The title of this entry may have you going nuts or confused, but basically this entry is going to be me giving my thoughts on the founder of http://IWantWrestling.com, David Lagana. So sit back and enjoy the read, because this one’s going to be good.
I personally am a fan of the #IWantWrestling concept that began back in January of this year, as it has been one of the biggest hits in the world of social media, especially on Twitter. And yes, I do like wrestling and do like the site, but do I like Lagana is the question for you to ask yourself. To me, David Lagana is a huge wrestling fan and I do admire him for that and I do appreciate his efforts into creating a site for wrestling, a site he can share with the world, especially the fans and the wrestling talent. What I don’t like is who he is, and what he’s done. And I will explain to you why.
Even though I do like Lagana for being a wrestling fan, that doesn’t make him the best fan in the world, nor does it mean he is some sort of god. See what you don’t know about him is that he is an insider, he is a SOURCE. The internet wrestling fans look at him as an genius for this brilliant idea of creating a site in which they can feed into, but that’s what he WANTS you to do and seeing as how he accomplished that, now no one sees the wrong side of him. The wrong side of him is that he’s a source; an insider. I’ve seen many blogs of his where he reveals too many information about the backstage stuff that goes down in meetings, locker-rooms, etc. Also, he is the same guy who was caught for leaking out info to dirtsheet sites back in 2007, which led to him being fired by WWE. He exposes the wrestling business and to me that’s the last thing a person who works for the business can do, why join the IWC bandwagon? Why give them more reasons to think they know everything there is to know about the business? Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not a crime to know about the business, but what I mean is he shouldn’t have to go as far down as telling us things like “this guy was going to get pushed” or “this is a storyline we had in mind” because what that does is it gives dirtsheets more of a reason to continue leaking out information on wrestling storylines, and then everyone wonders why the business is so predictable. Also what does that does is it takes away any sort of passion or loyalty we have to the business as FANS, instead we become insiders, we become criticizers, we no longer have that flavor of passion that we once had for wrestling, and then we cant enjoy the product like we used to.
Another example of how bad he can be when he’s an insider is when he gives his perspectives on storylines or sets up his own scenarios, do we really need to know his side of story? I know we all like to predict storylines, but seeing as how this guy is a former creative writer for WWE, he has a much better chance of being right and accurate with his assumptions more than we do, and if he ends up being right, we’ll just continue listening to him and then what…? Oh yeah, we stop being wrestling fans and instead become “insiders”. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather prefer to continue being a fan and have my own points and opinions on things and enjoy things the way they are rather than to second guess everything and become a leak. I know that if I were a creative writer, I would not spoil anything for the fans, because that’s my job, keep everyone interested, keep everyone satisfied, so when the time is right, I SURPRISE everyone with a HUGE story. That’s what makes wrestling fun. And with Lagana, who uses the internet as a way to put himself over and have his voice be heard, he will take advantage of the fact that he was a creative writer and use that as a way to make everyone like professional wrestling. But the ironic thing is, he’s hurting professional wrestling by doing just that. Hence why everyone knows everything is planned out and pre-determined, for reasons like that. So again, I do want Wrestling, but I want wrestling as a fan, not as a way in which I am hurting the business of wrestling.
Now as we all know, David Lagana was recently known for being the ROH TV Producer on HDNet, he was also the manager of ROH’s social media tools such as their twitter, facebook and website. I congratulate him for that, I think he did his role well and his productions were pretty nice, I enjoyed them. Also, he did do a good job in having ROH connect with the fans, he did a great job in welcoming fans to ROH and having them watch the product, did a lot of things for the fans on twitter as the ROH Social Media manager. But now we find out that he has signed with TNA to be their “Creative Director”. REALLY? REALLY? Not to call out TNA here but one, do they not recall the history he’s had with creative team? And 2, he is a SOURCE! A FAN! Why would you sign a guy who’s been exposing the business and has connected with fans, to be the head of your creative team? I don’t know about you, but I feel a bit sold out on. You mean to tell me, that after all this time of Lagana being a wrestling fan, he’s going to TNA? Why not stick to Ring Of Honor, a promotion who was just starting to get big, a promotion that has a bright future ahead of them? Doesn’t make any sense to me, if he were a true wrestling fan, he’d stick to Ring Of Honor and help them get as big as possible, because Ring Of Honor is wrestling, and afterall, isn’t that what Lagana wants, WRESTLING? If he really wanted Wrestling to get big, he’d start out doing that by giving us more competition. He’d do that by giving fans an alternative to watch other than WWE/TNA. Now he’s going to TNA, which is sports entertainment. And god knows if this will benefit them or not, because how they have him in that position when he’s all over the internet? That’s the last place where writers for a wrestling promotion should be, on the internet, the easiest place to interact and socialize with fans and give out information, does that make any sense at all?
