WCW Wednesday: Part XIV – The Rematch Clause Edition!

Which was the bigger rematch?

“Hollywood” Hogan versus “Rowdy” Roddy Piper at SuperBrawl VII

or

Hogan versus Sting at SuperBrawl VIII?

Let’s dissect them and figure it out.

At Starrcade ’96, Piper defeated Hogan in a **cough**non-title**cough** match. For SuperBrawl VII, Piper wanted to win the WCW World title while Hogan wanted to show who had the stroke in WCW. To show how determined (i.e. maniacal) Piper was about beating Hogan, he “locked” himself in Alcatraz. After all, the PPV was held in San Francisco, CA.

How was the match? Dreadful, but “Macho Man” Randy Savage, who had aligned himself with Sting, joined the nWo by assisting Hogan in his victory over Piper.

At Starrcade ’97, Sting acquired (I cannot say won) the WCW World title with Bret Hart’s assistance due to a botched fast count. The following evening, they had a rematch that not only was controversial but also didn’t finish before Nitro went off the air. Alas, WCW was sneaky and put the finish of the match on the début of Thunder. So the WCW World title was held up for over a month so that the rematch could occur at SuperBrawl VIII.

How was the match? Once again, dreadful, but at least Hogan lost this time albeit due to interference by Savage. That wacky WCW! Sting would hold the title until Spring Stampede when he lost to none other than…Savage. That wacky WCW! Of course, Hogan would beat Savage the following night on Nitro just to screw with us.

So which was better? I can understand Hogan’s holding onto the World title in ’96 for two reasons: (1) Piper didn’t need the title to keep his self-inflicted self-appointed ICON status. (2) Hogan had just won the belt in August and there was still SOME prestige to the title. Unfortunately, that would fade quickly in ’98.

I can also understand Hogan’s screwjob loss the following year as WCW had truly screwed up Starrcade and wanted to redeem itself.

In the end, I call it a toss-up leaning toward VIII because I wasn’t a fan of “Hollywood” Hogan. What are your thoughts on the rematches for the World title at Superbrawls VII and VIII?

Also, please be sure to check out all of my reflections at rockstargary.com.