David Arquette’s wrestling career has been revived in 2018. According to the former WCW World Heavyweight Champion, his comeback is not a publicity stunt either. “It’s too painful for that,” Arquette told ESPN recently.

He also told the media outlet he thought management was joking in 2000 when they told him they were putting the belt on him.

“I thought it was a bit of a joke and he was like, ‘No, I’m serious. I think [my] response was, ‘That’s a terrible idea. No, we can’t do that,’ but then they explained the storyline that I wasn’t pinning a wrestler. I was pinning Eric Bischoff.”

Arquette continued to say the reason he went through with it is he wanted to have the experience.

“To be honest, the reason I wanted to do it was so I could be part of it. The fact of the matter was, yeah, I get to be the champion. Whoever gets that opportunity? Part of that was that I would get to travel with all of them and see behind the curtain and walk through the airport with Hulk Hogan and be on the same show as Ric Flair. For a fan of wrestling if I hadn’t done that, I never would have had that experience — and to me, life is about experiences.”

He also said that Ric Flair was one of the guys who defended him.

“Ric Flair at one point put his arms around me and said, ‘Hey guys, he’s one of us.’ That made me feel really great.”