David Arquette On How His Serious Injury During Deathmatch Affected His Career

David Arquette is giving wrestling another try after leaving a bad taste in the mouths of fans with his WCW run. The actor has already competed in multiple matches including a scary deathmatch that put him in the hospital.

Arquette spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast this to discuss that match as well as his upcoming match with Ken Anderson at Legends of Wrestling this Saturday.

"I think it's gonna be a schooling on both sides. Him trying to school me on real wrestling and me schooling him on studying it," Arquette said before adding that he still has a lot to learn and needs more on-the-job training.

"Everything with me is still a little sloppy. But I've been training in the ring with Peter Avalon. You can only learn so much [by studying] and then you really learn in the ring. I still have more to do even with one year of training."

He then talked about how never knows what to expect in a match because the wrestlers are all very different and some can be a lot stiffer than others.

"Sometimes it's like choreographed MMA with super hard shots and the bumps are super stuff. Bully Ray put me through a table and I didn't walk for three weeks," revealed Arquette. "Sometimes in the ring you get lost for a second. You not only get lost with the moves or what comes next, but you get lost in your emotions and anger? It's just such an interesting and crazy world."

Something that Arquette is still struggling to come to grips with is when his match gets bumped down the card.

"If I'm waiting for a match and they bump us, my nerves just go through the roof? I guess it's like stage acting because I get more nervous in front of a live audience instead of a camera."

In his recent deathmatch, Arquette suffered a deep cut on his neck that required a trip to the hospital to patch things up. He thinks that it's a bit amusing that it took a deathmatch for hip to up his credibility within the wrestling community.

"One thing wrestling fans do appreciate is when you put it all in the ring," Arquette said before adding that he had a recent match with Timothy Thatcher at Joey Ryan's Penis Party. The match was alright, but it wasn't as good as Arquette wanted it to be.

"I'm learning a lot as I go through all of this and I just hope to get better and better and keep entertaining the fans."

Just as Arquette was aligned with Diamond Dallas Page while in WCW, DDP was there in his corner for his match with Thatcher. Arquette expressed what DDP means to him and how he's helped him with much-needed wrestling advice.

"It was the best. He's just the coolest and is such an inspiration to me and so many people. His DDPY is so helpful in keeping your body ready to take bumps and recover from injury. His little pieces of advice he gives me are just gold," said Arquette.

When asked what the best advice DDP gave him, Arquette said that slowing down in the ring is something often overlooked by many new performers. "Taking your time ? when you feel like you're being slow in the ring, slow down [even more] because everything goes faster in your head. That's been one of the biggest learning curves for me."

Arquette is still an actor first and wrestler second and he talked about how his Hollywood career affects his wrestling bookings.

"A lot of [wrestling] companies want to book in advance so they can promote it and sell tickets. But in my business, a movie will come up and they'll see if you're available next week or next month. It's really going to have to be a matter of taking off and saying I'm unavailable," stated Arquette.

Arquette said that it still feels weird to do conventions or signings because he doesn't like taking money from the fans. But he admits that the money is very much needed considering what wrestlers put their bodies through.

"But when you do a match, you should get paid because it hurts and your body aches. You're definitely paying a toll for it. I get like selling merch and all of that stuff. These people dedicate their lives towards it and I guess if I were to go in that direction, I'd have to be more business about it," said Arquette.

Arquette was at WrestleCon but he upset some fellow wrestlers there by giving his shirts away for free while they made fans pay them for theirs.

"I always look at it, if I'm giving them something they'll have more money to spend on you," reasoned Arquette. "But it's not always looked that way. It's all little things I'm trying to learn about this business."

As for the reaction from Hollywood on his wrestling venture, Arquette admitted that people thinks he's a little off to be stepping back into the ring.

"Pretty much everyone in Hollywood things I'm crazy," said Arquette. "A lot of wrestling people think I'm a full-time wrestler and I'm open to it because I really love the world and the style of entertainment that it is."

He then talked about learning to fall in love with the various wrestling styles and wrestling traditions. He also is eager to get to know former wrestlers he wasn't that familiar with, like Bob Backlund, who he ran into at a signing and then did research on afterwards.

"You get this newfound love for the performance of it and the wrestlers that are the greats at it like Shawn Michaels. When you just study them and see how good they are at what they do, it's pretty remarkable," said Arquette.

David will be facing Ken Anderson at Legends of Wrestling this Saturday, April 20th, at the Fraser Hockeyland Arena in Detroit, MI. Other scheduled to attend include "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair, Bret Hart, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, Booker T and Rikishi.

Wrestling Inc's full interview with Arquette was included in a recent edition of our WINCLY podcast. The full audio can be heard in the embedded player at the bottom of this post. In it Arquette discusses how his World Title win differs from Kofi Kingston's, how his deathmatch affected his pro wrestling and acting careers, his upcoming match against Ken Anderson at Legends of Wrestling, the booking of Batista vs. Triple H at WrestleMania 35, the creepy puppet he gave to Ric Flair as a gift and more.

You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.