Yesterday we transcribed part one of Why It Ended with their special guest David Arquette and below is part two of the the transcription. Arquette gives a unique actor’s perspective on how he looks to the subtleties of what makes a wrestling promo great, cherishing the little moments of the art and what he believes holding a world title can signify to its champion (transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone):
David Arquette gives an actor’s eye to the wrestling promo:
“I’m still watching Dusty Rhodes and watching Ric Flair and watching these guys and you know, you don’t want to copy anyone, but you want to see what made their promos so great and what makes a great promo. Just subtlety into a world that’s over the top. It’s funny, a lot of it’s coming back to me. For me, my experience in this is you make it real. You know what I mean? Things are good when they’re real. When you’re telling a real story, when your emotionally invested, when the experience is something that they can relate to, that you can relate to, that you believe yourself, that you’re feeling that true emotions come up and when stuff starts happening and when you have a good performance it’s like – when you have a good performance on the set, great set decorator and be working with great actors and director and it’s a good script. For a second there, you can forget there’s cameras around. You know, you can just be in the moment. You can be there, and when that happens there’s sort of those golden moments. It’s interesting, those golden moments in wrestling happens with fans, they happen on the way to the arena, it’s this weird world.”
His fantastic moment with Sting back in WCW:
“Little moments like Sting popping his head between the two [airline] seats, you know at the height of Sting, and he pops his head between the two seats, he goes,
Sting: ‘Whatcha reading?’
Arquette: (Nervous) ‘The airplane magazine.’
Sting: ‘Is it good?’
Arquette: (Still nervous) ‘Yeah…what are you doing?'”
On feeling like a punk:
“I was more like a fan who like buys a belt, you know what I mean? Where I walk around and I pretend that I’m the champion. That’s literally like what it felt like. I didn’t feel like I earned it, I didn’t feel like I was truly champion. And then they’re explaining to me afterwards ‘do you know what it means, right?’ ‘What?’ ‘It means you can beat up anyone in the locker room.’ I was like ‘what do you mean?’ Like, ‘No, you’re the world champion. You can beat up everybody.’ So I was like, ‘Oh maybe I should just beat up Tank Abbott then. Even if I get beat up, at least just to show them I’m not a wuss.’ That’s part of the biggest problem of this whole thing is being like this punk. You’re just a punk, wimp Hollywood loser for the last thirty years. You know what, nobody likes that feeling. You know, especially if you have any kind of like, male ego. I think that like ‘machismo attitude’ is kind of what led to my deathmatch situation.”
On what a wrestling championship can signify to it’s holder:
“I look at it as this: a gold ring on your finger could represent your marriage or it could just be a gold ring on your finger. And the value of it is your commitment to your marriage, your love for your wife, your family. You look at the ring and it holds your vows, you know what I mean? Or it could just be worthless, just worth the weight of gold in it or you could put all that love into it and that’s what it sort of represents, even with more history and more lineages and multiple years of investment and passion and history of different companies.”
Arquette also talks about being starstruck by Marlon Brando, getting flipped off by a young fan back in WCW and his eventual return to the squared circle. You can listen to the entire episode of Why It Ended… by going here.
Author’s Note: How can people not root for Arquette? The man is self-aware, funny and speaks with conviction. He clearly has a love for the business and it’s a shame that some people look to him as a talent with negative influence. Couldn’t be further from the truth. He adds a refreshing element to an already fascinating industry and should be looked at as an excellent addition rather than a detrimental subtraction. I tell you, this interview is a must-listen. Go, David, go.
RELATED: David Arquette Talks Going ‘Off Script’ In WCW & Holding The Belt For The First Time
