Billy Corgan Clarifies Recent Controversial Comments

NWA boss Billy Corgan has clarified recent comments where he seemed to suggest that if you weren’t a fan of NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Tyrus then perhaps you weren’t as big a wrestling fan as you thought.

Tyrus is a controversial figure to some as the man formerly known to WWE fans as Brodus Clay is outspoken about his political beliefs and frequently appears on FOX News.

Speaking to the New York Post previously, Billy Corgan appeared to declare that if you didn’t want to watch Tyrus then you weren’t a fan of wrestling:

“I think if people bring those things into the realm of wrestling, and it changes their willingness to watch, that’s not a customer that I am catering to.

“When Tyrus walks through the door, he brings the heat, and if you’re not gonna watch him, then you’re not a wrestling fan. I’m not booking a charity. I’m booking a professional wrestling company.”

Now speaking to Steve Fall of WrestlingNews.co Billy Corgan has clarified those comments and says his point was that real issues between wrestlers can lead to good storytelling, referencing one of the more famous examples in history:

“What I was saying was, if you don’t like Tyrus in a wrestling ring because of his politics and because he brings heat into wrestling, then I don’t understand what wrestling that you’re after. I went on to say and I don’t think it was quoted, ‘Are we only booking friends in a wrestling ring.’ Like is this just like Pattycakes and then everybody pretends these guys hate each other, and then they hug at the after party and everything’s cool? I believe, like all good promoters, that the heat of the outside world coming into a wrestling ring isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”

“Remember when there was all the crazy heat with Edge, Matt Hardy, and Lita? That was a real-life thing that was ultimately taken advantage of in a wrestling ring and obviously, all the parties agreed. Whether that was comfortable or uncomfortable to them, I can’t really say even though I know Matt pretty well and I know Edge pretty well, but I don’t think I’ve ever sat down to really ask them how they felt personally about it.

“But obviously, that was a moment of real heat and people had opinions about how the whole situation played on a personal level. So if your argument would be, ‘That should not have been a wrestling angle’, well, that’s a viable argument to make. If your thing would have been, ‘I was uncomfortable with them being put in that spot’, well, that’s a viable argument to make. But it did happen and it has happened in wrestling where real heat and real life comes into the wrestling ring.

“So that was my point. It wasn’t saying, ‘I’m going to pick this one person in Tyrus and if you don’t like them as a wrestling talent, or you don’t like them as a person, you don’t like wrestling.’ So that’s where it gets bastardized. It made for very good clickbait.”

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