Post Show Banter >>>>

[Rogue Riderhood]

Also, he was not an owner.  He was their "creative director", I believe.  He was just helping with stories.
His explanation of his exit, if you didn't read it before:

Wrestling. Resistance Pro. Let?s start here: I was asked the other day, ?do you worry about what people will think because you are involved with BLANK? (Blank being pro wrestling, synthesizer music, or CHARITY animal shelter magazines).

Answer: NO. Because if those things make someone dislike my musical life/output then they are marks FOR THEMSELVES.
Answer: I am not here to serve anyone but G-O-D. (Happiness being but one way by which ?to serve?)

Love abounds, always. So let me say for those of you that don?t know those in my life, I love them all. And if you don?t know Jacques and Gabriel Baron, you should. Family men. Love their kith and kin. Beautiful children. And my brothers through and through.

Around Resistance Pro Wrestling Jacques would always say to the roster, ?we are family?; and I believed that. Still do.

But there?s a time where you might split too from the family home because you disagree with what?s going on. Just as I did when I was kid from my own. And you don?t always have to know ?why? or even define what it is that?s bugging you out. You just know something?s amiss.

It?s hard leaving, I?ll admit. For I put more into the company than I should have, so strong was my belief. And perhaps that blinded me. But I am forever grateful for the opportunity to lead, to share, to execute a vision which it would be easy to argue was not successful where it mattered most: at the gate. Yet my focus was to build a futuristic promotion that could run on every level in the 21st century. And that got us as far as a contract with the vaunted AMC Network.

All things come with a cost, and the cost of that commitment was watching a decently balanced company with a dream devolve into something I considered beneath my place in the world. For it isn?t wise to make someone like me the foil when the upside is so unseen, and small, and counter-intuitive to that future as planned. And it wasn?t like this disintegration wasn?t transparent, for there were cameras everywhere.

So when the show was cast into purgatory by AMC?s decision to cut the majority of their unscripted (nice word for reality) programming, many (and I heard this) felt relief, while others celebrated as if it was any other day in the life of a circus; our greatest opportunity possibly squandered with the stroke of a pen.

Personally, I didn?t see much accountability on the part of those who?d fallen off the company mantra, and I found this puzzling. And so began an investigation as to those ?whys and wherefores.?

Some suggested that there were other intentions afoot, which may or may not have involved my being used, or worked, or manipulated to create short-sighted opportunities for the company even should those efforts harm me in a number of ways; with the biggest victim, beside my ?name? being so readily used and abused, a diminishing enthusiasm. But still, this made no sense; for why would anyone want me out of the company when all I?d ever been told was how welcome I was? Or even the simple idea that my presence opened doors that wouldn?t have been otherwise opened?

Make no mistake, I?ve committed a tremendous amount of time to R Pro and the advancement of the roster in particular. For we had a lot of talent under the roof; all of which deserve a call and more open explanation from me than I?d offer here. So don?t let anyone tell you I wasn?t in all the way.

And the additive of what I heard, saw, learned was that my partners didn?t have my back in the way I thought they should; and by extension, were working against what I saw as their once-in-a lifetime lottery ticket for success in television. BUT: not everyone wants to win the lottery.

What?s this really mean? That the company will soldier on without me. Perhaps they?ll thrive, or survive? I hope they do. And the best thing I hope for is that The Baron?s as a family get out of their promotion what they think is best. It?s clear to me now that?s probably what they wanted all along.

Remember, I was never an owner in any capacity. This was by my suggestion. Even though under various circumstances and guises it was offered. I simply headed up the creative focus in story-lines and in some cases developed characters.

But wait, there?s a swerve! The tv show is still being shopped, with 4 shows in the can. AMC having given their assistance with the possibility that what?s there can be picked up by an interested network. And I for one believe that the show AS CONCEIVED would draw fantastic ratings. Should that happen, I?d deal with how to pick up from where it all left off: by telling the story of these various implosions from those who lived it, and who?d carry on as well. And that, my friends, IS wrestling?.

