During an episode of his weekly ‘One Of A Kind’ podcast, ECW Legend Rob Van Dam spoke about feeling personally insulted when the World Wrestling Federation booked their Hardcore Division including title matches for the WWF Hardcore Championship like a joke and more like comedy segments.
Here’s what RVD had to say:
“I was insulted by it until I got [the WWF Hardcore Title].
I felt like they were making fun of us in ECW because we have this – in my opinion – superior art form, making wrestling cool to people that aren’t even wrestling fans.
Then I would see the Hardcore Title match on Monday Night RAW or whatever, and in my opinion, I thought they were making a joke out of it.
R.I.P. Crash Holly, but it pretty much meant the hot dog stand was gonna get tipped over, the Hardcore match was something to laugh at.”
The WWF Hardcore Championship was first awarded to Mick Foley on November 2nd 1998 and lasted until Rob Van Dam unified the title with the WWE Intercontinental Championship on August 26th 2002, including 240 reigns that were shared among 52 wrestlers who held that belt.
While WWF Veteran Crash Holly was probably the Superstar most synonymous with that title, he “only” won it on 22 different occasions, while WWF/ECW/WCW Legend Raven holds the record for the most WWF/WWE Hardcore title reigns with 27 wins.
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