The only thing for sure about Sting is nothing is for sure… and he’s still not sure what went wrong at Starrcade in 1997.
During a recent appearance on K&C Masterpiece on Audacy’s 105.3 The Fan (Dallas), Sting was asked about the infamous finish at WCW’s Starrcade 1997. Sting defeated Hollywood Hulk Hogan on the show, but the end of the match was controversial and a bit confusing.
Hogan pinned Sting after a big boot and a legdrop, but Bret Hart interfered in the match and claimed referee Nick Patrick made a fast count. Hart inserted himself as referee in the match and called for the bell after Sting submitted Hogan in the Scorpion Deathlock. To this day, Sting says he’s not sure how they screwed up what was an exciting storyline that built over the previous year.
“Man, to be honest, I think it was just a package deal. We had a great build-up for a good, solid year, storyline-wise. The truth of the matter is we did not follow the build-up. Hogan and I did not deliver in that match. What went wrong with the count and all this — to this day, I have no idea. I just know that there were a lot of changes that were happening that very day and we didn’t know how we were going to handle the deal, how we were going to it, how we were going to do the finish until literally we walked through the curtain. And then as far as the count, to this day I still don’t know what happened on that one.”
Sting then recalled how he first learned who Hulk Hogan was, noting that he didn’t watch wrestling as a kid. Sting was a bodybuilder in California and he says he only knew Hogan because of his work in Rocky III.
“I’m a strange breed. When I got into pro wrestling, I didn’t even know what pro wrestling was. Somebody asked me to do it and I said, ‘what is it?’ I had no idea. Hulk Hogan used to come into the gym and people would freak out. People would say [to me], ‘Don’t you know who that is?’ And I said, ‘Who is that? Who is Hulk Hogan?’ I had no idea. That was a gym that was in the San Fernando Valley and I was in Santa Clarita Valley, which was a little bit North. We didn’t have pro wrestling on TV when I grew up, so I had no idea what it was or who he was until they said he’s the guy from the Rocky movie. Then I knew.”
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