As an executive producer, would I include R Pro management in that? That?d depend. But the trust where it?s needed (in business) is long gone.

How about anyone from the roster? Absolutely. Whether or not it?s this as-yet-unfinished TV show, or a new version of it, or the new promotion I?d start forthwith, I believe-believe-believe in the talent of that roster. And as anybody who is in wrestling knows, there are some incredible souls out there who deserve a different kind of shot, and I aim to be one of those people building to something different for that exact purpose.

For as with someone like me, the business often overlooks talent in seeking the obvious. See every pop-singer-blah blah show for evidence of that.

So, to be clear: I left because Resistance Pro was no longer the company I thought I?d helped build from the ground up. And maybe, one might say, it never was?

The shows, the fans, the wrestling injuries, the heartaches, those I know were all real. The rest, I couldn?t say. Time will tell who?s friend or foe, and who thought me another easy touch.

Last thing: don?t let anyone tell you wrestling?s fake. The world is no more real.

W.P.C.

[Julian, Forum COGNOSCENTI]

tl;dr. Cliff notes? 

[Rogue Riderhood]

Cliff notes...

Something about a TV deal.

Everyone is still family.

[Yada]

what a tool.

http://www.stereogum.com/1723929/billy-corgan-disses-pearl-jam-foo-fighters-on-howard-stern/franchises/wheres-the-beef/

[Rogue Riderhood]

The Smashing Pumpkins make great music.  Foo Fighters and Pearl Jam are creatively bankrupt.  What did Billy get wrong?

[Julian, Forum COGNOSCENTI]

What did he say that was wrong? Pearl Jam is highly derivative of Nirvana. The Foo Fighters have basically written one song and repeated it two hundred times.  

[ggw]

The Smashing Pumpkins make great music. 

Yeah...and Ace Frehley is a guitar god...

[i am gay and i like cats]

It was a killer interview by a person who actually plays music in a band, being judged by a bunch of people on a computer who never have.  Competition, is everything.

[azaghal1981]

PJ is to Nirvana as Billy Corgan is to My Bloody Valentine. Just sayin.

[bearman🐻]

PJ is to Nirvana as Billy Corgan is to My Bloody Valentine. Just sayin.

For a while, Smashing Pumpkins were a great band. But Billy Corgan is entering into the territory of the absurd by calling himself Smashing Pumpkins when the reality is that it's the Billy Corgan Experience. "Gish" was a solid debut. "Siamese Dream" was pretty amazing and if they had stopped there, they would have been labeled one of the best bands of the 90's. "Mellon Collie" had some pretty beautiful stuff on it, and if they just did one LP, again...they'd be legendary. The biggest issues with the Pumpkins were the drama surrounding their fracture (I saw them right before Jonathan Melvoin died, and it was an AWFUL performance) and then there's Billy Corgan's fat mouth. When you demand being labeled a genius, nobody is going to give you that honor. The only way Corgan could have gotten that is if he was the one that od'ed in 1996.

[Yada]

PJ is to Nirvana as Billy Corgan is to My Bloody Valentine. Just sayin.

For a while, Smashing Pumpkins were a great band. But Billy Corgan is entering into the territory of the absurd by calling himself Smashing Pumpkins when the reality is that it's the Billy Corgan Experience. "Gish" was a solid debut. "Siamese Dream" was pretty amazing and if they had stopped there, they would have been labeled one of the best bands of the 90's. "Mellon Collie" had some pretty beautiful stuff on it, and if they just did one LP, again...they'd be legendary. The biggest issues with the Pumpkins were the drama surrounding their fracture (I saw them right before Jonathan Melvoin died, and it was an AWFUL performance) and then there's Billy Corgan's fat mouth. When you demand being labeled a genius, nobody is going to give you that honor. The only way Corgan could have gotten that is if he was the one that od'ed in 1996.

