Wrestling

Inside Billy Corgan’s ambitions in the wrestling business with the NWA

Billy Corgan sits in Madame ZuZu’s, his vegan tea house on the outskirts of Chicago, and speaks with self-assured confidence that his goals will manifest in reality.

The legendary Smashing Pumpkins frontman, now 56, has proven everything he needs to in the music world but has encountered plenty of doubters when it comes to his venture into the wrestling business.

Corgan purchased the NWA in 2017 and has been busy in the years since in a mission to revive the once-dominant wrestling promotion from the ashes.

A number of people told Corgan that he would fail or flame out of the wrestling business, and he is determined to spite them.

Corgan spoke to The Post last week in Highland Park, Il., to promote the NWA Crockett Cup, a tournament between 26 tag teams taking place on June 3rd and 4th at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds in North Carolina, and airing on PPV on Fite TV.

Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins performs in August 2013. Redferns via Getty Images

Corgan said he became “intrigued” by the wrestling business as a fan and discovered he had a “particular talent” for it along his journey of launching an independent wrestling promotion, Resistance Pro-Wrestling, in 2011, and later serving as a creative executive for TNA before ultimately launching an unsuccessful bid to purchase that promotion.

‘Interloper’

Along the way, he has been particularly fueled by his doubters.

“There was a segment of the business that thought I was an interloper and that I couldn’t succeed, and that kind of got my hackles up,” Corgan said. “It became, you’re wrong, I think I can be successful.”

While he declined to name names, he defended their skepticism.

Billy Corgan (left) bought the NWA in 2017. NWA/Hiban Huerta

“There are a lot of people that come in from outside the wrestling business that are having a little bit of a lark,” Corgan said. “They like the energy, and they think they understand it from the outside. You have to be in the business for a long time to understand how it really works.

“So now that I’ve been in it for a while, I have that same thought when people come in from the outside, that it’s almost like a tourism thing. They’re gonna be in here for three-to-six months then get out.”

Founded in 1948, the NWA used to be the governing body for the regional pro wrestling territories, before Vince McMahon took WWE (then WWF) national in the 1980s, and the largest NWA territory, WCW, broke off and also went national in the early 1990s.

Corgan is seeking to meld the NWA tradition with modern sensibilities — you can catch glimpses of that history with the graphics presentation and the way the promotion is booked to feel like the wrestlers are in real fights.

He has been known as a control freak in his wildly successful music career, so it should come as no surprise that he does not macro-manage his wrestling company.

Corgan has a staff and there are some tasks that he delegates, like negotiations over booking arenas, but he has the final say of creative.

Every other decision of consequence in the company passes through him as well.

“Because I write the check,” he said matter-of-factly.

Crockett Cup

Running a wrestling company is in some ways akin to controlling a human Risk board, deciding which entities to pit against each other.

Styles make fights, and Corgan is relishing the creative challenge of the aspect of drawing up the card for the Crockett Cup tag-team tournament.

Ricky Morton, the 66-year-old WWE Hall of Famer who wrestled in the Rock ‘N Roll Express, is teaming up with his son, Kerry, the current NWA junior heavyweight champion.

The NWA Crockett Cup takes place June 3-4 in Winston-Salem. NWA

Another team is comprised of Chris Adonis and NWA world heavyweight champion Tyrus, and the NWA tag champs Bestia 666 and Mecha Wolf — La Rebelión — will also be involved.

The Lucha Libre promotion AAA will have representation from the teams of Octagón Jr. and Myzteziz Jr., and Toxin and Arez.

Tyrus

The 49-year-old Tyrus, who wrestled as Funkasaurus in WWE, became the NWA world heavyweight champion in November.

Tyrus is also a Fox News personality, frequently appearing on a number of shows, including “Gutfeld!” as a commentator.

There are many entertainment brands that would be wary of being associated with conservative politics and offending a portion of their audience, but Corgan has no such concern.

“I think if people bring those things into the realm of wrestling, and it changes their willingness to watch, that’s not a customer that I am catering to,” Corgan said.

The genre of wrestling is incumbent on having dastardly heels that the fans want to see get licked in a fight, with a babyface on a chase to overcome insurmountable obstacles.

