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Chat with Dixie
By: ChrissiCalvert Date: December 26, 2014, 6:19 pm
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Dixie Carter, the president of TNA Wrestling, has had a
challenging year - the company very publicly parted ways with
its US television partner, Spike TV, earlier this year and
naysayers claimed it was on the brink of extinction.
But here we are. Boxing Day. And in just over a week TNA will
reinvent itself with a brand new television deal with
Destination America, part of the Discovery family.
As we talk on the phone the Sony hacking scandal is at its
height and dominating the headlines. Particularly, the content
of Sony Pictures head honcho Amy Pascal's emails - written
almost prose-like, all in lower-case, with an abundance of typos
- has invited mockery and parody. I wonder, how can a
high-powered businesswoman, running one of the largest companies
in the US, so easily become a point of ridicule overnight?
Surely, her hard work shouldn't be overshadowed by a few
unfortunate emails? I can't help but see some similarities
between the criticism lobbed towards Pascal and Carter, who, as
most wrestling fans will know, doesn't come from a wrestling
background. This seems to form the crux of a lot of the stick
she gets for 'not understanding the industry' she's in.
Is it a case of misogyny? Are women in power more likely to be
criticised and disparaged?
"I think regardless of who it was [in charge of Sony], they
would have been under scrutiny for the situation happening,"
says Carter. "There are a lot of people out there who look at
us, me in particular being a female running a man’s business -
are there extra challenges? Yes.
"I don’t think it’s a female situation, that’s she’s under more
scrutiny because of that, I think it’s a big, huge problem
that’s under her watch. Whoever was at the top would have come
under the same scrutiny.
"People look at myself, and people like Amy, who are females
running massive companies or historically men-based companies
and people always wonder what it’s like, is it more difficult?
Maybe there are some challenges but I don’t go into any day
thinking about that, I just have to do my best at all times."
So, I ask curiously, what might we find in Carter's inbox if it
were her company in the spotlight? "I don’t think there’s
anything scandalous. You always have information, contracts and
other things, that are very proprietary that you have to have be
concerned over," she says. "From a business standpoint, there’s
a reason business negotiations are confidential and we hope to
keep them that way - every company does."This year more than
ever Carter's judgement has been scrutinised and challenged by
fans as a TMZ report broke claiming US cable network Spike TV
had dropped TNA's flagship show Impact Wrestling.
But the 50-year-old executive is adamant it hasn't been a
'difficult year'. She says, "I think people say it’s difficult
because this is the first time I’ve negotiated a television
contract so publicly. There’s all kinds of questions and doubts
out there, and rumours that aren’t true.
"I go through this every two years and have never had the public
spotlight on the company, especially in any kind of negative
way. When you’re going through television negotiations, you
can’t give that out publicly, it’s a private, confidential
negotiation. I can’t respond to negativity or even anything
positive being said, that’s not good business."It’s very
difficult for me to sit back and hear these negative things
being said, but all I can do is say to myself, ‘I know what’s
going on, I know what’s going to happen, and when it comes out
everyone else will know as well.’ You can’t let yourself be
brought down by those negative conversations."
Leaving Spike TV has been "hard on both of us", says the TNA
head honcho. But with TNA's TV deal with Spike running out,
Carter had a very ambitious plan for the future of her company
and that included more TV time - something, it seems, Spike
wasn't willing to provide."Any time there’s change, you get
outside your comfort zone and I think that’s where TNA needs to
be - outside its comfort zone," she says confidently. "We needed
to make changes and that’s what Kevin Kay at Spike and I talked
about at the beginning of the year; I did not want status quo, I
wanted change. "When you see where we’re going today [with
Destination America], we’ve already announced repeats and
different versions of our show, that’s what we needed and that’s
what I WOULD not settle for less than in these negotiations."
Since our interview, sure enough, TNA has announced not one, but
two new shows to accompany its flagship on its new home: Impact
Wrestling Unlocked, featuring Mike Tenay, and retrospective show
TNA Wrestling's Greatest Matches. It's certainly a GLOWING sign
of confidence in TNA - and Carter. But many fans have been quick
to point out they'd never heard of Destination America, whereas
Spike is fairly well known. But again, Carter is confident about
the new TV deal. She says, "Destination America isn’t as well
known, but Discovery is as well known or better well known, not
only in the United States but globally. That’s the reason we did
the negotiations and the deal with them. This is bigger than
just Destination America, it has global implications. We’re
going to help grow Destination America domestically, that’s a
huge priority for Discovery, and when that happens it’s going to
have such a big upside for us on every level."
