Billy Corgan Predicts that Wrestling’s Biggest Days Are Still to Come

– During a recent interview with the Mat Men Pro Wrestling Podcast, NWA Owner Billy Corgan discussed the current state of wrestling and predicted that the biggest days of wrestling are still ahead in the near future. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

Billy Corgan predicting that wrestling’s biggest days are still to come: “Quote me on this in ten years. I think wrestling’s biggest days are still ahead. As big as the NWA was, Vince made it bigger. People look at that and say, ‘Wow, that was massive.’ Yes, of course, WWE’s massive. But compared to UFC, compared to the NWA, there’s still room for growth. That’s why people are out looking at the WWE on the open market for sale because people realize there’s growth to go.”

Corgan on how the business is changing: “It was flat when I bought [NWA] five years ago, and now I get business people sending me stuff all the time, saying they can’t believe some of these earning reports they see from WWE, and I always write them back saying, ‘I told you, I’m not insane. This is not some kind of weird hobby. There’s a growth vector here.’ So what I would say to people in the [wrestling bubble] is stay focused on the fact that wrestling’s best days as a business, if you love the business, you love the performers, the best days are ahead of it. You see tension there with brand. The story with Sasha [Banks], leaving WWE and being on The Mandalorian, I mean, you see the rise of individual brands. Brock Lesnar of course left, went to UFC, became a bigger brand, and he raised his value, and works a part-time schedule for Vince, where 20 years ago they wouldn’t have allowed that. Those are small signs of what’s coming, and that includes Jake Paul coming in and stuff like that, or Bad Bunny.”

On how wrestling can grow with a bigger global platform and audience: “The opportunity of wrestling to grow to an even bigger global platform and a larger global audience is unprecedented, and digital is very much a part of that, social media is a part of that. So stay focused on that. While you want to get into every little turf conversation, or you don’t understand why Billy’s over here in the corner doing what he’s doing, understand that my personal faith and my investment in it is I believe that the NWA can rise up to a level that is even greater than the NWA before. Now if you look at what I’m doing now, you’re gonna say he’s totally insane. But that’s what they said about my band and my musical life, and here I am, 35 years later, still going. So that’s how I feel about it, and I think there’s plenty of empirical that suggests that everything is still trending upwards.”