Jake Roberts vs. Sting

[3.0] "Uhm... The match isn't particularly compelling and the finish (which is interesting in theory) is kinda weird. The snake turns against Jake and bits him in the face and that gives one hell of a gruesome image, unfortunately the crowd doesn't really respond and is confuse as to what is happening really. (You can clearly see Jake forcing the snake to bite him and even though that involves a lot of courage from his part, that breaks the narrative a little...) The match is boring apart from that and as for a lot of WCW pay per view match at the time, the stipulation is lame."

[5.0] "An infamous match, with the stipulation's reveal being a regular WCW punchline. In truth, the match itself is a lot less interesting than that, mostly colouring inside the lines outside of the kneelift snafu. There are some nice touches as after all, this is a natural babyface - heel dynamic, sporting some limb work along the way. It's not much though, with a pretty spiteful finish providing a fittingly flat conclusion. **1/4"

[4.0] "This wasn't bad, but considering how much they'd built it all up it was definitely underwhelming. They showed all of the different possible stipulations so many times on TV leading into this show, only to reveal during the event that it was going to be one of the weakest of the entire list. Very lame. Anyway... The match is a passable brawl but never really provides much excitement (and the crowd has been well and truly killed at this point in the show). The finish was a cool idea, but executed very poorly and comes across as laughable and fake rather than violent. Disappointing main event that didn't live up to what was advertised."

[4.0] "They try to sell this Lights Out Match throughout the whole show as something so vicious that the WCW doesn't want to be responsible for that, but in the end we're left with a Coal Miner's Glove on the Pole bullshit, which is mostly a normal Singles Match. The only memorable thing from this is Sting's impressive turn on the pole, but everything else was really underwhelming."

[5.0] "Honestly? This was better than I expected to be and in my opinion maybe a little over-hated. Sure, this is a lame gimmick, especially with some of the other gimmicks on the wheel teased, but they made do with it. The Sting/Jake Roberts rivalry was interesting to look back on. Of course Jake Roberts would disappear after this. At least Sting won so we got the right finish, and the finish is probably the best part of the match."

[6.0] "I remember enjoying this more as a kid. Jake Roberts had just come off of a terrific heel run in the WWF, but his run in WCW didn't amount to much. Kind of a stupid choice to make it a Coal Miner's Glove match. Truthfully, you could win the match without even getting the glove. Just a stupid gimmick. Then the ending with Jake trying to get the cobra to bite him, but it wouldn't bite him. Sting wins and the match was ok, but a lot of botches."

[5.0] "I think this was okay. Like a lot of matches tonight though, this match stipulation probably didn't work right with this crowd, and again the action was interrupted while they scaled this enormous pole. Definitely the finish was majorly awkward though, as Jake clearly struggled to get the snake to bite him, but when it did it was a pretty gruesome spectacle. Definitely not a highlight of this ppv, but then again... not much was."

[3.0] "Watching this in a vacuum, I can understand some folks finding it okay. But considering the MONTHS of build up, the numerous 'spin the wheel make the deal' teasers that aired on TV forever, the countless dangerous stipulations that were teased like I Quit or Texas Death or even the spinner's choice match ... a glove on a pole match? Are you kidding me? And Sting gets the pin after Jake gets bit by his own snake? Get outta here. Spin the wheel, make the deal? More like spin the wheel, make a meal. [*1/2]"

[4.0] "They did a lot of heavy brawling to hide the limitations of both men, but it was clear Jake was way past the state of going that far at this point, and this gradually translated into a slow, dull match. I thought the finish - with Sting using the glove to punch Jake, causing Jake's own snake to bite himself, leading to his own defeat - was a neat idea in theory, but the execution was so awful that it came off as phony and bad-looking on screen. Sting was never the worker capable of carrying anyone to a quality match, so it was sort of a miracle they came out of it as well as they did. A fine, if ultimately unspectacular main event. [**]"

[2.0] "Hoo boy! You know about this match if you have been watching wrestling for any length of time! So the set up a big pin wheel with different and brutal match options and Sting gets the honor of spinning the wheel. Whatever it lands on, that's the match for the night! Unfortunately this being WCW, they put some really good ones on there and one shit match, and the wheel wasn't gimmicked to land on a good one. Of course, it lands on Coal Miners Glove, which is just an item on a pole match which is totally optional and could not come into play AT ALL in the match! Match goes alright until the finish where Jake pulls out the cobra and tries to get it to bite him but the thing doesn't cooperate and Jake clearly puts the thing on his face to make sure it bites him. This being WCW, the camerman of course zooms right in on it so everybody at home can see how contrived and fake it is! I gave the match 1 star out of 5 years ago which translates to about 2/10 on this site. I like Sting and love Jake but when you expose the biz like that, it just kills the match dead!"

[4.0] "I liked the first half of the match, as it was quite violent, felt like a fight and a brawl. The match sort of tailed off by the end and the finish wasn't that good as it barely involved the coal miners glove at all. **1/4"

[5.0] "An ok match, it made sense to try to bring Jake in for a major role but sadly I don't think he was exactly up for it, plus the booking in WCW at this time was poor so this didn't have much of a chance to be real good. Plus, I mean, Sting and Jake were never gonna have a good match anyway..."