“I grew up in a time of old-school heat. Old-school heat was the Polish guy told the German guy, using World War II references, that he was gonna beat him up. Very politically incorrect,” Corgan said.

Tyrus wears his NWA championship belt on ‘Gutfeld!’ on Fox News. Getty Images

“When Tyrus walks through the door, he brings the heat, and if you’re not gonna watch him, then you’re not a wrestling fan. I’m not booking a charity. I’m booking a professional wrestling company.”

Corgan has previously said that he loves when Tyrus goes on Fox News with the NWA title belt around his shoulder, representing the company in front of two million viewers.

“There are people that have a problem with the New York Post,” he said, speaking to me.

“If that was going to deny you opportunities in the world to appear on a show, or write for another magazine, that’s not a world that I want to live in.

“I believe that dissenting voices should have a seat at the table and let the American public decide which is more important on any particular argument. I don’t believe in canceling out a voice because you’re not comfortable with their perspective, and that’s somehow supposed to translate into professional wrestling.”

Creative control

Corgan vows to book his company with arcs that fit his vision, as opposed to getting dictated by critics and/or the audience.

“We’ve seen where ‘Star Wars’ let the fans book the franchise, and it’s caused a bunch of problems. I’ve said openly that the fans are not going to book the NWA,” he said.

“There’s an old saying — live by the sword, die by the sword — I’ve been in the public life for 30 years. I’ve had everybody and their mother tell me how to make my music. I’ve flown against the grain for 30 years. It’s worked out fine. I’m going to book the NWA the way I want to book it. That’s it.”

Billy Corgan (right) has been motivated to prove to doubters that he is not an ‘interloper’ in the professional wrestling business. NWA/Hiban Huerta

That being said, wrestlers do have a degree of creative freedom.

Corgan said that a “storyline template with bullet points” is set up for the wrestlers, who then communicate with each other and backstage agents such as wrestling lifers Madusa, Jazz, Homicide, Raven, and Pat Kenney (Simon Diamond) to set up their move sequences and storylines in the ring.

Last year, NWA wrestler Bryan Idol spoke to The Post after he and fellow wrestler Natalia Markova thwarted a cell phone thief, tracking him down and tackling him in a Florida Walmart, and effusively praised Corgan’s leadership.

“He’s the best,” Idol said. “One thing I always want to say about him, besides being a legendary rock star, you might think that somebody in his position might be a bit of a mark, per se, and nothing could be further from the truth. He’s brilliant, and his vision of what the NWA is is very cool and original in the fact that he’s not trying to compete with everybody else. He’s trying to do his own thing.

“He has a proven track record of what it takes to get to the masses, as opposed to just having a corporate business background. He knows how to stay relevant. Here we are in 2022 talking about the Smashing Pumpkins, and they’re still playing in front of 20,000-30,000 people. He has a mind for all sides on this. He’s not just coming at it like a know-nothing person with money in their pocket. He’s very calculated and smart about the direction he’s going.”

Wrestlers such as Idol and Markova are also integrated into Smashing Pumpkins live shows, with Markova executing a DDP-style Diamond Cutter on Idol at a recent concert.

Lofty goals

Corgan is thrilled with how things are going right now.

“The product finally looks and feels the way I want it to, and people in the wrestling business are really starting to notice,” Corgan said.

“It may not be as obvious to the mark crowd that follows every little thing that happens on the internet, but in terms of wrestling culture people are really starting to notice that we’ve gotten our act together, and the wrestling product is really strong.

“Where you really notice it is when you get pulled over by the Ricky Morton’s of the world who say, ‘This is how you draw money. What you’re doing now leads to real success. This isn’t internet hype. This is the old-school way of how you actually draw money in the business.'”

Yet, while he’s proud of what they’ve accomplished, he’s far from satisfied.

He likened it to when the Smashing Pumpkins were on the rise, but he still wanted to advance from indie-darlings status to being on top of the world.

“I played CBGB in 1990. It was awesome. It was the seminal rock club. When I was standing on the stage at CBGB I wasn’t thinking that this is where I want to stay the rest of my life,” Corgan mused.

“The NWA will be big. The question isn’t about if, it’s about when.”