A+

[bearman🐻]

A+

Thanks...I say that as a Pumpkins fan, or at least I used to be. I've only seen the original 4. I've watched video of them in other incarnations, and I don't mind some of it. For a while it was fun to be a Pumpkins fan. Then it started to become tedious. I saw Nirvana and the Pumpkins a week apart. The Nirvana show was a shitshow of angst, catharsis, moshing and injuries. The Pumpkins show felt more like a huge sweaty birthday party. Then the kid in honor, the one with the fat mouth and bald head, threw a fit towards the end and left the stage. They came back and he tried to play it off like he was kidding, but at that point the vibe was kinda ruined. Welcome to what it's like being a Smashing Pumpkins fan. Kurt Cobain on the other hand concluded his show by throwing his guitar into the air to smash the disco ball over the stage. And that sort of says a lot metaphorically.

[Julian, Forum COGNOSCENTI]

PJ is to Nirvana as Billy Corgan is to My Bloody Valentine. Just sayin.

For a while, Smashing Pumpkins were a great band. But Billy Corgan is entering into the territory of the absurd by calling himself Smashing Pumpkins when the reality is that it's the Billy Corgan Experience. "Gish" was a solid debut. "Siamese Dream" was pretty amazing and if they had stopped there, they would have been labeled one of the best bands of the 90's. "Mellon Collie" had some pretty beautiful stuff on it, and if they just did one LP, again...they'd be legendary. The biggest issues with the Pumpkins were the drama surrounding their fracture (I saw them right before Jonathan Melvoin died, and it was an AWFUL performance) and then there's Billy Corgan's fat mouth. When you demand being labeled a genius, nobody is going to give you that honor. The only way Corgan could have gotten that is if he was the one that od'ed in 1996.

Corgan doesn't understand how to function in society or with others in general, that's the most obvious thing ever.

I don't get the butthurt so many people feel about him calling the current band "The Smashing Pumpkins." I really don't. Robert Smith does the same thing with The Cure. And in this day and age, you know what you're getting. You know it's Billy Corgan and a bunch of hired guns. If the ticket said "Billy Corgan" and it was the same band playing the same setlists, I think most people who liked classic SP would find it a great night, but there's this insane fringe of weirdos who REFUSE to like it literally because of what name is printed on the ticket, which is intellectually weak.

I've seen SP several times since 2007 and don't have any real interest in making any effort to see them again soon. (Haven't gotten Monuments and don't know if I will.) But the whole "this isn't Smashing Pumpkins" argument is just stupid.

[bearman🐻]

Robert Smith does the same thing with The Cure. And in this day and age, you know what you're getting. You know it's Billy Corgan and a bunch of hired guns. If the ticket said "Billy Corgan" and it was the same band playing the same setlists, I think most people who liked classic SP would find it a great night, but there's this insane fringe of weirdos who REFUSE to like it literally because of what name is printed on the ticket, which is intellectually weak.

I think that people downplay the importance of James Iha, D'arcy and Jimmy Chamberlain. THAT is why it's odd to keep calling themselves Smashing Pumpkins. It's not butthurt. Though I think that's an awesome term. Nice work.

As for the Cure, Simon Gallup (the Cure's secret weapon) has been present for nearly 33 years in that band. If you see the Cure live, his bass is up front...I'd rank him a notch or two below Peter Hook in terms of iconic basslines. "Just Like Heaven" wouldn't be the same. "The Figurehead" is all about Gallup's bass. I don't think the Cure is a fair comparison for that reason.

[chaz]

Before they were big stars I saw Smashing Pumpkins at a crummy club in Richmond.  It was a Monday night and on Mondays this club had free show with no admission.  We would go every week to see free bands and drink.  SP totally crushed the place.  They played "Terrapin" by Syd Barrett and James Iha sang it.  Afterwards I was at the bar and James and what's her name were at the bar, and I said something about Terrapin and got iced so hard by both of them.  Total assholes.  And it was a free monday night show so that should tell you they were total nobodies at the time.

Unrelated but just came into my mind...at the same club right around the same time I saw Firehose on the Flying the Flannel tour.  I passed by Mike Watt walking through the club .  I was wearing a flannel shirt and he said "Hey man nice flannel!"