NWA Vice President / producer Dave Lagana was this week’s guest on Sean Waltman’s XPac 1, 2, 360; you can read a few transcribed highlights and watch the full show below. XPac 1,2,360 is also available for download on iTunes and Android devices.
David Lagana Discusses The NWA Title Match At All In:
We all knew what we wanted. And I think that was the goal of this whole project and Nick {Aldis} talks about it, and Cody {Rhodes} talks about it. We wanted to create the big fight feel — the UFC, Boxing event — and every decision we made was to execute that. Even from the walks, and you know the aftermath. Everybody, everybody who was there was a part of this story. You know, from the, all the way down to Cody’s brother-in-law, Kevin, and his father-in-law Otis and, and you know, Tim Storm. And everyone was like, why is Daivari there, you know? Daivari’s story was amazing…
[XPAC: For those who don’t know, why was he there?] So Daivari was there because of this, if there was no Daivari, there would be no Nick Aldis. Some fans would say, Daivari kept Nick sane for a long time at TNA. And helped sort of guide him and get him there. Everybody that was involved in this project from soup to nuts as far as our inclusion had a part in being there. And, you know, it’s the weird cliche of everybody involved in that match too at one point or another decided to say screw the traditional, we’re gonna bet on ourselves. Everyone! From Billy and I, from leaving TNA, to Nick leaving TNA and basically being out of the business to Cody leaving WWE, they, we all had something to prove. And, you know, everyone’s like, ‘oh, what a moment when Cody won!’ The moment to us I think as a team feels the strongest was when the bell rung. For whatever it was, 45 seconds, the crowd simply honored that moment of here’s this dead brand. Deadspin, ‘Billy Corgan buys oldest and deadest brand in pro wrestling’, you know, like, to have it be literally 11 months in to get that reaction for a title match — it just, it was so overwhelming, that to me was the greatest success point of the match. Cody winning, yes, the crowd was gonna go crazy. But, for them to be that excited for the bell, that was amazing!
David Lagana Talks About The NWA’s 70th Anniversary Show This October And The New National Championship Belt
We’re going to bring back the National Championship… I think Sean {Waltman} you will be one of the few people that will really enjoy what we’re going with, with the belt. The belt will have a nod to the past of the NWA and we are going to reveal it till the week of the show if not that night. Because there’s one thing I’ve learned from wrestling fans, they may or not have a lot of hot takes on things {laughs} so we’re gonna have the new championship that week, I look forward to everyone’s hot takes cause there will be them. The people who do know already have hot takes, everyone’s got an opinion on it which means I know it’s gonna work as far as what people want. I’ll say this, there’s nothing like it right now in Pro Wrestling.
David Lagana Talks About Where the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship Will Be Defended At Next
We did a 10 Pounds of Gold when Billy sold out the Garden {MSG}, and we would love the NWA’s Worlds Heavyweight Championship to be available and defended on any stage imaginable so if it’s Madison Square Garden, if it’s the Barclays Center, if it’s Wrestlemania, if it’s the Tokyo Dome, we have put zero limits on how and where and I think each time we get an at bat were proving our value to be on that stage. Because I remember when the announcement happened at All In, everyone was like ‘oh, Aldis vs. Cody, I mean I guess the moment when Cody wins will be something’ and we over delivered in that moment and I know we can over deliver on any stage. Because I think our success in what we’ve been able to do has proven that.
David Lagana Talks About What Type of Promotion the NWA Is
Were not a traditional wrestling company with 50 guys under contract, running all these live events were a promotion more like a Money Mayweather promotion or De La Hoya, you know what I mean? We promote fights and have successfully now promoted I would say two really big ones. Like the first was the Tim Storm fight with Nick {Aldis}, we got the attention on two people that they didn’t expect they wanted to see and now with the Cody one we’re a promotional machine. And in reality entertainment is not defined. Go look at traditional entertainment right now and the shifts going on, a sitcom in 1998 had a lot more value than a sitcom in 2010, 2018. So it’s all about what the audience wants to watch and how they want to watch it. And the fact that there are a lot of wrestling companies producing a lot of content that people aren’t paying attention to and we’ve been able to succeed by producing less content, making the content more important.
David Lagana Talks About Making Money and Gaining Experience In The Pro Wrestling Industry
Too many guys worry about what they’re gonna get paid instead of the opportunity they have. My opportunity to work for Vince McMahon when I was 24 years old was worth more than the hundred thousand dollars I paid to go to college. The exposure you get by learning with someone like Sean {Waltman} or anybody is worth more than the pay day. And if you can understand that you can get a lot further… And trust me I understand the economics of being a Pro Wrestler. And trust me people pay their dues. But I don’t think they really understand the opportunity in front of them when they’re around really smart people.
