David Arquette in World Championship Wrestling

A smiling headshot of David Arquette
David Arquette became involved with World Championship Wrestling to promote the film Ready to Rumble.

Actor David Arquette worked with World Championship Wrestling (WCW), a professional wrestling promotion, for a series of appearances in 2000. Arquette's involvement was conceived as a promotional crossover to advertise the film Ready to Rumble, as both WCW and Warner Bros., who were distributing the film, were subsidiaries of the same parent company, Time Warner Entertainment. WCW writer Vince Russo believed that the actor, then enjoying the success of Scream 3 and considered a mainstream star, would bring attention to WCW's programming during its ongoing ratings competition with its rivals in the wrestling industry.

Arquette, a lifelong wrestling fan, was reticent about the extent of the storyline with which he would be involved, which saw him scripted to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, the company's most prestigious championship, and defend it in a pay-per-view main event. Reaction to the storyline was negative, with critics subsequently deriding it as one of professional wrestling's worst moments. Additionally, neither Ready to Rumble nor WCW's viewing figures benefited from the crossover. In later years, Arquette returned to professional wrestling in search of redemption, a journey chronicled in the documentary You Cannot Kill David Arquette.