How to Make TNA Wrestling Better, by Billy Corgan

Score Media’s Hardcore Sports Radio, a Sirius satellite channel, carries a program called “Right After Wrestling” on which, last night, host Arda Ocal interviewed Smashing Pumpkins stagemaster Billy Corgan. A full MP3 of the program is available via this link.

Corgan, as the remaining Pumpkins fans well know, is not shy about his pro-wrestling fandom — or at least not anymore: “When I became all alternative and weird, I kinda gave up wrestling for a while,” he admitted on the program. Not surprisingly, Ocal and Corgan spend the time talking about wrestling, music, and the intersection thereof.

The following is a transcribed segment about the use of music by insurgent wrestling organization Total Nonstop Action:

Billy Corgan: Sometimes it’s very hard for wrestling companies to get things licensed that they would like, so they’ll kind of do imitative type music. I have spoken to TNA about trying to help them get what I would consider more original music, work with bands and stuff like that, it’s never come to any kind of fruition, but…I think it’s important that there’s more, you know, interaction between the musical community and the wrestling community. I think it’s beneficial to both communities. Just hearing general metal-type music associated with a character, I don’t think does the character any service, and I think if they can get a really specific song, and in some cases I think there are older bands that would be willing to license a song under the right circumstances. It could really give a dimension to a promotion. Like, say, for example, TNA could give them a dimension that WWE doesn’t have.

Arda Ocal: Yeah, I think you’re right in that. And you make a very good point with the generic hard rock. I mean one of the biggest criticisms I have of TNA, and there aren’t many, because I think there are a lot of positives there, is that a lot of their theme songs virtually sound the same, especially when you have two wrestlers back to back that have a hard rock song, it’s almost like, you know, Chris Jericho wrote in his book how he used to have a highlight package song when he was in WCW. I mean, like, a lot of people don’t put as much emphasis on the theme as they should.

Corgan: I think it really comes down to a money issue. I don’t think I’m giving away any secrets. It’s very hard sometimes, and this is something I’ve spoken to TNA management about. It’s sometimes  when, if you don’t have somebody to make the transition to the music world of why somebody wants a theme song… For example, let’s say you’re gonna pick something like a song by Queen, well, if somebody from TNA tries to call Queen or Queen’s management, they’re not gonna get anywhere. They’re gonna say, ‘What is this? A wrestling promotion?” It really takes sometimes somebody to translate why it would be good for a band like Queen to be on a national promotion that has two million viewers a week, kinda thing, or maybe even more. You know, something like that. WWE, you know, they have their own reasons for doing things the way they do them. But in TNA’s example I think it would be in their best interest if some of their songs were more familiar. I know in talking to them about music at different times, I’ve talked to them about doing theme songs and stuff myself. They seem pretty focused on a high-octane, adrenalized type of sound, and I said to them, just personally, from my opinion, that I think that that works against them.

Ocal: Yes!

Corgan: That just becomes kind of ubiquitous and…

Ocal: They all blend in together, Billy. Every theme song seems like you could pick one song for every wrestler out there right now.

Corgan: Yeah. That’s just my opinion as a musician. I mean, they have their reasons and I can’t say they’re wrong. It’s just that my opinion would be to try to find something… I mean, look, again, speaking just as a fan, when you’re TNA, trying to compete against this incredible conglomerate that is now WWE, I mean, they’re international in scale… Every little thing you can do to say “we’re different.” I think music is the first and easiest thing that they could do that would say “we’re a different type of promotion, we’re coming at it a little bit differently.

Ocal: Well, they both have staff on their roster to create theme songs. I know TNA has…the name escapes me right now. But I know that WWE has James A. Johnson, who they’ve used for years and years and years. And even though they’re licensing songs right now, that could be the case. But have they come to you, Billy, personally and say, you know what, there’s this Pumpkins song that we really have in mind for this one character, and let’s use it. Has that conversation happened?

Corgan: No, we’ve never talked about a specific song for a specific character, but we’ve… One of my songs was used as a theme for one of the pay per views and we’ve even discussed using a new Pumpkins song as the theme for Impact, and so we’ve had lots of good conversations and I have really good relationships with people over there, so I’ve always told them, if they need anything, pick up the phone, and they have, they have asked me for different things.

(Thanks to HU reader Susan for transcribing this!)