Recently, actor David Arquette participated in a bloody death match that landed him in the hospital. When asked why he was training for hours and competing in various matches, he responded "Eighteen years ago, I won the WCW Heavyweight Belt, but that win was a big disgrace to the belt and the wrestling community and ever since people have been criticizing me. I really wanted to prove myself and stand up for myself. I was sick of being bullied and for people thinking I'm just some punk from Hollywood". So I give the man credit for trying to redeem that past event which many have called one of the most disgraceful moments in professional wrestling history.
Apr. 28, 2000/ WCW Thunder/ Jeff Jarrett and Eric Bischoff vs. DDP and Arquette/ Tag Team Match for the WCW Championship
The match had Kimberly Page as referee for some reason and towards the finish, DDP kissed Kimberly and she fell in the corner as Arquette speared Bischoff for the pin. Mind you that the second referee failed to count Jarrett pinning Page. So with Arquette obviously a transition champion, he would hold the title for 12 days, losing it to Jarrett at Slamboree 2000. The match was contested in a Triple Cage like in Arquette's movie Ready To Rumble. Clearly, it was a publicity stunt gone wrong. Arquette has said in the past that he didn't want to become champion, but Vince Russo convinced him to take part in this angle.
Here in this article, I will do a pro vs. con situation on this title win, despite the fact the man himself said that it was bad.
PRO: The win was done to generate buzz for WCW, who at this point was just barely getting by and losing viewers.
CON: The win actually made viewers stop watching WCW and they switched to WWF, with the Attitude Era in full swing.
PRO: Arquette's victory was also used to promote the movie Ready To Rumble, which was associated with WCW.
CON: The film bombed in theatres as it made only $12 million on a $24 million budget
PRO: WCW believed that making Arquette the champion would also bring life to the title.
CON: At this point, the belt was deemed meaningless since it changed hands 26 times in the year 2000.
PRO: Using Arquette's celebrity status, WCW did generate a little bit of crossover buzz.
CON: Having a celebrity winning the World Title with very little wrestling experience was deemed a slap in the face to the talent who spent countless hours and years training and perfecting their craft.
PRO: Arquette is a lifelong wrestling fan with knowledge of the business who, again was against winning the title, because of his admiration of the industry.
CON: Again, this was WCW in 2000, Vince Russo, a man who clearly isn't a wrestling fan, won the title later that year.
PRO: It seemed like DDP was very happy for Arquette after he won the title
CON: The champion going into the match.......was DDP.
PRO: WWF/E fans have ridicule this moment for many years.
CON: That ended when a 10 year old won the Tag Team Title with Braun Strowman at this year's WrestleMania.
So as you can see, there were some positives that materialized during this fiasco, which unfortunately are outnumbered by the negatives. Personally, the whole celebrity has to beat the trained professional wrestler shtick is just unfathomable. As much as WWE fans mock this title win, their company continues to have their wrestlers job to celebrities. LT beating Bam Bam Bigelow at WrestleMania 11, Floyd Mayweather Jr. beating the Big Show at WrestleMania 24, Snooki on the winning tag team at WrestleMania 27, K-Fed beating John Cena on RAW (To be fair, I think WWE has tried to distance themselves from this one.) All in all, I give Arquette the benefit of the doubt that he is at least trying to go out and make the sacrifice that an actual professional wrestler would. Time won't be on his side since he is 46. And as much as he wants to forget about that night back in 2000, it will be hard to forget for the time being.
(Credits: People.com, WCW, Wikipedia, WWE.com)
Check out more content on our Facebook page and our website @realsportsaz.com