Billy Corgan talks about brief discussions he had about the possibility of present-day NWA landing on the WWE Network prior to Peacock purchasing the rights for the Network's content.
When the WWE Network was still a direct-to-consumer streaming service controlled by WWE, there were many attempts to maximize the benefit of owning the various content libraries that WWE has acquired through the years. A consistent thread for many of these different libraries is their connection to the original National Wrestling Alliance, the main governing body of professional wrestling in the days before Vince McMahon took a gamble on making WWE a national, and eventually, global product.
Today, Billy Corgan owns the rights to the National Wrestling Alliance and it is a promotion that, while modern, still does its best to incorporate the legacy of the original National Wrestling Alliance.
Speaking with Sean Ross Sapp, Billy Corgan detailed conversations he had with WWE Representatives about potentially landing the NWA on the network, similar to how ICW, PROGRESS, and wXw content is currently shown on the network. Billy says he's not sure if these ideas ever made it to the desk of Vince McMahon, but they were always squashed at some point.
“There was a lot of talk of being on the Network and obviously their plans with the Network have changed a lot. They made different deals with Peacock. This was before when they were still self contained and they were looking at different things that they could do. Obviously they worked with Gabe Sapolsky on EVOLVE and stuff like that. I had a different modality where maybe we would be able to access the library and somehow combine their history, NWA’s history, and present wrestling in a different way. Again, to maximize assets that they’re sitting on that they don’t spend a lot of time putting focus on and through something like the NWA, maybe we could create a [beneficial partnership], not only for the NWA but also for them. They were definitely interested in that, it just never got off the ground. I always felt it got up to a certain level of management and whoever’s desk it fell upon—I don’t necessarily assume it got to Vince’s desk—but it seemed to get killed every time it got to somebody’s desk,” said Corgan.
Today, the National Wrestling Alliance has partnered with FITE. The NWA has a subscription option through FITE which allows fans to watch weekly episodes of Powerrr and any pay-per-view event for an annual fee.
The next NWA event will be NWA 74, a celebration of the entire journey of the National Wrestling Alliance. Fans can pre-order the event at this link.
