9. WWF Hardcore Championship (2001): Jeff Hardy (c) vs. Rob Van Dam
One theme that runs through this list is how many of these title changes helped legitimize a wrestler as a top performer and brought them up to the next level in the company. During the 2001 InVasion angle, several WCW and ECW stars were introduced to a WWF audience. Ideally, WWF should have portrayed the invaders as equals to their own superstars, building them up and making several new stars in one fell swoop. As we all know, thats not at all what happened With one exception. For whatever reason, WWF decided to treat former ECW star Rob Van Dam as the real deal, giving him victories over several WWF wrestlers and protecting him despite being part of the Alliance. Fans got their first taste of RVD at SummerSlam 2001, when Van Dam toppled WWFs resident risk-taker Jeff Hardy for the Hardcore Championship. That match helped establish Van Dam and launched his WWF career. Its hard to believe, but at one point early in his run, RVD was probably one of the two or three most popular performers on the bloated roster.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
