David Arquette Says That He Was Hated Backstage After WCW World Heavyweight Championship Win
After 18 years since his last singles match, actor and former WCW World Heavyweight Champion David Arquette will be returning to the ring to compete against RJ City for the Championship Wrestling from Hollywood promotion. Last time, Arquette was used as a gimmick to further promote the WCW-heavy Ready to Rumble movie. However, Arquette has been intensely training for this match, according to his interview on the Sunday Night's Main Event podcast.
Arquette stated that the motivating factor of him returning to the ring was that, after nearly 20 years, he is still the butt of many jokes on social media when it comes to professional wrestling. The Ready to Rumble star, who turns 47 in September, did state that it was Vince Russo who came up with the idea of him winning the title, which is something that Russo has admitted before. Despite becoming champion, Arquette stated that he was not allowed to have much offense during his matches in WCW, which was a total of four ranging from WCW Nitro on April 24, 2000, to WCW Slamboree on May 7, 2000.
One of those matches occurred on WCW Thunder, which aired on April 26, 2000. After defeating Eric Bischoff on Nitro, Arquette was a part of a tag team match with DDP against Bischoff and Jeff Jarrett. Arquette walked down the ramp and returned to the match battered and bruised, but managed to spear Bischoff while Jarrett simultaneously hit DDP with the WCW title. However, another referee ran to the ring (Kimberly was the guest referee at the time, but was partial) and pinned Bischoff's shoulders to the mat. Arquette then commenced his reign as WCW World Heavyweight Champion.
During his interview with SNME, Arquette revealed that certain wrestlers backstage hated the decision because they were waiting for their opportunity to become champion.
"There was a lot of hatred, and a lot of people got so pissed off," said Arquette. "I remember telling one wrestler, I'm not sure who it was, wasn't Bam Bam Bigelow, but it was someone who hadn't ever been the champion before. And he was just so pissed. I was like I don't know what to say, man. You know, that was my first inkling on how sort of upset people were gonna get.
"And obviously, I get it. These people dedicate their lives, I have nothing but respect for wrestlers. To this day, I haven't taken a dime for wrestling... I get it. I've just been training for a little over a month now, and I get it. I mean, it's painful. It's intense. It takes a ton of hard work. These people go in and out every day working on themselves and working on their craft. So I get it... I always respected the business. I just sort of had an opportunity that I think a lot of people would have made the same decision if they were in that situation. And it's sort of a dream come true for me, so I was like, 'yeah. This is amazing.'"
Arquette said that he is experiencing that more fans are respecting him now that they know that his heart is in the right place when it comes to wrestling. Arquette did not accept any money given to him in WCW, but instead donated it to some pro wrestling families, including the families of Brian Pillman and Darren Drozdov. To show how serious he is with training, Arquette now has a wrestling ring in the back of his yard and he regularly practices. Arquette's last wrestling appearance was being a part of a tag team handicap match in 2010 with Alex Riley in a losing effort against Randy Orton. Arquette received a powerbomb through the table from Orton.
If any portion of these quotes are used, please be sure to credit the Sunday Night's Main Event podcast with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Sunday Night's Main Event