MENG - The Last WCW Hardcore Champion

Meng is the baddest man in the history of professional wrestling. From his legendary bar-room brawls, including one where he “allegedly” bit the nose off of Jimmy Jack Funk in the mid-1980s, everyone knew that he was not one to mess with.

So on January 14, 2001, when Meng won the WCW Hardcore Championship at Sin, I was more than stoked.

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Meng’s WCW career had been one of always being linked to someone. From 1994 as the muscle of Colonel Robert Parker (the greatest promoter in the history of the world), to being one-half of the Faces of Fear alongside the Barbarian, to being a part of Jimmy Hart’s First Family, and even being the hired gun of WCW President For Life “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, Meng truly never had the spotlight on HIM.

Ironically, things really started to turn around for Meng the night after Starrcade 2000 on the December 18 Monday Nitro.

The Tongan badass made his way down to the ring, accompanied by Kwee Wee, the eccentric stylist, and his valet Paisley, preparing to take on new Hardcore Champion Terry Funk for the title. The night before, “the Hardcore Legend” upended Crowbar for the title and completely took advantage of the youngster, who revered Funk and bordered on idolization, as well as getting off track, partying with “That 70’s Guy” Mike Awesome and losing focus after his friend Daffney started dating another man..

Funk knew what he had in store with Meng, so he baited the big man backstage inside of a tiny cage. The Hardcore Champion took full advantage, slamming the door in his face and delivering his patented hard strikes. That was short lived, however, as when Funk attempted to handcuff Meng to the cage, Meng quickly shifted the momentum and handcuffed the wily veteran’s hands together.

As the match made its way into the arena, Funk was assisted by Meng using one of those rolling crates, laid on top and rolled to the ring. No longer handcuffed, Funk tried to fight back, but Meng showed no effect and walloped the Hardcore Champion with a trash can. Then, Meng set up a table and went for a big splash, but the banged up Funk moved out of the way. Being impervious to pain, Meng got right back up and put Funk in the Tongan Death Grip.

Suddenly, in a flash, Crowbar made his way to the ring. No longer in 70’s garb and back to basics in his grungy, dirty look, Crowbar nailed Meng with his golden wrench to the cranium, finally taking him down. Funk, depleted of energy and out on his feet, fell on top of the Tongan badass for the three count. Crowbar then grabbed the microphone and let him know that he only helped Funk retain to keep him at 100% for the Sin pay-per-view on January 14, 2001, so Crowbar could beat him at full strength.

Things didn’t exactly go to plan, as life normally does.

Meng wanted revenge. On the December 20 edition of Thunder, after losing a tag team battle royal for #1 contendership to the World Tag Team Championships (Kwee Wee was his partner), Meng made his presence felt during Crowbar’s match with Bam Bam Bigelow.

As Crowbar went to the corner to finish off “the Beast From The East”, Meng stood on the apron and leveled Crowbar with a vicious headbutt. One Greetings From Asbury Park piledriver later, and Crowbar was looking up at the lights, suffering the consequences of his action two nights earlier.

On the January 3, 2001 Thunder, the first WCW program of the year, Crowbar prepared himself to face Meng in a “chair on a pole” match. [NOTE: Despite “the pole” being consistently credited to Vince Russo, this pole match was under the reign of head booker John “Johnny Ace” Laurinaitis.] Prior to the battle, Crowbar stated that he was prepared to be handed the “hardcore torch” from Funk, and that he couldn’t wait to beat him at Sin.

Again, Meng had alternative plans in mind.

This contest was surprisingly even throughout. Although Crowbar was the underdog, he showcased a lot of heart. He took a heck of a beating from Meng, but he dished it out as well, especially after getting the chair from the pole early on in the contest. Even Daffney, who made peace with Crowbar, and Paisley, who accompanied Meng to ringside, had a confrontation on the floor.

However, Crowbar took one-too-many risks in the match. After opening the chair and placing it on the top rope in the corner, he ran at Meng to display a high impact move. Instead, he got caught and got flapjacked into the open chair in the turnbuckle. One Tongan Death Grip later, and Meng picked up a big win.

On the January 8 Nitro, Terry Funk made his way down to the ring. The “middle-aged and crazy” 55 year old Hardcore Champion made a challenge to anyone in the locker room for the gold. Out came Daffney and Crowbar, who brought up the “hardcore torch” he wanted Funk to pass to him once again. Funk laughed, and said he would shove that “torch” where the “sun don’t shine”. Offended, Crowbar ran down to the ring, but Funk surprisingly bailed before the fight was about to happen.

Just as Funk hit the entranceway, Meng attacked Funk with a steel chair. Almost as quick as he arrived, Meng then locked on a Tongan Death Grip. Daffney, with a chair of her own, hit the afroed dome of Meng, but he brushed it off and savate kicked her in the face! Crowbar discovered a wooden chair and went to bash the Tongan badass.

