NWA President Billy Corgan made waves over the weekend when he claimed that people who don’t want to watch NWA Champion Tyrus aren’t real wrestling fans.
In addition to his life as a professional wrestler, Tyrus works as a broadcaster for Fox News. Speaking in an interview with The New York Post, Corgan made it clear that he isn’t concerned with Tyrus’ political affiliations, saying:
“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. I grew up in a time of old-school heat. Old-school heat was the Polish guy told the German guy, using World War II references, that he was gonna beat him up. Very politically incorrect.
“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. There are people that have a problem with the New York Post. If that was going to deny you opportunities in the world to appear on a show, or write for another magazine, that’s not a world that I want to live in.
“I believe that dissenting voices should have a seat at the table and let the American public decide which is more important on any particular argument. I don’t believe in canceling out a voice because you’re not comfortable with their perspective, and that’s somehow supposed to translate into professional wrestling.”
“Billy Likes Being Polarizing” – Kamille On NWA President Billy Corgan
Not every champion agrees with Corgan’s assessment, however. Kamille, who has been NWA Women’s Champion for an impressive 725 days as of June 1st, took her boss to task for his comments during an interview with Steve Fall of WrestlingNews.co.
According to Kamille, Corgan enjoys being polarizing to create buzz behind whatever he’s selling, whether in the world of professional wrestling or in his music career as frontman of the Smashing Pumpkins. While she doesn’t believe personal politics should play a part in wrestling fandom, she doesn’t believe anyone has to be a Tyrus fan to love professional wrestling.
“I think Billy likes being polarizing. It’s something he’s done his entire life and it’s why he’s sold the amount of albums he sold and has the amount of fans that he has, so there’s a reason for that. As far as Tyrus is concerned and politics, I don’t think that politics and wrestling should be intertwined, but you know what? It’s life and people are human beings and feelings are a very strong thing.
“Feelings are a very real thing and if someone feels strongly one way and it affects this over here, so be it. I don’t agree and I’ll say this completely, I completely disagree that if you aren’t a Tyrus fan, you aren’t a wrestling fan. I completely disagree with that statement.”
Continuing, Kamille praised the NWA women’s division, saying she knows they provide something every wrestling fan can enjoy.
“My personal polarizing statement would be if you don’t enjoy the NWA women’s division, then then you might not like wrestling because that is something that I can guarantee that you will have a good time watching. You will enjoy the women’s wrestling in the NWA.
“I think that we’re hard hitting, we’re feisty, and we tell good stories in there. I don’t want to say this. It’s gonna come off bad, but whatever, I’ll say it. Even if you don’t think someone is a good, quote unquote, like technical wrestler in our division, the matches are still fu**ing so fun to watch.”
In more positive news, Billy Corgan recently spoke about how he was planning to make LA Knight the NWA World Heavyweight Champion, had world events not interfered.
h/t WrestlingNews.co