The year was 2000, the Monday Night Wars between the then-WWF and WCW were starting to come to a close, with WWF reclaiming almost all of the fans they had been losing to WCW in previous years.
WCW numbers were declining rapidly, a far cry from their dominant reign atop the ratings wars in years gone by. An idea was born, something to ignite the passion for WCW once again and make the old fans fall in love with the product all over again. It was crazy, it seemed impossible, but it just might work. Or maybe not, because the idea in question was the nail in the coffin for WCW, and less than a year later, the company would shut its doors, to be bought out by Vince McMahon.
WCW funded a movie, but not just any movie, a wrestling movie, starring all your favourite WCW wrestlers. DDP, Goldberg, Sting, some guy pretending to be a mixture of Ric Flair and Jerry Lawler. In what was one of the most misguided ideas in the history of wrestling, the universally chastised and lambasted movie called Ready To Rumble was born.
WrestleTalk will be hosting a live screening of Ready To Rumble at the Prince Charles Cinema in London on May 7! You can meet Oli Davis, Luke Owen, Laurie Blake, Pete Quinnell and Andy Datson, watch the film along with us, and be present for a live WrestleRamble afterwards as well! Plus there’s bound to be some surprises along the way too. Get your tickets right now, at the link here.
The movie is now synonymous with WCW’s downfall, so with that said, let’s take a look at some fun facts you might not know about Ready to Rumble.
1. The Reception Was…Poor
Ready To Rumble was released to the public on April 7, 2000. If you’re wondering what was happening in the wrestling world around that time, well, on April 3, 2000, just 4 days prior, WWF’s Monday Night Raw drew a whopping 6.4 rating and featured that whole ‘DX invasion of WCW’ angle, while WCW’s Monday Nitro managed their second lowest rating of all time, only drawing a 1.8. Ouch.
As previously mentioned, the movie was received…let’s just say poorly to be nice to them. It had a solid working budget of $24 million, but the movie only managed to gross $12.5 million, marking huge losses.
The film was hated by wrestling fans, hated by non-wrestling fans, and even hated by those who worked on the film, including Rose McGowen, who plays the love interest of David Arquette’s character.
2. The Hurricane Was David Arquette’s Stunt Double
Now while Ready To Rumble may have featured a whole bunch of WCW wrestlers, let’s not forget who the real star is here, and that’s David Arquette’s character, Gordie Boggs, an idiot. While the wrestlers can for sure do their own stunts, and you know, take bumps, considering that’s what they do for a living, Arquette didn’t quite have the same luxury.
Something you may not have known however, is who exactly was Arquette’s stunt double. According to a wwe.com interview in 2007, Arquette stated that none other than Shane Helms stepped in to fill the shoes of Gordie Boggs. Shane Helms of course is most well-known for his time wrestling as The Hurricane, the loveable goof who thinks he’s a superhero.
3. John Cena’s On-Screen Debut
The Hurricane would go on to make an appearance in the WWE’s Royal Rumble match in 2018, but it’s the person who eliminated him from that match that’s actually featured in the movie. How’s that for a motherflipping segue.
Hey so you know how John Cena is like, one of the biggest stars ever to be a part of WWE? Like, ever? And how he’s now a movie star who does stuff like big blockbusters, like Bumblebee, and not-so-big blockbusters, like The Marine? Isn’t it nuts that he made his on-screen movie debut on a WCW funded movie?
In the background of one particular shot with Goldberg and not-Jerry Lawler, you can see one John Cena lift some weights in the gym. Look at that hair.
He’s uncredited for his role, but that doesn’t stop him stealing the show with all that star presence he has while he…lifts those weights. Pumps that iron. Is that what people say? I don’t know, I don’t work out.
4. Titus Sinclair Was Going To Be Eric Bischoff
Speaking of things that didn’t work out, Eric Bischoff was fired from WCW prior to the filming of the movie, but there’s a character in it that seems awfully familiar. It turns out the character known as Titus Sinclair was originally going to be portrayed by none other than Eric Bischoff as a dramatized version of himself.
“Dramatized”, sure. Not sure you can get more dramatic, but sure. We’ll go with it. As previously mentioned, the former WCW Vice-President was fired from the company, so his role was renamed to Titus Sinclair and portrayed by Joe Pantoliano, the obvious replacement of course.
