EOTR Feud Of The Week: Sting vs Hulk Hogan

By @TrueGodImmortal & @Phranchize19

Today, the fine people at EOTR are going to shed light on what should’ve been the best feud in WCW history, but instead ended up as the feud that never lived up to the hype. Sting vs Hulk Hogan at one point seemed like the feud of the decade....instead it would end up as the biggest disappointment of the wrestling world. Today, we take a different style of looking at the feud of the week. This won't be about the best matches or the worst, because they all suck. Instead, we'll just revisit the feud over the years and discuss.

Hulk Hogan crossed over to Ted Turner's wrestling promotion circa 1993 when at the time Sting was the most popular wrestler in the company, so in a sense, this was a dream match waiting to happen. One problem early on was that both men were babyface wrestlers so having them feud at that time didn’t make much sense, but then 1996 happened. In a match in which Sting actually competed in, Hogan shocked the world by turning heel and changing wrestling again. Hogan would then run roughshod all over WCW, who was without a clear babyface to carry them as Sting had “walked out” and because a free agent. With Hogan undergoing a massive shift in character, it only made sense that Sting, who was going to be the WCW flagbearer, would undergo a change as well. Gone were the bright colors and happy go lucky wrestler and instead that was replaced by the cold and less vocal brutal Crow version of Sting. After these two huge transformations, it was finally time to let them battle over the World Title. The build to Starrcade 1997 was epic and left many fans waiting for what was sure to be the biggest match of all time.

*Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs Sting WCW Championship
Starrcade 1997
-In terms of wrestling this match isn’t all that great but it has so much significance and story telling with the monster baby face and the monster heel. It was a great way to cap off that event, but the truth is, the false finish ruined everything. Bret Hart wasn't really going to add anything as a special guest ref and honestly he really didn't. The false finish might be the worst booked thing in WCW history as it made Sting look weak and the way he won was so inconclusive that it killed any momentum this feud had. The biggest match ever ended up becoming the biggest disappointment ever.

*Hulk Hogan vs Sting 

Halloween Havoc 1999
-If only we cared about this match enough to discuss it, but it was a waste of time. It's a shame that Hogan and Sting kept missing and never hit it out of the park in the ring. This was a useless match that lasted 3 seconds and one of the most pointless contests in WCW during the late 90's, and that's really saying something considering a lot of things. This isn't even a match. Like it's not even a match. Literally.

*Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs Sting WCW Championship
SuperBrawl VIII - This was not the best in terms of wrestling quality but yet another important bout with the leaders of the NWO and WCW going at it. The vacant title gave it a nice story to go on, but the match itself wasn't anything special. I will say that it was better than the Starrcade match and had a much better finish to it, but the damage was done after Starrcade. Sting got the win he should have got at Starrcade and Hogan finally takes the loss, but this match is probably the only complete contest between the two during their initial feud and it is a slight disappointment as well.

*Hulk Hogan vs Sting
WCW Title Match
Fall Brawl 1999
-Here we have the best match between these two. Although it wasn't a classic and it still didn't live up to the hype, this was a solid contest that showed both men putting forth effort. The only issue was the overt interference, as Diamond Dallas Page, Bret Hart, and Lex Luger interfered and in the end, Sting was victorious and won the WCW Title once again. In all honesty, the fact that this match followed the previous month's main event of Hogan vs Kevin Nash probably makes the match seem much better in comparison, but I'll maintain that it wasn't the worst contest and it was definitely far from the best.

This feud had so much potential. I’m not sure exactly what made it so wrong. Aside from the bad booking, it's as if the WCW crew just wanted to see if they could ruin something that should have been the biggest thing ever. From the moment Hogan stepped in, Sting vs Hogan was a feud we all wanted. It could have been bigger than Hogan vs Warrior, Hogan vs Savage, and Hogan vs Luger, and up until Starrcade 1997, it was bigger. The point of this was to showcase how horrible WCW was at booking their feuds and the main event picture. Sting vs Hogan before their first match was the most exciting thing in wrestling....... Sting vs Hogan after their first match was the biggest disappointment in wrestling history. What a shame.

-EOTR