Vince Russo explains why David Arquette won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship (Exclusive)
Former WWE and WCW writer Vince Russo has given his reasoning behind David Arquette’s controversial WCW World Heavyweight Championship victory.
In 2000, David Arquette made appearances in WCW to promote wrestling-themed movie Ready to Rumble. On the April 26, 2000 episode of WCW Thunder, he teamed with DDP to defeat Eric Bischoff and Jeff Jarrett in a tag team match. The actor pinned Bischoff to pick up the victory for his team, meaning he won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.
Speaking on SK Wrestling’s Off the SKript with Dr. Chris Featherstone, Russo acknowledged that people still question why David Arquette became WCW World Heavyweight Champion. From his perspective, he felt that the story was believable because the actor defeated Bischoff instead of a top star on the WCW roster.
“First of all, bro, he won it in a tag match beating Eric Bischoff, so that’s feasible. He never beat a wrestler. So he kind of got caught up in the moment and if you watch it back, he gets caught up in the moment, he gets Bischoff, and when it’s one, two, three and it sinks in… Bro, the very next episode he says that. He’s like, ‘Bro, no! I don’t want this! I have no business [winning this]!’ Bro, we told it where it was all feasible.”
Listen to Vince Russo's thoughts on David Arquette and Vince McMahon's 1999 Royal Rumble win in the video above.
David Arquette’s wrestling return
In 2018, David Arquette decided to make his return to wrestling on the independent scene. He has competed against wrestlers including James Ellsworth, Jerry Lawler, Jungle Boy, Mr. Anderson, and Nick Gage over the last two years.
His only WWE match came in December 2010 when he teamed with Alex Riley in a losing effort against Randy Orton on RAW.
Please credit SK Wrestling's Off the SKript and embed the video interview if you use quotes from this article.