WCW was more or less a fountain of bad ideas when it came to bringing outside talent into the promotion. Dennis Rodman? Kevin Greene? Not great. Yet its lowest point? Putting a championship belt on an actor. Now, utilizing Arquette wasn't the issue. He had a WCW themed film coming out in 2000 with Ready to Rumble, so a tie-in for the sake of marketing was a given. Writing him into storylines? That was a particularly bad decision by creative. Still, if it stopped there, it could be forgiven - but it got worse. After a storyline confrontation with Eric Bischoff and an initial match between the two, Arquette was put in a three-way match with Bischoff and Jeff Jarrett, with the WCW Heavyweight Championship on the line, open to whoever scored a pinfall. Arquette got the pin over Bischoff, and the belt. After that he was used for comic relief for the most part - which honestly was completely disrespecting the belt. While pro wrestling has always been about entertainment, the title needs to get its proper due, or it will no longer matter within the various storylines. In short, you want fans to believe that someone would actually want the belt, and that it will be hard fought for - not that it will be handed off to just anyone. However, the angle, which Arquette was himself against, was reportedly insisted upon by Vince Russo. For Arquette's part, he donated all his earnings from his WCW run to the families of Owen Hart, Brian Pillman (both of whom had passed away), and Droz (who had been paralyzed in the ring). The experiment would last mere weeks, with Arquette dropping the title to Jarrett after turning on DDP (who had been an ally), but the damage to WCW was done.
Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.
