In an exclusive for WrestlingNews.co, Steve Fall interviewed the lead singer of The Smashing Pumpkins and NWA owner Billy Corgan. Corgan will be putting on an event called “HP Cares for Cooper” on July 8 in Highland Park, IL. The event will benefit an 8-year-old boy named Cooper Roberts, who was shot during the devastating mass shooting at the Fourth of July parade at Highland Park last year. Seven people were killed and Cooper has been going through intense physical rehab and multiple surgeries. Admission to the show is free but if you make a minimum donation of $75 then you will get VIP seats in the first or second rows. The charity event is scheduled for July 8 and the NWA will hold a TV taping there on July 9. Visit NWATix.com for more information.
Corgan clarified what he said a few weeks ago when he was putting over Tyrus. The quote that went viral was, “If You’re Not Gonna Watch Him, Then You’re Not A Wrestling Fan.” Corgan said the following about the quote:
“I’ll give a clarification to what I said. I’m not gonna say I didn’t say what I said, but the quote I saw being bandied about which was something along the lines of like, ‘If you don’t like Tyrus, you don’t like wrestling.’ Whether that was bastardized or that actually came out of my mouth, but it was again, in relation to something, so I’ll clarify what I was trying to say. So maybe that’s the better way across the bridge.”
“What I was saying was, if you don’t like Tyrus in a wrestling ring because of his politics and because he brings heat into wrestling, then I don’t understand what wrestling that you’re after. I went on to say and I don’t think it was quoted, ‘Are we only booking friends in a wrestling ring.’ Like is this just like Patty cakes and then everybody pretends these guys hate each other, and then they hug at the after party and everything’s cool?” I believe, like all good promoters, that the heat of the outside world coming into a wrestling ring isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”
“Remember when there was all the crazy heat with Edge, Matt Hardy, and Lita? That was a real-life thing that was ultimately taken advantage of in a wrestling ring and obviously, all the parties agreed. Whether that was comfortable or uncomfortable to them, I can’t really say even though I know Matt pretty well and I know Edge pretty well, but I don’t think I’ve ever sat down to really ask them how they felt personally about it. But obviously, that was a moment of real heat and people had opinions about how the whole situation played on a personal level. So if your argument would be, ‘That should not have been a wrestling angle’, well, that’s a viable argument to make. If your thing would have been, ‘I was uncomfortable with them being put in that spot’, well, that’s a viable argument to make. But it did happen and it has happened in wrestling where real heat and real life comes into the wrestling ring.”
“So that was my point. It wasn’t saying, ‘I’m going to pick this one person in Tyrus and if you don’t like them as a wrestling talent, or you don’t like them as a person, you don’t like wrestling.’ So that’s where it gets bastardized. It made for very good clickbait. Some of my friends actually encouraged me to go out and clarify. I’m not going to play this stupid game. I’ve been around too long for people to sort of cherry pick my quotes and try to make a thing. So that’s what I like what you’re saying, which is at the end of the day, I think I’m an intelligent person. You can argue that point, but look, I’ve picked the NWA up out of the ashes. I’ve turned it into a successful business. We have a lot of good news coming which I can’t quite share yet, but I think we’re going in about our sixth year of me owning the company. The roster has never been stronger. There are people who have noticed the quality of the NWA wrestling product week in and week out.”
“People who are not, let’s call it denizens of the dirt sheets, like people who actually care about the quality of professional wrestling, not the, let’s call it the meta-narrative of each company and whether it’s rising and falling. We’ve seen in recent times where one company has been really built up now to be torn down. Is that fair? I can’t particularly say, but it’s certainly good business for the dirt sheets.”
“So right now, there’s more money on the NWA being about me as a controversial figure or the NWA possibly failing then there is the NWA succeeding, and when we succeed, and we will, well, then it will turn into some other different quasi-argument. So if you want to make it about one talent, you kind of missed the point of what the point of what a professional wrestling company is.”
Click below for the entire interview where Corgan talks about Hulk Hogan showing support to the NWA, Mark Zuckerberg vs. Elon Musk, the charity event for 8-year-old boy Cooper Roberts, and more.
This interview is exclusive to WrestlingNews.co. If you use these quotes, please include a link back to this page.This interview is exclusive to WrestlingNews.co. If you use these quotes, please include a link back to this page.
