Kemo
05-11-2023, 07:25 PM
Why did WCW make Scream actor David Arquette their World Champion in 2000?
Over two decades later, the decision is still considered one of the worst, most disrespectful title changes in history. The title change itself came on the April 25, 2000, edition of Thunder in a tag-team match, pitting Diamond Dallas Page (the champion) and Arquette against Jeff Jarrett and Eric Bischoff. With the stipulation that whoever got the pinfall won the title, Arquette pinned Bischoff to win DDP's World Championship.
To say WCW was struggling at the time of the title change would be to put it mildly. The luster of the Atlanta-based promotion had long gone, and WCW programming was routinely trounced in the ratings by Raw, led by names such as The Rock, Triple H, and The Undertaker. Speaking on his 83 Weeks Podcast, Eric Bischoff said that despite the reaction in the 23 years since Arquette's victory, there were little to no objections within WCW at the time.
"It wasn't that controversial when it went down. You gotta realize, WCW was so far down morale-wise, ratings-wise, revenue-wise, and organizationally ... so, any attempt to do anything that might work was generally fairly embraced. Under the circumstances that we were in, there was not a lot of pushback or people complaining about stuff. Everybody was just hoping that something was going to click, and this was one of those."
Bischoff went on to compare the response to Arquette's title win to the controversial loss of Cody Rhodes to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39. Bischoff's argument was that there were people in WCW who didn't agree with Arquette's win who didn't speak up, just like Cody's loss last month.
Arquette's victory did not turn around WCW's fortunes and is instead considered the final nail in the coffin of the company, which would be bought by the WWF less than a year later. The title change did get a small write-up in USA Today and ended mere weeks later when Jarrett won the title at Slamboree.
Arquette, a huge wrestling fan, was reportedly against the idea of being champion and argued that an actor winning the title was wrong and would turn away fans. The Scream star only agreed after being pressured, with the argument made that his title win could help the film Ready to Rumble (which featured WCW talent) as the film was doing poorly at the box office.
Arquette reportedly refused to be paid for his WCW run and donated what he was given to the families of wrestlers who had died or been injured. Arquette gave money to the widows of Owen Hart and Brian Pillman, to the family of Bobby Duncum Jr., and to Darren Drozdov, who had been paralyzed in a wrestling accident the year prior.
Over two decades later, the decision is still considered one of the worst, most disrespectful title changes in history. The title change itself came on the April 25, 2000, edition of Thunder in a tag-team match, pitting Diamond Dallas Page (the champion) and Arquette against Jeff Jarrett and Eric Bischoff. With the stipulation that whoever got the pinfall won the title, Arquette pinned Bischoff to win DDP's World Championship.
To say WCW was struggling at the time of the title change would be to put it mildly. The luster of the Atlanta-based promotion had long gone, and WCW programming was routinely trounced in the ratings by Raw, led by names such as The Rock, Triple H, and The Undertaker. Speaking on his 83 Weeks Podcast, Eric Bischoff said that despite the reaction in the 23 years since Arquette's victory, there were little to no objections within WCW at the time.
"It wasn't that controversial when it went down. You gotta realize, WCW was so far down morale-wise, ratings-wise, revenue-wise, and organizationally ... so, any attempt to do anything that might work was generally fairly embraced. Under the circumstances that we were in, there was not a lot of pushback or people complaining about stuff. Everybody was just hoping that something was going to click, and this was one of those."
Bischoff went on to compare the response to Arquette's title win to the controversial loss of Cody Rhodes to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39. Bischoff's argument was that there were people in WCW who didn't agree with Arquette's win who didn't speak up, just like Cody's loss last month.
Arquette's victory did not turn around WCW's fortunes and is instead considered the final nail in the coffin of the company, which would be bought by the WWF less than a year later. The title change did get a small write-up in USA Today and ended mere weeks later when Jarrett won the title at Slamboree.
Arquette, a huge wrestling fan, was reportedly against the idea of being champion and argued that an actor winning the title was wrong and would turn away fans. The Scream star only agreed after being pressured, with the argument made that his title win could help the film Ready to Rumble (which featured WCW talent) as the film was doing poorly at the box office.
Arquette reportedly refused to be paid for his WCW run and donated what he was given to the families of wrestlers who had died or been injured. Arquette gave money to the widows of Owen Hart and Brian Pillman, to the family of Bobby Duncum Jr., and to Darren Drozdov, who had been paralyzed in a wrestling accident the year prior.