Smashing Pumpkins' lead singer Billy Corgan has been trying to be a part of professional wrestling since the late 90s. He now has finally achieved part of that dream by buying the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), North America's oldest professional wrestling organization. While there is no idea what Corgan plans to do with the NWA, former WCW and WWE talent Eric Bischoff said that he really would love to see Billy succeed.
Billy Corgan and professional wrestling
Billy Corgan first got involved in professional wrestling when Smashing Pumpkins were at the height of their popularity.
He showed up at ECW and met Paul Heyman. The two men decided to have Corgan get involved in an angle and that was his first experience inside a wrestling ring. When ECW started suffering through financial difficulties, Billy Corgan offered to buy it but nothing ended up happening in that situation. After that, Corgan got involved with Resistance Pro Wrestling in Chicago and almost landed them a reality show styled deal on AMC before he left and moved on to working with Tna Impact Wrestling.
TNA Impact Wrestling and Billy Corgan
The closest that Billy Corgan came to buying a professional wrestling company was when he tried to purchase TNA Impact Wrestling. Corgan loaned Dixie Carter and TNA some money when they were in danger of going bankrupt.
In return, he was named the president and was put into a position where he could develop characters as well as storylines. He then helped Matt Hardy develop his Broken Matt gimmick, the one storyline that kept TNA Impact Wrestling alive last year. However, Billy also said that the money was not just a loan and was supposed to be there as a payment to buy majority shares in Impact Wrestling.
The entire ordeal went to court, Impact Wrestling won out, and then they sold the company anyway to Anthem Sports.
NWA Wrestling
After failing to purchase Impact Wrestling, Billy Corgan has set his eyes on the oldest and most prestigious wrestling organization in history. The National Wrestling Alliance used to control the biggest promotions all over North America since the '40s, including the Von Erich's World Class, Bill Watts' Mid-South, Jerry Jarrett's Mid-Southern, Jim Crockett's Mid-Atlantic (which became WCW) and more.
They also helped TNA Impact Wrestling by letting the company use the NWA world title when they first launched.
When asked about Billy Corgan buying the NWA, Eric Bischoff said that he was curious at how it would work. Corgan did not buy the tape library and just bought the name and NWA world title. The NWA no longer has member organizations and now just has indies paying a license fee to use the name. Bischoff said there is a way for Corgan to build on the legacy of the name and maybe resurrect the legacy but he needs to have an angle of attack to succeed.
