NWA owner Billy Corgan wishes he’d been more forthright about trying to purchase WCW in 2001.
Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has had ties to professional wrestling since the 1990’s, when he was regularly pictured at ECW shows and even made an ECW TV appearance in 2000. Though he now serves as owner of the NWA, he recently revealed that Paul Heyman offered him the chance to purchase 10% of ECW prior to the company’s closing.
Billy Corgan also revealed that he regrets not getting into a bidding war with Vince McMahon over WWE’s Monday Night War rival WCW. Speaking to Ariel Helwani, the NWA President says that he didn’t realize how cheap it would be when McMahon bought the company, and that he would have shown more interest if he’d known at the time despite not having the same kind of capital that the McMahon family had to spend.
“I do look back and wish I’d gotten a little more involved in the WCW sale. If you remember, I think the McMahons bought it for something like $4 million. I would have lost in any bidding war against the McMahons, of course, but I would have been very interested in that if it was for sale for that cheap. I just didn’t realize it was that cheap for sale.”
Continuing, Billy Corgan called it a “crime” that WCW has never been revived in any capacity as the promotion had a number of loyal fans who would have loved to see something akin to ECW’s One Night Stand.
“I do think it’s a bit of a crime, and I say this gently, that WCW has never been revived. Vince McMahon didn’t want it to happen or it would have happened. It’s a shame for people who were WCW fans because they never got to have that other moment. I do regret that because I was a fan of that product.”
h/t WrestlingInc