The Hardcore Championship was introduced on November 2nd, 1998. Vince McMahon presented the broken, tattered bastardisation of the winged eagle championship belt to Mankind for purely storyline purposes. Initially it was defended as part of the same storyline but after being won by the Big Bossman and passed on to Roaddogg, the championship became a regularly defended midcard title with a fun niche gimmick.
Considering the title existed for less than four years it had an impressive number of eras. It might be nostalgia talking but I’m partial to its original run being held by Al Snow, Hardcore Holly, Bossman and Roaddogg, defended regularly on PPV and on Raw. The most popular and enduring version is Crash Holly’s addition of the 24/7 rule which led to him and Steve Blackman achieving popularity and success. The most successful era has to be 2001’s main eventers phase where in the first half of the year former WWF Champions Kane and Big Show feuded over and held the title and then later in the year when Rob Van Dam defended the title against Kurt Angle, The Rock, Chris Jericho and others at the very top of the card before losing it to The Undertaker. Its final era reverted back to something similar to its original incarnation with Bubba Ray Dudley, Bradshaw and Tommy Dreamer forming the Hardcore division on Raw before the title was officially abandoned, being absorbed into the Intercontinental Championship on August 26th, 2002 just like the European title was the month before.
In my farewell to the European title I asked whether that was the right thing to do and shared my opinion that it was. Conversely, I don’t think getting rid of the Hardcore title was a good idea. It had lost its impact for sure but the very nature of the title meant that reinvention was easy and off the top of my head I have ideas for how they could have revitalised the title and made it fresh again. Worse, while the brand split itself created a lot of opportunities for fresh faces on both Raw and Smackdown to break through and get TV time, losing the Hardcore title had the opposite effect. The championship in its time allowed people who otherwise wouldn’t have gotten any TV time or fan support to flourish and without it, a whole crop of lower card guys no longer had anything to fight over and it left a void.
The Hardcore Championship’s legacy is a lot stronger than the European title’s. It’s made appearances in the years since as a trophy and prop and always gets a reaction from the fans. I think many people could and would support the return of the title with or without the 24/7 rule. I am, by evidenced by this website’s very existence, a huge fan of the Attitude era so that always informs my feelings on these things but I loved the Hardcore title and always will.
