Skip to main content

Vince Russo Thinks David Arquette as WCW Champion Was a Success. No, Seriously.

By
I've thrown quite a few jabs at Vince Russo on this blog for his horrible booking decisions and bizarre gimmick matches, but this takes the cake. What Vince Russo said on the most recent edition of The Gerweck Report podcast is without a doubt the stupidest thing I have ever heard him say. He has said things like Kevin Owens would never draw money in WWE, but this is far worse. You ready for this? Seriously, this is incredible ignorance right here. Alright...here it goes...
VINCE RUSSO THINKS THAT BOOKING DAVID ARQUETTE AS WCW CHAMPION WAS NOT ONLY A GOOD IDEA BUT ALSO SUCCESSFUL.
No seriously, I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't heard it myself, but take a listen right here. Russo says that the entire title reign was a publicity stunt, that it was successful because it got on the cover of USA Today and Arquette shot a segment with Courtney Cox & Kurt Russell once with the belt, and that the "freaking morons" in the Internet wrestling community "think wrestling is real" and "don't understand that it's a business."
OK, where to begin. First off, I just find it incredibly ironic that Vince Russo, the guy who less than a week ago was bitching about how "a middle-weight (at best) beat not one, but two heavyweights in the same night" when Finn Balor beat Rusev and Roman Reigns on RAW, is calling people morons for thinking an actor as world champion is a bad idea and not realistic. You can piss right off with that argument, bro. Second, if wrestling is a business, then how about we look at it from a business perspective, shall we?

Pay-Per-View Buys

Here are the buy rates from Souled Out 2000 (the first WCW pay-per-view of 2000) and Greed (the last WCW pay-per-view) from the Indeed Wrestling site:
Souled Out 2000
1/16/2000
0.26
0.25

115,000
Superbrawl X
2/20/2000
0.15
0.15

70,000
Uncensored 2000
3/19/2000
0.13
0.13

60,000
Spring Stampede 2000
4/16/2000
0.25
0.27

115,000
Slamboree 2000
5/7/2000
0.14
0.14

65,000
Great American Bash 2000
6/11/2000
0.19
0.20

85,000
Bash at the Beach 2000
7/9/2000
0.22
0.25

100,000
New Blood Rising
8/13/2000
0.18
0.18

85,000
Fall Brawl 2000
9/17/2000
0.16
0.16

75,000
Halloween Havoc 2000
10/29/2000
0.15
0.15

70,000
Mayhem 2000
11/26/2000
0.12

55,000
Starrcade 2000
12/17/2000
0.11

50,000
Sin
1/14/2001
0.17
0.10

80,000
Superbrawl Revenge
2/19/2001
0.15

70,000
Greed
3/18/2001
0.10

50,000
The reason I highlighted those two specific shows is because Spring Stampede 2000 & Slamboree 2000 were the shows that fell in between Arquette's world title win, with him actually defending it at Slamboree 2000. As a result of Arquette winning the belt, Slamboree did 50,000 fewer buys than Spring Stampede, and only one show, Bash at the Beach 2000, hit 100,000 buys again. So clearly this wasn't a good business move from a pay-per-view buys standpoint.

TV Ratings

Now granted, WCW was pretty much done for in terms of the Monday Night Wars, as RAW had beaten Nitro in terms of ratings for over 70 weeks in a row when Arquette won the belt, but him winning certainly didn't bring in better ratings. The last Nitro before Arquette won the belt got a 3.1 rating, and the next one after he won the belt got a 2.5, over half a point less. Nitro would rarely make it back to or above 3.1 after that, and they were all after the Arquette title reign was over. So, not only did this not improve pay-per-view buys, but it also did not improve TV ratings.

So, from a business standpoint, David Arquette's title win resulted in fewer pay-per-view buy rates and Nitro ratings didn't improve. I'm still failing to see how this was a good idea. But hey, at least you got on the cover of USA Today once!
There's one other thing he says on that show and I wanted to address and that is the fact that he thinks  that because people still talk about David Arquette winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, it was successful. Yes, Vince Russo, people do, in fact, still talk about David Arquette as world champion. They talk about it when bringing up the worst moments in the history of wrestling. It's in the same conversation as Katie Vick, Claire Lynch, and Edge kidnapping Paul Bearer as one of, if not the worst angles in wrestling history. And it clearly bothers Russo that so many people give him sh*t for booking the angle since he's calling them morons and assholes.
The fact that Vince Russo can confidently say the putting WCW's World Championship on an actor was a good idea, despite an almost unanimously negative reaction from fans, zero improvements towards television ratings and a drop in pay-per-view buy numbers just because the angle got on the cover of USA Today and they got a throwaway one-off segment with Courtney Cox and Kurt Russell just shows how dense he really is. I've disagreed with a lot of the things he's said in the past, but this is flat out ridiculous bro.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

