Many older wrestling fans remember the awful day on which actor and pro wrestling fan David Arquette won the WCW World Championship. That same World Title that had been worn by the likes of Ric Flair, Big Van Vader, Sting, and many others. Some have argued that the belt held some lineage to the original Bog Gold Belt, and thus had more value and prestige in the eyes of longtime wrestling fans. They had an actor win the WCW World Championship. This was undoubtedly one of the final nails in WCWs coffin. The title lost virtually all value, and the initial shock of the event did not lead to any surge in interest or buyrates, which is what WCWs management was probably expecting. On the contrary; when fans heard that Arquette was scheduled to defend the belt at Slamboree, ticket sales stopped almost instantly. To this day, Slamboree is said to have one of the lowest buyrates ever for a wrestling PPV, at 0.14. On the bright side, Arquette fought hard to prevent this decision from happening, and when it did take place, he gave his earnings to the families of Owen Hart, Brian Pillman and Darren Drozdov. His time in the main event, though not his idea, was an awful decision that cost the company a ton of money, and couldve instead been an opportunity to build a new star, instead of killing the entire company.
Alexander Podgorski is a writer for WhatCulture that has been a fan of professional wrestling since he was 8 years old. He loves all kinds of wrestling, from WWE and sports entertainment, to puroresu in Japan.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University in Political Studies and French, and a Master's Degree in Public Administration. He speaks English, French, Polish, a bit of German, and knows some odd words and phrases in half a dozen other languages.
