Fingerpoke of Doom - Setup

Setup

The match was directly related to a controversial main event that occurred at Starrcade 1998, during which Kevin Nash pinned Goldberg to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. At the time of the match, Goldberg had been undefeated in his WCW career; and his defeat, which came about due to the interference of Nash's former tag-team partner Scott Hall, came as a great disappointment to fans.

The following evening, Nash professed dissatisfaction with Hall's interference, and offered Goldberg a rematch for the following edition of Nitro in Atlanta. However, Goldberg was (kayfabe) arrested halfway through the three hour Nitro at the Georgia Dome and accused of "aggravated stalking" by Miss Elizabeth (Goldberg was originally to have been accused of rape, but refused to go along with that particular storyline). Although Goldberg was later released when Elizabeth could not keep her story straight, he would not make it back to the arena in time to compete against Nash (it was noted in "The Death of WCW" by R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez that the entire skit was proven to make no sense after it was revealed that the police station was across the street from the Georgia Dome).

Meanwhile Hulk Hogan, who had "retired" one month prior, showed up for the first time since his retirement. At the time, Hogan and Nash had been onscreen enemies since April 1998, when Nash broke away from Hogan's nWo stable in order to form his own rival faction, nWo Wolfpac; Nash became a fan favorite, and Hogan the villain while continuing to lead his own nWo faction, "nWo Hollywood". In Goldberg's absence, Nash offered the title shot to Hogan, although Hogan only professed to have street clothes in which to compete. Hogan nonetheless accepted the offer.

Hogan came out to the ring accompanied by "Big Poppa Pump" Scott Steiner, who had taken over the leadership role in nWo Hollywood. Nash came out next, then revealed a surprise to Hogan and the crowd by stopping at the end of the entrance ramp and pointing backwards. The surprise was Hall, who had been a part of nWo Hollywood for most of the last seven months and who entered wearing a Wolfpac T-shirt. This marked the reunion of The Outsiders, who had broken up as a team at Slamboree in May 1998.