Should WWE Bring back the Hardcore Championship?

[123NewChamp]

Hello everyone, I don't know who all watched the Monday Night Wars on the WWE network which can be purchased for the low low price of $9.99; but, it dealt with the impact that ECW had on the Monday night war, and it's impact on the edgy content it had on the attitude era and WWE's hardcore division.

But anyway, I want to know do anyone want to see the hardcore title come back to the WWE? Personally for me, that's a yes hands down. I think it will make things interesting in WWE. Also I believe it will make a great opportunity for superstars who are not used on the card as much, and also help superstars make a name for themselves. Wrestlers who have made names for themselves in a hardcore environment in the past were (Screamin Norman Smiley, Crash Holly, Steve Blackman, and Hardcore Holly.)

But I want to see WWE bring back the hardcore title. I would love to see Shaemus, Cesaro, Dean Ambrose, and The Wyatt Family in a hardcore environment. Some are crazy, and others just love to fight. I believe WWE got the talent and the wrestlers to do it.

Would you like to see the hardcore division come back? And who would you like to see compete in the hardcore division and make it relevant again?

 

[Slash-LN]

No I wouldn't.
It was fine for the Attitude era and we had some interesting moments especially with the 24/7 thing but that is all done and over with.

There are enough titles as it is and if I were to bring back a title the Hardcore title wouldn't be at the top of my list.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

The Hardcore championship made sense in a time when WWE was looking to throw the ECW fans a bone, but the Attitude Era has come and gone, and the Hardcore title has no place in a PG-13 world.

 

[WBL]

I want to say that I loved the Attitude Era, and I loved the Hardcore title. Hardcore matches were some of my favorite matches. I loved the insanity of going anywhere and fighting anytime.

That being said, no, in today's WWE, it wouldn't work. Not with the PG rating.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

The Hardcore Championship barely had any relevance during the Attitude Era and there'd be little to no point in having it return today.

I don't know if the Hardcore Championship was created in the hopes of luring ECW fans to watching WWF or if it was created as a means of poking fun at the "garbage wrestling" style of ECW. Seeing as how ECW wasn't even remotely a threat to either WWF or WCW and that WWF was drawing record ratings during the late 90s and very early 2000s, I'd be more likely to go with the latter. When you consider the nonsense the title devolved into when the 24/7 rule was implemented and the fact that it was a destroyed WWF Championship replica, I'm leaning all the more towards the latter. It's hard to take a championship seriously when the company would rather use a busted version of a replica title rather than creating a championship belt for the division. The Hardcore Championship existed for less than 4 years, yet it changed hands 234 times. That's almost twice as many times as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and it's been in continuous existence for 51.5 years.

Besides, hardcore wrestling is no longer in style for various reasons. When you consider how many wrestlers have become dependent on drugs, especially pain killers, the number of them who could and can hardly walk because of the toll it took on their bodies, the extreme amounts of head trauma endured and how many of them have died because of the toll the business took on them physically & mentally, reinstating the Hardcore Championship is a backlash waiting to happen. No wrestling company with any degree of concern for the well being of the wrestlers still allows unprotected chair shots to the head, WWE is majorly focused on avoiding head & neck trauma altogether to such a degree that moves like the piledriver are no longer used, WWE no longer has wrestlers purposely cutting themselves open due to concern spreading diseases, etc. Although WWE's shown time & time again they can still put on great hardcore/no holds barred/no disqualification matches without resorting to shots to the head or blood, there's still no reason for the Hardcore Championship to be reinstated.

 

[chuckmdubya]

I'd love to see it back. But I doubt we'd ever see it again because of how they are all PG now. I did really like the 24/7 thing that was cool.

The US title is pretty much worthless, it signifies nothing, and has no real point. They should replace it with a hardcore title. Make it be the old Spinner belt or something. The fans get the same amount of entertainment form a Sheamus US title match as they would if he didn't have the title. At least in a hardcore championship match, you'd be seeing some hardcore wrestling.

 

[Mudlup50]

I personally don't think so, I get why you'd want it but they're already flopping titles around(IC and Divas) could you imagine if they brought back the belt that was designed to be passed around? Where would it rank in the hierarchy? Under the US? Above the IC? In between them? Being a hardcore champion means nothing at all and to be frank I feel like it never did.

This goes completely against the majority of the IWC's opinion that they should remove belts. I'd like a new belt just to give people something to do. The hardcore belt would be nice just for that purpose, could you imagine Natalya winning it? It'd add interest to the show but I feel like it'd be a cheap increase

 

[The Boss]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Absolutely not. Hardcore wrestling was the worst thing that ever happened to the sport and caused two of the biggest problems that we are still dealing will today. The first is the loss of title prestige. The titles were changing hands faster than hot potatos. The hardcore title made it even worse with it's 24/7 rule. Another problem is the fact that it helped to take focus away from the matches. Cameras were following wrestlers to malt shops and fast food joints so they could get pinned " by surprise" without having a match and all sorts of time was wasted that could have been used for wrestling.

