The bulk of WWE’s accidental title changes have taken place at house shows, far away from the prying eyes of the company’s international audience. This one, however, took place at the biggest show of the year.
WrestleMania 2000’s second match saw a horde of lower-midcard wrestlers contest a Hardcore Title battle royal. The idea of having designated matches for a belt with a 24/7 defence rule always seemed moot, but WWE needed to fill up the PPV card, so they gave their trashiest division 15 full minutes of airtime.
The title changed hands ten times throughout the match. Crash Holly entered with it around his waist, but dropped it to Tazz within 26 seconds. It took him 14 minutes to eventually regain it, but while the original plan was to have Crash retain, his cousin Hardcore took the victory after cracking the champ with a jar of sweets.
Crash was supposed to kick out, but he forgot, even as referee Tim White deliberately delayed his third and final count. The Hardcore Title’s disposable nature meant it didn’t really matter, but it still wasn’t supposed to happen.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
