Billy Corgan to make NWA great again???

JohnMc1

After failing to buy TNA/Impact Wrestling Billy went and bought the NWA.

http://www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.php?id=109356

I'm happy to see this. Hopefully he gets rid of their more archaic ideas [what Indy wrestler has $25K to make the deposit to be World Champion? i imagine their licensee rates aren't that good either since NWA Ireland and such are no longer around]

What's everybody's opinions on this? Billy seemed like the only one in TNA with a brain in their head. I would love to see him bring the NWA back to prominence.

briany

The NWA has been effectively irrelevant as a force for about 30 years when the major promoters pulled out. Since then, it has been a patchwork of what Jim Cornette would call 'outlaw' promotions. Building it back up to a 10th of what it once was would be a huge struggle. Their main impression on the cultural memory is really in the minds of old-school wrasslin' fans who got into it before the mid-80s boom, as far as I can see, but even they would be hard-pressed to agree that anything an NWA affiliated promotion puts on today would be worthy of the lineage such a promotion claims a part of.

JohnMc1

briany wrote: »

The NWA has been effectively irrelevant as a force for about 30 years when the major promoters pulled out. Since then, it has been a patchwork of what Jim Cornette would call 'outlaw' promotions. Building it back up to a 10th of what it once was would be a huge struggle. Their main impression on the cultural memory is really in the minds of old-school wrasslin' fans who got into it before the mid-80s boom, as far as I can see, but even they would be hard-pressed to agree that anything an NWA affiliated promotion puts on today would be worthy of the lineage such a promotion claims a part of.

I agree. I'm not expecting him to work miracles and leapfrog over Impact into the #2 Wrestling organisation. The organisation needs some definite streamlining. He would definitely need a Central NWA organisation [not NWA:insertnamehere] and a TV deal. For alot of fans their last glimpse of the NWA was during that "invasion" angle on RAW when Jim Cornette led a stable of NWA alum like then current NWA Champion former UFC Champ Dan Severn, Bart Gunn and Bob Holly as the NWA tag champions the New Midnight Express, and Jeff Jarrett as North American Champ.

I'm going to be hopefully optimistic about this.

Erik Shin

Thought​ for a second when I saw the headline that Corgan was getting together with Dr Dre and Ice Cube ....would have loved that

briany

JohnMc1 wrote: »

I agree. I'm not expecting him to work miracles and leapfrog over Impact into the #2 Wrestling organisation. The organisation needs some definite streamlining. He would definitely need a Central NWA organisation [not NWA:insertnamehere] and a TV deal. For alot of fans their last glimpse of the NWA was during that "invasion" angle on RAW when Jim Cornette led a stable of NWA alum like then current NWA Champion former UFC Champ Dan Severn, Bart Gunn and Bob Holly as the NWA tag champions the New Midnight Express, and Jeff Jarrett as North American Champ.

I'm going to be hopefully optimistic about this.

One thing that Corgan could do is use his profile and connections to land a TV deal for the organisation as a whole and take weekly or monthly footage from NWA affiliates and edit it down into a digest program that keeps viewers abreast of key feuds and the overall title picture. However, the current affiliates are small time and their matches and presentation sadly involves a lot of wannabes, gonnabes and never-weres wrestling in a half full P.E. hall, so even editing down the best of the week's NWA action is going to look rinky-dink and unlikely to attract any casual fans or those who used to watch back in the old days. Maybe a few hardcore wrestling fans and those curious about Corgan's latest venture but would those be numbers enough to have the ratings roll in?

My main feeling is that Corgan bought the NWA because of its large nostalgia value, and that it only cost a small fraction of what it once did.

JohnMc1

briany wrote: »

One thing that Corgan could do is use his profile and connections to land a TV deal for the organisation as a whole and take weekly or monthly footage from NWA affiliates and edit it down into a digest program that keeps viewers abreast of key feuds and the overall title picture. However, the current affiliates are small time and their matches and presentation sadly involves a lot of wannabes, gonnabes and never-weres wrestling in a half full P.E. hall, so even editing down the best of the week's NWA action is going to look rinky-dink and unlikely to attract any casual fans or those who used to watch back in the old days. Maybe a few hardcore wrestling fans and those curious about Corgan's latest venture but would those be numbers enough to have the ratings roll in?

My main feeling is that Corgan bought the NWA because of its large nostalgia value, and that it only cost a small fraction of what it once did.

The Independent circuit is definitely slim picking for talent to showcase, but I hope he can pull something off. The business needs it. If he gets a decent tv deal for here I'll check them out.

briany

JohnMc1 wrote: »

The Independent circuit is definitely slim picking for talent to showcase, but I hope he can pull something off. The business needs it. If he gets a decent tv deal for here I'll check them out.

Oh, absolutely. All for more options for wrestlers and for fans. There's a fair amount of talent on the independent circuit I think, though, as that's where WWE have been sourcing much their talent from for the last 15 years, but little of it's in any NWA-affiliated independent as far as I can see.

Maybe Corgan would have been better-served starting up his own fresh promotion like with Resistance Pro. Reason I think this is that it's an organisation under his direct control. In the NWA scenario, its success is dependent on the competency of its constituent promotions. In recent times, many of these affiliates have lasted only a couple of years if they're lucky, making the whole thing seem much less stable than in years past.

