Billy Corgan on Tyrus, Zicky Dice, Matt Cardona, Pope

Fightful spoke to Billy Corgan about a number of talent on the NWA roster, and some that had left.

We asked him about the heavy criticism in booking Tyrus to an undefeated streak at nearly 50 years old after he'd barely wrestled in four years. Corgan said that he and Tyrus go back to TNA, and Corgan was assigned him by John Gaburick as a "difficult personality." He says that he doesn't think there's anything to defend with booking Tyrus, because often times he defers to personalities that he knows. He says the consumer can vote with their feet and should separate Tyrus the talent, from Tyrus the person.

Pope was another talent he came to know personally in TNA, and worked with him behind the scenes. He found out that Pope didn't want to wrestle at the time because he felt he wasn't being valued, and preferred the commentary role. So in bringing Pope into NWA, he wanted to be sensitive to the idea, and was able to land Pope on the roster.

Zicky Dice and NWA had very public issues in the past, and Corgan thinks that Zicky shouldn't have gone public with them. He put over Zicky Dice as a talented person who earned an NWA job on the spot from a Championship Wrestling From Hollywood promo. He doesn't believe that the public should be privy to talent's frustrations, and thinks it's bad business. He didn't want to feed into it and create a Streisand Effect. Instead, he's had Pat Kenney work in a talent relations role. Corgan is open to working with Zicky Dice again and said he looks forward to it.

He also spoke on Matt Cardona. He said that news of Cardona's injury came in rapidly, and when it became clear he couldn't be at the show, he wanted to make sure he could fly to the PPV to vacate the NWA title. He said that Chelsea Green was another person he knew from the TNA days, and if she endorses someone, he trusts in that. He said that Cardona's ability to develop a brand outside of WWE was something that drew him to Cardona. He had no issues with the character or real person of Cardona criticizing the NWA as a company, because he doesn't believe anything is above criticism. Corgan stated that it's his job to help get Cardona over more than he is even now.