Ask the TNA President if the new TV deal is less financially
lucrative than the deal with Spike, however, and you won't get a
clear answer. Carter replies: "It’s not an apple-to-apples deal.
It’s not one two-hour show played once a week, now we have a
two-hour show that’s played multiple times, we have multiple
shows that are going to be announced, it’s a completely
different type of deal that has much more upside than what we
had before."
Impact begins its run on Destination America on January 7 with a
live show before moving into its new timeslot of Fridays at 9pm
from January 16. And fans can expect a brand new look and feel
to the show, including a new logo, when it returns.
Quizzed about the changes, the boss says, "Our first show, which
is live, will be similar to what we’ve done in the past.
There’ll be a few new bells and whistles but it’ll be similar
because there’s only so much you can do live because you don’t
have the post-production time to dive into unique, different
production aspects. "But if you give us a few weeks, I think
everyone will start to see a transition of very new and very
exciting ways to watch Impact. I don’t want to say too much, I’d
rather it just unveil itself. I’m definitely excited about some
of the changes coming up."
While TNA's US television presence remains a work in progress,
the company has gone from strength-to-strength on Challenge TV
in Britain. The Sky channel airs Impact Wrestling on Sundays and
has now produced two series of UK exclusive show, British Boot
Camp."Challenge has been fantastic," enthuses Carter. "Sky and
Challenge have been incredible partners, we have really grown
our brand over there on a level that’s unparalleled worldwide.
To have that kind of success and ratings that we’ve had for
British Boot Camp, I think it’s a testament to their support for
us."
The company will be back on our shores next month for its annual
Maximum Impact tour with the stars of Boot Camp, including
winner Mark Andrews, joining the main roster."These are such
special shows for us. The ratings for British Boot Camp 2 have
been so high that I thought it would be fun to have a big party
[on the tour] and let people come in, get autographs and
pictures with them. The fact we’re filming TV in every city,
it’s going to be a huge tour for us."
Key to any wrestling promotion is the talent and that brings us
to the other sticking point for fans of TNA this year - the loss
of household names such as Sting and Hulk Hogan, as well as
homegrown stars Chris Sabin, Christopher Daniels and more.
"Every year we let talent go, every year we let a big name go -
that’s part of it," assures Carter. "We only have one television
show that’s two hours, we don’t have 12 hours of television, we
have to turn our roster and that means every year you have to
make really difficult decisions. When you care about these
people like I do, they are incredibly difficult decisions to
make. But because of social media and things like that, they’re
played out so publicly where two, three or five years ago that
didn’t happen. It’s nothing different."
I ask if she saw Sting's WWE debut at the Survivor Series
pay-per-view in November. "I did not see it," she says.
But the topic of swapping talent with WWE spurs an interesting
reaction. TNA has been often been criticised for taking in 'WWE
castoffs', but Carter feels the shoe is now on the other foot.
"For so many years, I’ve caught so much negative flack, people
saying that all we do is hire WWE people. The truth of the
matter is, if you look at the WWE roster of late, they’re full
of TNA talent even if that means a Sting, Hulk Hogan or a Rob
Van Dam, Ric Flair. That’s a passé complaint. "When you only
have two leagues there’s only so many talent that you can find
that are on a worldwide level. I think the tide has turned and
WWE is taking our talent of late, not the reverse of that. It’s
just the way it’s been." Has there been one talent loss that's
been harder than the others, I ask? "I really care about all
these guys that are here. I have a very close relationship with
Sting and Hulk Hogan and miss working with them on a
professional level very much, I will always be their biggest
supporters and hopefully always be able to keep a personal
relationship with them."
But Carter's eyes are firmly on the future and she's confident
that past stars could one day return. She explains: "For
somebody to dominate television for such a long period of time,
they need to go away to come back and be fresh. If you look at
this year, the return of Matt Hardy, Low Ki, Homicide and so
many others, I think it’s good for the product to keep it fresh.
