Billy Corgan: ‘I Have Complete Creative Control In TNA Wrestling’

Billy Corgan appeared on Vince Russo’s The Brand for a new interview discussing his new role as president of TNA. Some highlights are below:

On Dixie Carter still being the majority owner of TNA: “I am the President, I do have an ownership stake. It is a fluctuating situation, which I cannot talk about certain details because of it, but I would say it is moving progressively into the right direction, because a the end of the day, the company needs resources and the funding to continue, and I think those are good decisions that have been made so, whether or not at the end of the day I, or somebody else ends up owning the majority stake or Dixie keeps her majority stake, that has yet to be remain seen, but I see all the moves that are happening as good moves, but the one thing that I can tell you is that I am the President and I am running the operational part of the company. As you know, there are different parts of the company, that are not necessarily bigger than the President role, because the President sets the tone for the company, but there are other deals that get made that don’t have necessarily have to deal with the day to day product and the day to day running of the wrestling company.”

On having complete Creative control: “That is the role. That is the power I have inherited and that is the power I intend to execute. With that said, I am a person because of my musical background, which I have been doing for over 30 years, and that includes working with video directors, and Presidents of record labels and things like that. I am a firm believer that if you can’t get everyone into the same direction, power doesn’t mean much anyway. You can use your power, you can throw your power around, and you can intimidate, but it doesn’t really mean something on the other end of it then you are not going to get your message across, so I believe that TNA lacks a systematic approach from creative down and that runs through the business, and because of that you get kind of these weird things that people don’t know who is calling the shots, who to turn to, and I think that has really hurt the business. That has hurt the business from the time that I got into the business, essentially as an employee, underneath that structure, so I have every intention of synergizing the business­­from Creative to the Talent, and back through. I think we have an incredible roster of talent. I want their input but at the same time I have to balance out the business concerns, which are plenty well documented, but it is my job to sort of synergize their position that will help the company grow. I believe that I know how to do that and believe that I am tough enough to not only take the heat when I make a mistake, and to raise my hand and admit to when I make a mistake, but at the end of the day, I only took that spot because I have the control and the power to make those calls, and without those calls I wouldn’t have taken it.”

On his experience in the professional wrestling business: “Honestly, nothing is hitting me for the first time. It is just getting into a place where I am making decisions that are best for the company. In regards to the [Smashing] Pumpkins, if there is an issue, creatively I can fix it myself, so the only difference here in the wrestling business is that I cannot fix everything by myself creatively. I cannot go into the ring, I cannot wrestle 5­star matches to make it all go away. I have to understand and work with everybody involved to get the best of the company; so there is a different dynamic here, but to me it’s fairly similar; it’s about resources, understanding the resources, but again, I will say that organizationally TNA is behind the curve, so my first job is really to get some sort of consistent organizational flow so we can maximize the opportunities we do have, and then I have to go out into the world and have to beat that drum and have to bring people to the table and I do believe that the tech future and wrestling future is going to be very bright. You see WWE kind of turning the corner on that. I think some people would argue that it is a success story, I actually think we are still in the very early days of wrestling and technology and with virtual reality on any number of things, so I’m trying to keep it simple, but I need to get some sort of organizational consistent creative flow through the company that creates the vision I have so I can turn around and take that 21st century and get people back and invested into wrestling as something that can drive their businesses, whether that’d be advertising or something else.”

On how to rebuild the show’s viewership: “Absolutely, I plan on hitting the gas pedal as soon as I am affirmed into the driver’s seat. That is the way I have always run my life, and I have no problem doing it here. The thing I would say though, it is a very difficult question that is not easily answered. As we enter into this new age, ratings are not the bible on everything that happens within a wrestling company at this point. There was the TV deals that you have and how they reflect the ratings, then there are of course the sponsors. Right now, what the major issue with TNA is that we have not attracted sponsors that can help stabilize our financial situation. We are way behind the curve on that. So, if you have to dip it with a question of, do you need to bring partners to the table to support the product and help support the long term stability vs doing a bunch of stuff that will drive up ratings but will not change your bank book because of the way things are structured at the moment, those are difficult decisions to make, but absolutely i want to get more ratings, I want to get more talked about, I want the buzz; and it has shown in some of the stuff, in particular to the Final Deletion and where Matt and Jeff Hardy are into their careers and still be able to draw, we have shown that we can go up in those ratings quite easily if we have things people really want to see. The difficult part on the creative side, and I am on the booking committee, so I bare this responsibility as well, but when we drive stuff up, we have good shows coming, and the ratings still go back down; we are not able to hold those viewers, and that is something that I would focus on right away..on why we are not holding those numbers.”

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