Eric Bischoff gives advice to Billy Corgan.
Billy Corgan has stated that the NWA has signed two TV deals with a top 20 network, though details of those deals have not been revealed. It was reported that the deals were with The CW, but the CW signed a deal with NXT and their reported deal with the NWA was reportedly harmed after a cocaine spot at NWA Samhain.
Asked on 83 Weeks how the NWA could get some momentum, Eric Bischoff gave his thoughts.
“The only thing that Billy Corgan could do is to sit down with his financial team and determine how much money he personally has invested in NWA at this point. Maybe add to that a little bit, throw a couple million more in, have enough of your own skin in the game, and then go out and raise a boatload of money. Because until and unless he takes that show on the road and you create the live event, which is where the rights fees are, there’s no question about it. WWE is getting the money that they’re getting. AEW potentially is going to get whatever money they’re gonna get because they’ve established themselves as a live-action destination with a significant audience each and every week. That’s what Billy needs to do. Billy can bring in all the talent in the world he wants to. It’s not a talent issue. It’s a scale issue. As long as NWA is produced in these little tiny venues with little tiny audiences, you’re never going to be able to have an adult conversation with someone in programming or some executive studio or network, about making this a real thing. It’s gotta tour, and it’s expensive. That’s where the investment is. TNA learned in. TNA could have and should have been in business to this very day. They wouldn’t make the move. They wouldn’t make the move to invest long-term in touring the television show and establishing the fact that this was a live-action attraction each and every week in primetime. Had they done that with Spike TV, now Viacom, it would be a different world today. But they refused to do it for whatever their reasons were. That’s what Corgan has to do.
"He has to be able to put together a group of investors, and they’re out there. They are out there, folks. I wouldn’t want to be doing it at this stage of my life. But if I was 20 years younger and I was looking at the state of the industry the way it is right now and the opportunities that still exist as a result of it, I would find a way to raise $100 million, or more, knowing that it’s gonna take five-to-seven years to get a return on that investment, but the return on that investment would be substantial, and I would go out there and become a legitimate number two or three. Because Tony Khan’s vulnerable. AEW as content is vulnerable. If somebody were to come out and put together a program that you could produce in front of three-or-four thousand people, because that’s all Tony Khan’s doing. They’re lucky to get 4,000 people at a live Dynamite, and even less for Collision and Rampage. So it’s not like it can’t be done. But you have to have the balls and the money and the patience to do it. Other than that, it’s a vanity project for Billy Corgan, and he’s gonna have fun in his little hamster wheel until he’s not having fun, and it’ll go away. But it’s never gonna be worth anything unless it scales up."
Bischoff previously stated that the cocaine spot was stupid.
Corgan splits his time between the NWA and the Smashing Pumpkins.
NWA Powerrr currently airs on YouTube.
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