Billy Corgan On Reason For Low Key NWA Revival And When They Plan To Start Running Shows
Billy Corgan purchased the National Wrestling Alliance over the summer, but instead of over-hyping the return of the legendary promotion, the former TNA president and Smashing Pumpkins frontman is taking a more calculated approach.
Corgan has been involved in the wrestling business since 2011, so he knows the best way to build excitement is to present a product worth being excited about. Beyond the fact that Corgan now owns NWA's name, rights, trademarks and championship belts, not much is known about Corgan's plans for the company. When he spoke to Busted Open Radio on Monday, Corgan explained why he'e keeping information close to the chest.
"We don't want to do what a lot of people do in wrestling, which is make a bunch of promises that never come true," Corgan said. "We really see the NWA as a long-term thing, so we want to build it the right way. So we've been very cautious about the information we let out, not because there aren't things to hype, there's plenty of things to hype, but if they don't come true we don't want that coming back conversely on the NWA."
Corgan did reveal that the company plans on releasing shows online for free starting in the spring. He's hoping to create a promotion built on the strength of great wrestling that would attract fans. Once the fan base is established, Corgan is hoping future investors will take notice as well.
"Unless something changes in the near future, we're on a path to start running shows probably in the spring. We're gonna originally start with just being a television product, and what I mean by that is we're gonna probably do shows for free on the internet," he said. "We haven't worked out the specifics yet, but we will be hopefully a weekly show that anybody can watch anywhere in the world for free behind no paywall, and we'll start signing talent and we'll start running our own shows. So we want to build up the brand by putting the wrestling first and the product first, and hopefully we'll create a fan base and some momentum, and then if we make deals it'll be based off what we're doing, not what we hope to do."
Corgan also revealed that the NWA affiliate programs will be discontinued under the new ownership. He said the people running the affiliates weren't receptive to the new direction of the company.
"When we took over officially in June or July, we reached out to every affiliate that was involved and said, 'Look, we have a really open mind.' And unfortunately most of our experiences weren't positive," he said. "People get used to running their little kingdoms, they couldn't get behind the bigger vision. So we've let all the affiliate programs lapse, there's no more NWA affiliates. So when you hear the NWA, it's basically whatever we're gonna do from center out."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Busted Open with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription. Busted Open with hosts Dave Lagreca, Bully Ray & Larry Dallas can be heard weekdays from 2p-4p Eastern Time only on SiriusXM Rush Channel 93 and is available any time on demand on the SiriusXM App.
Source: Busted Open Radio