This time six months ago, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan was in position to buy TNA Wrestling as he became TNA President. After loaning the company money in order to keep operations running, Corgan was reportedly promised that he would become majority owner of the company and his new vision for wrestling would materialize weekly on Impact Wrestling.
As we move towards the end of 2016, Corgan is out as TNA President after Anthem Sports and Entertainment swooped in, paid Corgan the money he loaned to TNA and pushed him out of the company. This week, Corgan took to the airwaves to discuss the recently settled court case which saw him demonized and called a “predatory lender” and a “loan shark” towards the 14-year-old wrestling company.
In an interview with Mike Johnson of PWinsider, Corgan spoke about where he saw himself after TNA’s Slammiversary when he loaned the company six-figures to put on the show and pay talent. Corgan believed that he was in the driver’s seat for the company, but he was lied to consistently about when he stood in the company after his third cash infusion into the company.
“My presidency was being treated by her (Dixie Carter) and the people that you would count as her surrogates as not real,” said Corgan. “My sense was that she let everyone know, that had counted on her through the years, that she wasn’t going anywhere and to treat my presidency as nothing but a paper title thing. So when I actually tried to push buttons in the company, people didn’t respond.”
Much talk over the years has been about whether Dixie Carter is dumb in regards to running a wrestling promotion and Corgan actually disputes that point. He doesn’t believe that she is dumb, but just that she enjoys the spotlight and doesn’t want to give it up at any cost.
"She survived Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Vince Russo, Dutch Mantel, Bruce Prichard, and Jeff Jarrett, and now, by extension, Billy Corgan. Okay, so if add up those list of people that she, quote-unquote... survived, then you say, ‘What makes a person want to do that?’
“And I think the simplest answer is the truest answer – you have somebody so desperate to be in that spot that they will literally do anything, say anything, be anything and rub anybody out of the way, to maintain that spot."
Corgan has officially cut ties with TNA, but that doesn’t mean that he is done with the company as of yet. The door is open for him to possibly continue his war with the company and while the names are unknown, it sounds like Corgan may continue his fight a little longer.
“In the deal I made to resolve the legal issues right now, I did not release all claims involved in this matter. I specifically put in the paperwork that there were certain people that I was in business with in the company that I still have the ability to go after directly.”
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