12 Exact Moments WWE Titles Became Worthless
11. Maven Ends ‘Taker’s Brief Hardcore Respite
What's your fondest memory of the old Hardcore Title? Mankind clutching it like a newborn baby in 1998, perhaps. Or, maybe you're one for Crash Holly's slapstick 24/7 days. Seeing him defend his belt in a restaurant's children's play area against The Headbangers lives long in the memory. Meanwhile, somehow, Maven beating The Undertaker to grab the garbage match beacon doesn't.
It happened though. On the 7 February 2002 SmackDown, Tough Enough winner Maven beat 'Taker to become new Hardcore Champ. This brought back the 24/7 madness that had been cleverly paused during 'Big Evil's reign. On commentary, Jim Ross remarked that nobody on the roster was stupid enough to try ambush Undertaker without preparation. So, 24/7 was back, but the latest attempt was a case of diminishing returns for the WWF.
The belt felt out of place once the initials changed to WWE, and it was merged with the Intercontinental Title in August 2002. ‘Taker’s run with the thing was Hardcore’s last highlight. It was all downhill from there. To illustrate that, here's a list of several champions who won the thing before it was swallowed by a more important belt: Shawn Stasiak, Johnny Stamboli, Justin Credible and Christopher Nowinski.
Highs of 'Taker retaining against Rob Van Dam in a pay-per-view smash hit at Vengeance 2001 were distant when Planet f'n Stasiak was winning the belt on house shows like WWE's product was a video game. Still, at least the fine folks of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania got to see history made and Shawn's sixth then seventh mini-runs with the beaten up trophy.
Maven's vacant stare in February '02 summed it up. The hardcore division was scorched earth post-Undertaker relevancy.