CATEGORY: Documentary
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I have been a professional wrestling fan since my youth, and I consider myself fortunate enough to have been an energetic teenager during the Attitude Era - a time period in Professional Wrestling history famous for risque storylines, energetic crowds and more than a hint of real-life drama behind the scenes that spilled out into the in-ring product. And the reason we got the Attitude Era was because of the fierce rivalry between the two biggest professional wrestling promotions in the world - World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In WWE, you had Steve Austin, The Rock, Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker - and on WCW, you had Sting, Ric Flair, Goldberg and…David Arquette?
Yes. David Arquette. The dweeby late 90s actor who married the woman from Friends. That guy. That guy was in WCW. And not only was he in WCW…he even became their world champion!
You see, the competition between the two companies was absolutely white hot, and each looked for the edge to get more "butts in the seats" (a phrase that came to haunt WCW, but that's for another time) so WCW turned to mainstream celebrities to boost their profile - Dennis Rodman, Karl Malone, Master P and the rock band Kiss (amongst others) all appeared at various stages, and to drive mainstream promotion further, WCW had a big hand in promoting the movie Ready To Rumble, which is where David Arquette comes into the picture.
Arquette starred in Ready To Rumble, essentially a buddy comedy about two wrestling fans who want avenge the injustice that was wrought upon their favourite performer. And I'm going to presume that being the star of a movie that heavily features talent from the company you're working with requires you to do your part in promoting it - ESPECIALLY when said company is circling the drain (barely a year after the movie released and Arquette was made Heavyweight Champion for two weeks, WCW ceased operations).
So it is with that in mind, I'll give you a brief synopsis of the plot of this documentary.
The long and short of it is that Arquette feels partly responsible for what happened to WCW and has carried a burden - especially BECAUSE he loves the business and has respect for it. With enough encouragement from his friends and his therapist, Arquette decides he wants to get back in the ring to prove that he loves the art and that he meant no disrespect to either the WCW belt or the business in general, thus he sets up a professional wrestling ring at his home, travels to Mexico to re-learn how to work and begins working some small backyard shows which culminates in a death-match against Nick Gage that literally almost killed him (who would have thought that splinters from broken light tubes would present a safety hazard!).
That's really it. Now, if you're not a pro-wrestling fan, there won't be THAT much here for you - though I will say, David Arquette does strike me as someone who has been insecure and damaged for a long time, something I personally feel an affinity with. He wants everybody to like him and he takes criticism very personally, so seeing this side of someone who we would ordinarily consider to be successful is interesting.
But David now seems in a happier place, and I am very happy for him.
As for the documentary, if you're after something different, give this a go.
FINAL RATING: 3/5 STARS if you're NOT a pro-wrestling fan. 4/5 if you are.
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