I leave Ring of Honor Wrestling to tackle new challenges. I’ve accepted a position as Director of Creative Writing with TNA Wrestling. My duties will be to focus solely on the development of new wrestling shows beyond the Impact Wrestling show. I’m excited to see what the future holds and thank everyone for the support over not only the last nine months of this site but through my entire career.

Sincerely,

David Lagana
@Lagana


TNA hired Dave Lagana not to work on the existing Impact Wrestling series, but to take part in a brand new project the company will be launching later this year in India. The new project will be a weekly series for the Indian market that will not be utilizing the TNA brand name.

The new project, which has been spearheaded by Jeff Jarrett, will be taping for a week in December with an additional week of tapings also scheduled for January 2012.

It will be a completely separate entity from TNA - both in terms of the creative team and the roster of talents. Joining Lagana and Jarrett on the creative end of things will be Dutch Mantel.

Former TNA referee Rudy Charles has also been very involved in the development of the project's roster. The word we are getting is that they have cultivated a potential roster of former WWE/TNA/WCW/ECW types as well as independent talents that have not had major television exposure

Sonjay Dutt, who was in India last week with BG James to scout talent, will also be a major part of the project. The project had well over 100 potential Indian talents try out and of those, ten were selected and will be brought to the United States to train as pro wrestlers and be part of the new series. BG James will not be involved as he has taken a position as a WWE Producer on a probationary basis.

The new series will air in India on The Colors Network (known in the United States as Aapka Colors), a Viacom-owned network that launched in 2008. Endemol, a major international television production and distribution company, is also involved with the project.

Aapka Colors is carried on a number of satellite systems, including the Dish Network.

This brand new, internationally based TNA brand will launch before the end of 2011.


This was Dave Lagana's full statement:

Thank You…

I’ve been very thankful for wrestling since 1985. If you’re reading this site, you’re like me – a fan. I would hope after having read my blogs or listened to my podcast, you know the depth I really love wrestling. From being a kid as a hobby, as a teenager as a passion, into my adulthood where it became my job, I’ve always wanted wrestling in my life. That will never change.

Ring of Honor Wrestling came into my life at a time when I didn’t know if I’d ever work in wrestling again. If it wasn’t for Dave Marquez introducing me to Adam Pearce who introduced me to Cary Silkin, I wouldn’t be typing this today. It was the confidence they put in my abilities which lead to me being hired to produce the ROH on HDNet TV show. There I got to learn an entire new skill set beyond writing from Darrell Ewalt, Andrew Simon, and Adam Swift. I got to share my passion of wrestling with Scott Ferrier and Andy Edwards on a weekly basis. I even got to help Dave Prazak endure the slapping of porpoises. I’m amazingly proud of how that show turned out over the two years.

Life is about evolving. Ring of Honor gave me the opportunity to learn an amazing new skill set – social media. I’ve had an amazing time engaging wrestling fans over the last two years via Facebook and Twitter for the company. Every message sent, I read, every question that could be answered was. Wrestling fans have an amazing passion and varying opinions. That discussion is what fuels this business and what I find great about social media. Companies can talk about “getting in the conversation” but if you’re not in the conversation yourself, you’re simply broadcasting and not engaging.

Ring of Honor Wrestling under the ownership of Sinclair Broadcasting is the right step forward for pro wrestling. Joe Koff is an amazing businessman and salesman to lead the business end of the company into the future. Gary Juster will be bring ROH to new cities and great venues. I’m proud to have worked and learned wrestling from Jim Cornette and Hunter Johnston. The future of that TV program, live events and pay per views will amaze you at how great wrestling can be. I’m proud of my three years with ROH and know that they will make you proud to be a wrestling fan.

I leave Ring of Honor Wrestling to tackle new challenges. I’ve accepted a position as Director of Creative Writing with TNA Wrestling. My duties will be to focus solely on the development of new wrestling shows beyond the Impact Wrestling show. I’m excited to see what the future holds and thank everyone for the support over not only the last nine months of this site but through my entire career.

Sincerely,

David Lagana
@Lagana