Billy Corgan On Working With Tyrus, Accomplishing What They Wanted To Together

Billy Corgan’s booking of Tyrus earned the NWA a fair amount of criticism, but Corgan says they accomplished what they wanted to. Corgan was a guest on Fightful’s Wrestling Perspective Podcast and discussed working with now-former NWA World Heavyweight Champion and more. You can see highlights below:

On working with Tyrus’ in TNA: “Yes. The roots of that journey goes back to what I like about the gig. When I worked in the office and on the booking committee at TNA, they would give me the personalities they didn’t want to deal with. So, I was in charge of the difficult part… I’m not even joking. Tyrus was on that list, and so was Nick Aldis. My relationships with both future NWA World Heavyweight Champions was born of working with them in TNA because they were on the difficult talent list. I formed some relationships to try to understand what was it about these personalities that were rubbing the office the wrong way. Why do they feel underutilized? Can I be a translator for them in the office? But to varying degrees of success, I was able to accomplish that at TNA.“

On staying in touch with Tyrus: “So, my relationship with George Murdoch [Tyrus] did not end the minute he started working for a major media outlet, and I was out of TNA; we stayed in contact. He had dropped completely out of professional wrestling. When he wanted to come back to professional wrestling, he reached out to me. He asked me what I thought about it, so it was something that we had discussed. I’ll be quick about it because every time I open my mouth about Tyrus, somebody gets mad. I told George Murdoch, the human being eight years ago, sitting backstage at Universal Studios where TNA shot. I said they’re not using you, right? George said, okay, you tell me how you would use me as a talent. What Tyrus ended up doing in the NWA was what we talked about eight years ago. So when I’m in a position of power, which I’m in. I’m going to put my money where my mouth is, and if people think I’m the type of person that’s going to shy away from the other arguments against Tyrus as a talent or as a human being, they don’t know me.”

On accomplishing what he wanted with Tyrus: “I cashed a lot of checks with his mouth, including stuff that cost me a lot of money. So I’m not shy about that type of thing. So, did we accomplish together what we set out to do for Tyrus? The character and George Murdoch, the human being? Absolutely. The fact that it was controversial, okay! What did Eric Bischoff say? Controversy creates cash? If you’re going to let that mob book your promotion, you shouldn’t run a wrestling promotion.”