 

[Softcore Holly]

The HC title would be good for some laughs and a way to give guys that might never hold a regular title a "achievement" but that would be pretty much it. While that's necessarily not a bad thing it still feels like they've haven't quite figured out how to properly balance out air time for all their current titles, and I would much rather they give whatever air time they would making silly segments with the HC to the other mid-card belts.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Absolutely not. The Hardcore Championship should never be brought back. The ridiculous 24/7 rule made that belt have zero prestige. You could end up with several title changes in the same night! Nothing does more damage to a belt's importance than constant title changes and that's the only thing that would happen if this belt came back. WWE should worry about making the Intercontinental and United States Championships matter before they even think about bringing back an old title. In fact, I'd argue the Hardcore Championship would be dead last on the list if I were to rank the former WWE Championships in order of which should have the highest priority of being brought back. Hardcore matches are fine every now and then, but we don't need the belt at all. Keep it in the past where it belongs.

 

[Mudlup50]

Reign number 100 started on April 1st 2002, there was 27 reigns before April ended! By the beginning of June that number jumps to 56. Are you seriously saying you want the least prestigious belt to return? Here think about this for a second, 134 reigns in less than 5 months. If you go to it's Wikipedia page they call it a joke like 6 times before you even get to the list. No one was made a legend by holding the belt...which should clear it up pretty well.

If they bring it back I can see the first month already. Belt awarded to Dean Ambrose, within 20 minutes Seth Rollins has it, Cena beats him up within 10 minutes, Cena gets attacked by Kane who takes the belt for 15 minutes, who then gets attacked by Cena again just to lose it to Orton who loses it to Cena who before he can even clear the ring gets attacked by the New Nation. Kofi is champ going into Superstars when he loses it to Cesaro who loses it to Natalya who manages to hold it till Smackdown when she loses it to whatever diva she beat on Raw who loses it to Fandango who holds it till Saturday where you have to have the WWE Network to watch him lose it to Adam Rose. By the time Raw comes on we watch Adam Rose losing the belt to Heath Slater who loses it to the bunny....how about we just stop here.

I stumbled on a new point while making that, the 24/7 rule and the WWE Network...I could see them bringing it back as a cheap way to get people to get the WWE Network.

Also only 1 company didn't get abolish their hardcore championship after 2001. That one promotion is located in British Columbia Canada, ECCW? Why would WWE bring it back?

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I enjoyed the Hardcore Championship, and the period it was around was my favourite time in wrestling history. However, while I always use in in Universe Mode on WWE video games, I don't think it will come back in real life WWE, nor should it.

At the moment, the PG rating of WWE wouldn't allow a Hardcore division in the company. The matches generally involved wrestlers hitting each other in the head with weapons over and over again, which ian't allowed in WWE these days anyway with the TV rating and also the concerns over concussions and drug dependancy.

I loved watching the crazy 24/7 Hardcore Title matches, they were very entertaining and it did give alot of the lower-card roster a championship to fight for, getting them TV time and it was popular with the crowd. However, it's just not suitable for where the company is today and I highly doubt we'll ever see it return.

Also, I don't really think many of the current roster would really be suited for a Hardcore division anyway. Dean Ambrose certainly would be, but he's top tier talent now, as is Cesaro and Sheamus who were also mentioned by the OP. Bray Wyatt is another would would fit in with the Hardcore title, but is far above that now.

If I had to pick from the current roster I'd go with guys like Luke Harper and Erick Rowan, Rob Van Dam (simply for his ECW connection) and Wade Barrett. but that's about it. If you wanted to have a strong Hardcore division you'd need to look at bringing in talent from outside the main roster, be it NXT, TNA (Rhino, Abyss, Bully Ray etc) or the indies.

But like I said...it isn't gonna happen.

 

[Trance Metaphor]

Haha, the Hardcore Championship was basically a title created to mock ECW. It wasn't meant to be taken seriously, therefore I think it would only make the contenders for that title seem like silly clowns. If you look at its history, some guys won the title more than once in the same night and only held the title for a few seconds each. That's laughable. Why throw around a "prop" title in every sense of the word just to stack up title reigns on your resume when you can have properly sanctioned hardcore matches anyway? Look at all the matches Dean Ambrose has been having. No Hardcore Championship would do that justice unless the Hardcore title WAS used like every other title in the WWE. Even then, what's the point of it? I doubt Hardcore matches would help propel wrestlers anyway because it's more of a stipulation rather than a regular bout. Part of the magic in today's WWE is in those types of matches if they're held occasionally. So yeah, I don't think the WWE should bring it back. If there was any title that the WWE should have brought back, it would have been the Cruiserweight Championship.

 

[Skinsley]

I would have it back.

I think it would be a perfect title to add to certain ppvs and to keep some comedy value in the WWE.
Bringing back the falls count anywhere Hardcore rules specifically can keep unused wrestlers relevant, give them an excuse for a scene here and there vs the current champion and put some action into the show between lower card matches.

Imagine Heath Slater as the Hardcore champion for example. A championship match happens every month and a half or so, but for between 30 seconds and 5 minuits of every Raw or Smackdown, he's walking around backstage, and a random character attacks him. Legends, unused wrestlers, NXT talent, Divas, El Torito, Hornswoggle? A Returning John Morrison?

The only risk is the possibility of tainting a title that was retired with Mick Foley, the legend himself.

 

[Aquaman6686]

The only risk is the possibility of tainting a title that was retired with Mick Foley, the legend himself.

Rob Van Dam was the final Hardcore Champion, not Mick Foley. Foley's "reactivation" of the title and awarding it to himself and Edge in 2006 was only part of the WWE vs. ECW storyline and the title was never officially reactivated.