Who is the greatest WWE HARDCORE champion of all-time?

[CM Steel]

With all due respect to the WCW HARDCORE championship. The WWF/E's division was a little more edger & extreme. The origins of the WWF/E HARDCORE title came about when "Mr. McMahon" awarded Mick Foley as Mankind the belt in the fall of 1998 during the infamous attitude era. So from 1998-2002 the WWF/E HARDCORE championship wasn't the most Prestigeous title in the WWF/E, but it was the most respected title in the WWF/E during that time. A championship that started off as a joke that ended up getting defended 24/7.

But my question is, who is the greatest WWE HARDCORE champion of all-time? Let's take a look at a list of top names who've held the title shall we...

-Mick Foley
-Hardcore Holly
-Steve Blackman
-Raven
-Bradshaw
-Road Dogg
-Crash Holly (R.I.P.)
-The Big Boss Man (R.I.P.)
-Test (R.I.P.)
-Rob Van Dam
-Jeff Hardy
-The Undertaker (Yes)
-Al Snow
-The Big Show

All strong names while holding on to the HARDCORE championship. If I had to give an answer it would have to be...Steve Blackman! Because whenever he defended the title it was like a decent "one man show". Steve Blackman was made for the HARDCORE division! It was the only WWF/E title that he ever held.

But in your own opinion. Who is the greatest WWE HARDCORE champion of all-time?

 

[keith hall]

i would have to say Raven...he was involved in some memorable matches and held the title more times than anyone else...also the triple-threat-at WMX7 was amazing...seeing ravens little body try to hurt kane and big show was funny!!!

 

[RJJ]

Rob Van Dam. During his reign as the hardcore champion, he beat some of the greatest superstars ever. Names like Undertaker, Kurt Angle, and The Rock.

Or it could be the original hardcore champion Mick Foley, since they made that title after him.

 

[GameOver]

toss up between Raven and Crash Holly between them they held the title 49 times
noone else even comes close.

Raven gets the nod because of his WrestleMania X7 match against Kane and The Big Show and the fact he held the title 5 more times then Crash. But you gotta love Crash he was sop damn entertaining far more so then Raven.

Answer : Raven (only just)

 

[MWRedskins]

eh, depends on what makes great. if it's not losing the title for a long time then Undertaker makes sense. if it's not losing often than RVD and Blackmen makes sense. if winning the title...a lot makes the champion great then Raven and Crash make sense, but for me, I think the winner is Crash and the reason is simple. the Hardcore title was already decent, but when Crash made the 24/7 rule, the matches became much more entertaining as we seen title matches all over the place and I can still remember them. my favorite moment was Crash pinned while he was asleep.

 

[justtxyank]

With all due respect to the WCW HARDCORE championship. The WWF/E's division was a little more edger & extreme.

Was it? They were both pretty stupid attempts to capitalize on ECW's popularity. The WWF treated it on air exactly like they felt about it behind the scenes, even making the Hardcore title belt itself a joke. The old WWF championship wrapped up. The 24/7 rule?

I can't call any Hardcore champion great personally as the whole thing was a bunch of nonsense. But, if I must choose, I guess I'd take Mankind simply because he fit the role.

On the whole though I think your dismissal of the WCW Hardcore Division was unwarranted. It had better matches and wasn't treated as running punchline the same way the WWF Hardcore Title was.

 

[Starkist]

In terms of who is the best can always vary. It is a matter of people's opinions and so far everyone's had been good choices. For me, I'm going to go out of the way and say Screaming Norman Smiley. Yes. He wasn't the most technical guy to grace the ring. The thing that makes him the best in my eyes is his entertainment. The sole fact he didn't even want to win while ending up winning in the end read pure entertainment.

Sure, guys like Raven, RVD, and Mick Foley made the title that much more important. The thing is to me, Norman made it fun. Once the 24\7 rule was applied the trifle did lose its credibility. This is why I pick Screaming Norman Smiley as my opinion of the best. Pure entertainment. For a runner up I'm going to say no one else besides Raven.

 

[MWRedskins]

I actually liked the WCW Hardcore title. 1) it was a nice looking belt. 2) unlike the other titles in wcw, it had the current logo on it and 3) some of the champions. the best being between Norman Smiley and Big Vito. the only issue I had with it was when they gave it to a guys who didn't deserve it or when they gave it to Meng who's contract was coming to an end.

 

[Antichrist]

Rob Van Dam v The Undertaker was the peak of the Hardcore Championship. Mick Foley being given the belt should have made the belt second only to the WWF Championship but he never had to defend it against S.C.S.A, The Rock, The Undertaker so the title became what the U.S Championship is now, the 4th title. The title was only relevant when it was feuded over by Hardy, RVD, Jericho, Angle, S.C.S.A, The Undertaker. From Invasion until The Undertaker lost to Maven was it's best era. It was the 3rd most relevant title beating the I.C, U.S, and European titles, and most of those feuds featured R.V.D, so I pick him.

 

[Code_Master]

I would have to say Bradshaw i remember one moment he had lost the belt due to the 24/7 rule and the guy who won it i cant remember who was talking about it and BANG clotheline from hell 3-count.
His unpredictability just made him so fun to watch and in the end i really enjoyed him as hardcore champion

 

[#heel420]

Raven, pretty much as soon as he re-debuted in WWF he made that division his. What was he a 26 time champion?

Or

RVD, he brought the division to another level and was a great Hardcore Champion in his time.

 

[Aquaman6686]

The Hardcore Championship was a joke. It was a decent tertiary title, but I always felt the European Championship did the same job much better. But to answer the question, I'd have to go with Bradshaw. He didn't hold the title as many times as Raven or Crash Holly did, but I felt his title defenses and victories were always fun, and I liked when he redesigned the title into the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship.

 

[GameOver]

The Hardcore Championship was a joke. It was a decent tertiary title, but I always felt the European Championship did the same job much better. But to answer the question, I'd have to go with Bradshaw. He didn't hold the title as many times as Raven or Crash Holly did, but I felt his title defenses and victories were always fun, and I liked when he redesigned the title into the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship.

Joke or not, it was entertaining some of the most entertaining matches and moments revolved around the hardcore title and all the backstage stuff that revolved around it too.
Like Molly Holly backstabbing Hurricane only to be hit in the face with a door by Christian who then got jumped in the parking lot and lost it to Maven (i believe) all in the space of an hour.

 

[HBsam31]

I was not a big fan of this title. It was kind of a joke, but I have to admit it was an entertaining title. I think Raven is up there as one of the top champions, and I also agree with Steve Blackman. I wouldn't call them great champions, but they were definitely entertaining matches when it was under 24/7 rules. I also have to make a mention of Mankind being the first champion. He is what the title should have been all about, and I wish he would have defended it more while he was champion. I will say WCW's title seemed to be taken more seriously, but that didn't really help me because I don't remember any of the champions besides The Sandman. The title was nicer, but that is about all that seemed better about that title.

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

I would say Raven. Mainly because I'm a big Raven mark. But also, he had some good matches for the title in a period where it was a joke that got passed around 24/7.

My favourite matches being:
- WMX-7: Triple Threat Raven vs Kane and Big Show
- Backlash 2001: Raven vs Rhyno

Also, does anyone remember the Raven's ninja angle? Some masked ninja would come out of nowhere to help Raven successfully retain the Hardcore title every week on RAW when it was being defended 24/7.

It was finally revealed to be Tori or something. And then we never heard of it again. This was at the peak of WWE dropping angles midway through. But that one actually had some potential. Actually, any time they ever really used Raven, it had potential. They just struggled to find room for him. Shortly after he joined WWE, they bought WCW and then had too much talent to know what to do with.

But for me, Raven was probably the greatest.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Eh...kinda like asking who had more STDs than anyone else.

In terms of prestige, it's one of the most worthless titles fielded by a major wrestling company in history. In the nearly 4 year history of its existence, the title changed hands 234 different times. It was introduced during a time when titles, frankly, meant less than they ever have before or since. Off the top of my head, the only title that comes to mind that's even more worthless is the TNA Knockout Tag Team Championship.

As to the subject of the thread, however, it depends. If you go by reigns, then Raven would be the choice with a total of 27 reigns with it. If you go by length, Steve Blackman held it 6 times for a total length of 172 days. The longest single reign with the title was The Undertaker's only run with the title, which lasted 58 days.

So I'll probably go with Taker. With his 1 run, he's tied for the 7th longest amount of time as champion with Crash Holly.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

I personally am gonna go with RVD on this one, mostly because he had the most memorable reign in my opinion. From July - December 01 he was pretty much synonymous with that title, had great matches as Hardcore champion, had some WWF title matches as Hardcore champion, main evented 2 PPV's and established himself as a player during his time as Hardcore champion, all within his first 6 months of being on WWF television.

Taker or Foley would be the greatest wrestlers to hold the hardcore title but in both cases their title reign was largely forgetful. Taker's title reign was mostly used to help get Maven over (something that didn't happen) and Foley's title reign was given to him as a prop for McMahon to screw him over later. I don't recall Foley defending the title often as he was mostly fighting for the WWF title at the time.

RVD was established in WWF during his hardcore title reign, for that he gets the prize in my opinion.

 

[Wolf Pac]

For me, it's Crash Holly & Steve Blackman. Someone mentioned that the peak of the Hardcore Title was when Undertaker defended it against RVD, I disagree. The peak of the Hardcore Title was 2000 when the 24/7 rule was introduced that year. The title was a joke but the 24/7 rule made it somewhat relevant and the most entertaining it's ever been when everybody chased both Crash & Blackman around for months but they always managed to escape with the belt in the end. In 2001, the title was entertaining even then but by that time the title was hot-potatoed more than ever, there was no one guy that was main focus of the division like Crash & Blackman were in 2000 - it would go from Raven to this guy, back to Raven to Big Show to the boom operator, back to Big Show to Kane to Rhyno to Test to Mike Awesome to Jeff Hardy and so on. And by the end of 2001-2002, the 24/7 rule aswell as the title was slowly dying out. In 2000, it was traded back & forth a lot but always ended up back in Crash or Blackman's hands at the end of the day, which made it more fun. And when guys like Mankind, RVD & Undertaker held it, it really wasn't about the belt at all, it was more about the guy holding it than the belt itself, they really didn't need the belt. For Crash & Blackman, this was what got them over, this was their WWF Championship. Without their runs nobody would even care about or mention or remember those two to this day.

 

[King Patrick Star]

I’m going to go with:

Mankind because he was the first, and technically last, Hardcore Champion.

Steve Blackman because he held the Title for a combined 172 days over 6 reigns.

Raven because he held the Title 27 Times.

These 3 to me are the most memorable WWE Hardcore Champions.

 

[Mustang Sally]

But, if I must choose, I guess I'd take Mankind simply because he fit the role.

That makes sense. After all, we're not talking about the guy who was the greatest wrestler overall, but rather, the one who stood out most as Hardcore champ. For that reason, Mankind is a logical choice because we associate him so closely with the concept.

That said, my choice is Crash Holly. Unlike performers such as Undertaker and Rob Van Dam, who were after bigger game and world titles, the Hardcore belt seemed the only one Crash was suited for. He was the little guy....the underdog who was in there scrapping for his life.....willing to do it 24/7.....and once in a while coming out with some glory.

Yes, the "glory" was only the Hardcore championship, but the effort to win it and hold it against all odds was the definition of Crash Holly's career.

 

[Eyebrows]

I'll throw my name into the Crash Holly camp as well. He's the one I thought of first when reading the thread title. If the hardcore title was a joke title then Crash managed to wring as much humour out of it as possible. I think he was excellent in that role.

Certainly there are better wrestlers that have held the title but they've all done greater things. Crash is the one who feels synonymous with it to me.