>>5405396Him coming in at the same time as Starrcade '97 was a curse. They built Sting to beat Hogan for 18 months so you can't back out now, but waiting to put Bret in the main event cools him off too much. Of course WCW fucked up Starrcade in 200 other ways anyway so it's a moot point. I'd probably have Sting go over Hogan clean, then spend the next month showing the nWo slowly fall apart. Members lose faith in Hogan while Sting and WCW offer an amnesty to any guys who defect to WCW. By the next PPV it's only the original trio left, and the Outsiders abandon a desperate Hogan to set up the finish and write Hogan off TV for a while. Bret can debut the Nitro after Starrcade and say he's happy to be in a company that values wrestling and integrity, especially with the nWo on the decline. Put him over Flair at the PPV then immediately after go into face vs face to determine the REAL World's Champion. From there it depends on fan reaction. WCW at that time needed to reset a whole lot of characters and storylines, instead they trucked on with the nWo until it was too late. A face champ Bret could have had Sting as a rival figure, both faces out to show they're the best and getting increasingly heated as the year goes on until someone turns heel. There's Flair and the Horsemen always around for a match, you can still do the Wolfpac without the nWo branding as renegades going up against the straight laced Bret, with Clique allusions and Bret drafting in Hart Foundation allies. And a few months down the line a rejuvenated but unhinged Hollywood Hogan emerging for the real money match.
