I don't necessarily disagree with you here, but could you elaborate on what specifically WCW botched regarding Starrcade 97? And specifically what did it have that had it riding high before the event? Hogan-Sting by itself?
I will.
Before we begin, it's important to remember one thing. Bret Hart had just come to WCW, riding a HUGE wave of momentum, thanks to the Montreal Screwjob incident. WCW had the biggest free agent of the Monday Night Wars, the man who was going to bankrupt Vince McMahon...and promptly did NOTHING with him. They wasted him. Completely. One of the greatest wrestlers of his time, and he never got in the ring. He did nothing. Because of him doing nothing, he was randomly put as the special enforcer for the Sting vs. Hogan match. This is important to remember.
From nearly the very moment the nWo arrived, they were booked as completely dominant, and generally better than WCW. They ran through the entire WCW roster, making just about everyone on the roster look inferior to the nWo.
Except for one man. Sting.
Sting was the lone WCW guy whom the nWo feared. He was the lone guy they couldn't get to cross over to their side. Sting was the one man who had the nWo's number. And, at Starrcade vs. Hulk Hogan, Sting, the savior of WCW, the man who wrestling fans all over the world were salivating to give Hogan his due, was finally going to step in the ring, and WCW was going to triumph once and for all. Starrcade 1997 was the PPV where WCW was finally going to put the nWo down once and for all. It was the most hyped and most anticipated PPV since Wrestlemania 6. WCW was finally going to prevail.
Except they didn't. Time and again, the nWo escaped getting their come uppance. Time and again, WCW couldn't take advantage of the nWo. But, it really didn't matter because Sting was still coming at the end to save the show, and WCW.
Except he didn't. From the opening bell, Hogan generally dominated Sting. He generally took Sting to task, and Sting, who regularly took out 10 members of the nWo single handily, suddenly couldn't take down one man. Sting's offense was minimal. Finally, they come to the biggest botch in history.
Hogan bounces off the rope and hits his Atomic Legdrop. Nick Patrick gets down, and counts. 1-2-3. Sting was legitimately pinned, and the fans were stunned. But, there was a catch. Bret Hart, who was the special enforcer in a desperate attempt to have him do something to earn his $3 million dollar a year paycheck, kept the bell from being rang, and said over a piss poor mic that he was screwed last month and that he wouldn't let someone else get screwed tonight. The problem with this was that no one got screwed. Nick Patrick was supposed to have done a fast count, but did not fast count at all. In fact, it was a normal count. However, the show had to go on, so alleging a fast count, Bret Hart restarted the match. Meanwhile, the entire time this had gone on, Sting had been layed out. Suddenly, he gets up, hits a couple of moves, and wins the title.
The problem was that Sting's win had already been ruined, and the legitimacy of his win was severely in doubt. Instead of having Sting come out, kick the holy hell out of Hogan's ass, and get a win which would cause the crowd to go absolutely bonkers, they instead had a match which killed the crowd, where Sting got pinned cleanly, and then picked up a win in a rematch he shouldn't have had.
It was terrible booking, and ruined over a year's worth of storylines. And, the buyrate for Starrcade was enormous, indicating how much people were ready for Sting to come in and be a complete badass, and it didn't happen.
It was the beginning of the end of WCW.
But the commentary was nice. I think it could have worked, had Patrick done a fast count and had Sting and Hogan battled legitimately at the end. But your desire for a Sting domination would have been very satisfying.
