Rob Van Dam Hated The WWE Hardcore Title Until He Won The Belt

WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam recently recalled his initial Hardcore Title victory over Jeff Hardy at the Invasion pay-per-view in 2001. 

Speaking about the match on his 1 Of A Kind With RVD podcast, Van Dam noted that he initially wasn't a fan of the title (until he won it himself). 

"I was insulted by it until I got it. And that was because I felt like they were making fun of us and ECW because we have this, in my opinion, superior artform, making wrestling cool.

"To people that aren't even wrestling fans like something like 'you've got to see this' and obviously I was a big proponent of it and and always will be but then I would see the Hardcore Title match on Monday Night Raw or whatever and in my opinion from that competitive state of mind I thought they were making a joke out of it.

"It pretty much meant the hot dog stand is going to get tipped over. They're going to fall in the pit of balls in the kids area. Like, that's, the hardcore match was something to laugh at. Stick a plunger in your face. And for me, I had a lot of pride in it," he said. 

The Whole F'N Show went on to say that he felt he elevated the title to another level:

"All of a sudden, the Hardcore Title matches sometimes are the best match on the card. That can be subjective, but to the people that enjoyed it, continuously the best match on the card. I even main-evented. And I know they didn't want the Hardcore Championship to be a main event on their shows and so what do they do? They got rid of it. I was making the belt mean too much". 

Van Dam became the final Hardcore Champion when he unified it with the Intercontinental Title (by defeating Tommy Dreamer) on the August 26, 2002 episode of Raw. 

H/T Inside The Ropes

Cultaholic Wrestling has an account on Threads! Follow us here.