It does seem strange looking back that a WCW funded project didn’t feature one of the main parts of WCW’s success (and partial failure), but then again it also didn’t feature the nWo, so you know, could be worse.
5. The Title Belt Had Inverted Colours
As we’re talking about things that were replaced, for those more eagle eyed viewers, or those who have normal vision, you may have noticed that the title belt they used for the World Heavyweight Championship in the movie looked a little odd.
Normally it’s gold with slight silver trim, but the colours for the movie were actually inverted, so it was a silver belt with slight gold trim. Makes the phrase “hold the gold” a little bit meaningless, don’t you think? It rolls off the tongue, but if it’s silver, I can’t use “hold the silver”, I just need a word that rhymes with silver…wait.
6. Those David Arquette Appearances In WCW
But of course, it wasn’t just the movie that caused the downfall of WCW, it was the choices made after that really did them in. Genius booker and knower of all, Vince Russo had the great idea to bring in David Arquette to promote Ready To Rumble. So far, normal affair. WWE get Miz to plug his show every segment he’s in, so nothing to be wary of here.
Then it gets messy. Somehow, some way, someone thought it was a good idea to have actor David Arquette, who plays lest we forget, not a wrestler but a wrestling fan in a wrestling movie, to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Because nothing screams legitimacy like an actor besting your top wrestlers at the thing they’ve trained for all their lives.
While this decision has been globally panned, as it should, it’s worth noting that Arquette didn’t make any money from these appearances. All the money he was paid, he gave to the families of the recently deceased Brian Pillman, the late Brian Hildebrand, and paralyzed wrestler Darren Drozdov. He’s a nice guy, really.
7. Rey Mysterio Was Legitimately Injured
Speaking of nice guys, and during the film itself, a tag match takes place between some WCW alumni. The exciting match pits Rey Mysterio and Billy Kidman against the team of Juventud Guerrera and Prince Iaukea.
However, it wasn’t all plain sailing for the quartet, as during the course of filming, in classic Rey Mysterio fashion, he legitimately injured his knee. So you know that bit earlier when I said, obviously these guys can take bumps because that’s what they do for a living…yeah, well, scratch that. I know nothing.
8. They Planned On Doing A Sequel
Turns out though, I’m not the only one who knows nothing, because while Ready to Rumble was the worst thing to ever happen in the history of ever, at least until 2019 when the Sonic trailer was revealed, amirite lads, they actually wanted to double down on it by planning to do a sequel. Can you imagine? AEW has it right, it’s Double or Nothing? But definitely Nothing in this case.
What would it even be called? Readier To Rumble. Ready To Rumble: Get Readier. Ready 2 Rumble. Oh god it would have been, wouldn’t it? It would have been Ready 2 Rumble, with the number 2 in it. Oh god it’s like 2 Fast 2 Furious, but like, so much worse.
9. There Was Almost A Different Ending
Speaking of worse, and Ready To Rumble very nearly had a different ending to the movie. Though I’m not quite sure how you can get worse than Goldberg in his little speedos, a guy pretending to be Jerry Lawler, David Arquette in a sherriff’s outfit, and a dude in a hot tub driving off in a Jeep like some mismatched D&D party, but somehow this ending might be worse than that!
In an interview with YouShoot in 2013, DDP revealed that he himself pitched an alternative ending to the movie to Warner Bros. themselves in which after the culmination of the triple cage match, because that’s a thing that happens, the main good guy Jimmy King, who reminder, isn’t Jerry Lawler, would ask to see the two idiots who aren’t wrestlers to see him in the back.
When King arrived in the back, DDP would be waiting for him, whom he had just faced in the triple cage match. When it looked like the duo would start fighting again, they would actually hug and DDP would forgive King for throwing him through the three cages. Then, Gordie Boggs and the other guy would walk in and be all like “say whaaaattttt” because these people are actually friends?! Upon which DDP would say “Boys, welcome to the business. Let’s go have a drink!”
You’re exposing the business DDP! Seriously though, imagine the culmination of the movie just being “and then everyone were friends and they lived happily ever after”. Yay!
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