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| Wrong Dixie Carter |
Corey Henson will try to convince you that there are four reasons to watch TNA. They are:
1) Sting can imitate a guy who won an Oscar after he died. (I bet Rich Little can too.)
2) Even a blind squirrel can find Bubba Ray Dudley once in a while.
3) Dixie Carter finally figured out what half a million wrestling fans already knew.
4) TNA has consistently booked a WWE reunion tour from 5 years ago ever since Impact debuted.
Okay, so that’s out of the way.
TNA has a lot of issues in general that prevent them from succeeding, and I won’t list all of them here specifically. I can tell you that many of those issues began when Dixie Carter took control of things, even before she became the spotlight-seeking on-air character she is today.
Dixie Carter has blown through tons of cash to get the needle on TNA to move an imperceptible amount. She is often guilty of having stars in her eyes (see the signings of Matt Hardy, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Rob Van Dam, etc.) that she gets little return for, and they eventually bury almost everyone who is loyal to them. James Storm and Robert Roode will be bumped down to the midcard where AJ Styles is in 2 years. That is, if they stay in business that long.
She made them a laughingstock by agreeing with the decision to move to Monday nights, where they got killed by WWE. That forced them into a rebranding as Impact Wrestling, where they claimed that “wrestling matters”… yet we still got the same overbooked “Russorific” finishes we had before. And still, they call themselves TNA, an acronym that I’m embarrassed to acknowledge when my brother-in-law wants to talk wrestling with me at Thanksgiving. I’m sorry, but I’m a grown-up and I don’t want to go around telling people I watch T&A. That was funny 10 years ago.
She has gotten rid of great wrestling minds like Jim Cornette and Dusty Rhodes in favor of vacuous wastes of space like Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff and Hogan. I’m quite confident that the only reason she hired Bruce Prichard and Dave Lagana was because she knew they worked for WWE. Maybe also because Lagana is active on Twitter.
Hogan is especially a bastard who openly criticizes talent, even though he can’t work a match these days without getting pilled up and creaking to the ring. Bischoff is blatantly using Dixie’s connection to Spike for his own personal production company. I mean, why hire guys that ran their last company into the ground?
And that’s what is wrong with TNA and Dixie Carter’s leadership. There’s no clear logic, direction, or vision that’s apparent in the company. They aim for the stars when they should be aiming a little lower, get that right and then look higher. They don’t draw on tour, despite having great reviews for their house shows. They never draw outside the Impact Zone. They don’t make money on the Impact shows except for merchandise. They are simply behind the 8-ball on almost every business decision they are involved in.
Dixie says they want to present a unique product, but the only thing she knows about wrestling is WWE, and so they must try to be WWE without Vince McMahon’s know-how, money, branding, intellectual properties, track record, developmental system, and road schedule. Everything about TNA to me screams worn out, old, repetitive, rehashed pablum from the top of the roster with Sting and Hogan and Angle to Mike Tenay and Taz(z) to the booking and even the same old same old fans that show up to Universal Studios Florida for their TV tapings.
Not that TNA isn't trying to get there. Ring Ka King on the Colors network in India is a good start. Not only is it a fun show with an international vibe, but it’s booked simply and intelligently. It makes you wonder why they can’t do that here in the states. They certainly get more of an audience over there. Of all the C-shows being put on (including shows like Superstars and NXT), Ring Ka King is my favorite.
The additions to the X-Division recently have given hope that they are intentional about making that a highlight again. But I already tuned out on TNA long ago. These changes are too little, too late. If I’m going to back what might become a lost cause, I’d rather put my attention on indies like Ring of Honor, Chikara and Dragon Gate USA. They are already unique and doing things the right way, whether or not they are on major cable television.
At some point, though, somebody will give up on TNA and mercifully put it down like a horse in the glue factory. Many wrestling fans already have given up on it. Dixie never will… it’s her opportunity to be a TV star on a third-tier cable network. But Spike might if Viacom ever rebrands their network or takes a look at Impact’s crappy ratings.
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