Why did people get mad at Arquette as WCW Champ?

[petef3]

At the time I'd say 90% or more of the venom was directed towards the powers-that-be in WCW rather than Arquette, though there was certainly some hostility towards him as well, mostly because late-'90s Arquette could be very, very annoying.

[EvenBaldobombHasAJob]

I'm just glad 0 people hold Tony Schiavone responsible, as much as Vince Russo would like them to.

[evilone]

Triple H and JJ reigns of terror were far more worse for wrestling and entertainment than few days of DA as World Champ.

[Zone Was Wrong]

WCW did 40+ other things over it's run that were way worse. Putting the title on Jarrett was way more deserving of criticism to me because he was supposed to be a threat, and well, I couldn't buy him as a main eventer at any point.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Dec 31, 2019 17:02:18 GMT -5 Cyno said:

Dec 31, 2019 16:18:52 GMT -5 Chairman of the Board said:

David Arquette winning the WCW title WAS NOT one of the worst moments in wrestling history.

The booking was convoluted but the idea itself wasn’t half bad.

Isolated, it wasn't too bad. Not great, but there's been a lot worse and it could've worked if done during a time when the product was better. But in the context of WCW 2000, it was added insult to injury towards a fanbase leaving in droves. Especially when you contrast it to WWF 2000 which was arguably one of that company's strongest years ever in terms of overall product.

Pretty much. It wasn't much worse than Vince McMahon being essentially handed the title by Stone Cold to screw over Triple H, but Vince won the title in the midst of a hot product in a fashion that pushed along the hot Austin vs. Hunter and Hunter vs. Vince feuds. David Arquette's title win muddled up the ongoing New Blood vs. Millionare's Club war by derailing any momentum Jeff Jarrett had as champion of the New Blood, which had already been a tepid and confusing angle to start with.

One product was white hot and could get away with experimenting with the title picture. The other one really had no business playing hot potato with their top title to a non-wrestler.

[bob]

it was the final nail the WCW coffin

from my perspective: here's the goof from the 1-800 Collect ads and the Scream film, a B-list actor who just won the biggest belt the company had

I rage quit WCW after that

[Mozenrath]

It was a symptom of a greater problem with the world title. It was being shuffled around entirely too much, and had lost a lot of gravity because of it. You had stuff like Kevin Nash just literally giving the title to Ric Flair once, the second time Nash had relinquished the title to someone with no care, or DDP here being totally fine with Arquette winning his title off of him.

All title belts, in the entire history of predetermined professional wrestling, are props. Hell, they're props in sports where it isn't rigged, but let's stick with wrestling for now. A promotion assigns a lot of meaning to that prop, and tries to sell fans on the importance of it, to give everything a sense of meaning, to make them invested in the stakes.

David Arquette was just one of many ways where WCW revealed how much it had failed in having any stakes in their programming anymore, and how Russo's philosophy to booking wrestling fatigues audiences.

[Cyno]

And yeah, David Arquette was very unlikable in 2000 lol. 2019 David Arquette is actually pretty cool and it shows how much he loves the business from WWE to the indies. But in 2000? He was a schmuck.

[thecrusherwi]

I’m gonna say something that might sound sacrilegious: up until they have Arquette swerve DDP at Slamboree in the cage match to reveal it was a setup all along, I don’t think the storyline was actually that bad. Had Arquette cost DDP the title by mistake or something instead of turning heel, it still would’ve been kinda stupid, but the story would’ve been more coherent.

[Mister Pigwell]

Sidepoint, but I think this would be looked back at with a level of absurdity and a somewhat positive spin if it was for the US title.

[Deleted]

The best analogy I can think of would be if Seth Rogen became WWE Champion nowadays.

It's not necessarily that the actor did anything wrong, it's that the promotion gave the fans shitty booking.

[Celexa Bliss 54]

People can bitch about it, but at the end of the day, if a major wrestling company said they wanted to make you World Champion, how many people here WOULDN'T jump at the chance? He's a fan, just like us. How can you fault him for living out a dream scenario for so many of us?

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Jan 1, 2020 0:15:44 GMT -5 Mister Pigwell said:

Sidepoint, but I think this would be looked back at with a level of absurdity and a somewhat positive spin if it was for the US title.

WCW did have a bit of a reputation for treating all of its titles like shit, so I don't know if it go over well either. They just threw the TV title in the trash a few months ago, and Judy Bagwell was a tag team champion even before the company starting freefalling.

Now, it doesn't get cited as one of the company's most infamous turning points into oblivion if Arquette only wins the US title, but I can't imagine anyone's really happy with it either.

If anything, Arquette lucking into the Hardcore title would be the most ideal solution because nobody is going to have their opinion of Screamin' Norman Smiley altered if Arquette trades the title with him, and it allows for the main eventers to protect Arquette since there's no rules against it in a Hardcore match.

[J. Hova]

Dec 31, 2019 23:32:55 GMT -5 bob said:

it was the final nail the WCW coffin

from my perspective: here's the goof from the 1-800 Collect ads and the Scream film, a B-list actor who just won the biggest belt the company had

I rage quit WCW after that

Game, set, match.  I did the same thing with rage quitting WCW at this point.  The only caveat being that calling him a B-list actor would be an insult to all B-list actors.

[Hurbster]

Stupid idea, the blame should be spread around.

[Nr1Humanoid]

Dec 31, 2019 21:57:30 GMT -5 evilone said:

Triple H and JJ reigns of terror were far more worse for wrestling and entertainment than few days of DA as World Champ.

Oh, Zod yes. The two most boring wrestlers ever. At least Arquette was brief.

[Chairman of the Board]

WCW was flushing down the toilet before Arquette won the title.

We all remember things differently but JJ being on top of WCW turned more people away than David Arquette.

The World title changing hands in a convoluted tag team match was the worst part.

It was memorable. If he turned and screwed DDP to win the title then the blow off was DDP kicking his ass main eventing a PPV or TV iit could have been a decent publicity stunt. Instead he won it in a backwards match due to backward stipulations and the payoff elevated nobody.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Dec 31, 2019 21:57:30 GMT -5 evilone said:

Triple H and JJ reigns of terror were far more worse for wrestling and entertainment than few days of DA as World Champ.

Don't forget Hulk Hogan's deathgrip on the WCW Main event scene. He kneecapped the hottest faces in wrestling begin the scenes and in front of camera.

[johnnyk9]

Not mad more disappointed then anything

[David-Arquette was in WCW 2000]

I knew nothing of it until I randomly bought Slamboree around a year later on VHS. There was no mention of Arquette on there so I was damn surprised when I popped that on. Mad? No. Just bewildered.

Even now, with context and history and all that, I'm still not mad about it. It was f***ing stupid though.