join us live when we screen ready to rumble from the Prince Charles cinema in
London this coming Tuesday on May 7th get your tickets in the link in the
description the year was 2000 that 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 favorite WCW wrestlers DDP Goldberg sting some guy
pretending to be a mixture of Ric Flair and Jerry Lawler and 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 the movie is now synonymous
with WCW s downfall so with that said my name is choppa P quenelle and let's take
a look at some fun facts you might not know about ready to rumble ready to
rumble was released to the public on April 7th 2000 if you're wondering what
was happening in the wrestling world around that time well on April the 3rd
2004 days prior WWF's Monday Night Raw drew a whopping 6.4 rating while WCW
Monday nitro managed their second lowest rating of all time only drawing a 1.8 as
previously mentioned the movie was received let's just say poorly to be
nice it had a solid working budget of 24 million dollars but the movie only
managed to gross 12.5 million doll marking huge losses across the board the
film was hated by wrestling fans hated by non wrestling fans and even hated by
those who worked on the film including Rose McGowan who plays the love interest
of David Arquette's character 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 gaudy Boggs gaudy Boggs 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 with
Arquette stunt double according to a WWE comm interview in 2007 Arquette stated
that none other than Shane Helms stepped in to fill the shoes of gaudy Boggs
Shane Helms is of course most well known for his time wrestling as the hurricane
the Louisville goof who thinks he's a superhero at the pose the hurricane
would go on to make an appearance in 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 mother flipping 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
now here's a movie star who does stuff like big blockbusters and not so big
blockbusters isn't it nuts that he made his on-screen
movie debut on a WCW funded movie yeah 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 well he
lifts those weights pumps that iron that what people say I don't I don't know I
don't workout 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 much more dramatic but sure we'll go with it as previously mentioned before
where 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 success and partial failure but then again it also
didn't feature the NWO so you know could be worse as we're talking about things
that were replaced funny you should mention that because 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 bit odd normally the belt gold with a slight
silver trim around it but the cars for the movie were actually inverted so it
was a silver belt with slight gold trim which 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 just need a word that rhymes with silver 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 Noah 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 said nothing
to be wary of here just yet then it gets messy somehow someway someone thought it
was a good idea to have David Arquette actor David Arquette who plays lest we
forget not a wrestler but a wrestling fan in a wrestling movie someone thought
it would be a good idea for him to win the WCW world
Heavyweight Championship because nothing screams legitimacy like an actor besting
your top wrestlers at the thing they've trained at 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
speaking of nice guys and during the film itself a tag match takes place
between WCW alumni the exciting match pits Rey Mysterio jr. and Billy Kidman
against the team of Hooven third Guerrera and Prince ioio
Qi you kid Prince Prince IKEA the Prince of flat-pack furniture Prince of Sweden
however it was an all plain sailing for the quartet as during the course of
filming in classic rey mysterio fashion he legitimately
injured his needs you know that bit earlier when I said obviously these guys
can take bubs because that's what they do for a living
yeah well scratch that because apparently I know nothing 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 am i right lads
they actually wanted to double down on it by planning to do a sequel can you
imagine IEW has it right it's double or nothing
but definitely nothing in this case what would it even be called ready to rumble
ready to rumble get ready er ready to rumble oh oh god it would have been
wouldn't it it definitely would have been ready to rumble with with the
number 2 oh god it's like too fast too furious but like so much worse 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 sheriff'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 actually be
worse than that in an interview with you shoot in 2013
DDP revealed that he himself pitched an alternative ending to the movie to
Warner Brothers themselves in which after the combination of the triple cage
match yep that's a thing that happens the main good guy Jimmy King whoo
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 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 gaudy bugs and the other guy would
walk in and be all like say what 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 those were some fun facts about
ready to rumble but if you want the full experience make sure to click the link
on the screen to get your tickets to join Russell tox screening of the movie
at the Prince Charles cinema this Tuesday May 7th join myself
Olli Liu glory and Randy as we host the movie and partake in a live wrestle
ramble afterwards click the thumbs up subscribe enable notifications and leave
us a comment I've been P quenelle and that was ready to rumble