Tony Schiavone Thinks David Arquette Winning the WCW Title Gave Them a Lot of Exposure

– During a recent edition of What Happened When, former WCW broadcaster Tony Schiavone recalled David Arquette becoming the WCW World Heavyweight Champion in 2000. Below are some highlights (via WrestlingInc.com):

Tony Schiavone on the exposure from having David Arquette as WCW World Champion: “We would’ve never had Courtney Cox on our show. We would’ve never had Kurt Russell on our show. Kurt Russell did an appearance on the show where [Arquette] was holding onto the belt and he just walked by and laughed at him. It gave us a lot of exposure.”

On suggesting putting over David Arquette to win the title: “I’m not gonna take complete blame for this, but I was in the conversation. Vince [Russo] had concluded a meeting … And he said, ‘So what do you think of the show?’ I went, ‘It’s okay.’ He says, ‘There anything we should do different?’ I said, ‘No, I think it’s good … [but] there is one thing you might want to consider.’ And he looks at me, and we stared at each other. He says, ‘You’re trying to tell me that maybe we should put Arquette over?’ I went, ‘Well, it certainly would give us a lot of exposure.’ And he said, ‘That’s a pretty good idea.’ So that’s kinda how it happened.”