As far as I know, the plan was for the ref (Nick Patrick, who favoured the nWo in the storyline) was supposed to do a fast count, so it was obvious Sting was being cheated, so Bret Hart could come out and restart the match and Sting would make Hogan tap out to win.
Instead, the ref's "fast count" was at most a normal count, and in fact closer to a slow count. The rumour about it is that Hogan paid him off to do a slower count to make it look like he beat him, and Bischoff didn't do anything about it because he was pissed off at Sting for something or other (Sting might have been out of shape after not competing for the last year, if I heard right).
So Sting looked like crap instead and their year long build's payoff was badly damaged. It still went off, but the overbooking for it was a bad sign of things to come.
Hogan also never actually tapped out, supposedly he said "I quit", but no mics picked that up.