JohnMc1

briany wrote: »

Oh, absolutely. All for more options for wrestlers and for fans. There's a fair amount of talent on the independent circuit I think, though, as that's where WWE have been sourcing much their talent from for the last 15 years, but little of it's in any NWA-affiliated independent as far as I can see.

Maybe Corgan would have been better-served starting up his own fresh promotion like with Resistance Pro. Reason I think this is that it's an organisation under his direct control. In the NWA scenario, its success is dependent on the competency of its constituent promotions. In recent times, many of these affiliates have lasted only a couple of years if they're lucky, making the whole thing seem much less stable than in years past.

Does he still own Resistance Pro? If so i can see him folding it into the NWA and he would have a core NWA organization to work with. He was working with AMC [American Movie Classics] to do a reality show about Resistance Pro. Maybe he can do something like that now that he owns the NWA name and championships. Given the history of the NWA dating back to 1948 they have alot to work with.

JeffKenna

He's probably paying for the name recognition more than anything. Could be time to scrap how it currently works and just start as if it's a new stand alone fed. (but keeping and history of titles).

JohnMc1

JeffKenna wrote: »

He's probably paying for the name recognition more than anything. Could be time to scrap how it currently works and just start as if it's a new stand alone fed. (but keeping and history of titles).

That's probably what he is planning to do.

briany

It would be a radical move for Corgan to dismantle a 70 year old wrestling institution and turn it into another indy fed. Might as well rename it because it would no longer be the National Wrestling Alliance if it were an alliance of one.

Anyway, seems like a very roundabout way to go about things - to spend a bunch of money on a wrestling anachronism, and then to spend a bunch more on shaping that into a standalone promotion. Personally think the first phase is superfluous.

Mr.Nice Guy

I don't know if many of you listened to the interview he did with Meltzer and Alvarez a few months ago but one of the reasons Corgan gave for investing so much into TNA was the importance of having a recognizable brand that could pick up TV rights in the modern era. He said he thought it would be very difficult in this day and age for a promotion starting from scratch to achieve this, and when you consider Jarrett's difficulty with GFW or whatever it was called, you see where he's coming from.

I actually think this is a pretty decent strategy. The NWA is a recognizable brand to a large slice of the wrestling audience and there's a lineage and a history that he can play up and make reference to.

JohnMc1

briany wrote: »

It would be a radical move for Corgan to dismantle a 70 year old wrestling institution and turn it into another indy fed. Might as well rename it because it would no longer be the National Wrestling Alliance if it were an alliance of one.

Anyway, seems like a very roundabout way to go about things - to spend a bunch of money on a wrestling anachronism, and then to spend a bunch more on shaping that into a standalone promotion. Personally think the first phase is superfluous.

I doubt he'll completely dismantle the system, but a shakeup is inevitable.

DEFTLEFTHAND

What's he purchasing exactly? The rights to the name and the titles?

JohnMc1

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

What's he purchasing exactly? The rights to the name and the titles?

The Name, the titles. The video library at NWAclassics.com as well I believe.

briany

The NWA video library can't be worth a whole lot at this stage. I think a lot of what's on there is limited to a couple of territories that eluded the WWE machine. If you look at the WWE library, it has rights to almost every American promotion that was, historically, a player within the NWA hierarchy.

Of the major world titles, the NWA belt has been kicked around more than any other in the last 30 years. Ric Flair paraded it around on WWF TV, Shane Douglas renounced it, and Dan Severn had for a while in WWF, too. Not to say that Flair or Severn disgraced it or anything, but it was reduced more to prop status. That's not to mention that the lineage of the belt is murky - given the nature of the NWA, it's been merged and split numerous times over its existence.

JohnMc1

briany wrote: »

The NWA video library can't be worth a whole lot at this stage. I think a lot of what's on there is limited to a couple of territories that eluded the WWE machine. If you look at the WWE library, it has rights to almost every American promotion that was, historically, a player within the NWA hierarchy.

Of the major world titles, the NWA belt has been kicked around more than any other in the last 30 years. Ric Flair paraded it around on WWF TV, Shane Douglas renounced it, and Dan Severn had for a while in WWF, too. Not to say that Flair or Severn disgraced it or anything, but it was reduced more to prop status. That's not to mention that the lineage of the belt is murky - given the nature of the NWA, it's been merged and split numerous times over its existence.

There classic matches with Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Dusty Rhodes, Terry Funk, etc. on there. WWE tried to buy it last year or so so they obviously see some value in it.

JohnMc1

The Don Tony and Kevin Castle talk about WWE trying to buy it and discuss some matches on the NWA Classics site.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfHFxWaYfAY

DEFTLEFTHAND

Apparently the tape library is not included in the deal.

I don't get this at all. Who's affiliated with the NWA in 2017, a bunch of two bit indie promotions?

I presume the plan is to run it as a stand alone promotion.

JohnMc1

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Apparently the tape library is not included in the deal.

I don't get this at all. Who's affiliated with the NWA in 2017, a bunch of two bit indie promotions?

I presume the plan is to run it as a stand alone promotion.

That's weird. That would be the only thing of value at the moment. I hope he didn't pay too much then.

DEFTLEFTHAND

I suppose the Heavyweight title would still be a selling point.

It's the most prestigious belt in the history of Pro Wrestling. An awesome lineage, the ten pounds of gold.