Movie crossovers in wrestling are commonplace enough you could make a quick top ten or fifteen (or ten worst, depending on your point of view). You have actors and actresses coming to the ring, or playing ring announcer or maybe color commentator, but rarely actually in the match itself.
This was not the case with Ready To Rumble star David Arquette.
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Wrestling fans know this moment very well as it has been synonymous with the death toll of WCW. For those wondering why David Arquette is holding the WCW World Championship in the picture above, it’s really simple. He won it. In a professional wrestling match. On WCW’s second-tier show.
But that’s over simplifying the situation within the ring where the stipulation was even more bizarre. Arquette was in a tag team match with current WCW Champion “Diamond” Dallas Paige, facing off against Jeff Jarrett and Eric Bischoff. Arquette pinned Bischoff, who was not the legal man, nor, as previously stated, the championship holder, but somehow Arquette walked out as champion.
Of course, with a movie to promote, a wrestling movie to boot, what better way to promote it as WCW Champion? In retrospect, there were a handful of ways they could have handled it better, but at the time with failing ratings, this was seen as the boldest and strongest move. The thing is though, Arquette was hesitant about becoming the world champion. As a life-long wrestling fan himself, he thought his name plaquered up with greats like Ric Flair, Sting, Hulk Hogan, Ricky Steamboat seemed like the worst kind of decision and could tarnish the championship itself.
Arquette was absolutely right.
Despite its scripted nature, this move seemed more like a plug for the movie and less about the victory itself. It was hollow and has been cited as one of the worst moments of professional wrestling of all time. Arquette holding up the title next to his partner, who he had just stripped him off, made no logical sense booking wise and fans saw right through it.
WCW was already in a losing ratings war with then WWF, now WWE, and this only help cemented the inevitable downfall of WCW less than a year later. It seemed WWE has learned from the ghosts of wrestling promotions past and has made sure this doesn’t happen again.
To be fair, Arquette has said that he still thinks it was a bad idea and donated his earnings to the families ofthe late Owen Hart, Brian Pillman, and Darren Drozdov, who was left paralyzed after an accident in the ring with D’Lo Brown.
David Arquette’s brief stint as WCW World Champion teaches us that promotion isn’t a bad thing in wrestling. Monday Night Raw had a series of guest hosts a few years back and while some got into the action, the wins were low-stake and actually fun. Even Arnold Schwartzenegger has a place in the WWE Hall of Fame, should that mean that David Arquette joins such a rank in later years if history ever vindicates him?
At least it wasn’t Scott Caan, right?
