David Penzer was amazed at David Arquette‘s reaction to what he said about his WCW Championship win.
One of the most controversial moments in wrestling history was in WCW in 2000 when actor David Arquette won the WCW Championship. This was regarded as a terrible choice by many, including Arquette, but the company went through with it anyway in a disastrous move.
For years, many fans and wrestlers claimed that this is what killed WCW. Time has been more kind to Arquette’s wrestling run, and Penzer reflected on the moment in his new book, Sitting Ringside: Volume 2. When talking with WrestleZone’s Bill Pritchard, David Penzer revealed his shock that David Arquette blamed himself for WCW’s demise.
Penzer recalled how he invited Arquette on his podcast to explain why WCW went under, which had nothing to do with the title win. Penzer said Arquette’s wife, Christina, later thanked him for taking that weight off her husband’s shoulders.
David Penzer On David Arquette Being Upset About His WCW Title Reign
“I mean it blew me away. Here is a guy that has everything. Beautiful wife, money, and power, and movies, and all this stuff. And without giving too much away, 25 years later, he still thinks he killed the wrestling business or at least WCW.” said David Penzer.
“It legitimately upsets him. It’s something that keeps him up at night. As soon as I found that out, I threw him on my podcast. There’s excerpts of the podcast in the book. But I gave him all the reasons why I thought he wasn’t being fair to himself. And there was a lot of other crap that went on that was a lot worse. And yeah, I didn’t realize how seriously he took it. I thought maybe he was just indulging me a bit on the podcast.
“But then, as you said, his wife walked up on a Legends of Wrestling Show in Detroit and thanked me that I took the weight off. I was floored. Super nice guy. Really loves the business. If I send him a text to this day, he will text me right back. I don’t take advantage of that obviously. So, yeah, great guy. Didn’t bother me when he won the belt. It was a different business. We were a dying company and we needed to be on the cover of the entertainment section in USA Today way more than we needed to not have an actor as a World Champion for a week. Plus he bought the bar. That was good. Free bar tabs for everybody,” David Penzer added.
David Arquette’s Title Win Was ‘Controversial’
Penzer agreed that the title change was controversial, but that’s exactly what WCW was trying to do at the time. The company wanted attention, and sometimes they did things that didn’t work out, like bringing in the Insane Clown Posse.
“Look, it was controversial. Don’t get me wrong. But at that point, that’s what we were trying to do. We are trying to get people to talk about us. All they were doing was sh*ting on us. Excuse my French. So, anyway that we could be put in some positive light or get some promotion out of it, we did and it worked.” continued David Penzer.
“There were so many times we did stuff that didn’t work. Look at the Insane Clown Posse, two of the nicest guys in the world. And it worked in their world. But it didn’t work on a national level. There were so many things that we were trying to do to incorporate celebrities and just get a buzz out there about the product.”
“You could say you loved… I understand if people say, ‘I hate that Arquette won the World Title or he’s a World Champion.’ I understand that. And I understand the point that people make when they say it. There’s a lot of worst things that went on in that company that didn’t get any of the publicity that got. So, cut a grade on a curve,” David Penzer said.
