The deranged superstar was encouraged to dress and act like a champion by McMahon, thus he competed against The World’s Most Dangerous Man wearing a tuxedo – because all champions wear cummerbunds.
This was not the Mankind we were used to seeing though. The following week, Mankind defended his new belt for the first time against Ken Shamrock. Mankind being Mankind, loved it and thanked McMahon by calling him “Dad”. The Hardcore Title was born on November 2 nd 1998 when Mr McMahon rewarded Mankind’s loyalty to him with a broken, taped-together version of the old ‘winged eagle’ WWE Title belt, only with ‘Hardcore Champion’ written on the tape which was holding it together.
Their rivalry culminated in an entertaining encounter at Summerslam 2000 when Blackman knocked McMahon off the Titantron in a scary looking spot which left the unconscious McMahon a sitting duck for Blackman to win the belt.īlackman's final two reigns came on non-televised house shows in early 2001 before he left the company the following year.īlackman holds the record for longest combined days as champion across his six reigns at 172 days, meaning no list regarding the Hardcore Championship would be complete without his name on it.If this was Triple H being handed a brand new title we’d all be furious… Steve Blackman may not be a renowned or well remembered former WWE superstar but he was synonymous with the Hardcore Championship during the year 2000.īlackman made use of the 24/7 rule meaning the title could be defended at any time, anywhere, so long as a referee was present to count the pinfall, to defeat Crash Holly for his first Hardcore Championship win, during Crash's title defence versus Al Snow.īlackman reigned as Hardcore Champion six times in total and his most memorable feud came against Shane McMahon.
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