wrestling / News

Billy Corgan Weighs In On Tony Khan Saying He Paid For AEW Stars To Appear At NWA Empowerrr

August 18, 2022 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
NWA Mickie James Billy Corgan Image Credit: NWA

Billy Corgan has opened up on comments Tony Khan made late last year about paying for AEW stars to appear at NWA Empowerrr. Khan made the comments ahead of Full Gear last November, saying, “I don’t think I get enough credit for what I did for the NWA show, because a good number of the people who wrestled on the NWA show were wrestlers I sent and paid.” The comments drew criticism at the time, and Corgan discussed the situation during a conversation with Ariel Helwani. You can check out highlights from the discusssion below, per Wrestling Inc:

On Tony Khan saying he paid all the AEW talent who appeared at Empowerrr: “He has his version, I have my version. I don’t think we need to legislate it in public, there’s no real heat. I think Tony is in a very unique position, and there’s things I have told Tony in private that are now starting to come true, that I would hope he would remember some of those things that I told him … I am sort of a transparent, honest broker in the wrestling business. I want Tony Khan to succeed, Tony Khan is actually good for NWA business, he’s charting paths and opening doors that I can’t open, he’s proving that WWE doesn’t run the entire wrestling business.”

On why he didn’t like Khan’s comments: “Those are things that should be kept off grid, because Tony’s part of an NFL franchise, I am a ‘legendary rockstar’ you put those two names together they transcend the normal boundaries of wrestling gossip. So, now we are taking a wrestling gossip thing and we are spilling it across in other things … I don’t want to play those games. I really do want to be in business with Tony Khan, Scott D’Amore, I would really love to talk to Triple H about being in business again now that he’s fully in charge of the WWE Universe, I think that the NWA is open for business.”

On his hopes for crossover shows: “I am hopeful that the day will come when Tony Khan, particularly, will wake up and realize that if he can put together a supershow of every non-WWE promotion, it will rival WrestleMania in draw and focus. That opportunity is sitting there today, you don’t have to wait for it, it exists, and the NWA has proven that it can be a vital part of something like that in terms of the promotion of it.”