NWA President Billy Corgan recently appeared on Insight With Chris Van Vilet to hype up his promotion’s two-night 75th Anniversary pay-per-view, which takes place at the end of this month.
The Smashing Pumpkins frontman begins by explaining his decision to revive the NWA and what his plans are to expand the brand’s audience.
I hear it all the time. Not just in regards to the NWA. I hear it all the time. Not everybody I talked to is like an NWA fan. They might be old-school WWF fans or whatever. They just don’t get it. And yeah, so my whole point of the NWA at this point, going about six years into owning the company, is trying to figure out that formula where you can take really good mainstream professional wrestling, and bring it to the people and once again, sort of bring back those greater numbers.
Corgan goes on to discuss the NWA’s business model and how he believes his access to mainstream media will help make the company become as big as WWE or AEW.
I think we’re properly positioned to be the next big company. I know people will kind of go, how does that work? I think it has to do with my access to mainstream media. I think it has access has to do with my access to every network in the world that’s interested in what I’m doing, and I’m just trying to find the right business models with them. And I think it has to do with presenting a mainstream wrestling product that the average person if presented on television will respond to. I think, once the NWA can get in that position if we can get in that position, and you could argue that’s a big if, but if we get in that position, I think we will run side by side with the biggest companies in the world. Because wrestling by large is a cheap product to make. That’s always been its great attraction to television. And it has a consistent audience, they’ll show up week after week. So getting from let’s call it the bottom of the pile, to the top of the pile. Now that’s a vast distance. But if you can cross that desert and get to the other side, well, it’s pretty wide open. In terms of product, I think the NWA fits quite comfortably between AEW and WWE. WWE has a very hardcore fan base, but they do business in a very particular way. Of course, that’s much debated through the years, Vince, of course, is the only promoter that’s ever made money in wrestling. So we always have to pay tribute to that. AEW, of course, is running a very brand-specific product. Tony [Khan] has found business where people didn’t think business could be found and all credit to him for that. But again, that mainstream up-the-middle position of professional wrestling is sorely lacking. Many people would argue that WWE is that mainstream thing. I would argue it’s its own version of niche.
In a separate interview, Corgan spoke about the NWA 75 main event between Tyrus and EC3 and why it will be a match that no one should miss. You can read about that here.