Is the Rock the New David Arquette?

David Arquette wins gold
Photo courtesy: WWE

By Chad Smart

@chadsmart & @my123cents on Twitter

I’m guessing a lot of wrestling fans won’t agree with the title of this blog but I think there may be some truth in saying The Rock winning the WWE title was akin to David Arquette winning the WCW title. I hadn’t thought about it until I saw a comment on a message board. Since then I’m been mulling this concept around trying to figure out how to properly present this hypothesis.

The first reaction to refute this claim would be to point out The Rock was a professional wrestler and had a successful seven year WWE career before heading off to the greener pastures of Hollywood. In those seven years, Rocky was a 10-time World Champion as well as multi-time Intercontinental and Tag Team Champion. This is all true but it was also ten years ago.

In the last nine years, The Rock has five times as many movies under his belt as he does wrestling matches (15-3).  The current WWE target audience probably knows Dwayne Johnson as the Tooth Fairy more than they know him as The Rock. So in that regard, I think a comparison between The Rock and David Arquette is justifiable.

The Rock wins gold too
Photo courtesy: WWE

When you consider The Rock is currently known more for being an actor instead of a wrestler then you can look at the similarities between his title win and Arquette’s win. Both wins were done, at least according to my theory, as a way to garner mainstream publicity. Neither win was the right decision when it comes to the story being told in the ring. If the Rock loses the WWE Title to John Cena (a nine time WWE Champion) at Wrestlemania 29 as many speculate will happen, then The Rock will merely be a transitional champion to get WWE back to the status quo of having John Cena on top.

Again, I realize The Rock was a successful wrestler. I do not want to take away from his accomplishments or imply he doesn’t have the talent to be WWE Champion. All I’m saying is WWE took an actor and put their most prestigious title around his waist as a way of getting the mainstream media to promote WWE for a couple of months. WCW put their prestigious title on an actor in hopes of getting people to talk about WCW. While the persons may be different, the actions are the same.

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