On January 3, the National Wrestling Alliance announced that NWA Powerrr would return to YouTube as a first-run show.
The show was airing on FITE TV as part of an NWA subscription service. NWA pay-per-view events will continue to air on FITE.
Speaking to Steve Fall of WrestlingNews, NWA President Billy Corgan explained the decision to move off of FITE.
"It's just the dynamics of the world we live in. You see it with the over the top networks, they're offering a lot of free stuff to drive whatever they're trying to drive, and we're in that position where, if we're behind a paywall with a lot of great programming and people aren't necessarily seeing it or if they're seeing us delayed or with spoilers, and I know NWA fans go out of their way to not see spoilers. Going back to the Tuesday and Saturday format where everyone is watching at the same time, trying to leverage social media, it's part of the economics. It's a different type of economics than served being in a financial relationship with FITE," said Corgan.
When asked if he's spoken to other streaming services, Corgan said, "I've probably talked to six or seven streaming platforms in the last year. The NWA, as a property, has increased probably 500% over the last year. That's both surviving the pandemic, the length in turn I've held the company, and the growth of the company internally and publicly, that's where the interest is up. We're in a very good position to be having these conversations. The deals that are out there, whether we take those deals, that becomes the million dollar question. I'm at least in a position to have people take us serious, and that feels quite good. I've said it 50 times publicly, as much as I would love the internet crowd to love everything I do, the reason I took this company over is it had a mainstream appeal. I was in a similar position in music where, I was well aware of what the Indie crowd in music wanted from my band and at some point, I either play to that audience or go for a mainstream thing. I took the slings and arrows that went with crossing over to being a mainstream band, and here I am 35 years later, my band is still headlining arenas and festivals. That's the business tension of this situation. I want the NWA to be a mainstream product again. I hate using the word product, but it is a product and that's what I go into these board meetings to try to sell. My position in the world, the ability for the NWA to be presented as a 21st century product that has a little more width to it than the traditional wrestling product with most people who don't watch wrestling, associate with wrestling, that's where I have a seat at the table."
NWA is set to take NWA Powerrr live on January 31 for a special episode.
Fans can check out the lineup for the live episode of NWA Powerrr by clicking here.
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