To me, the best way to contribute to helping wrestling get big again, and sharing it with fans, would be to help it further storylines, use social media in a big way where wrestlers can interact with fans, but in the correct way that can play into part of watching the product and being a fan, keeping it storyline based. Kind of like what Zack Ryder & Colt Cabana have done. I’ve been craving this experience for the longest time now and im waiting for the day to finally come, the day in which social media can be used on wrestling TV to help storylines, help matches, help the product overall. This is how you make wrestling big with the fans and social media, a unique experience never done before. Miz & R-Truth are also an example of this as they’ve done a great job with keeping it storyline based, but at the same time giving us fans something we want to see, keeping us the fans interested by sharing video exclusives with us on youtube about their firings, that’s how you get the job done. But not as far as exposing the business, that’s just my opinion.
I’m going to give David Lagana a chance though, I’m not fully going to bash him here but I do hope he does the right thing. With his knowledge and his experience of wrestling, and with his use of social media, he should be smart enough to use that to an advantage with TNA. If he’s a big social media guy, he’d help give TNA that relationship they need to have with fans, he’d also use the example I said above to be apart of storylines, where they use social media as a way to further storylines, since he will be their creative director, he should do this. Use his past to improve for the future, do what he did with ROH, in TNA. But not in a way in which he spoils it for us, that’s what I don’t like about him. If he really cares for us fans, he’d do the right thing and use this same concept he has created, as a way to help wrestling in TNA.
Everything he’s wanted from wrestling, he has the opportunity to do now, but hopefully it doesn’t hurt the business. And that’s why everything he has done the last 9 months on his site, could go either way, it could help or it could hurt the business now that hes with TNA. Will he use it to succeed and help? Or will he use it to leak out info and destroy the business? Seems like he has dug himself into a deep cluster-hole. But we will find out what happens as time passes by.
That’s all the time I have for this blog, let me know what you think. Follow me on twitter, @LucasTheMenace and shoot me an e-mail about what else you’d like to see me write: LucasTheMenace@Gmail.com
I didn’t watch much ROH but what I did watch on HDnet was better than anything TNA has done in my opinion. I heard Dave is not going to have anything to do with TNA over here but instead be one of the guys in charge for the new show they’ll be doing in India. Under a totally different name than TNA. Which is so weird to me. I don’t know if that’s true or if that will last, but I think Dave should have ridden the wave with ROH, because I think it’s only going to get bigger and more popular. He could be apart of that. Maybe he feels the same about this new venture.
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I agree with James and yourself, Lucas. Lagana should have stayed with ROH, it is getting bigger and better and will soon, probably, be more popular than TNA.. I don’t know of anyone around me that likes or watches TNA, but I know a few follow ROH. It’s popularity is certainly on the up. and I don’t understand why Lagana would wanna go to TNA.
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Exactly my point guys, If I were Lagana I would want to be apart of the change and apart of the growth with ROH. 10 years from now people can look back at it and say “wow they were the reasons ROH was big” I simply don’t understand why he left.
If he cared for wrestling, wouldn’t he want more competition? That’s how wrestling gets big, if he wants it to get big he would’ve stayed in ROH and help it compete with WWE/TNA. He claims he wants wrestling yet he gets wrestling in ROH. Guess he did it for the money.
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Yeah they must have offered him something he couldn’t say no to. I guess I’d make a choice like that too if I wasn’t going to hate my job and the money was going to be way more. Especially if I needed to support my family. But yeah, I totally think ROH would pay off better in the long run especially when it gets big. But who knows, maybe this India thing will be huge over there.
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I just hope he doesn’t ruin TNA and gives out info on storylines, god that would suck.
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Though I do feel sold out on, by him signing on with TNA, I try to understand that it’s his life. I just hope that he continues I Want Wrestling, live tweeting shows, and doesn’t get sucked into the stupidity of TNA.
As far as him supposedly leaking info to the dirtsheets while he was with WWE, I’ve never heard anything about that, so Im sceptical. Though, I am a big fan of his, so I might be blind.
Many fans want to know about guys slated to get pushes, and storylines that almost were, and since those were in the past, I don’t see the harm in telling the stories now.
And I may be in the minority with this, but learning more about the business actually made me more passionate about it but this might just be me. Interesting article nonetheless.
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@Jordan I def. don’t see him continuing with IWantWrestling, since he will be working behind the scenes. And just like WWE, TNA loves having their employees only do work for them and no one else, otherwise it’s considered illegal and gets them fired. He may possibly continue live tweeting shows but that’s about it. This is why I feel Lagana did wrong in joining TNA, because everything he has fought for, was nothing. Why start #IWantWrestling and join TNA when you won’t get that freedom and interaction you want?
What I meant by knowing more about the business is like spoiling stuff, having sources, etc. That takes away the point of being a fan, and Lagana in my opinion, was doing that to the fans with the way he’d come off as when predicting storylines, etc.
