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While a final number is still being calculated, the National Wrestling Alliance 70th Anniversary event last night was the highest grossing wrestling event in the history of the Nashville Fairgrounds Arena, including every TNA PPV ever held there.
The NWA 70 event was just shy of an official sellout.
After the NWA 70 show went off the air, new NWA Champion Nick Aldis cut a promo thanking everyone for coming to the show and put over NWA VP Dave Lagana for everything he has done to build the brand over the last year.
The promotion held a "press conference" after the show with about 200-300 fans remaining to watch:
#NWA70 Post Show https://t.co/OWsiszvkFm
— NWA (@nwa) October 22, 2018
During the press conference, new NWA Champion Nick Aldis said he'd like to defend the title against Marty Scurll. Aldis and Scurll actually broke into the business and worked a lot of independents together in Europe during their earliest days in the business.
The original planned opponent for Jazz was to be Madison Rayne, but she went on to sign with Ring of Honor. Penelope Ford was offered the match because of how well she got over at "All In" and with the idea of giving someone fresh a chance.
While Jazz's post-match promo implied she was going for the NWA title, it was meant to reference that she wanted her own "Ten Pounds of Gold" series, similar to the one that follows the NWA Champion on YouTube.
Magnum TA was booked this past Thursday to appear tonight. Initially JJ Dillon was slated to be the legend who would present the NWA National title to Willie Mack, but a health issue prevented Dillon from appearing. TA's promo tonight was absolutely great and there were scores of people putting him over after the show for how gracious and easy he was to work with.
Prior to his injury, Joey Janela was booked for the show but obviously had to pull out. Janela would have been competing for the NWA National title.
In a dark match before the Fite.TV broadcast went on the air, James Ellsworth defeated Karim Brigante. Ellsworth was originally booked to wrestle on the PPV but was cut as plans for the show evolved. Brigante has worked for Harley Race's World League Wrestling in Missouri.
During the show, it was announced the promotion would be working with The Crockett Foundation charity to bring back the Crockett Cup next year.
Jeff Jarrett headed production on the show. Championship Wrestling from Hollywood's Dave Marquez directed the show.
The consensus backstage was that they knew the production issues needed to be addressed going forward and would be.
A lot of the logistical work on the show, like ring crew, were handled by Crimson's promotion.
As part of the pre-show meet and greet, they had a recreation of the '80s TBS set for fans to take photos with Tony Schiavone and Jim Cornette. Jim Cornette, by the way, was absolutely spectacular on commentary with Joe Galli, who was also great as the lead announcer.
Dave Lagana tweeted the following after the show:
We know where we are.
— David Lagana (@Lagana) October 22, 2018
We know where we are going. And we wouldn’t be here without all of you.
From @Billy and I.
Thank you #NWA70 pic.twitter.com/0vRTB66HIp
Joe Galli commented on working the show as lead announcer:
Words can’t express how humbled I am to have had this opportunity. I am very proud of the work we did from the commentary table tonight. The future of wrestling and the future of the @nwa is incredibly bright. #NWA70 pic.twitter.com/tiCJFhEmLb
— Joe Galli (@JoeGalliNews) October 22, 2018
PWInsider.com Elite subscribers can now listen to a one hour, 46 minute breakdown of the event, its positives and negatives and more by clicking here.
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