Billy Corgan's purchase of the NWA in May of 2017 came less than one year after being ousted as president of TNA. While his mission continues to re-establish the NWA brand, he is taking a different strategy rather than starting a full-fledged professional wrestling company with a complete roster.
Corgan is focused on restoring prestige to the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, although it's hard to ignore the strategy WWE uses.
"It's hard to get into the WWE mind about why they do what they do," Corgan said on Busted Open Radio. "I mean it's a what? Gazillion-billion dollar company? The decision making internally on a business level and a booking level, I mean they're obviously doing something right. People are throwing money at them. I mean they're not chasing money, people are throwing money. I wish people would throw money at [the NWA] like that, okay? So we could sit here and pick it all apart all day."
Corgan's eye is focused on talent who WWE is about to make overtures toward. Matt Riddle, a man who seems destined for WWE eventually, was used as an example of a different kind of talent who could present a new take on professional wrestling.
"I tend to look more at who's a talent, a guy that's worth watching is Matt Riddle," Corgan continued. "Very interesting guy obviously coming from the MMA side. You know no one's ever really completely made that transition in a way where it's like they brought that sort of MMA vibe or feeling to professional wrestling, I've always been curious.
"Where Kurt Angle brought the, let's call it classic NCAA wrestler Olympic guy, there were guys of course in the 70's, but nobody had ever had that level of success although the Iron Sheik would obviously [disagree]. He's still complaining, 'I was first.' God bless him.".
Nick Aldis is a wrestler Corgan put a lot of stake in when he became NWA World Heavyweight Champion on December 9th, 2017. Aldis is set to defend his title on September 1st at All Inagainst Cody Rhodes, a man hungry for the championship his father The American Dream held three times.
Busted Open Radio co-host Bully Ray asked Cogan what was next for Aldis win or lose at All In, and the answer was back to NWA business as usual. Corgan plans to continue strengthening the National Wrestling Alliance's brand using the strategy of a traveling champion with a small roster of talent.
"Nick Aldis is exclusive to the NWA, "Corgan said. "So he's an NWA talent and our approach from the beginning has been that we want to identify those talents that we want to sign to the NWA. We don't feel like we necessarily have to carry a full roster. We feel that the way we build our brand is to stay really open in the marketplace, work with whoever wants to work with us, but of course, we have to have talents that are our talents that can carry the NWA forward whether they are or aren't the champion."
Aldis is signed to an exclusive NWA contract which requires him to defend the 10 Pounds Of Gold when and where Corgan sees fit. This can create a rocky situation if Aldis feels his matches are booked without his consent.
Corgan explained that the NWA's rise to prominence is his first priority and in order to do that he must require his champion to be available when needed. While equating it to his own days under a record label's hold, Corgan said Aldis is a pleasure to work with even though he isn't shy of making his opinion known.
"We're in the business of building the NWA," Corgan said. "You sign an exclusive deal with anybody that's just the breaks. When I worked for a record company, I mean they had me doing stuff I didn't necessarily want to do. You know Nick's been an absolute pleasure to work with on the business side but that doesn't mean he doesn't voice his opinion.
"There have been some promotions we've worked with that he wasn't happy about it, he certainly let us know. At the end of the day we said, 'look you know, this is just the way it's gotta be to build this brand back up."