In one of the coolest moves of the final days of WCW, Meng put his arm THROUGH THE CHAIR and locked on a Tongan Death Grip to Crowbar as well!

Meng put both men down on the concrete and stole the Hardcore Title, daring them to come and get it. The unstoppable monster that was Meng was officially unleashed!

Two days later on Thunder, Meng would defeat Don Harris of the Harris Boys, even after they pulled the switcheroo and Ron was the one that got pinned after a back suplex done the hard way. Afterwards, the Harris Boys attacked Meng, but was saved by Kwee Wee and Paisley, to no avail. Ron and Don delivered a H-Bomb to Kwee Wee, and almost delivered one to Paisley, but Kwee Wee pulled her out of harm's way. 

That minor distraction was all Meng needed. In mere moments, the Tongan Death Grip was locked on both men, taking them off their feet and down to the canvas. Referees came to stop the impending carnage, but they were no match for Meng. Even Evan Karagias, Jamie Noble, and Yang from the Jung Dragons tried to come down and stop the mess, but one-by-one, they were all laid out. Meng was unfazed and, apparently, unstoppable!

We got to see how unstoppable Meng was that Sunday at Sin at the Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, IN, in a now three-way-dance for the WCW Hardcore Title against Terry Funk and Crowbar. Meng, still in possession of Funk’s Hardcore Title, made his way to the ring, but the match didn’t last long in the arena. Almost immediately, Crowbar attacked Funk on the entranceway, and all three men made their way to the backstage area.

Anything that wasn’t nailed down was used as all three men beat the Hell out of each other. Garbage cans, laptops, mop buckets, tables and fire extinguishers were the order of the day. Once they made their way back to the ring, similar tactics were employed. Shovels and guardrails were used by the “Hardcore Legend” on poor Crowbar.

Meng put his working boots on and was all over the place, nailing Crowbar with a frog splash while he had Funk in a figure-four, then giving one to a bloody Funk after he saved the match following Crowbar being piledriven.

After taking several chair shots, Meng finally had enough of the nonsense and put Funk out of his misery with a Tongan Death Grip. Three slaps of the mat later, and Meng became the official and NEW WCW HARDCORE CHAMPION!

The following Wednesday on Thunder on January 17, Meng made his first defense of the gold in a competitive match-up against Bam Bam Bigelow. After a hard-hitting battle, Meng took him out with a frog splash for the three. This was a fun match and definitely looked like the beginning of a long reign as champion.

Four days later, the WCW Hardcore division was dead.

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In one of the more out-of-left-field moments during the Monday Night Wars, Meng returned to the World Wrestling Federation, under his Haku name, and entered the Royal Rumble at #29. Within the next week, Haku started teaming with Rikishi to aid him in his rivalry with the Undertaker and Kane.

How did this happen? How could the WCW Hardcore Champion end up on WWF programming?

According to Eric Bischoff, Meng wasn’t under contract. On the February 12, 2001 Wrestling Observer Live radio show on eYada.com (credit IGN.com for the transcript), Meng “was on a nightly deal without enough money to take care of his family. [Bischoff] wasn't going to offer him anything more, so he’s glad Haku got an opportunity elsewhere.” The interesting note was that Bischoff was “none too pleased that Meng was given such a big role in WCW (as Hardcore Champ) without being under contract” and thought it was a “stupid move on WCW’s part.”

I will always have Mr. Bischoff’s back on almost everything related to the final days of WCW, but as the main creative force during the final days of the company, including being the point of contact towards head booker Laurinaitis, but his comments on this one was a wee bit contradictory.

Regardless, once Meng was gone, so was the WCW Hardcore division. The title was phased out after the Royal Rumble 2001 event.

Coincidentally, Haku wasn’t utilized much in the WWF after signing. Once Rikishi went down with an injury in March 2001, Haku was relegated to Jakked and Sunday Night Heat for the remainder of the year and ultimately released in April 2002.

Now, there is one area of discussion that has been listed as it came to the whereabouts of the WCW Hardcore Championship and what ultimately happened to the belt itself.

According to a couple of wrestling websites, it was listed that “Meng awarded the title to The championship was awarded to Barbarian during Meng's final WCW appearance. The title was subsequently not defended again on WCW television and was not used by the WWF when they purchased WCW. This title change was aired January 24, 2001, on tape delay.” However, there is no result that discusses this, nor was it on any WCW programming that I was able to watch on Peacock.

Also, the story goes that Meng handed the championship off to Barbarian at an independent show the night before the Royal Rumble. Well, unbelievably, I found footage on YouTube from January 20, 2001 from World League Wrestling, where Meng and the Barbarian faced off with Matt Murphy and Superstar Steve from Harley Race’s World League Wrestling.