#1038 - Billy Corgan

Joe Rogan (0:08)

All right, we're live.

What's up? I know, I'm weird, right?

Billy Corgan (0:12)

Yeah, here we go.

Joe Rogan (0:13)

Nice to meet you, man.

Billy Corgan (0:13)

Thank you, yeah, I can't believe we've never met.

Joe Rogan (0:15)

Yeah, well, I've been a fan of your music for a long time, so it's kind of cool to see you in person.

Billy Corgan (0:20)

I've worked out to ndrop your shit.

Joe Rogan (0:24)

So, I mean, I don't want me to just jump right into this, but it kind of freaked me out that you have involvement in pro wrestling, that you own the NWA.

Billy Corgan (0:31)

Yeah, I bought the National Wrestling Alliance, the oldest brand in the world. I was working for TNA, you know, I was president for a hot second, then I got fired and...

Joe Rogan (0:40)

You were president of TNA?

Billy Corgan (0:41)

Yeah, yeah, that's a crazy story. I don't know how much you want to get into that.

Well, you know, Dixie Carter owned TNA. I knew her through the years. I used to go to shows and stuff like that.

And at some point, they approached me about investing. I said, no. Then they offered me a job. I started working for the company. Then they started having money problems. I started putting money in. And through the contrivance of all that, then I started getting more power in the company and putting in more money. So then it became like, well, if I'm gonna put in all this money and I'm gonna have all this power, I wanna run the show. They basically said that was cool. And then the minute I had the spot, it was like Game of Thrones. They all started to kill me off. And then wrestling's weird because you have this weird mix of reality and fantasy. And it's hard sometimes to know where one thing, and the fans get into both the behind the scenes and the fantasy. So no one's quite sure sometimes where the blur is.

And yeah, I got pretty crazy for a while. There's a lawsuit.

Joe Rogan (1:37)

A real lawsuit?

Billy Corgan (1:38)

Yeah, no, I sued. I sued and this is a quick funny thing.

People continually write that I lost the lawsuit. I never lost the lawsuit. I lost one of the motions, which led to them me negotiating and we settled out of court. But the judge, the contract that they signed that would have allowed me to take over the company under the motion that I had filed, the judge basically dismissed my motion because the contract they had signed with me was illegal under Tennessee law, even though a Tennessee lawyer had negotiated on the company's behalf and signed it. Whoa.

Joe Rogan (2:17)

That sounds like some double cross wrestling type stuff.

Billy Corgan (2:19)

Yeah, yeah, so it'd be like if you did a contract with me and then I sued you and then the judge says, well, even though Joe had a California lawyer sign, it's illegal under California law, so therefore the contract's meaningless. It was bizarre.

Joe Rogan (2:33)

How does one go from smashing pumpkins to pro wrestling and then go so deep that you're like an owner?

Billy Corgan (2:40)

Yeah, I know, it's pretty wild.

Joe Rogan (2:43)

Unexpected for a lot of people, right?

Billy Corgan (2:46)

Yeah, yeah, no, I get that a lot.

And I've actually learned over time, it's just best to keep the world separate because the music fans don't want to hear anything about the wrestling thing. I mean, they just don't want to, they get that I'm a bit goofy, but they just don't want to hear about the wrestling thing. They ask the worlds to be kept separate.

Joe Rogan (3:03)

Do they ever get mad at you?

Billy Corgan (3:04)

Oh yeah, yeah.

You know, and you can appreciate it, it kills the gimmick. They want me to be this goth vampire guy or whatever, and then it's like, and then there's pro wrestling. It just totally kills the gimmick.

Joe Rogan (3:18)

It's really funny though, I think it's awesome. I love when people just get into what they like.

Billy Corgan (3:24)

Well, that's something I appreciate about you, you know what I mean? Like I've watched where you guys go deep dives in MMA and other things. It's like, I think it's cool to have multiple interests. It's the renaissance man thing.

Joe Rogan (3:33)

Yeah, well, I think for some reason, people shy away from that because they think folks are gonna be confused.

Billy Corgan (3:39)

I don't care.

Joe Rogan (3:39)