Nick Patrick reveals story behind his "fast count" during Hulk Hogan vs Sting match at Starrcade 1997 [Exclusive]

Sportskeeda's Chris Featherstone recently spoke with former WWE official Nick Patrick, who answered a bunch of fan questions regarding his career as a referee in WCW and WWE.

Patrick shed light on the infamous incident in the main event of Starrcade 1997, which saw him botching a planned spot in the WCW World title match between Hulk Hogan and Sting.

The original finish was supposed to be Patrick making a fast count and helping Hulk Hogan (who was donning the nWo Hollywood Hogan persona at the time) retain the title. Bret Hart would then stop Patrick from giving Hogan the belt and restart the match while acting as the referee himself.

Sting would then make Hogan submit to win the match. Everything went as planned, except one thing - Patrick counted to three at normal speed.

"I had one guy tell me to give it a fast count, and I had another guy telling me to give a nice, slow count."

"Each guy is like a top guy, the franchise guy, Hogan and Sting both were franchise guys. Now we've got two guys butting heads and I'm stuck in the middle. I just kinda split the difference and my count was different than normal. I did a WWE count, it was a little bit faster but not ridiculously fast. So really nobody got what they wanted out of the deal. I thought I'm gonna get fired, but Eric was just so glad that it was over that he didn't fire me."

Sting eventually defeated Hogan to win the WCW World title

Following the count, the match proceeded as per the original plan. Bret still accused Patrick of making a fast count and took on the role of the official himself. The match was restarted by Hart and Sting went on to execute a Scorpion Deathlock on Hogan to make him submit and win the WCW World Championship.