What’s the story?
It seems that Billy Corgan’s love for pro wrestling is still going strong, as The Smashing Pumpkins frontman has officially signed an agreement to purchase the NWA, according to PWInsider.com.
In case you didn’t know...
Corgan is a huge wrestling fan, as can be seen as early as the 1990s when he made several appearances for ECW. He would also begin his own pro-wrestling company in 2011 named Resistance Pro Wrestling.
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The Chicago-based promotion was able to grab hold of a few big names in the industry, such as Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Kevin Owens. Corgan even had a deal in the works with AMC to produce a TV show based around him running an independent wrestling company that was under the working title “Untitled Billy Corgan Wrestling Project.”
However, the deal fell through shortly after discussions began, and Corgan left RPW shortly thereafter.
Corgan would go on to work with TNA, now Impact Wrestling, in 2015. He even became the president in August 2016. This was shortlived, however, as Corgan left in November, citing many issues with the company. However, Corgan made it known that he was not finished with the wrestling industry, and was working on another deal very shortly.
The heart of the matter
On May 1st, Corgan made it known that he had plans to purchase the National Wrestling Alliance. Per PWInsider.com, Corgan will now own the name, rights, and trademarks to the NWA, as well as the NWA championship belt.
As of May 14th, Corgan has bought the NWA from Bruce Tharpe, who has also given his position in the NWA on Demand VOD service to Corgan. The entire Boesch library will still remain with the Boesch family, though Corgan will have the rights to use it, just as Tharpe had previously.
This deal marks the end of a five-year ownership of NWA by Tharpe, who took over after a lawsuit by his International Wrestling Corp, LLC.
What’s next?
It’s unknown what Tharpe’s position will be after Corgan’s purchase, however, the idea is that he will work under him. As of now, no serious changes are slated, as this is seen to be a long term move for the NWA. As for now, the only changes in the company will be Tharpe’s changing roles and Corgan as the owner.
Author’s take
Corgan has been trying to make big moves in the wrestling industry for years. His efforts within TNA, though unsuccessful, proved how passionate he is for the business. The amount of money he loaned TNA is enough to prove that. Corgan was ready to help get TNA ahead in a very timely fashion.
Sadly, they were unable to pay Corgan, or other performers for that matter, on time, causing him to leave. TNA, now Impact, is in the middle of a rebranding now, so we’ll see how that all plays out.
As for Corgan and the NWA, this is a bit of an odd choice. Though the NWA championship has quite a lot of prestige, it’s a belt and an organisation that hasn’t been making many headlines in the wrestling world. One might wonder why he didn’t invest in one of the other companies such as ROH or PWG.
After the fall of the territories in the late 80s, the NWA all but fell apart. Over the last few decades, they’ve worked to stay on top by partnering with multiple companies, some examples being ECW and TNA.
No one is sure what Corgan’s plans are for the NWA. Former WWE, TNA and ROH writer Dave Lagana, supposedly, has also signed on to help Corgan, so we’ll see soon what direction they take the company in.
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