Let's talk wrasslin'

[The Grayfox]

They may still have the library on Netflix. They do have some stuff on Peacock, just not everything the Network had. But you can still watch all of Nitro, the WCW PPVs, ECW, etc. Basically there's a separate WWE section within Peacock and I assume it'll be much the same on Netflix. It's definitely not ideal though.

The thing with Hogan is that I genuinely think he is a terrible human being and at this point, I don't want to see him on my screen, whether it is old or not. I skip all of his promo time. Any time he opens his mouth, it's a hard pass for me. He did a lot for wrestling -- even if that was only happenstance. I think most of us can agree that he was out for himself and pro wrestling experiencing a boom period came second to that. Regardless, he was a big part of making pro wrestling as big as it became and I will give credit where it's due. Begrudgingly. Outside of that though, Terry Bollea can get fucked.

The Sting not having a tan thing is really, really fucking stupid. It seems so hard to believe on the surface, but then when you take into account who we're talking about here, Mr. "That Doesn't Work For Me, Brother", it's actually not hard to believe at all. The guy who has spent all his time in darkness, in the rafters, away from everyone doesn't have a tan?! Get the fuck out of here! I don't believe it! Just stupid logic. I actually like Bischoff's podcast, besides all the time he spends making excuses for Hogan, but this was one of his really bad takes. He specifically says Sting showed up to Starrcade looking out of shape and didn't get a tan. First of all, he looks fine in the ring. Second of all... as previously mentioned, who gives a shit about the tan?!

 

[DE4life]

They may still have the library on Netflix. They do have some stuff on Peacock, just not everything the Network had. But you can still watch all of Nitro, the WCW PPVs, ECW, etc. Basically there's a separate WWE section within Peacock and I assume it'll be much the same on Netflix. It's definitely not ideal though.

The thing with Hogan is that I genuinely think he is a terrible human being and at this point, I don't want to see him on my screen, whether it is old or not. I skip all of his promo time. Any time he opens his mouth, it's a hard pass for me. He did a lot for wrestling -- even if that was only happenstance. I think most of us can agree that he was out for himself and pro wrestling experiencing a boom period came second to that. Regardless, he was a big part of making pro wrestling as big as it became and I will give credit where it's due. Begrudgingly. Outside of that though, Terry Bollea can get fucked.

The Sting not having a tan thing is really, really fucking stupid. It seems so hard to believe on the surface, but then when you take into account who we're talking about here, Mr. "That Doesn't Work For Me, Brother", it's actually not hard to believe at all. The guy who has spent all his time in darkness, in the rafters, away from everyone doesn't have a tan?! Get the fuck out of here! I don't believe it! Just stupid logic. I actually like Bischoff's podcast, besides all the time he spends making excuses for Hogan, but this was one of his really bad takes. He specifically says Sting showed up to Starrcade looking out of shape and didn't get a tan. First of all, he looks fine in the ring. Second of all... as previously mentioned, who gives a shit about the tan?!

Netflix have been pretty unclear with their wording, which worries me. "Select historical content and PLEs". Not sure exactly what that means. If it's a rotating selection then they can GTF with that. I do wonder how they'll approach the Attitude & Ruthless Aggression eras. There is a lot of questionable stuff there, to say the least. Nitro, if they have it, should be pretty much unscathed as there isn't anywhere near the amount of indecent content. Practically none, during the Nitro era that matters between 1995 - 1998, anyway. Honestly, if they have the historical WWE and WCW stuff that'll do me. Whilst it's cool that ECW & other random regional stuff is on the Network, the truth is I never watch any of it. It's always old WCW or WWE shows, pretty much.

I can generally separate Hogan the performer from Bollea the person when I'm watching old shows, but his promos are indeed tedious as fuck. I don't necessarily have a problem with him being a shark in the locker room - that was just how things were in that era - but as a person he's obviously got some major flaws. I find watching Benoit difficult, although again I can separate what he did personally with his character during Nitro. It's a shame that whenever I watch him, though, I'm mainly thinking about what he did at the end of his life. It definitely takes away something from watching his classic matches.

