The Legacy of Hardcore Holly

Early in Holly's career, he worked in a small southern wrestling company where he and his partner -- listed as his "brother," I believe -- feuded with The Rock 'n Roll Express. The teams traded the organization's tag belts a couple times. (That's not even included on his Wikipedia profile.) It was somewhat ironic, I

Actually, Jazzua, a "legacy" is simply the lasting impression one leaves and will be remembered by. "Legend" is what's left by someone who has done something great and leaves a truly significant impact on his or her industry. Anyway, not here to debate vocabulary choices...But I do think it's appropriate to wonder what someone's "legacy" -- lasting, memorable impression -- might be.

Early in Holly's career, he worked in a small southern wrestling company where he and his partner -- listed as his "brother," I believe -- feuded with The Rock 'n Roll Express. The teams traded the organization's tag belts a couple times. (That's not even included on his Wikipedia profile.) It was somewhat ironic, I thought, as one of my favorite memories of Holly is when he teamed with "Bodacious" Bart Gunn to form The New Midnight Express.

Despite winning the NWA World Tag Team Titles (odd, considering it was on WWF TV, as part of an "old school invasion" type storyline), Bart & Bob could never, ever hope to live up to the Midnight Express legacy (where the word is also synonymous with "legend"). Still, just as I was excited by the NWA invasion story, I was equally amped up for anything that allowed Jim Cornette to return to national television.

Afterward, WWE showed plenty of support for Holly as a performer. He received shots at Brock Lesner for the World title, a chance at JBL for the belt later on and for an extended period was the #1 contender to the ECW title, when WWE still considered it a "World Championship." He came up short on all those occasions, but it nonetheless reflects well on Holly that the WWE gave him ample time in the World Title hunt.

With all that said, what is likely to be "Hardcore" Holly's legacy? It might not be huge -- he's far from one of the "greats" -- but he certainly made an impact on the WWE during his 15-year tenure with the company. Surely he will be remember for his incredible number of WWE Hardcore titles (six). He might even be remembered as a WWE tag team champion (3x).

More likely, as has been pointed out time and time again here, he'll be simply remembered as one of the stiffest workers of the modern era. I'm not sure that's entirely something to brag about, though.

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