In A Very Billy Corgan Move, Billy Corgan Has Bought A Wrestling Company

By Stephen Gossett in News on May 10, 2017 3:40PM

Billy Corgan / Getty Images / Photo: Noam Galai

Between cursing fair-weather celebrity Cubs fans, blasting social justice warriors and paying some of the highest property taxes in Chicagoland, Billy Corgan has landed himself a shiny new toy—or, perhaps more to the point, a sweaty old one.

The once (and perhaps future?) Smashing Pumpkins frontman has purchased a professional wrestling company to call his own. Corgan bought the National Wrestling Alliance, the company confirmed last week.

NWA president Bruce Thorpe gave the thumbs:

Corgan celebrated the purchase by letting the world know he's really digging the new episode of Austin "Universal Heartthrob" Idol's wrestling podcast.

This of course is hardly Corgan's first foray into the wooly world of second-tier wrestling organizations. Back in 2015, Corgan signed on to become a producer with TNA Wrestling and was later named president of the company—a relationship that soon soured into legal action and restraining orders.

The NWA's salad days are long behind it, having peaked in the late '80s, then steadily declined amid the WWF's expansion into pop-culture juggernaut terrain in the '90s. So why bother? In a pretty incredible deep dive on Deadspin, David Bixenspan imagines it was simply among the most affordable viable options to get a promo game going again

Deadspin writes:

"The only sane explanation for the NWA purchase is that Corgan is going to start a wrestling promotion again, and this was a brand with history that he could get for relatively little money. In terms of the value of that brand, there really isn’t much left outside of Japan—and even there, it’s waning—but if Corgan wanted an existing name, it’s not like he had many other options."

Never let it be said that the man doesn't march to his own drum. Even fellow wrestling-loving alt-rock icon Bob Mould never took the obsession quite this far. Have fun, Billy.