Tony Schiavone Says This Moment Was The Beginning Of The End For WCW

WCW has been out of business since WWE purchased the company in 2001, leading to an ill-fated WCW invasion storyline on WWE TV. Prior to being bought by WWE, WCW had been known to make many controversial decisions, such as the way Goldberg's iconic streak ended and making David Arquette the WCW World Heavyweight Champion. This has led some fans to try and determine exactly when WCW started heading downhill.

While hosting "What Happened When," longtime WCW announcer Tony Schiavone pinpointed the exact moment he believes started the ultimate downfall of WCW. "[Starrcade 1997 was] the beginning of the end of WCW," Schiavone said. "It wasn't a fast-count, Anybody who saw it knew it wasn't. They made me say it was a fast-count and I knew it wasn't. We just, we just f***** all of ourselves and try to lie our way through it and people saw through it. Sting should've won clean or there should've been a fast-count ... and it was just brutal."

Starrcade 1997 saw Sting walk out as WCW World Heavyweight Champion, however, not in the triumphant way many fans expected it to go down after the building of the story for over a year. In the main event, which saw Sting face "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan, there was supposed to be a fast-count by referee Nick Patrick with Hogan pinning Sting that turned out to not be fast at all. This damaged Sting's image in the process, and WCW's apparent conquering hero would wind up holding the title for only 11 days despite the long-term storytelling that went into the build.

If you use quotes in this article, please credit What Happened When and provide an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription