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| WCW Hardcore Championship | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 The Hardcore belt | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Details | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Promotion | World Championship Wrestling | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Date established | July 11, 1999 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Date retired | January 21, 2001 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Other names | |||||||||||||||||||||
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TheWorld Championship Wrestling (WCW) Hardcore Championship was a title inWorld Championship Wrestling (WCW) that was active from July 11, 1999 to January 21, 2001.[1] The title was defended in Hardcore matches, in which there were few rules and restrictions and weapons were allowed. Eventually, the rules were changed so that matches began in the backstage area but would only end by pinfall in thering, but later were changed back to 'Falls Count Anywhere' rules. The belt was created in response to the growing popularity ofhardcore wrestling inNorth America.
The WCW Hardcore Title was a continuation from the WCW Hardcore Trophy thatFit Finlay won in the JunkyardBattle Royal that took place at the 1999Bash at the Beach pay-per-view. Shortly after the PPV, the trophy was seized by Eric Bischoff and removed from television. Afterwards Norman Smiley was crowned first official WCW hardcore champion.
The title lasted from 1999 to 2001. DuringBash at the Beach (1999),Fit Finlay won a "junkyard invitational" to be crowned "WCW Hardcore Champion". However, this would end up being a trophy and thus unrecognized in the lineage of the championship. The first recognized WCW Hardcore champion wasNorman Smiley, who defeatedBrian Knobs inToronto,Ontario, at the WCWpay-per-viewMayhem on November 21, 1999. Other notable champions are:3 Count, who won and defended the belt as a trio; Brian Knobbs, who held the belt a record three times and was the one to defeat 3 Count atUncensored 2000; and Terry Funk, a three-time champion who also held the title for a period of almost two months, from April to June 2000, when he was defeated byEric Bischoff at aWCW Monday Nitro in Atlanta, Georgia. Bischoff later awarded the title toBig Vito as a reward for helping him take it from Funk. In 2000, as part of a storyline where he renamed singles titles that he had won,Lance Storm won the Hardcore Championship and, as he had done with theCruiserweight andU.S. titles (renaming them the 100 Kilos and Under and Canadian championships), changed the name of the title to theSaskatchewan Hardcore International Title (or S.H.I.T for short).
The final hardcore champion in WCW wasMeng, who defeatedCrowbar and reigning champTerry Funk atWCW Sin on January 14, 2001. It was largely abandoned after Meng left the company to return to the WWF. Meng presented the championship toBarbarian as a gift at an independent wrestling event on January 21, 2001. The belt was not defended again nor was it featured on the final episode ofNitro which was also known as "Night of Champions". The title belt was handed over formally to the WWF upon the purchase of WCW. The title is now displayed in WWE headquarters inStamford, Connecticut.
Norman Smiley held the record for the longest official reign at 51 days. The shortest reign was that ofCarl Ouellet, who was awarded the title after Lance Storm gave it up but lost it 38 minutes later to Norman Smiley.Brian Knobbs and Funk hold the record for most reigns with three each and Smiley holds the record for most cumulative days as champion.