More from The Wrestling Section

Worst in the World: The Last Rites Match-TNA Destination X 2007

By
(Special thanks to an anonymous user for suggesting this match. If you'd like to see a match covered on the Worst in the World, leave a comment down below.) An often discussed aspect of professional wrestling is the backstage politicking of Hulk Hogan. Throughout his career as a major attraction in wrestling, Hogan's philosophy has always been to protect Hulk Hogan...OK, sometimes he'd help Ed Leslie, but most of the time it was to protect Hulk Hogan. Because of that philosophy and Hogan's influence as a top guy, there have been multiple instances where a company's booking and other wrestlers have suffered as a result. Would having Mr. Perfect win the 1990 Royal Rumble made sense and could have elevated a rising star and potentially created a new main event player? Yes, but that would require Hogan to not win, and that doesn't work for Hogan, so he wins the Rumble even though he doesn't need elevating. Would booking Randy Orton to beat Hogan at SummerSlam 20...
104 comments
Read more

Worst in the World: The Gimmick Battle Royal-WrestleMania X-Seven

By
(Special thanks to Frost for suggesting this match. If you'd like to see a match covered on the Worst in the World, leave a comment down below.) WrestleMania X-Seven. Heavily considered the not just the best WrestleMania, but the greatest wrestling show of all time, WrestleMania X-Seven took place during the hottest period in the WWF's history, and features just about every one of the hottest acts in wrestling at the time. An undercard featuring the likes of Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, William Regal, Kane, and the Big Show. One of the biggest female stars in the history of wrestling in Chyna. A killer TLC match between the Dudley Boyz, the Hardy Boyz, and Edge & Christian. A wild brawl between The Undertaker and Triple H. A massive main event between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. Hell, even the father vs son Street Fight between Vince & Shane McMahon. It's a star-studded affair. However, there's one match that sticks out like...
3 comments
Read more

Worst in the World: D-Generation X vs Brothers of Destruction-Crown Jewel

By
This match didn't need to happen. After Triple H and the Undertaker had one of the most brutally bad matches of 2018 at Super Show-Down not even a month earlier, nobody wanted to see them try to wrestle again. Also, nobody wanted to see Shawn Michaels come out of retirement after his fantastic sendoff in 2010, especially for a match like this. But here we are, Triple H & Shawn Michaels facing The Undertaker & Kane in 2018. The combined ages of these four at the time is 206. That's a number you'd expect to see from a match at Heroes of Wrestling. And anyone can come up with their own reason as to why this match is happening, but that would just be ignoring the actual reason. For those of you who don't know, Crown Jewel was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That might not seem like important information, but you can't really discuss this match without mentioning it. Despite the numerous reasons that running shows in Saudi Arabia is morally wrong (their abuse ...
6 comments
Read more

Worst in the World: Nia Jax's Worst Matches

By
Click the link here to vote in the poll and help decide the next edition of the Worst in the World. Nia Jax's first run with the WWE can really only be described as hard to watch. Sure, she had a few stand-out matches, most notably (and surprisingly) her match with Ronda Rousey at Money in the Bank, and an underrated gem with Bayley at NXT TakeOver: London, but those were always outshined by her most infamous matches and moments. She's since returned to WWE and, for the most part, seems to have improved a bit, but the reputation she got from her initial run is gonna be hard to shake off. This week, I'll be looking at some of Jax's worst matches. These include just flat-out bad matches, and matches that have become infamous examples of her reckless in-ring work. Match #1: vs Charlotte Flair-April 10th, 2017 Raw The first match we'll be looking at is from the April 10, 2017 episode of Monday Night Raw, when Nia took on Charlotte Flair. The two had been on the losing e...
8 comments
Read more

Worst in the World: Eric Young & Shark Boy vs Generation Me-TNA Destination X 2011

By
Click the link here to vote in the poll and help decide the next edition of the Worst in the World. Throughout the late 2000s and 2010s, few tag teams made as much noise on the independent scene as the Young Bucks. Really breaking out at a time when WWE made their tag division a borderline afterthought, Matt & Nick Jackson were almost unmatched in terms of elite matches on the indys, most notably in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla & Ring of Honor before joining New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Bullet Club, becoming mainstays of the group as it reached its peak throughout the mid-2010s. Sure, their style hasn't endeared them to old-school wrestling fans, but you can't deny their impact on wrestling. And with the arrival of All Elite Wrestling in 2019, North American fans would finally get to see the Young Bucks on national television for the first time... However... In what has become somewhat of a footnote in their careers, the Young Bucks had been on a nationally televised wrestlin...
6 comments
Read more