Dave Lagana and Billy Corgan were recently interviewed on the “NotSam Wrestling Show” to talk about several professional wrestling topics.
Here are the highlights:
Lagana on if they had a plan when they left TNA or if they left separately:
It was definitely separate. Because his [Corgan’s] reason for leaving was, you know, he had invested $1.8 million to a lovely Southern lady who was — we call it Game of Thrones. She was working six sides to keep herself in play. I was watching as an employee when they literally fired him the day after the Cubs won the World Series, and he was at the game. I called him and said, ‘I think you just got fired.’ They sent a mass email. He was like, ‘Huh?’ He called his lawyer.
Lagana on his own departure:
And so I got a phone call four hours after from my boss saying, ‘They want to know what you plan to do.’ I said, ‘Um, I’m an employee. I’ve done nothing wrong. I plan on being here.’ And so I talked to him the next day and I said, ‘Well, this is what I’m thinking.’ And I went to John Gaburick’s house and I had a long call with Matt Conway, he was my writing partner.
And I said, “I’m probably leaving and, just to let him know, because he’s the only person that he and I really trusted there the whole time. And he’s like, ‘Well listen. My wife’s having a baby in six weeks. I can’t leave yet.’ I said, ‘That’s fine! I’m just letting you know, we’re going.’ I go to quit to my boss at the time, John Gaburick, had a text from Matt Conway. ‘My wife just went into labor.’ Like, literally six weeks early.
And he’s like, two weeks later, he’s like, ‘Well, that was the sign I needed to leave.’ So you know, it was my decision. I gave up a six-figure salary for no guarantee. We didn’t start doing anything until 30 days in January. And we didn’t start the NWA till June. But it was a decision to not sit in negative energy. And that company is very bad negative energy.
Corgan on leaving TNA:
Yeah, it was kind of a situation where it was so — I really hope someday somebody writes a book about that company. Because it would make a case study in sociopathic behavior and bad business. Which, you know, and certainly my head should be examined for trying to buy the company.
Corgan on moving on from TNA and buying NWA:
But that said, when we came out of that situation I think both of us kind of took a deep breath and said, ‘Okay. Well, we obviously have a desire. We’ve seen enough energy in the — remember, this is all before all the Elite stuff and all this. Particularly with the Hardys and the Deletion series, we saw that there was kind of a new voice in wrestling that wanted to be heard.
We saw enough energy for the things that we did get over in TNA, that there was a new type of wrestling fan out there that wanted something slightly different. So we started there, we at least had that empirical information. And then we sat there and said, ‘Okay. Do we want to even do something and if we did, what would it look like?’ And we just kind of rotated around ideas, and eventually settled on the idea that maybe buying an August brand like the NWA would be a good place to start. Because in essence, the story is already within it.
Also Read: Billy Corgan Announces New NWA Series – ‘The Circle Squared’
H/T 411Mania for the transcriptions
