Chris Jericho recently spoke with Doug Mortman and Dave Lagreca on Busted Open. You can hear Busted Open on SiriusXM 92 and on the SiriusXM app or at BustedOpenNation.com. Below are highlights:
TNA signing Billy Corgan:
“I respect Billy immensely because for me he is the only guy besides me that made it in wrestling and in music beyond what we expected. We are the only two guys that can honestly say we are in a rock band and in the wrestling business at a high level, obviously in reverse roles. Billy is coming into this for the right reasons. A lot of people might think “well Billy is not from the wrestling business, how can he be a booker? How can he be a writer?” Let me give you one name if you’re a hockey fan…Scotty Bowman. Scotty Bowman is the greatest coach in NHL history and he never played an NHL game in his life. So if Scotty comes to coach you team you’re going to go “he never played a game, what does he know?” It’s stupid. Billy knows wrestling. He understands wrestling. He is a student of the game and not just figuratively and literally. He has that ability to see things.
I learned a lot from talking to Billy Corgan about how to build homegrown talent, about how to restructure the roster and repair some the damage that was done. I was just really enthralled by him. Being in the business for 25 years and listening to how he spoke and I’m sure he might feel the same way if I told him my theories on rock and roll. I’ve used a lot of the things I learned from wrestling in rock and roll and he is using a lot of the things he learned from building The Smashing Pumpkins into TNA.
I will also say this. I think TNA got him just in the nick of time. I know for me, I wouldn’t say I gave up on TNA, I never really watched it. I was never interested. It was there, I wished it well, but I didn’t participate. Now I am interested. I want to see what Billy does. I am curious to see what kind of changes he can make. I hope they give him the opportunity to do that. There is nobody there to kind of pee in his oatmeal. There is no Eric Bischoff or Hulk Hogan, or those type of really dominant personalities. They don’t have that there. They have a lot of young people. They have an office that is pretty green. I mean Dixie knows a little. She has been running the company for ten years, but it’s not like Vince McMahon. John Gaburick , not like a Pat Patterson. They have got a lot of newer type of people there. I give them credit for bringing Billy in and I’m really excited to see what he can do. I believe in him as a creative element to that company that they never had before. Just because he hasn’t been an actual wrestler, I don’t care. I think he is the right guy at the right time for them.”
Read more of the interview here!
Check out the Busted Open radio show here!