They came back as themselves and now we want to put a spin on
where they’re going."Sometimes you have to have a break to make
it fresh and new again, recreate who you are. It’s tough in any
business to be the same character for a long period of time, day
in, day out.
"Just like Devon coming back this year, he was away for a while
and he came back in a huge way with some of the greatest tag
team matches we’ve had, he’s been a big part of our success this
year."I never want to say goodbye when somebody leaves because
goodbye would be that they’re never coming back. It’s more due
to the fact that we have this one show that these things
happen."
One of TNA's strongest suits is, and has always been, its
women's division. Where most fans seem exasperated with WWE's
short, uninspired Divas matches, the TNA Knockouts - led by
veteran Gail Kim - are ensured plenty of screentime. Carter says
the division is very personal to her: "I’m proud of the focus
and time they’ve gotten. I love the fact you can see a Knockouts
match in our main event, that they can steal the show at a pay
per view, that our matches can go longer than the men’s
heavyweight matches on Impact. Our girls are just that good.
"Being a female head of a wrestling company, it’s very important
to me that they’re seen in the most positive light possible. I
think our roster is full of the most talented girls, but not
only that, they get along, they’re fantastic part of our team.
It’s exciting to see them grow personally and professionally,
we’ve got babies backstage, some are getting married, some have
had hard times. We’re a close family, the girls in particular,
and it means a lot to me that group CONTINUE to be the very best
at what they do."
The Knockouts division was born in a blaze of glory on the back
of a feud between Kim, a multi-time champion, and the towering
Awesome Kong - a rare specimen in the world of women's wrestling
that helped set the Knockouts APART from the WWE's Divas. She
hasn't been seen in a TNA ring for four years (there was a brief
spell as Kharma in WWE) but her unique presence is still missed.
"I always say never say never, but I don’t even know if Kong’s
wrestling anymore," Carter reveals. "I know there have been
people we’ve gone to that we wanted to talk about bringing them
back, but they’re not wrestling anymore. That’s part of my
reality as well." Newcomer Havok - also towering and, frankly,
frightening - has drawn some comparisons to Kong as another
mould-breaker. But for the most part, the Knockouts division
today features sexy, athletic girls.
Carter says, "I don’t think they all have to have a gimmick, I
think gimmicks can be fake. I think just to be a BEAUTIFUL,
kick-ass girl or a beautiful, mean bitch girl, that’s your
gimmick, that’s real, that’s life - you don’t have to be a
secretary or play some kind of fake character to be different
and unique, you’ve got to kick ass in the ring. That’s what you
have to do." But the TNA President has high standards for the
division and feels her current crop of girls are her best ever -
and many of them are an example of TNA's revolving door policy.
"The female talent, there’s not a lot of female talent that’s on
the level of these girls. Angelina Love was gone for several
years and came back and I think she came back better than ever.
Madison Rayne was gone for a year and she came back in the best
shape of her life after having a baby.
"There’s only so many women in the world that can compete on
this level, and if they can’t compete on the level, it’s not
worth having them on the roster. They don’t do the others any
favours if they’re not on par with what the Knockouts division
has been expected of.
"We have to cycle our girls in and out, until someone can come
in like a Taryn Terrell, I’ll say for Taryn to come in and have
the kind of matches she’s had with Gail Kim, for somebody that’s
newer in female wrestling it doesn’t get much better. She
competed blow-to-blow with Gail Kim and held her own and did
amazing, that’s what we’re looking for.
I WOULD rather refresh characters, but you have to keep the
quality of the girls’ wrestling at a certain level or they don’t
fit in the Knockouts brand at all."
One thing you can't take away from Carter is her passion for her
talent - something that certainly comes across when talking
about the Knockouts. It seems a vast difference to WWE
Chairman's Vince McMahon's recent comments that his current
roster of "millennials" 'aren't as ambitious' as the likes of
John Cena, the FACE of the company.
Carter hits back: "I can’t even comprehend that statement. It
doesn’t sit with our group.
"My own roster’s completely different than that. I don’t have a
complaint about anybody on my roster.
"The young guys are just as hungry … the young guys from 10
years ago are now the Bobby Roodes, Samoa Joes, James Storms. My
main eventers, who were brand new young talent from 10 to 12
years ago, I’m proud of how far they’ve come.
"This young group of talent we have right now, they’re the
hardest working, most positive team players around."
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