“I wonder why we hate the past so.†– W.D. Howells to Mark Twain
“It’s so damned humiliating.†– Twain’s reply
The Opening Chapter
Wrestling fans today often complain about an over abundance of championships found in WWE currently. And it’s hard to argue that point sometimes the way that both sets of Tag belts and the Cruiserweight Title especially have been treated recently. But when you break it down and realize that the WWE’s nine titles are spread over three different brands, or territories essentially, then it makes it a little more manageable. After all it wasn’t too many years ago that there were eight different championships floating around the old WWF, pre-brand expansion, and eleven going during the Invasion. Since then there have been a lot of titles unified, then un-unified and others just brought up from nowhere. But one title has lain dormant for five years now-the WWF Hardcore Championship. It was five years ago this week when Rob Van Dam unified his Intercontinental Championship with the old beat up Hardcore belt, at the time held by Tommy Dreamer.
This title that started out as a joke, went from legit mid-card belt to joke to an upper mid card goal and back to joke again, all in under four years. Some wrestlers defined their careers by this belt, others used it as a prop and others used it as a stepping-stone. It was the prop that allowed low carders to amass multiple title reigns, even if those reigns were only minutes or even seconds long. So in honor of all of those who took a cookie sheet to the head for a chance at WWE gold, let’s take a look at the tumultuous era of the Hardcore Championship.
A Sense of Legitimacy
The Hardcore belt was born on November 2, 1998 as a gag gift from Mr. McMahon to Mankind. Originally thought to be just a prop for Foley to have, it was soon defended as a legitimate championship on television. By the end of the month Foley had lost the belt to Big Bossman and the Title was off and running.
Foley moved on from the fledgling division to challenge for the WWF Championship while Bossman becoming the standard bearer for the division. He had a run against The Road Dogg before Al Snow and a newly re-christened “Hardcore†Bob Holly became the division’s top stars. Holly and Snow battled throughout the spring and summer of ’99 before Snow ultimately came out on top. Bossman then became Snow’s number one challenger, which led to the infamous “Pepper†angle (which would be a great one for Brashear to tackle if he hasn’t already) and the Kennel from Hell match. Bossman walked out of one ludicrous angle and into another, this time against The Big Show and his dead daddy. (I’m sure that one Brashear has covered already.) Throughout this period of time the Hardcore belt maintained some level of mid-card credibility, held in higher regard than the European and Light Heavyweight Titles and often on par or higher than the Intercontinental Title. Soon Test would get the belt and all that credibility would vanish
24/7
It wasn’t so much Test, as he was merely a transitional champ, it was who came after him-Crash Holly. With Crash as champion, the belt became a comedy prop. He instituted the 24/7 defense rule and hilarity ensued. Wrestlers would jump Crash at any opportunity, whether it was in his motel room, the airport or an amusement park. The belt would often change hands multiple times a day, but the belt always somehow ended up around the waist of Crash. He went through a 15 minute invitational at WrestleMania 2000, a six way match at Backlash the next month, and then an honest-to-goodness feud with Gerry Brisco.
By August, Steve Blackman had taken control of the belt, defending against all comers and a putting on a show stealing match at SummerSlam against Shane McMahon. Though the fall, winter and into the spring of 2001 the belt changed hands to others like Raven, Kane, The Big Show and Rhyno. The 24/7 rule was in still in play during all of this, but was severely downplayed from the comedy mockery that Crash’s era included. The belt returned to some sort of legitimacy as ECW veterans like Ravenn, Rhyno, Saturn and Tazz were entrusted with the belt; guys who knew how to put on an entertaining and convincing hardcore-style match. Test was once again the Champion when the InVasion hit…
The InVasion
On June 28, 2001, Rhyno beat Test for the Hardcore Championship in the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, only to be jumped by WCW “invader†Mike Awesome. This was considered a major kick off point for the InVasion angle as it was considered a big deal that a “WCW guy†won a WWF belt in the WWF’s backyard.
The belt soon ended up around the waist of Jeff Hardy and that kicked off the belt’s most high-flying feud between Hardy and Rob Van Dam. The pair spent the summer battling over the belt until Van Dam came out as the eventual winner. Van Dam was positioned as an upper mid-carder and thus brought the level of the belt up with him. He spent the fall defending against top guys like Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle and The Rock before dropping the belt to certifiable main eventer Undertaker in December.
With The Undertaker as champion, the 24/7 shenanigans came to a virtual stand still. He spent the winter as champion and lost the Championship to Tough Enough winner Maven Huffman in an effort to get Maven and the entire Tough Enough franchise over. With Maven as champion the old comedy routine started up again, culminating with a show-long story at WrestleMania X8 that saw Maven escape with his belt via escape in a taxi. Shortly afterwards, Maven was drafted to SmackDown! during the initial brand expansion draft as a means to bring the Hardcore division to the blue brand. Unfortunately for Maven, Raven beat him for the belt just days before the expansion would go into effect and would take the Championship with him to RAW
Brand Expansion
Raven would take the belt to RAW and promptly drop it to Bubba Ray Dudley at the earliest opportunity. The belt would take on a very ECW-lite feel with guys like Raven, Bubba, Justin Credible, Tommy Dreamer and Stevie Richards as top contenders for the belt.
