Through all the twists and “heel” turns though, the one constant was Sting. I’m Reminding myself again to try and to stick to the high points of our story, and Mongo was obviously not one of them. The famous Curt Henning swerve comes to mind at Fall Brawl 1997 and his winning of the US title the next night on Nitro from Mongo McMichael. There were twists and turns along the way involving a number of wrestlers. There were weeks of back and forth brawls with Sting usually getting the upper hand on the nWo. It was always clear though, that even in silence Sting wanted the chance to swing that black bat at Hogan. The evolution of his character from a charismatic, colorful guy to the brooding, dark, eerily silent figure that hid in the shadows was the perfect embodiment of what the nWo had done to this man. For the most part, it was an easy story to tell. Sorry, I said I was going to stick to the more positive aspects of this long-term story. Sting would spend the rest of the year stalking Hogan and the nWo with countless mind games, imposter Sting’s, and even a Hollywood severed head. It was also the moment that he officially, though silently, confirmed his allegiance to WCW. This was Sting’s first glorious descent from the rafters that he would become so famous for. Then comes Uncensored in March, and once again, team nWo is victorious. As a young viewer it seemed like this group was truly unstoppable. The group was rounding out well and fully embracing the “hostile takeover” mentality that Eric Bischoff and crew were trying to sell the folks at home.

From young up and comers like Buff Bagwell and the Giant, to the veterans like Ted Dibiase and even the great Dusty Rhodes. The nWo was recruiting droves of stars from all areas of the promotion to expand their reach. WCW had began planting the seeds for that hero in Sting even in the earlier parts of that year.īy early ’97 it was all-out war. Now as in all good storytelling, when you have a villain like Hollywood your going to need an even greater hero to take on the challenge of defeating him.

The Hulkster shredded his last red and yellow t-shirt, trashed his vitamins, and donned his two-toned beard to become the villainous Hollywood Hogan. The night the elusive “third man” was revealed and arguably one of the greatest wrestling factions of all time was formed, the New World Order. We can’t talk about Starrcade ’97, without going to the beginning and talking about Bash at the Beach 1996.

Souled out 1997 josh