Billy Corgan Addresses What He Thinks Is Very “In” At The Moment
With the NWA Crockett Cup happening this weekend in Nashville, Tennessee, Billy Corgan joined YouTuber Robbie Fox to talk about being the owner of the NWA and what kind of leader he is with the legendary company.
Billy Corgan revealed his vision for NWA and why his roster has to either agree with it or not be a part of the company.
"Leadership is a weird thing, leadership is a funny thing," Corgan said. "You can lead by example and people are quiet leaders, I'm going to do and you follow me or don't follow me, I don't care. I'm much more articulate about what I'm after, but essentially my message to anybody with the business is the same, I put myself in this position, I have a vision, and here's the vision, you either agree with it or you don't.
"If you agree with it, we're going to do good business together and if you don't, we're not going to do business together because you're going to have to start your own wrestling company or your own rock band. That's always been the position I take and having 30+ years of experience in those kinds of trenches, it does help when you're dealing with those kinds of talent. I want talent to be the best, believe they're the best and want to all be champions.
"I don't want meak, mild people. This is a brutal sport, what it does to the body alone is oftentimes, you want to cover your eyes. So to be in it, you have to want to win it and the NWA is here to win. It doesn't surprise me that people are agitated or have a different vision of how it's going to work but at the end of the day, I have to have ultimate confidence in what my vision is.
"Being a leader is oftentimes being willing to admit that you're wrong and I don't consider myself 100% right but I have to just be more right than I am wrong. In the businesses I've committed to, in professional wrestling and music, I've been more right than wrong and that's just what I have to stand on."
As the owner of a professional wrestling company, Billy Corgan spoke about whether or not he watches AEW and WWE and uses some of the promotional aspects of their company he uses with NWA.
The former owner of IMPACT Wrestling spoke about the key differences between how he, Tony Khan, and Vince McMahon run wrestling companies, with the key being the amount of money he has to use with NWA.
"Of course, I pay a lot of respect," Billy Corgan said. "First of all, I wish I had that kind of money to play with so all respect to that and there's no shade on that. But secondarily, I think that if you don't have that kind of resources where you can buy your way out of problems or buy your way into problems, you have to basically create an organizational capacity that's consistent. That's what I've really tried to focus on.
"There's something that we do talk about in relation, more so to AEW than WWE but it's this ability to create matchups that look really good on paper but don't need a lot of promotional energy to get a fan to buy into. Then you see it with other independent promotions that are following that model, you even see AEW talent and they come to work for us too. Thank you, Tony, but we're basically taking someone who's on national television and suddenly they're doing an independent promotion facing some independent legend so it makes the matchup.
"I get that's kind of very 'in' at the moment and very 21st century, particularly with social media, but I still don't think the biggest parts of the business are in booking on paper. I still think you need to invest people in storylines and I think you need to look no further than the UFC, who you could argue is the most successful promoter in the world whether it's boxing, MMA or wrestling.
"They do invest a lot of energy in why these match-ups matter whether the personal animist is or isn't. They had the thing recently with [Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal], that was a big pay per view for them without a title on the line. So why does the UFC, who is arguably the best promoter, invest all that time? Because at the end of the day I think the biggest business in promotion is in believing in the narrative form. I'm completely committed to that even though right now it doesn't seem to be the trendiest way to do it."
NWA Powerrr Trip in February saw the Ten Pounds of Gold change hands, with Matt Cardona becoming the new NWA World's Heavyweight Champion. Cardona will be defending his NWA title this weekend against former champion Nick Aldis.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit My Mom's Basement with Robbie Fox with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.