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“Also, he is the same guy who was caught for leaking out info to dirtsheet sites back in 2007, which led to him being fired by WWE.”
According to the “Ring of Hell” book, Lagana was fired for sexually harrassing many of the male and female WWE wrestlers. And he is supposedly so obsessed with wrestling that he has lost touch with reality. He is exactly the kind of guy that Vince would want…a guy that eats, sleeps, and breathes wrestling. But he got fired for sexually harassing the females and also SEVERAL men…the guy is a creep. He would play with men’s nipples or something.
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“Also, he is the same guy who was caught for leaking out info to dirtsheet sites back in 2007, which led to him being fired by WWE.”
According to the book “Ring of Hell”, Lagana got fired for sexually harassing the men and female WWE wrestlers. And not just some men but SEVERAL men. He would play with their nipples in the bathroom or something. If that’s true then it’s good he got fired. He made several WWE Superstars very uncomfortable. They wouldn’t say anything about it but finally one of them mentioned it to the Undertaker, who is a leader in the locker room, and he got Lagana fired because Undertaker found out that MANY of the men were sexually harassed by Lagana and that’s only the ones who were brave enough to admit it. I also read that Lagana eats sleeps and breathes wrestling so much that wrestling is the only thing that is real to him and he doesn’t live in the “real world”. That’s probably why Vince liked him so much. Vince expects all of his employees to be thinking about the WWE 24/7. Lagana would work 80+ hours a week for Vince.
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The book said that Lagana asked Kevin Thorn “Would he like to fuck his face” while rubbing his nipples in the bathroom. There’s another rumor that says Lagana tried to give Thorn a blowjob. That’s some messed up shit if it’s true.
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Interesting..
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Wow, just wow…WTF!?
Working for WWE 24/7…cool. The other stuff…WTFH!?
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Interesting read Lucas.
hmm I could also write a column about Lagana but would have slightly different views than you. I just wanna say i’m not saying your’re wrong and that I don’t agree with you. I just gotta say I never really known him to spoil stuff, like in most wrestling books by wrestlers, they all expose the business in some way, i’m sure J can back me up with that or Tony cause I know they’ve read plenty of wrestling books. So I don’t think he exposed the business, also when you get older watching wrestling, you are gonna want to know more about the business so you’ll read or watch anything to find info out.
Honestly, I do think it’s a little ironic he left ROH wrestling for sports entertainment with the #iwantwrestling stuff, but can you blame him? He is probably getting paid a good bit more, less pressure on him and probably an easier job, he’ll probably has an easier way of life, so I don’t blame anybody for doing that. Also, we don’t know what was going on behind the scenes at ROH, he might of just been fed up, their might not have been any ambition from his production team or anything, IDK, but I doubt he sold out.
I love what he did with iwantwrestling.com, all those interviews with former creative team members and all that, I enjoyed listening to them.
Tony – This is the first I heard of that, that is fucked up shit, I just find it hard to believe.
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Ray- That’s only one source and it looks like a lot of people on the internet think it’s incorrect but for what it’s worth, that’s what it said in the book. “Ring of Hell” is an interesting book if you can find it at a library. It’s mostly about the life of Chris Benoit but a large amount of the book is a whole bunch of stuff about what does on in the WWE that Vince McMahon DEFINITELY doesn’t want you to know about. I think the book wrote that before the Owen Hart incident, the guy they hired to help lower Owen Hart down to the ring told Vince it was too risky so Vince fired him and hired someone else.
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Damn, that’s interesting stuff to know. This is what i’m talking about Lucas, most wrestling books reveal ‘secrets’ and stuff so is why I don’t blame Lagana. Yea Tony, i’ll try and check that out, I wonder if I can get an ebook of it? It’s probably too old for it to be an ebook, though.
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Yeah, this whole thing is what I mean when saying that the net has changed wrestling.
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The thing is, only since I came to the IWC, is when I started to read wrestling books. It’s a place that you wanna know as much as possible about.
Back to Lagana, I suppose he did expose a bit of the wrestling business, but IMO it was already exposed and he reminded us.
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Wrestling books are ok, but I love watching shoot videos even more.
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LOL Ironically i’m watching shoot videos now. Watching Philman Shoot!
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Stone Cold? lol
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LOL
I gtg now, be back couple of hours!
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Ray- The one thing I don’t like about the book is that the writer is an asshole. He rips the wrestlers and wrestling fans throughout the whole book. I accept the fact he’s not a wrestling fan but he acted like he’s a better person than anyone who is associated with the wrestling business.
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Sadly, snark sells.
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Can I just say who wouldn’t want to rub someones nipples like The Great Khali or maybe even Big Show? Anybody? Just me and Lagana? Ok.
That’s effing weird that he would do that, if true. LOL. Pick someone better than Thorn at least. The guy for sure has passion for the industry though.
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How about Diva Nipple Rubbing on the new WWE channel? lol
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That was I.
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