Christy Hemme On How She Ended Up On TNA’s Creative Team, Advocating For Talent

Christy Hemme was the first woman to join the TNA creative team, and she recently discussed how that came about. Hemme became part of the creative team in TNA in 2014, and she spoke with SoCal Val on The Velvet Ropes for WrestlingNews.co about how that ended up happening.

Hemme recalled how it happened very organically and involved her suggesting ideas for women’s talent. She eventually moved to Nashville with her husband and got a creative role with the company. You can see highlights below:

On Being the First Woman On TNA’s Creative Team:

“That is correct… For me it was a very organic transition. There wasn’t a whole lot of thinking, because I saw a gap with women in the company being represented. And it wasn’t because the men weren’t doing it or weren’t thinking about it. There just wasn’t a person advocating. And there was all this stuff we could do with the merchandise, there was all these stories that could be told. But no one — there wasn’t really this carved out person advocating for the women in that way.

“And so I just stepped into a spot. I mean, I really just started saying, ‘Hey, what about this? And what about this, and what about this?’ And you know, at the time I had people that were rallying behind me whether it was Bruce Pritchard, or David Sahadi. I had these amazing, brilliant people that were like, ‘Yeah yeah, you can help in that little spot.’ And then when they saw that I didn’t blow it up and destroy things, they’re like, ‘Yeah, you can help a little more in that spot.’

On Telling Her Husband They Needed To Move:

“Eventually I turned to Charlie and I was like, “Hey… we got to move to Nashville, because I need to start showing up at the production house.’ And he had just built — this is prior to meeting me, he had built his dream home for him and his future wife. And then I meet him, we are living together and we’re going to sell this and go follow my dreams, you know?

“In a heartbeat, like he didn’t even question. He’s like ‘Okay, we’re going. And [we] packed up the car and left and then, I really just showed up. And I just kept showing up until they finally gave me a job. Because when I was moving there there was no like, job. I just was that committed that I would live there to show up every day.”

On If There Was Anyone She Pushed For In Creative:

“So I had a map, and I would lay my — I had each girl that was contracted to the company. So I knew what it felt like to have an expectation, to have a job that I wanted to show up to every day and actually be given something that was contributing to the full picture. And so for me, I didn’t have like, ‘Oh, I really want this girl,’ or ‘I want this girl.’ I actually mapped out all of them. And I saw that all of them had massive potential, and I fleshed out their potential in my own brain. And then I would go to each of them and be like, ‘What do you see?’ And make sure that whatever it is that I was seeing was what they wanted, and what they could see, and that the company could also champion for them as well.

“And if the company had a block — like I don’t know, ‘We can’t use this one because of this or this or this.’ I mean, whether it was a good thing or not a good thing, because it definitely was hard for some of them to hear the truth? I did tell them the truth. I did tell them, ‘This is where it’s at. And if you do this it’s going to do better.’ Or, ‘You we can keep fighting for this thing and I’ll keep advocating for what you want.’ But if I didn’t have vision for it, like if this is something out of left field that just like, there’s no way the industry is going to want that. There’s no way that fans are going to want that. I don’t think there was anything that was like that. But I would have said, ‘Hey, I don’t think,’ like you know.? So it really was a game of advocation. Like, I really was uh an advocate for each girl and I looked at it like a puzzle and, ‘How can we fit them all in?’ Because it felt irresponsible to have contracts for everybody, and just sit people at home in my opinion.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the No-Contest Wrestling Podcast with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.