Eric Bischoff On How Long In Advance The Sting Vs. Hulk Hogan Angle Was Planned Out
Eric Bischoff was a recent guest on the Sarah O'Connell Show and discussed various topics from his pro wrestling career. During his time in WCW, Bischoff was able to be a part of one of the most memorable storylines in pro wrestling history.
Feeling slighted that his fellow WCW cohorts did not believe in him before proving that there was an imposter, Sting cut a promo telling those to "stick it" who lacked trust in him. A month later, dressed in a black coat, Sting stated regarding his WCW future, "the only thing that is for sure, is nothing's for sure." This began a journey into the dark abyss of his soul, as he remained distant for a number of months, without saying a word but instead sitting up in the arena rafters.
Despite declaring himself as a "free agent", Sting soon revealed that he was maintaining his loyalty to WCW, but as a lone wolf, as he became the biggest rival of the dominant nWo faction. Sting culminated his quest to dethrone nWo leader Hollywood Hogan of his power by defeating him for the WCW World Championship at the 1997 Starrcade pay-per-view.
Bischoff explained that this angle was planned 12 months in advance, but remained open-ended just in case modifications had to be made.
"With Sting, we planned that one 12 months out," said Bischoff. "Now, I'm not gonna lie, we didn't say, 'okay, we're gonna start this on this date, and 12 months later, it's gonna end.' We started it knowing that it was kind of open-ended. We didn't know how long that build was gonna be effective, so we kind of kept it open. But, as we got deeper and deeper into it, we realized that it was really something that could sustain itself very easily, so we were in no rush to end that storyline or that character."
The 12-month story arc of the "Crow" Sting character, Bischoff states, is "one of the only times that's ever been done in the industry."
The angle continued even after Starrcade, as Sting was stripped of the title on the January 8, 1998 episode of Thunder. A month and a half later, Sting defeated Hogan at SuperBrawl to win the title again, and retained it for two months before losing to Randy Savage at Spring Stampede.
If any portion of these quotes are used, please be sure to credit The Sarah O'Connell Show with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: The Sarah O'Connell Show