• Starrcade 1997 Finish Was Booked To Protect The WCW World Title
On December 28th 1997, Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling aired ‘WCW Starrcade 1997’ on pay-per-view, which turned out to be the most bought PPV in the promotion’s history with 700,000 buys.
The long anticipated main event between World Heavyweight Champion Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Sting ended up having a controversial finish that is still considered a huge let-down, especially when we consider that it took more than a year to build up their rivalry leading into the event.
Bret Hart restarted the match after accusing referee Nick Patrick of doing a fast-count, but the only problem was, that it wasn’t a fast-count at all.
During a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, former WCW President Eric Bischoff revealed that he booked the match to end that way to protect the integrity of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and possibly set up a rematch in the future:
“We got to a point where both Hulk and I didn’t feel like Sting’s head was in the game.
It didn’t look like he was really, I don’t want to say excited about what he was about to do, but we had been building this up for over a year, and everybody else was excited about it.
And when we finally sat down to talk about what we were going to do, and how we were going to do it, it didn’t feel like we were connecting.
It was a judgment call. It’s one I wish I wouldn’t have made, I wish I had gone the other way with it obviously. But I’ve also learned, in the process of learning how to be grateful, to look at the brighter side of things.
It was an unfortunate situation, but we made the best of it.”
WATCH: Kelly Kelly Takes Off Her Pants:
• ON THIS DAY IN WWF HISTORY (January 8, 2000) – WWF Jakked / WWF Metal
On this day in 2000, the World Wrestling Federation aired an episode of their weekly syndicated TV show ‘WWF Jakked’ (night version) aka ‘WWF Metal’ (afternoon version).
It was pre-taped at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida and featured mid-card matches on the road to the ‘WWF Royal Rumble 2000’ PPV.
The card can be found right here:
Steve Blackman vs. Cliff Sheets
Crash Holly vs. Taka Michinoku
Ivory vs. Jacqueline
Gangrel & Mideon vs. The Headbangers
