WCW's Hardcore Division
When one thinks of professional wrestling in the mid to late 1990s, a clear analogy of the wild west certainly can come to mind. While Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation and Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling were far and away, the big two, setting ratings and live attraction records along the way, it may have been Paul Heyman’s Extreme Championship Wrestling that changed the business the most. It’s no secret that much of how the vaunted Attitude Era came about was due to the more realistic and adult storylines that were prevalent in ECW. From the nuanced story between Tommy Dreamer and Raven (which we covered in detail here) to the more outlandish stories such as the romance between Beulah and Kimona, ECW ran the gamut. But for the uninitiated, all anyone knew of ECW was what the legendary Jim Cornette would refer to as “garbage wrestling.” And yes, there were a number of ridiculous ‘furniture’ matches, usually involving New Jack in some way, shape or form, but ECW was so much more than that.
This all leads to our topic today when hardcore wrestling became the flavour du jour of both the WWF and WCW at the end of the millennium. It’s interesting to look back at how it evolved in the WWF, starting with the broken remains of an old WWF ‘Big Eagle’ Title being presented to Mankind as a gift from Mr. McMahon, to the much-beloved run of Crash Holly and the 24/7 Rule of the time. But we are here today to discuss what the other big company did with their hardcore division.
While WCW had no definitive start date for their ‘Hardcore’ division, an influx of former ECW talent certainly played a part in early 1999. Talent such as Bam Bam Bigelow, The Sandman (whose venture to Atlanta and back home was brilliantly documented by Chris here), Mikey Whipwreck (who wrestled almost exclusively in the Cruiserweight division) and others had given WCW more of an edge as they began losing the rating battle to the WWF on Monday nights. One of the earlier high-profile hardcore matches in WCW was at Spring Stampede 1999 between Bam Bam Bigelow and Hardcore Hak, the man formerly known as The Sandman. Whether it is a coincidence or not, Spring Stampede is widely considered to be the last truly great event that WCW ever produced.
From this point on, hardcore matches began being seen on a semi-regular basis on Nitro and Thunder, with the occasional PPV appearance, such as the following month’s Slamboree which would again see Bam Bam battle in a hardcore bout, this time against one of the future faces of the division, Brian Knobs. Obviously best known for being one half of The Nasty Boyz, Knobs was forced out on his own when Jerry Sags was forced into retirement due to an injury.
All of this would lead to the Inaugural Junkyard Invitational at the 1999 Bash At The Beach, a doomed from the get-go concept that bore no good will towards the world. The match took place in a legitimate junkyard which had not been gimmicked, causing numerous injuries to the participants. Those taking part was a big mish-mash of different divisions and talent, including Ciclope (the real one, not Dean Malenko), Jerry Flynn, Hardcore Hak, Brian Knobs, Johnny Grunge & Rocco Rock, Silver King, David Taylor, Steven Regal, Hugh Morrus, Mikey Whipwreck, Horace Hogan and the eventual winner, Fit Finlay. For his efforts, Finlay was awarded a trophy made of junk, not exactly something you would see in the WWE Hall Of Fame anytime soon.
Junkyard Hardcore Invitational Match from Bash at the Beach 1999. Credit: WWE Network
While from here the Hardcore division in WCW would just sort of linger, it would be later in the same year when Eric Bischoff lost power and the team of Vince Russo & Ed Ferrara took over that it would finally be given some semblance of legitimacy. Of course, Russo and Ferrara were coming right in from their WWF run, where the Hardcore division may not have been taken in an overly serious manner, it was still a highlight of the programming at the time. This would lead to the creation of the WCW Hardcore Championship, in which the first winner would be declared at the first WCW PPV to take place in Canada, November’s Mayhem, which had replaced the World War 3 show from previous years.
The first official WCW Hardcore Champion would be a man who had caught the eye of Russo & Ferrara with his wacky antics, Norman Smiley, who would defeat Brian Knobbs at Mayhem. Despite the fact that Smiley was an exceptionally talented technical wrestler, it was his personality and ability to showcase fear with his over-the-top antics and screams, plus the insanely over “Big Wiggle” dance moves, that finally gave him a showcase in WCW. Smiley would go on to become the longest-reigning Hardcore Champion in WCW, putting him in the top three most notable Champions in the division’s short history. Smiley would frequently defend the Championship covered in either football or hockey equipment and the jersey of whatever town that WCW was performing in.
Smiley’s first reign would last from the title’s inception until January 2000, where he would be dethroned by Brian Knobs on an episode. From here, the title would bounce around on a semi-regular basis until all three members of 3 Count, Evan Karagias, Shane Helms and Shannon Moore, would defeat Knobs, and be allowed to enact the Freebird rule in future defenses. They would drop the title back to Knobs at Uncensored 2000 when he defeated all three members to win the title back.
Of course, as has been frequently noted, the WCW Reboot on the April 10th, 2000 episode of Nitro saw all of the titles vacated. It was at this point that the legendary Terry Funk became a fixture of the division, winning the strap at Spring Stampede by defeating ‘Screamin’’ Norman Smiley. From this point, it becomes clear that the Hardcore Championship is much of an after-thought when it comes to booking, with even Eric Bischoff winning the gold from Terry Funk on the June 5th, 2000 episode of Nitro (yes, Eric Bischoff holds a victory over former NWA Champion Terry Funk).
Terry Funk slammed Eric Bischoff with a trash can during their Nitro match on June 5, 2000. Credit WWE Network
In terms of notability, there are really only two more moments involving the WCW Hardcore Championship, both of which go down in the history of the ridiculousness of professional wrestling. The first would occur when Lance Storm would come into possession of the title on the July 24th, 2000 episode of Nitro. Storm would also be the holder of the United States Championship and the Cruiserweight Championship, and in an effort to get further heat on his Team Canada stable and character, he would rename all of the titles in his grasp. The United States Championship would become the Canadian Heavyweight Championship, the Cruiserweight title would be rechristened the 100KG and Under Championship, while the Hardcore title would get the real short end of the stick with the new name of the Saskatchewan Hardcore International Title (or S.H.I.T. for short because of Vince Russo.)
Finally, while WCW would not be gobbled up by the World Wrestling Federation until March 26, 2001, the Hardcore Title would see its end a few months beforehand. At WCW Sin, the January PPV that replaced Souled Out, arguably the most dangerous man in wrestling, Meng, would win the Hardcore Title in a triple threat match, defeating the champion Terry Funk as well as Crowbar. A week later, Meng would make his return to the WWF as Haku, participating in the Royal Rumble, while still the Champion. Unlike prior champions moving companies, like Ric Flair in 1991 or Madusa in 1995, no further mention would be made of the Championship and it would be quietly deactivated.
Looking back, the WCW Hardcore Championship was never meant to be taken seriously, but despite the outlandish work by Norman Smiley, it also never held a special spot in the fans’ minds like the WWF Hardcore Championship. It was clearly meant as a take-off on both ECW and the WWF’s hardcore division, but never really worked out. Outside of the Terry Funk, and I suppose the brief reigns of Bam Bam Bigelow and Shane Douglas, no one that held the title had a history with the hardcore side of wrestling. It was destined to fail from its very inception. If nothing else, at least it can be used as a bit of trivia in that it is the only title in the history of wrestling that Brian Knobs held the same number of times as Terry Funk.
