Piper beats Hogan clean at Starrcade
The domination of the NWO over WCW in recent months had been so overbearing that it seemed only a loser would cheer for WCW. It appeared Bischoff and Co. were going to lose their chance to actually make big money off of the NWO angle because the NWO didn’t have enough credible opponents. That tide changed Sunday night at Starrcade.
In an unprecedented finish, Hulk Hogan did a clean job via a Roddy Piper sleeper to lose his non-title “match of the century.” From a storyline perspective, that was the NWO’s second major loss. The first came in the previous match when interference from NWO ref Nick Patrik wasn’t enough to give Giant a win over Lex Luger. Thanks to Sting handing Luger a baseball bat, Luger was able to low-blow the Giant and gain a pinfall victory.
The balance of power shifted even more away from the NWO and toward WCW when The Giant broke off from the group the next night on Monday Nitro.
When The Giant joined the NWO, WCW’s attempt to make up for the last second decision by Davey Boy Smith not to jump to WCW and be the much hyped new member of the NWO, his turn was criticized as overkill. Now WCW has worked that in their favor since a Giant vs. Hogan match at the NWO pay-per-view means more than it would have had The Giant not spent a few months with the NWO.
At Starrcade, Hogan became upset with the Giant for “dropping the ball” by losing to Luger and then failing to chokeslam Piper before Piper bit him to escape. Right after Piper bit the Giant and the Giant dropped Piper from his chokeslam attempt, Piper locked a sleeper on Hogan to end the match.
WCW was also criticized for not fulfilling the promise made to fans that the winner of the 60 man battle royal at World War 3 in November would receive a WCW Title shot. Well, they tied up that loose end because that was one of the Giant’s primary reasons for leaving the NWO – he, too, wanted the title shot he earned.
On Nitro the next night, as the rest of the NWO beat on Piper, Giant appeared to be ready to join in, but instead he dropped Piper and wrapped his hand around Hogan’s throat. Hogan begged for mercy and agreed to give Giant a title shot because “I didn’t know it meant that much to you,” but as soon as Giant let him go, Hogan ordered the rest of the NWO to attack him.
