List of WCW Hardcore Champions

File:Norman Smiley and Billy Kidman.jpeg

Norman Smiley (right) was the first WCW Hardcore Champion.

The WCW Hardcore Championship was a professional wrestling Hardcore Championship contested for in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). During late 1999, WCW promoted various hardcore matches, bouts where there were no disqualifications or countouts, that mainly involved Norman Smiley and Brian Knobs. The developing rivalry between the two wrestlers led WCW to announce the creation of the WCW Hardcore Championship in November 1999. In January 2001, the champion Meng signed a contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) after his WCW contract expired. Shortly afterwards, the promotion filed for bankruptcy and the WWF purchased all assets of WCW, and as a result, all WCW Championship copyrights were also property of the WWF. After the purchase, the WWF used the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and WCW World Tag Team Championship in the The Invasion storyline, in which former WCW wrestlers feuded with original WWF wrestlers before WCW's purchase, however, other WCW titles, including the WCW Hardcore Title, were not used.

Title reigns were determined by professional wrestling hardcore match types with wrestlers involved in pre-existing scripts feuds, plots and storylines or were awarded the title due to scripted circumstances. Wrestlers were portrayed as either villains or fan favorites as they followed a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a hardcore wrestling type match or series of matches for the championship. The inaugural champion was Norman Smiley, who defeated Brian Knobs at Mayhem. Before the promotion's purchase, the title was vacant, though, Meng was the final wrestler to hold the championship. The title was won in Canadian municipalities and in American states. Smiley held the title the longest at 51 days, and at less than one day, Carl Oullete has the shortest title reign. Brian Knobs has won the title on three occasions, the most in the championship's history; this also ties with the number of times the title was vacated. Overall, there were 18 reigns.

History

#	Wrestler	Reigns	Date	Days held	Location	Event	Notes
1	Norman Smiley	1	November 21, 1999		Toronto, Ontario	Mayhem (1999)	Defeated Brian Knobs in the finals of a tournament to crown the first champion.
2	Brian Knobs	1	January 12, 2000		Erie, PA	Thunder	This title change aired on tape delay
3	Bam Bam Bigelow	1	February 7, 2000		Tulsa, OK	Nitro
4	Brian Knobs	2	February 20, 2000		San Francisco, CA	SuperBrawl (2000)
5	Shane Helms, Evan Karagias, and Shannon Moore	1	February 28, 2000		Minneapolis, MN	Nitro	Helms, Karagias, and Moore, known as the 3 Count stable, defeated Knobs simultaneously in a match, and as a result, WCW allowed the Freebird Rule in which all three wrestlers were able to defend the title.
6	Brian Knobs	3	March 19, 2000		Miami, FL	Uncensored (2000)
—	Vacated	-	April 10, 2000	-	Denver, CO	N/A	WCW Presidents Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff vacated every WCW championship during WCW's reboot.
7	Terry Funk	1	April 16, 2000		Chicago, IL	Spring Stampede (2000)	Defeated Norman Smiley to win the vacant title.
8	Shane Douglas	1	May 22, 2000		Grand Rapids, MI	Nitro
9	Terry Funk	2	May 23, 2000		Saginaw, MI	Thunder
10	Eric Bischoff	1	June 5, 2000		Atlanta, GA	Nitro
11	Big Vito and Johnny the Bull	1	June 6, 2000		Knoxville, TN	Thunder	WCW President Eric Bischoff awarded Vito and Johnny the title, and he announced that the Freebird Rule was in effect for this title reign, allowing both wrestlers to defend the title. This title reign aired on tape delay.
12	Big Vito	2	June 19, 2000		Billings, MT	Nitro	Defeated Johnny The Bull to be named Vito the sole champion.
13	Lance Storm	1	July 24, 2000		Cleveland, OH	Nitro	Storm renames championship "Saskatchewan Hardcore International Title" shortly after winning it.
14	Carl Ouellet	1	August 14, 2000		Kelowna, British Columbia	Nitro	Storm awarded Ouellet the title.
15	Norman Smiley	2	August 14, 2000		Kelowna, British Columbia	Nitro
—	Vacated	-	September 25, 2000	-	Uniondale, NY	Nitro	The title was vacated by WCW Commissioner Mike Sanders.
16	Reno	1	October 2, 2000		San Francisco, CA	Nitro	Sgt. AWOL originally defeated Reno to win the title in a tournament final. However, Mike Sanders reversed the decision and awarded Reno the title.
17	Crowbar	1	November 8, 2000		Chicago, IL	Thunder	This title change aired on tape delay
18	Terry Funk	3	December 17, 2000		Washington, D.C.	Starrcade (2000)
19	Meng	1	January 14, 2001		Indianapolis, IN	Sin
—	Deactivated	-	January 21, 2001	-	-	N/A	Meng left WCW for WWF a week after winning the title to compete as Haku in the 2001 Royal Rumble and the title was abandoned..

List of combined reigns

Rank	Wrestler	No. of reigns	Combined days
1	Norman Smiley	2	93
2	Terry Funk	3	78
3	Brian Knobs	3	57
4	Big Vito	2	48
5	Reno	1	35
6	Crowbar	1	31
7	Lance Storm	1	21
8	Evan Karagias	1	20
	Shane Helms	1	20
	Shannon Moore	1	20
11	Bam Bam Bigelow	1	13
	Johnny the Bull	1	13
13	Meng	1	7
14	Eric Bischoff	1	1
15	Shane Douglas	1	1
16	Carl Ouellet	1	<1

See also

• WCW Hardcore Championship
• World Championship Wrestling

References

General

Specific

External links

• Wrestling-Titles.com
• Online World of Wrestling.com