Posted in: Opinion, Sports, TV, TV, WWE | Tagged: david arquette, wcw, wrestling, wwe

WWE's The John Cena Classic Will Validate David Arquette's WCW Run

WWE's The John Cena Classic winner can win the belt, even if they lost every match. And we gave David Arquette crap for his title run...

In case you missed it, John Cena rolled out that big announcement he had been teasing over the past week or so during WWE Backlash on Saturday. So, what was the news that would shake the very foundation of the WWE? Another tournament, another title belt. But this one's different because it's… wait for it… The John Cena Classic! "I am so honored tonight to announce to you the John Cena Classic. An entire evening of the best of today competing with the best of tomorrow. An entire event where WWE superstars and NXT superstars get an opportunity to give you all they have in hopes to be crowned a champion," Cena shared. "… And not just any championship. This is an event, and this is a championship I'm personally putting my name on. So, I'm going to strive for a certain level of excellence, and I'm also going to do everything I can to make it special."

Let's see… wrestlers from across multiple brands competing in matches to win a bigger prize. Okay, think we've been down this road before. A championship belt is nice, but when and how often would the champ defend it? Will it be an annual thing? Because with the way things have been running lately, there's no guarantee a wrestler will be under a WWE contract 12 days from now, let alone 12 months. But here's the kicker that makes it so "special": fans vote on the champion – and you don't have to have won a single match to walk away with the belt. Just to be clear? You can hold a WWE title by being a better social media influencer than a wrestler. And that got us thinking about the shitstorm that actor/filmmaker David Arquette got into back in the day, when he was written into the storylines to be WCW World Heavyweight Champion – and he was. But at least he had to win a match to get the belt.

Back in 2000, while filming the WCW film Ready to Rumble, Arquette would find himself directly involved in WCW's storylines (because, you know, "corporate synergy"). We're not going to offer a detailed, three-semester-long recap of what went down, but in a nutshell? Arquette was part of a stable that included Chris Kanyon and then-WCW World Heavyweight Champion Diamond Dallas Page. During an episode of WCW Thunder, Arquette and Page faced Eric Bischoff and Jeff Jarrett, with the stipulation that whoever made the pin would walk away with the title. Want to guess how that went? Yup, Arquette would go on to pin Bischoff – and walk away with the WCW World Heavyweight Championship belt.

Over the course of his 12-day run, Arquette would actually record a successful title defense, with Page offering a major assist in taking down Tank Abbott. Otherwise, the actor's title run would consist of a combination of comedy sketches – either from the set of filming of Arquette's film 3000 Miles to Graceland, or one or two WCW shows. Arquette's title run would eventually come to an end at May 2000's WCW Slamboree, turning on Page to secure the win for Jarrett. That would definitely not be the final chapter in Arquette's wrestling career, much of which was detailed in the 2020 documentary You Cannot Kill David Arquette, from David Darg and Price James. Along with looking back on his professional wrestling career, Arquette opens up about his WCW title run, how much professional wrestling meant to him, and why it was important for people not to remember him solely for his WCW days.

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