruited other members, including Sting! But it wasn't Sting (in actual fact, it was a man by the name of Jeff Farmer, a former prelim wrestler named Cobra who went on to great success in Japan using the fake Sting gimmick). On an episode of Nitro, this Sting attacked Lex Luger in the arena parking lot. This created serious doubts over WCW's ability to field a strong team for the upcoming War Games, of which Sting was to team with Luger, Flair and Arn Anderson. Sting was incredulous over Luger's inability to believe that it wasn't really him, it was an nWo impostor.
Team WCW, especially supposed best friend Luger, wouldn't believe him, and so they went a man down against the nWo in the War Games. At a crucial stage in the match, the fans were electrified and the announcers were blown away when Sting made his way into the cage, destroying everyone, including the impostor, before leaving the ring. On Nitro, Sting cut a famous promo, proclaiming himself to be a 'free agent.' Sting began sporting a black trench-coat, and black and white face-paint, to enter into the 'Crow' Sting stage. He also took a liking to hanging out in the arena rafters as he periodically rappelled down to the ring, with the announcers speculating his allegiance. Unlike in normal pro wrestling situations where the announcers are the dumbest people in the world, it was actually uncertain as to whether or not Sting was going to help WCW, or the nWo. As the nWo gained momentum and signed seemingly half WCW's roster, WCW were desperate for Sting to help. But he seemed unwilling. As each week passed, it seemed that Sting wanted Hogan, a real dream match.
That was obvious to everyone, except for poor old commissioner, JJ Dillon. He offered him a contract to wrestle Syxx (Sean Waltman), only for Sting to tear it up. It was the same result when he was offered Curt Hennig. Finally, Sting pointed out a sign in the crowd that simply stated the obvious - Sting wanted a match with Hogan. So the match was signed for Starrcade 1997, WCW's biggest pay per view of the year, and for the best part of a year, WCW had built up this bad boy, which resulted in a sell out crowd, and a huge buy-rate, as it should have. Unfortunately, the match - and the entire storyline and angle - were marred by a terrible finish. Instead of Sting going over clean, Hogan dropped the leg and got the three count.
However, Bret Hart interrupted proceedings and proclaimed that referee Nick Patrick - a former nWo ally - had made a fast count. Problem was, it was a normal count. Bret decided to take over the officiating, Sting got Hogan in the Scorpion Deathlock, and Sting became new champion. There are not enough adequate adjectives, verbs, pro nouns or anything else to describe just how disappointing the finish was. For those who haven't seen it, you will simply have to watch it. However, if you don't count the Starrcade match, and you were to do a compilation DVD of this feud without it, you would be left with quite simply one of the best builds to a match you will ever see in wrestling. Sting wrestled not a single time in the entire year they spent building up this encounter, yet it produced a hell of a buy rate (1.9, which translates to six million dollars in revenue), and attracted 17,500 fans to the building (resulting in a $543,000 gate).
The story of Sting going from bleached blonde surfer to muted, trenchcoat wearing rafter dweller was so excellently mapped out and executed, you could be forgiven for believing for thinking this was a different company. On many occasions in WCW's history, it seemed that hot shotting was the way to go. However, the Starrcade 97 match - for all its faults - was similar to the way WWE build up the main event of a Wrestlemania.
It had that certain 'feel' about it, and the whole underlying theme was that you had a man who was loyal, never went to WWE, was WCW's main soldier through the tough times and the good times, but the nWo mind games drove him to an almost depression-like state. His best friends doubted him, the fans doubted him, WCW officials doubted him; it made for excellent television to see the metamorphosis, the attacks on wrestlers by Sting, the cryptic looks; this was WCW at its best. There were no swerves; Sting never joined the nWo, merely teased the concept.
There was never the temptation to give the match away on free TV - as WCW did on numerous occasions in their obsession to beat WWF in the Monday night ratings. Unfortunately, the terrible ending to Starrcade 1997 was arguably the beginning of the end for the company. They would survive a few more years until being bought out by Vince McMahon. However, as Eric Bischoff himself has admitted, the company began to spiral out of control by mid-1998, just a few months after the biggest match in WCW history.
For some reason, the nWo was continually pushed down the throats of the fans, leading to a breakaway Wolfpac faction, of which Sting would become a member. The hot shotting picked up, there were swerves aplenty, and it was little wonder the promotion lost their battle with the WWF. In the next and further editions, I will continue to look at great feuds in wrestling with that simple formula that makes pro wrestling so great to watch.
