Dixie Carter Tried Her Best With TNA

Dixie Carter is Mark Radulich’s favorite pro wrestling personality because, no matter what you think of her, you can’t deny that she tried. That’s really the best thing anyone can say about Dixie Carter and her time in TNA. She tried.

It appears that Dixie is now done trying, quietly exiting the company so the lead singer of a band that peaked during the Attitude Era could take charge. It makes sense, really, the Attitude Era is glorified as the greatest time in wrestling history, so why not hire a guy who was successful during this period? If he could succeed outside of wrestling during the peak, obviously he can succeed in wrestling during the Reality Era when everyone knows it’s fake, and if you don’t, just anyone at ESPN or Vince Russo.

Dixie gave her best effort for 14-years.

I’m not sure Dixie Carter knew anything about wrestling when she convinced her parents to invest in TNA in 2002. According to most reports, she knew that WWE was very profitable and that they had no competition following the demise of WCW. She thought TNA would be an easy revenue generator for herself and Panda Energy.

It turns out that managing a wrestling company and turning a consistent profit isn’t as easy as it seems in Total Extreme Wrestling.

Carter stayed behind the scenes until 2010, and it’d be unfair not to give her at least some credit for bringing in the likes of Kurt Angle, Sting, and Christian to the company as well as brokering a deal with SpikeTV to air Impact. Like a head coach in pro sports, Dixie will get plenty of rightful blame for everything that went wrong, but that doesn’t mean that she didn’t have a hand in the things that went right.

Things became bad for Dixie and TNA when she brought in Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff and believed the bill of goods that they sold her. Bischoff and Hogan are two very convincing individuals to those who don’t know wrestling history, which Carter undoubtedly didn’t. They told her that they could compete with WWE on Monday Nights and that they were the reason that WCW succeeded, which was partially correct, but they were also a big reason why WCW ultimately failed.

Around this time, Dixie also became an on-screen character. No one really knows why she decided to show up on-screen, other than she probably saw how cool Eric Bischoff looked and just wanted to fit in.

Give Dixie her due as an on-screen character, she at least got hers on occasion. Bobby Roode spit in her face, and Bully Ray put her through a table. At least she didn’t cut the balls off of every single performer with said performer having no chance at getting them back.

Carter’s biggest flaw is that she was too blind to see what was in front of her and couldn’t think for herself. Despite having the numbers and facts in front of her, I’m not sure she truly knew how bad things were in the company. She always believed that if they could just hang in there, things would turn around and get better. And she believed this because that’s what people like Jeff Jarrett, Vince Russo, Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, and others told her. Even though they were bleeding money, homegrown stars like AJ Styles and Samoa Joe were leaving, former WWE stars were returning to WWE, and they were going from SpikeTV to Destination America to the TV Guide channel; Dixie believed that it would all turn around overnight.

Like TNA, Dixie Carter is a survivor. She should’ve thrown away the toy that stopped working years ago. But she held on, wishing it back to life. Dixie didn’t invest in TNA because she loved pro wrestling and wanted to be cool and hang out with pro wrestlers. Maybe she eventually turned into one of those people, but she truly thought that she could turn a profit because WWE made it look so easy.

She held on longer than anyone thought she would and gave a home to many WWE and NXT stars that we love today. Sure, she didn’t always pay them on time, and she essentially forced them out the door with how she did business, but she gave them a home and an outlet that no other wrestling company outside of the WWE was able to provide in America.

Dixie Carter tried to own a wrestling company. And ultimately, she failed. But she gave it her best shot and deserves her participatory ribbon and post-game ice cream.

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