We all know that Hulk Hogan turned heel at Bash at the Beach 1996 and changed the course of history for WCW with the creation of the New World Order. But, for many years, we've been hearing stories about how Sting was first supposed to be the 3rd man but this was reportedly nixed before Eric Bischoff set his choice on Hulk Hogan.

 

What would've been if Sting turned on WCW to join Hall & Nash?

 

Would've Hogan lead the charge to fight the NWO?

 

Would've Sting taken the title away from Randy Savage at Halloween Havoc?

 

And would've this affected the incoming members later, like Ted Dibiase & Syxx, coming off from their WWF stints?

 

And what about the likes of Lex Luger & Ric Flair? Where do they fit in? How does this impact the Monday Night Wars?

On the plus side, I doubt he makes the HoF twenty years later.

Sting won't move the needle like Hogan did. Period. The allure of the nWo was one part "WWF is invading," but most of it was "HULK HOGAN is a bad guy now." Without Hogan you don't get the casual fan.

 

Also, without Hogan, you don't get the dominance. This happened with the Dungeon of Doom still relatively fresh in fans' minds. Are you telling me that Hulkster doesn't just eviscerate Sting/Nash/Hall by Starrcade?

Yeah, The NWO is still a thing for a while, but it fizzles a lot faster. We wouldn't get the terrible permutations of the NWA later, but the NWO's impact would be mitigated mightily.

The best alternate choice to Hogan would have been Luger but it would have had little shock value. Even still it would have been hard to buy him as the leader of any faction.

 

One of my favorite things to ponder is if Dustin Rhodes never left WCW and where he could have fit into this. Being the "heir" of tradition the nWo was supposedly against, it could have been compelling to see him fight against them, possibly have the spot DDP had or share it with him (as I think they could have had good chemistry as a team), and start the inevitable ascension to one of the top guys in the company.