# List of WCW Hardcore Champions

The WCW Hardcore Championship was a professional wrestling Hardcore Championship contested for in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). During late 1999, WCW promoted various hardcore matches, bouts where there were no disqualifications or countouts, that mainly involved Norman Smiley and Brian Knobbs. The developing rivalry between the two wrestlers led WCW to announce the creation of the WCW Hardcore Championship in November 1999. In January 2001, the champion Meng signed a contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) after his WCW contract expired. The WCW Hardcore Championship was vacated; a few months later, WCW was purchased by the WWF, and while the WWF used WCW's World Heavyweight, United States, Cruiserweight, and Tag Team Championships in the subsequent Invasion storyline, the WCW Hardcore Championship was not re-introduced.
Title reigns were determined by professional wrestling hardcore match types with wrestlers involved in pre-existing scripts feuds, plots and storylines or were awarded the title due to scripted circumstances. Wrestlers were portrayed as either villains or fan favorites as they followed a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a hardcore wrestling type match or series of matches for the championship. The inaugural champion was Norman Smiley, who defeated Brian Knobbs at Mayhem. Before the promotion's purchase, the title was vacant, though, Meng was the final wrestler to hold the championship. The title was won in Canadian municipalities and in American states. Smiley held the title the longest at 51 days, and at less than one day, Carl Ouellet has the shortest title reign. Brian Knobbs and Terry Funk both won the title on three occasions, the most in the championship's history; this also ties with the number of times the title was vacated. Overall, there were 18 reigns.

## Reigns

Key :
| No. | Overall reign number |
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| † | Championship change is unrecognized by the promotion |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Championship change | Championship change | Reign statistics | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. |
| No. | Champion | Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Notes | Ref. |
| 1 | Fit Finlay | July 11, 1999 | Bash at the Beach | Fort Lauderdale, FL | 1 | 29 | Won the Junkyard Invitational to win the WCW Hardcore Championship, represented by a trophy. Unrecognized by WCW, however WWE recognizes the trophy as a reign. | |
| — | Vacated | August 9, 1999 | Nitro | Boise, ID | — | — | WCW President Eric Bischoff vacated the title due to a leg injury sustained by Fit Finlay. Finlay’s reign would not be recognized in the title's history. | |
| 2 | Norman Smiley | November 21, 1999 | Mayhem | Toronto, ON | 1 | 51 | Smiley defeated Brian Knobs in the finals of a tournament to retain the title in his first defense of his inaugural championship. | |
| 3 | Brian Knobbs | January 12, 2000 | Thunder | Erie, PA | 1 | 27 | This title change aired on tape delay. | |
| 4 | Bam Bam Bigelow | February 7, 2000 | Nitro | Tulsa, OK | 1 | 13 | | |
| 5 | Brian Knobbs | February 20, 2000 | SuperBrawl | San Francisco, CA | 2 | 8 | | |
| 6 | 3 Count | February 28, 2000 | Nitro | Minneapolis, MN | 1 | 20 | Helms, Karagias, and Moore, known as the 3 Count stable, defeated Brian Knobs simultaneously in a match, and as a result, WCW allowed the Freebird Rule in which all three wrestlers were able to defend the championship. | |
| 7 | Brian Knobbs | March 19, 2000 | Uncensored | Miami, FL | 3 | 22 | | |
| — | Vacated | April 10, 2000 | Nitro | Denver, CO | — | — | WCW Presidents Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff vacated every WCW championship during WCW's reboot. | |
| 8 | Terry Funk | April 16, 2000 | Spring Stampede | Chicago, IL | 1 | 36 | Funk defeated Norman Smiley to win the vacant championship. | |
| 9 | Shane Douglas | May 22, 2000 | Nitro | Grand Rapids, MI | 1 | 1 | Chris Candido was the special guest referee. | |
| 10 | Terry Funk | May 23, 2000 | Thunder | Saginaw, MI | 2 | 13 | This was a 2-on-1 Handicap match where Funk, disguised as Ralphus in a gorilla suit, teamed with Norman Smiley. After the match, Funk revealed himself under the mask. | |
| 11 | Eric Bischoff | June 5, 2000 | Nitro | Atlanta, GA | 1 | 1 | | |
| 12 | Big Vito and Johnny the Bull | June 6, 2000 | Thunder | Knoxville, TN | 1 | 13 | WCW President Eric Bischoff awarded Vito and Johnny the championship, and he announced that the Freebird Rule was in effect for this title reign, allowing both wrestlers to defend the title. This title reign aired on tape delay. | |
| 13 | Big Vito | June 19, 2000 | Nitro | Billings, MT | 2 | 35 | Vito defeated Johnny the Bull to be named the sole champion. | |
| 14 | Lance Storm | July 24, 2000 | Nitro | Cleveland, OH | 1 | 21 | Storm renames championship "Saskatchewan Hardcore International Title" shortly after winning it. | |
| 15 | Carl Ouellet | August 14, 2000 | Nitro | Kelowna, BC | 1 | <1 | Lance Storm awarded Ouellet the championship. | |
| 16 | Norman Smiley | August 14, 2000 | Nitro | Kelowna, BC | 2 | 42 | | |
| — | Vacated | September 27, 2000 | Thunder | Wilkes-Barre, PA | — | — | The championship was vacated by WCW Commissioner Mike Sanders and a tournament announced to begin that night. The episode aired on tape delay. | |
| 17 | Reno | October 2, 2000 | Nitro | San Francisco, CA | 1 | 37 | Sgt. AWOL originally defeated Reno to win the vacant championship in a tournament final. However, Mike Sanders reversed the decision and awarded Reno the title. | |
| 18 | Crowbar | November 8, 2000 | Thunder | Chicago, IL | 1 | 39 | This title change aired on tape delay. | |
| 19 | Terry Funk | December 17, 2000 | Starrcade | Washington, D.C. | 3 | 28 | | |
| 20 | Meng | January 14, 2001 | Sin | Indianapolis, IN | 1 | 7 | This was a triple threat hardcore match, also involving Crowbar. | |
| — | Deactivated | January 21, 2001 | — | — | — | — | Meng left WCW for WWF a week after winning the title to compete as Haku in the 2001 Royal Rumble and the championship was abandoned. | |

## Combined reigns

| Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns | Combined days |
| 1 | Norman Smiley | 2 | 93 |
| 2 | Terry Funk | 3 | 77 |
| 3 | Brian Knobbs | 3 | 57 |
| 4 | Big Vito | 2 | 48 |
| 5 | Reno | 1 | 35 |
| 6 | Crowbar | 1 | 31 |
| - | Fit Finlay | - | 29 |
| 7 | Lance Storm | 1 | 21 |
| 8 | Evan Karagias | 1 | 20 |
| 8 | Shane Helms | 1 | 20 |
| 8 | Shannon Moore | 1 | 20 |
| 11 | Bam Bam Bigelow | 1 | 13 |
| 11 | Johnny the Bull | 1 | 13 |
| 13 | Meng | 1 | 7 |
| 14 | Eric Bischoff | 1 | 1 |
| 14 | Shane Douglas | 1 | 1 |
| 16 | Carl Ouellet | 1 | <1 |