Wrestling news site: Corgan “transcends” as cultural ambassador

In a new interview with Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com, Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan talks about his band’s Mexico City midconcert stunt with wrestlers from la Asistencia Asesoría y Administración and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Corgan reveals that the skit (or “angle”) was carried out without its details having been shared beforehand with MTV, which was recording the concert for a future telecast:

I was concerned because I didn’t really tell them what we were going to do. If I had told them [TNA wrestler] Hernandez was going to jack me up in the air, I know they would have said no. So, we just went ahead and did it. Afterward, I had to go and meet with all the MTV brass and do a press conference and whatnot. So, you know, you are kind of walking down the hallway going, “OK, here it comes” but they were all, “Oh, we loved it. That was so cool” and everyone was totally happy.

Corgan also gives a defense of professional wrestling as “high art form” and explains his advocacy on its behalf:

I don’t want to say wrestling’s the underdog. Vince McMahon runs a billion dollar company so he’s hardly an underdog, but I like the rebellious attitude of wrestling. The nature of it. I like that it makes fun of things in the way that it does. It takes on all sorts of things in a very interesting way. Wrestling is at the forefront of a lot of cultural tension and that’s sort of sociological stuff. At the end of the day, it’s just a lot of fun. I couldn’t give a fuck. I just wanted to have fun. I’ve really enjoyed my connection to wrestling and I’ve done everything in my power to bring glory and more respect to something I really love, passionately.