Billy Corgan has spoken about his wrestling league, Resistance Pro which has it's opening night tonight (Friday, 25 November, 2011) in his hometown of Chicago.
"We have to start in Chicago and build a name for ourselves and build enough of a reputation to take it other places," he said to Billboard. "It's a serious endeavour. I want this to succeed strictly on its ideas. If I had to artificially prime the audience because of my musical life that's sad. This is going to succeed on its own ideas, not because I jumped the shark."
Corgan said that he was a wrestling fan as a child and had rediscovered it as an adult and he hoped this league will be a chance for wrestlers to develop their talent and "realise their dreams".
"We're going to be doing something that's a little bit old school and a little bit new school," Corgan said in a speech announcing the league in August. "We want everybody working for us to be successful out of the indie ranks.
"I went through the same thing in my band where when you start to become successful the indie world starts to turn against you. That won't be the case with our promotion. We want people to work at the highest levels, WWE, TNA. We want everybody to develop their skills and we want the fans to support that."
The first Resistence Pro match will feature wrestlers Jay Bradley, Taylor Made, Miss December, Colt Cabana, The Sheik, Teddy Hart and many more. Billy Corgan won't be there, because he'll be on tour throughout Europe with the Smashing Pumpkins.
The event will take place at Excalibur. Tickets are $20 and are available on the door.