Billy Corgan Confirms Offer Paul Heyman Made To Him About Becoming ECW Investor

Smashing Pumpkins frontman and NWA owner Billy Corgan spoke with Ariel Helwani about how Paul Heyman once asked him about being an investor in ECW. Heyman eventually sold ECW to WWE in 2001.

"I was friendly with a lot of [ECW] wrestlers, so I knew how much Heyman owed the wrestlers," said Corgan. "Somebody who was my go-between Heyman and I, said, 'He wants to have dinner with you.' He took me out to a deli in New York. I got the full vintage Paul Heyman, cutting promos to little Billy Corgan at the deli counter basically saying, 'How would you like to be an investor in ECW?' You know he lathered it up as only Paul Heyman can. I said, 'How much?' He said, 'Well, a million dollars.' I said, 'What do I get for a million dollars?' He said, '10%' and I said, 'Paul, I can do the math and I know ECW is not worth $10 million dollars.' Of course, I didn't tell him how much debt I knew he was in."

 "The only thing I look back on that story, is it wasn't too long after that, ECW went out of business and the McMahons took it over," noted Corgan. "It would have been funny if I had actually bought 10% because I was in the position to negotiate with the McMahons." 

Corgan bought the NWA in 2017. The next NWA pay-per-view, NWA 74 is set for August 27 and 28 in St. Louis, Missouri.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit The Ariel Helwani Show with an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.