NWA's Dave Lagana was a guest on Sean Waltman's X-Pac 12360 podcast recently, where he discussed the direction of the National Wrestling Alliance. You can see submitted highlights below, and the full podcast at this link or above.
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 Divari 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.
You can see Fightful's interview with Dave Lagana below: