1991: #1 Sting, #2 Hogan?

[klunderbunker]

I'm watching an old Clash of the Champions and Sting's pop is just ridiculous. He's the undisputed biggest star in the company and would win the world title in about three months. In the other company you had Hogan feuding with Taker and Flair over the world title and getting noticeably smaller pops. No one is going to question that Hogan was the biggest star in the world in the 80s, but what I'm wondering is did Sting pass him in the early 90s? Hogan would be on the verge of getting booed out of the building in January of 92 while not winning the Rumble. Sting would be getting huge pop after huge pop in WCW.

So in short, did Sting surpass Hogan for biggest star in the world around this time (late 91-early 92)?

 

[Dr. Stinger A. Zoidberg]

In my opinion, yes he did. I'm not being biased here because Sting is a favorite of mine, but back then, he was able to get pops that quite possibly doubled what Cena's pops are today. He was huge. I think at that time, Hogan was starting to lose popularity because he was getting stale. The fans were getting sick of Hulk "The Face" Hogan. They wanted to see him turn. But, Sting was no doubt, the John Cena of the early 90's in terms of fan popularity. So yes KB, Sting was more popular.

 

[The Holy One]

I'm going have to say no b/c much like Orton getting bigger pops than Cena now. Hogan was still the face of wrestling in terms of marketing abilities and overall star power. Hogan was still the wrestler that you saw on the commercials, t.v. shows and movies, and there was still more red and yellow than the face paint. I watched some of Hogan matches (which is a hard thing to do) in the early 90s while he was in the WWE and he was still getting big pops like at his main event match against Sid Vicious at Wrestlemania VIII. I think he wasn't heavily booed until he went to WCW in 1994, and as much as I love Sting b/c living in Georgia I used to go to WCW shows often while he was definitely rivaling Hogan as the top star; I don't think anyone ever overtook Hogan's position until Austin did in 1998.

 

[trinerigelado]

No because Hogan drew more money. The only time Sting actually was a top draw was when he hung out in the rafters for a year with a baseball bat. Believe me if Sting was that good of a draw Flair wouldn't have kept on holding the belt and Luger wouldn't have been shoved down everyone's throat so much.

 

[Megadeth]

Sting may have been getting the better pops at the time, but WCW was still more or less at that time a regional company. Despite having national cable exposure at the time, most people still viewed it as a southern company and it hadnt really caught on to much out of the south, and almost never ran a show outside of the south, and with the exception of their partnership with New Japan, almost never left the country. WWF on the other hand was all over the country, running shows just about everywhere, including the UK and Canada.
So really it boils down to how you want to define what makes someone the biggest star. Sting was more over with the audience that WCW had at the time, but the WWF definitely had the much bigger audience.

 

[jmt225]

As much as I would like to say yes, there's absolutely no way Sting was the biggest star in wrestling in 1991. He was definitely the biggest star in WCW, but since WCW was still way below the WWF at the time, you cannot put him over the WWF's biggest star(s), which was undoubtedly Hulk Hogan back then, even if he and the WWF were declining in "numbers."

So, Sting might have had the bigger pops, but WCW had always had better crowds anyway, plus they worked in buildings not as big in capacity as the WWF did, which made the pops sound even louder.

 

[Midnite Express 2009]

Without a question...Yes. Sting was by far the most popular wrestler in the world during the span of 1990-1994 (I add in 1994 before Hogan came along and stole his thunder). Sting was the most popular IMO because of the way he interacted with the fans. Sting could get beat, and sometimes did, which was a far cry from the way Hogan hated to lose. The fans by 1990 had grown so tired of Hogan which is IMO one of the main reasons why Vince took the title off him and gave it to The Ultimate Warrior. Vince needed someone to compete with Sting's rising popularity that actually started in 1988 and carried him through the next four-five years without anyone being a close second to him in the NWA/WCW and dare I say WWF.

Also, Sting seemed believeble. He wasn't wrestling a watered down version of Ric Flair (I say watered down because Flair wasn't doing his 1980s best in the WWF), instead he was wrestling men like Ric Rude and Steve Austin who were pretty good themselves during this time. Hands down Sting was the better man.

 

[Chrome]

No because Hogan drew more money. The only time Sting actually was a top draw was when he hung out in the rafters for a year with a baseball bat. Believe me if Sting was that good of a draw Flair wouldn't have kept on holding the belt and Luger wouldn't have been shoved down everyone's throat so much.

QFT^

Also Hogan was going to leave after wrestlemania and poeple knew that back then. He was not getting cheered because undertaker/Flair were consistantly whooping his ass. Flair vs Hogan should have headlined Wrestlemania 8.

No one is going to POP when hogan is getting beat down.. on the other channel Sting was being pushed to the moon. Bret Hart was listed a few years later as the most popular wrestler (for a while having STING/hart as #1-2) would you consider Hart or Sting being able to draw more money than Hogan??

No.

 

[Chauncy Talon]

Sting did not pass Hogan. Seriously, if you watch any WWF videos the crowd went wild everytime Hogan came out. Sting had more television time because he was on WCW Worldwide and WCW the Main Event, but Hogan had the Pay-Per-View on lock.

 

[Tenta]

So, Sting might have had the bigger pops, but WCW had always had better crowds anyway, plus they worked in buildings not as big in capacity as the WWF did, which made the pops sound even louder.

This. Also, you really have to consider something. Ric Flair left WCW about the middle of 1991. What else did WCW fans have to draw them in, really? Yes, you could argue Luger was supposed to be a draw, but let's be honest, we knew that wasn't the case. I always have, and always will, credit Sting, Luger, Vader, and partially Rick Rude for keeping WCW afloat in a period where the biggest star of the company, Ric Flair, had left them. I don't think I can put it any better than paraphrasing Dusty Rhodes in saying Jim Herd is "The most untalented motherfucker in the history of the world." Exact quote that is, and every bit of it true. That said, I really do credit Sting, Luger and Vader for keeping WCW business alive, both in house show gates, and whatever little they could gain in pay per views.

That said, I wish I could really say yes, because I'm a Sting mark, but that just wouldn't be realistic on my part. That'd be like saying because Joe Mauer gets better reactions from Twins fans, that he's still a more popular baseball player than Alex Rodriguez, if my sports analogy works there. Sting was a very big fish, that was swimming around in an evaporating, never mind small, pond. WCW was losing all of its resources, and fans loved Sting's loyalty and appreciated his attempts to go out every night and have the best match. Still, Hogan was still much more popular on a national level. I wouldn't call WCW a "regional" company, personally, as someone else did. That said, it certainly was a smaller pond, and the fans were just that much more appreciative to Sting.

I, like JMT, would like to say yes, because I know he's a hardcore Sting mark, and so am I. But there's just no way that's the case, KB. Not at all.