Of all the retired wrestlers who returned to the ring in 2018, including Shawn Michaels and Trish Stratus, the most surprising is undoubtedly David Arquette. The star of films like Scream and Ready To Rumble previously held the WCW Heavyweight Championship for 12 days in 2000, which made fans hate him (even though it was Vince Russo’s decision) and encapsulated the swift downward momentum of WCW in its latter days.
In 2018 however, the 47-year-old actor began wrestling on the indies, motivated by a lifelong love of wrestling and a desire not to just be remembered as that joker who never should have been champion. By all accounts he’s been working hard and paying his dues, and he got lots of attention when he almost bled to death in a hardcore match at Joey Janela’s L.A. Confidential.
However, wrestling fans have long memories, and since he’s been working a lot of indie promotions since returning, most people still remember him for the WCW stuff. That means he’s been getting a lot of hate on social media, which he spoke out against in a series of tweets this morning, after seeing the responses to his upcoming appearance for NWA in Tennessee:
https://twitter.com/DavidArquette/status/1075057976501661697
https://twitter.com/DavidArquette/status/1075057977579646976
https://twitter.com/DavidArquette/status/1075057978665951232
https://twitter.com/DavidArquette/status/1075057979299266560
Of course, none of this will likely change anything. Wrestling fans tend to dig their heels in once they’ve decided to hate somebody. On the other hand, if there’s one thing wrestling teaches us, it’s that sometimes that hatred can fuel a person just as much as cheers do. If David Arquette stays in wrestling long enough (he’s still six years younger than Taker and HBK), he might just change his reputation after all.
