As we head into Extreme Rules this Sunday, which is considered the ‘hardcore’ PPV of the year, I thought we should take a look back at the birth of the Hardcore championship. At the time, Mankind was trying to gain Vince McMahon’s affections, viewing the WWF owner as a father figure of types. As part of McMahon’s manipulations of Mankind, the Hardcore Championship was created and awarded to Mankind. A week after being awarded the Hardcore Title, he would defend it in the first ‘Hardcore Rules’ match against Ken Shamrock.

After this match, Mankind would take part in a tournament at Survivor Series for the vacant WWF championship. He would face The Rock in the finals. Rock would get Mankind in the Sharpshooter and McMahon had the bell rung, as a repeat of the infamous screwjob from a year earlier. The Rock would become the ‘Corporate Champion’ and would even assist The Big Bossman in defeating Mankind in a ladder match for the Hardcore Championship.

As WWE heads towards it’s annual Extreme Rules event, it’s good to look back on where this show came from. The event can be traced back to and event called One Night Stand. The name was changed because, as WWE became a more family friendly product, they didn’t like they sexual connotation behind the term One Night Stand.

That event started as an ECW reunion show in 2005. It’s been reported that Rob Van Dam went to Vince McMahon with the idea after compiling a list of former ECW talent that was on the WWE payroll at the time. They brought in some other names who weren’t part of the regular WWE roster, some would later become full-time performers after the 2006 One Night Stand that lead to the brief ‘revival’ of ECW as a 3rd WWE brand.

As the upcoming show can be traced back to ECW, I thought this week’s Flashback Friday would feature the main event on ECW’s very first PPV, Barely Legal in 1997. The winner of a Triple Threat match between Terry Funk, Sandman and Stevie Richards title match against World Champion, Raven. The 52 year old Funk would win the triple threat and immediately go on to face the champion. After a quite a beating at the hands of Raven, Funk would surprised the champion, rolling him up into a small package and capturing the ECW World Championship.