David Arquette in World Championship Wrestling

Edit links
This is a good article. Click here for more information.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A smiling headshot of David Arquette
David Arquette became involved with World Championship Wrestling to promote the film Ready to Rumble.

Actor

ongoing ratings competition
with its rivals in the wrestling industry.

Arquette, a lifelong wrestling fan, was reticent about the extent of the storyline with which he would be involved, which saw him scripted to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, the company's most prestigious championship, and defend it in a pay-per-view main event. Reaction to the storyline was negative, with critics subsequently deriding it as one of professional wrestling's worst moments. Additionally, neither Ready to Rumble nor WCW's viewing figures benefited from the crossover. In later years, Arquette returned to professional wrestling in search of redemption, a journey chronicled in the documentary You Cannot Kill David Arquette.

Background

Time Warner, the same parent company as WCW.[3]

Ready to Rumble required Arquette to learn the basics of professional wrestling, and he was taught by WCW performers

prolonged television ratings war. Arquette was at the height of his success following the release of the film Scream 3, and WCW script-writer Vince Russo believed the crossover had the potential to bring in new viewers.[3]

Storyline

"He did exactly what a Hollywood actor is supposed to do [...] David was a little timid, a little apprehensive, but never missed a cue".

—Jeff Jarrett on Arquette's aptitude[2]

Arquette made his first appearance for WCW on the April 12, 2000, episode of

bumps during the segment.[5] On the April 24, 2000 episode of WCW Monday Nitro, Arquette competed in his first match, defeating Eric Bischoff; by the stipulation, as a result, Page would face Jarrett for the World Heavyweight Championship in a steel cage match, which Page won. Bischoff, like Arquette, was not a trained wrestler, but rather a WCW executive who had previously been the company's president. [6]

Arquette's championship win came on the April 26 broadcast of Thunder. He and then-champion Page competed in a tag-team match against Jarrett and Bischoff, with the stipulation that the competitor scoring the winning pinfall would win the championship. By pinning Bischoff, Arquette emerged as champion.[3] After the broadcast, Arquette was encouraged by another former champion, Ric Flair, to wear the championship belt to the bar the other wrestlers visited after the show, and buy drinks for his colleagues for the night.[7] Arquette credits Flair with calming tensions backstage amidst fellow wrestlers unhappy with the championship win, vouching for Arquette as "one of us".[3]

Backstage vignettes were filmed on the set of 3000 Miles to Graceland with Arquette wearing the championship belt. His wife Courteney Cox is seen pleading with him not to compete at the risk of hurting himself; co-star Kurt Russell was also featured.[2][8] On-air commentators referred to Arquette as a "paper tiger who hides behind his wife" during a championship defense against former mixed martial artist Tank Abbott.[2] As Arquette was not expected to remain with WCW for long—his time as champion ultimately spanned four matches broadcast over two weeks[3]—the story culminated at the May 7 pay-per-view show Slamboree, in a three-man match involving Arquette, Page, and Jarrett, which saw Arquette lose the championship to Jarrett.[7] This match took place in a three-tiered metal cage originally seen in Ready to Rumble. During the match, Arquette turned into a villain, turning on Page and allowing Jarrett to win.[9]

Arquette made one further appearance in WCW, at the August 13

New Blood Rising pay-per-view event. In this appearance he attacked Buff Bagwell during a match where Bagwell was facing Chris Kanyon and Bagwell's real-life mother Judy was suspended above the ring on a forklift. Bagwell won the match.[10]

Legacy

Arquette in mid-air, sending wrestler Ethan Page reeling
Arquette (pictured, right, with Ethan Page, left, in 2019) later returned to the ring.