Bubba spent the month of April as Champion and amassed nine reigns as champion, thanks to the 24/7 rule and the house show loop. Stevie Richards would take over as the standard bearer of the division after beating Bubba on the April 29 RAW. Richards would get a decent push as champion and was briefly paired up with Women’s Champion Jazz. He would hold the belt twelve times during his reign. Once his month as champion was done Bradshaw took over as the guy. He introduced a new title belt design, featuring the Texas flag. He carried the gold through June and most of July until Tommy Dreamer became the belt’s final go-to-guy. He replaced the Texas flag look with a New York license plate image. On August 26, 2002, in Madison Square Garden, Tommy Dreamer defended the WWE Hardcore Championship for the last time. He lost in hardcore bout to his friend and ECW alum Rob Van Dam, who was already the unified Intercontinental and European Champion. After the bout the two men hugged and Dreamer wept.
The Perspective
The Hardcore Title has its ups and downs; good points and bad points. But the one thing you can’t argue is that provided something different for the mid-card and low card to fight over. I know some people have said that the Hardcore belt should be brought to ECW to help distinguish the brand, but I believe the era of nightly hardcore or extreme matches has passed. Plus ECW’s roster is so thin that Mabel is the number three guy in the promotion right now. With that talent level who is left to carry the Hardcore belt? Perhaps a return of the Zombie is in order.
For this week the vault is closed
Linked to the Pulse
SK continues his run of great WWE 24/7 content, this he reviews the often forgotten Kollision in Korea show
Brashear talks about the really good Raven-Sabu feud from TNA in 2004. It included Sonjay Dutt in what I think has been is only meaningful role since he’s been in TNA
Iain answers more questions, this time he breaks down the worst Cruiserweight Champions like it was a bad Vh1 special
This Day in History
I figured if we are talking history around here we should pay homage to what has happened on this very day in the years gone by. It will either make you long for the old days or be happy for what we have now.
1969 – Mad Dog & Butcher Vachon defeated Crusher & Dick the Bruiser for the AWA Tag Team title
1993 – SummerSlam was held at the The Palace of Auburn Hills, MI
1993 – Dustin Rhodes defeated Rick Rude in a tournament final for the WCW U.S. Heavyweight title
1995 – Paul Orndorf defeated Vader in a locker room brawl and Vader left WCW
1995 – The Young Guns defeated The Death Riders for the SSW Tag Team title
1996 – Sid defeated Jerry Lawler for the USWA Unified Heavyweight title
1998 – SummerSlam was held at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY
1998 – Hunter Hearst Helmsley defeated Rocky Maivia for the WWF Intercontinental title
1998 – Billy Gunn & the Road Dogg defeated Mankind for the WWF Tag title
2002 – The SAT defeated Stormin Norman & Larry McKeeny for the USA Pro-Wrestling Tag Team Titles
The Assignment
It’s important to know your history to know where you have come from and where you are going. Nova implemented history assignments for the students of the developmental territories months ago so they would know pro wrestling’s history and they would learn just how many moves Nova did create. I feel this is a smashing idea and every week I will assign a book or DVD for you to check out and learn from. They are not only educational but very entertaining.
A month or so back I did an article on heel prototypes in wrestling. Shortly after I finished that column I found Greg Oliver and Steven Johnson’s book The Pro Wrestling Hal of Fame: The Heels, their third in a series following books on Canadians and Tag Teams, respectively. This book is definitely a history book. Written in chapters and segmented into profiles of various wrestlers, I doesn’t read at all like a novel, but rather almost like a reference guide. For a wrestling history guy like me it was a very good read but could be a dry read for someone looking for more of a story. The book is broken down into sections about who the authors consider the top twenty five heels and then goes into various heel prototypes and who they consider their greatest practitioners. The categories they include are The Pioneers, The Madmen, The Egoists, The Monsters, The Technicians, The Connivers, The Tough Guys and The Foreigners, many of the same categories I employed in my recent column. The authors choice of wrestlers leans much to the older generations, including profiles on many stars from the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s that I and I am sure many other “smarks†have never heard of. The only recent talent profiled from this millennium are Edge, Randy Orton, Triple H, JBL and Kane. There also seems to be some noticeable omissions, guys like Raven, Kamala and Kevin Sullivan, but overall it’s a helluva compilation. If you want some good history and road stories about wrestling this is a good pick-up, but don’t come into expecting a novel.