I've read some stuff saying Bischoff and Hogan used the stupid 'tan' excuse to try and avoid mentioning how much Sting was struggling mentally at the time. If so then, to a degree, fair enough - although I think Bischoff has since talked about Sting's mental issues, and Sting himself has admitted his head wasn't really in the game at that point in time due to his demons. With that said, you still follow through with a clean victory at Starrcade 97. If you want to take the belt back off him soon-ish then fine, do it at Superbrawl or Spring Stampede. It's not like Sting was at Jake Roberts level of being unable to perform. He was capable of being a functioning champion for a couple of months, and indeed he was, even though they fucked the whole thing up in a major way. He continued to wrestle regularly until October ffs, so he clearly wasn't yet at breaking point at Starrcade 1997. It's just shitty excuses for a shitty decision they made.

Even the match itself is laid out in the worst possible way, with Hogan dominating for far too long. Sting's aura is basically destroyed within the first few minutes as Hogan pummels him. Sting should have been a fucking tornado for most of the match. Give Hogan a comeback with dirty, underhanded tactics, sure. It didn't need to be a totally one-sided affair. The problem is, up until the 'false' finish, it basically was a one-sided affair in favour of Hogan. He basically beat Sting from pillar to post, pinned him clean, and then got inexplicably screwed out of a totally fair victory. I didn't watch Starrcade 97 as a kid because, firstly, it wasn't available in the UK anyway, but even if it had been my parents wouldn't have let me order it. I remember watching the Nitro afterwards and being totally confused about what was going on. WCW was celebrating like they'd won, but there was some kind of controversy which I didn't understand. Possibly because we got a one hour edited version of the show which likely skipped some of the important stuff.

I also remember being pissed at the end of the Nitro rematch the night after Starrcade - where the broadcast ended before the match did. We didn't even get Thunder in the UK until months later, so I don't think at that point in time I actually ever got to see the end of that match. Not sure if it replayed on Nitro afterwards, but even if it did, those kinds of shenanigans really turned me off WCW, even as a 10 year old.

Speaking of Thunder, that reminds me of a Wikipedia edit I made many years ago. Originally the wikipedia entry looked like this:



Then at some point in late 2018 or early 2019 I changed it to:



Just because the idea of Hogan using his 'Observe this, brother' line in a commercial about Thunder gave me a chuckle. I expected the edit to be taken down pretty quickly, but it actually stayed up until late 2023 when someone finally removed it. Sad times. It still lives on in the Wikipedia article history and the wayback machine, though, so the memories remain.

 

[The Grayfox]

I actually did watch Starrcade '97 live and the way it ended seemed fine at the time. Then the next night they said there was a fast count -- except there wasn't. They really fucked it up and I feel like a lot of it had to do with Hogan. Even Bischoff admitted that Hogan was having second thoughts of dropping the title to Sting that night and had to be talked into it. The problem is, Bischoff spins the narrative that Hogan didn't want to do it because he didn't think Sting was up to it, when I think everybody knows he just wanted to win. People will never convince me Hogan gave a shit about the state of the business. He gave a shit about himself. That's it. You can listen to him re-write history and lie his ass off every single time he opens mouth even today. Elvis was a Hulkamaniac you say? Funny, because he died in 1977. You tried out for Metallica huh? Weird how nobody in Metallica seems to remember that. If there's one thing that drives me absolutely insane, it's liars. And even worse, it's liars who think the people they're lying to are too stupid to know it. Fuck the Hulk Hogan.

The Hogan/Sting story wrote itself without Sting really doing anything. You could compare it to Punk/Drew in modern wrestling, where they kept their feud going for months with Punk doing much of anything because of his injury, except the Hogan/Sting feud went a lot longer. It was a hot storyline, the crowd couldn't wait to see the return of Sting. They really didn't have to do much at Starrcade and they still fucked it up.

Also, you should just keep editing the Wiki article every time somebody removes it lol

I imagine the Netflix stuff is basically going to be how it is on Peacock. It is "select" stuff, but there's quite a bit of it. I can't remember now, but I don't think I've come across anything that's been heavily edited, even Attitude Era stuff. It's possible though as I haven't gone through a lot of it in quite some time.