The storyline was poorly received, damaging Arquette's reputation both as an actor and with wrestling fans;[1] it has since been described as "one of the worst moments in pro wrestling",[11] and "a publicity stunt gone wrong [...] forever associated with the death of WCW".[12] WCW went out of business ten months after the Slamboree event, and the Arquette storyline is often seen as a contributing factor in its decline, although the fortunes of the company had already been waning before his involvement.[2] WCW commentator Bobby Heenan compared the storyline to comedy variety show Hee Haw, saying "they might as well have had Buck Owens picking at his guitar while wrestlers jumped out of the corn".[13] Former WCW World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart was dismayed at the timing of the Slamboree event; Hart's brother Owen died in the same arena the previous year, and the date of May 7 was Owen's birthday, a confluence Hart found distasteful.[14] Jarrett, however, defended the storyline, comparing it to his father Jerry Jarrett's successful partnership with actor Andy Kaufman in the Continental Wrestling Association during the 1980s.[15]

Ready to Rumble did not benefit noticeably from the crossover, making back only half of what it cost to produce.

Nielsen ratings showed that Arquette's match was the least-watched segment of the episode.[18] Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer reported that live ticket sales for the Slamboree event all but stopped after Arquette's involvement in its buildup. The show was described by Meltzer as "a substantial money loser as a live event".[19] According to Meltzer, the event drew 4,862 paid attendees and 7,165 total, grossing $139,202 at the box office.[19] The event's pay-per-view buy rate was not published by WCW but was estimated by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter to be a 0.2 rate, which would have been the third-lowest in WCW's history at that time.[20][a]

Arquette donated his earnings from WCW to the families of several wrestlers who had recently died or been injured at that time, including the widows of Owen Hart and

deathmatch" with Nick Gage which saw Arquette badly cut by a broken light tube. Arquette's return to the industry was captured in the 2020 documentary film You Cannot Kill David Arquette.[11][12]

Notes

  1. ^ A pay-per-view buy rate represents the percentage of homes which purchased an event out of those to which it was available. The number represents hundredths of a percent, so a 0.2 buy rate equates to an event being purchased by 0.002% of the homes to which it was available. Buy rates typically only represent sales made in the United States and Canada.[21]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Heritage, Stuart (July 30, 2020). "Grappling with fame: David Arquette's bizarre rebirth as a pro wrestler". The Guardian. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e Golianopoulos, Thomas (March 20, 2020). "David Arquette Is Still Fighting". The Ringer. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Wonsover, Michael (November 9, 2018). "David Arquette enjoys unlikely return to the world of pro wrestling". ESPN. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
  4. ^ Schuchman, Matthew (August 21, 2020). "David Arquette Considers Why He 'Nearly Killed Himself' for Wrestling". Den of Geek. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
  5. ^ Jarrett & Thompson 2021, 20:23–23:30.
  6. ^ "WCW Monday Nitro - Monday, April 24th, 2000". DDT Digest. 25 April 2000. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
  7. ^ a b Flair 2005, pp. 406–407.
  8. ^ Chase, Stephanie (August 15, 2020). "David Arquette reveals how his wrestling passion influenced Friends storyline". Digital Spy. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
  9. ^ Jarrett & Thompson 2021, 44:00–44:50.
  10. ^ "WCW New Blood Rising 2000 - Sunday, August 13". DDT Digest. 14 August 2000. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
  11. ^ a b Yamato, Jen (September 1, 2020). "Q&A: Why David Arquette chased his pro wrestling redemption to the brink of death". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
  12. ^ a b Barrasso, Justin (August 31, 2020). "New Documentary Traces David Arquette's Wrestling Redemption Arc". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
  13. ^ a b c Flair 2005, p. 406.
  14. ^ Hart 2009, p. 521.
  15. ^ Evans 2018, pp. 458–459.
  16. ^ "Critic Reviews for Ready to Rumble". Metacritic. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
  17. ^ "Ready to Rumble". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
  18. ^ Evans 2018, p. 457.
  19. ^ a b Meltzer, Dave (May 15, 2000). "WCW Slamboree Review". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved November 13, 2021. (subscription required)
  20. ^ Meltzer, Dave (May 22, 2000). "Jumbo Tsuruta Passes Away". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved November 13, 2021. (subscription required)
  21. ^ Wall 2005, pp. 15–16.
  22. ^ Reynolds 2004, p. 258.

References

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=David_Arquette_in_World_Championship_Wrestling&oldid=1219370675"