Billy Corgan talks about Matt Cardona.
Wrestling promoters around the world lost a valuable asset when notorious Fightful-hater Matt Cardona suffered a bicep injury. Before his injury occurred, Cardona was on a legendary run on the independent scene and was becoming one of the most booked wrestlers in the world.
In a new interview with Fightful, NWA Owner Billy Corgan went into depth about Cardona's injury.
"Yeah. You know, it’s funny. I tend to not worry too much about injuries to the extent of what it’s going to do to the company. My first concern is, is he okay? Is everything gonna be alright? How serious is the injury? I tend to go more to the human side first. That’s just how I am. I always think, ‘Look, it’s wrestling. You can figure it out as you go.’ But here’s the thing that’s really important, as the dust is settling, okay, he tore his bicep, he’s gonna need surgery, then you start going into the business side. ‘Okay, now what the heck are we going to do?’ Can he fly? Can he be at the event? Does he even want to come?'"
Corgan continued on and praised Cardona's value to both the NWA and the wrestling business as a whole.
"Look, there are people who question why I would want to bring—I’m talking behind the scenes now—in a Matt Cardona. I had no hesitation. I had zero hesitation. All you need to do was start here, here’s married to Chelsea Green. I know Chelsea personally, decently well back from our time in the TNA days. If she endorses someone as a man, as a person, and now of course husband, I know that person is a quality human being. That has been exactly my experience with Matt Cardona as a person. Matt Cardona, the talent, the professional, cuts a promo with his arm in a sling hours after surgery, holds up the title and says, ‘I will be at the event.’ That’s the man I want to be in business with. So, let me tell you, nobody has anything to say about Matt Cardona the professional since then because that proved he was all about business and all about helping the company that was standing behind him as champion. Out of a very difficult circumstance—and I’m glad he’s okay and he’s recovering, I just talked to him the other day—I think he made the best of a situation. We tried to make the best out of a situation. But what really sticks out in my mind is that he was there. The fact that he got on a plane and came to that event, he was there, that means everything to me and I will never forget that."
Corgan went on and claimed that Cardona represents the next generation of wrestling.
"If you don’t mind me interjecting a little bit more, I think what I tried to explain to some people in the company who don’t get it—I think Matt Cardona really represents the next generation of professional wrestler who understands the value of their brand, they figure out their own way to get themselves over with the wrestling community writ large and they bring that value into any company they work with. In many ways it harkens back to the territorial system and wrestlers who were able to rotate around and get maximum value for who they worked for. So I think, really, in his own way, Matt Cardona’s show the light on where professional wrestling is going into the future. I certainly have made the case on the rock and roll side that the value of my brand, that’s called ‘Billy Corgan,’ and the value of Smashing Pumpkins as a brand, is far greater than what was the past calculus of how they ascertained value in the music business. In the past, the music business was always down to how many tickets can you sell and how
many records can you sell? Now we see that there are people who are super successful that don’t necessarily qualify within those normal ranks and there are people who sell a ton of tickets that you don’t even know who they are. Which is really weird, right? ‘Cause I think you’re old enough to remember the other world we used to live in, right?"
"So Matt Cardona is really showing that brand value is the ultimate value and the fact that he can create buzz, he can create value, and then, by the way, he’s a great professional wrestler, and you put those pieces together, that’s why he’s so valuable to a company like the NWA. He’s had his leisure to come and go, but we really are partners in that. My job is to get Matt Cardona over even more. His job is to help me get the NWA over into a new century and he’s said that in his promos. Some people had a problem with what he was saying, ‘cause they thought maybe they thought on some level he was burying the company, I was like, ‘No. He’s good to criticize the company. The company is worth criticizing. Why is the company above criticism?’ To me, that’s old thinking, right? The company can’t be criticized; we have to create this environment where the company is this sort of gold standard existing in its own oxygen. I don’t think we live in that world anymore. Your normal, average sophisticated wrestling fan is well aware of what Tony’s doing, what I’m doing, what Scott D’Amore’s doing, and by extension what New Japan and the McMahons are doing. I think it’s silly to play this weird game where it’s like, ‘No, only this sandbox exists.’ Part of the NWA’s success was telling the story that we’re rebuilding, that we have good days and bad days and hopefully as long as we have more good days than bad days, then wrestling fans will give it a chance to prove that we have a future. That’s what’s really valuable to me and Matt Cardona absolutely positively 147% fits into that equation."
Cardona recently provided an update on his injury. To learn more, click here.
Elsewhere in Fightful's exclusive interview, Corgan spoke about his relationship with Zicky Dice. Click here to see Corgan's full comments.
Fans can check out the upcoming NWA 74 event on FITE TV by clicking here. The two-day card is set to feature Trevor Murdoch, Bully Ray, Tyrus, and more.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit Fightful with a h/t and link back to us for the transcription.
