It really does depend on what you're really calling hardcore. How about Greg 'the Hammer' Valentine and Piper's dog collar match? That was pretty bloody and used a chain as a weapon.
Valentine permanently damaged Piper's hearing in one of his ears.
There were plenty of old school gimmick matches that might be considered hardcore. One Texas promotion had scaffold matches. I think Foley even talks about it in his first book.
those were the last days of World Class, Fritz Von Erich's promotion, right before they joined up with Lawler to create the USWA, which ran both in Memphis and in Texas for a while, before becoming Memphis only and finally dying off in the mid'90's.
