In regard to rumors that began making their way around the Internet today, here is the deal:
Dave Lagana is not replacing Vince Russo on the TNA Creative Team. Lagana is at tonight's Against All Odds PPV and is "helping out", according to one top placed source in the company. Lagana was hired by the company last year specifically to work on Ring Ka King and other potential new series, not the Impact brand. He is at the PPV helping to produce backstage segments.
Vince Russo is not at the PPV and while there are some in the company that believe he is gone, nothing has been announced to the TNA roster or staff. Sources I spoke to either declined to comment or weren't aware of what Russo's situation was. "Nothing has been said officially to anyone," according to one person who was in today's production meetings.
Russo was not the head of Creative. Bruce Prichard had and still has that title. That said, the title being moved to Prichard was something of a cosmetic change anyway with the feeling that fans would give the Impact series a fresh chance. In recent months, the team of Russo and Matt Conway had been writing scripts for Impact. The scripts then went to Bruce Prichard for tinkering and then Eric Bischoff would put his own feedback in during production meetings at the Impact Wrestling tapings and PPVs. While it's often presented as if Bischoff is involved in the day to day of creative, the reality is that as "Executive Producer", he never sees the scripts until the day of the tapings and is often asking questions about where characters and stories stand and are going. Prichard is more involved in the actual process but until recently, the scripts were Conway and Russo.
So, ignoring rumors, that is where everything stands.
