5 reasons Dixie Carter's TNA was awesome

Dixie Carter is without a doubt one of the most polarising figures in the world of professional wrestling.

The heir to a rich heritage of business acumen hailing from an oil tycoon family, Carter jumped into this business without any prior experience or knowledge of the ruthless game of sports-entertainment/wrestling.

Regardless, the hardcore fans and experts alike hailed her as a Messiah of sorts back in the early-2000s as she saved the Jeff Jarrett-founded promotion, formerly known as NWA-TNA from going under. Carter would eventually go on to establish TNA as a company which, in the mid-to-late-2000s, was legitimately considered a fierce competitor to the WWE.

So, without further ado, let’s take a look at a few key reasons which made Carter’s TNA so awesome—

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#5 TNA Messiah

Dixie's heroic efforts salvaged TNA from going under

Expounding upon what was mentioned earlier, for those unaware, Dixie Carter risked a huge sum of her own money by investing in an unknown project such as TNA back in the day. One ought to note, that she poured all those dollars into TNA at a time when the WWE had just bought out WCW, with the Vince McMahon-helmed promotion establishing itself as the sport’s topmost organization bar none.

Jarrett’s financers bailed on him, and TNA almost had to shut shop… but it was Carter’s heroic save that helped keep the promotion alive and kicking. Dixie was widely praised by trade pundits for salvaging TNA at a time when the WWE seemed to be the only legitimate promotion in the US where pro-wrestlers could make a decent living.

Despite not benefitting greatly in the early phase of her TNA ownership, Carter kept funding the fledgeling promotion, whilst helping build the next generation of mega-stars within its ranks.

What she did was provide a lifeblood to professional wrestling organisations outside the WWE; giving fans a suitable alternative to the content churned out by World Wrestling Entertainment.

#4 Creative Freedom

Dixie Carter never restrained her performers from playing their characters to the fullest inside the Impact Zone

Perhaps Dixie Carter’s most redeeming quality as a pro-wrestling promoter is the considerable amount of creative freedom she accorded her top stars in TNA. From Hulk Hogan to AJ Styles; Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy or Sting; Dixie allowed them freedom creatively, rather than exerting too much unnecessary control over their actions and promos inside the six-sided ring.

Now, granted that Carter wasn’t all that happy when it came to Samoa Joe cutting a shoot promo on Kevin Nash at Turning Point back in 2007, regardless, apart from the aforementioned instance she’s always been rather light-handed as opposed to most other promoters in the business who prefer keeping their talent on the metaphorical leash.

In fact, Carter was so liberal with giving her employees the freedom to experiment and take risks in TNA, that she went as far as allowing Hulk Hogan a little too much control over the company’s creative process while also following Eric Bischoff’s directive and taking TNA tapings on the road.

Carter giving Hogan and Bischoff too much leeway would ultimately backfire on her as the two wrung TNA dry of funds. However, Dixie—being the great businesswoman she is—once again saved TNA from shutting shop. She invested more money into the product in order to ensure that the show goes on, while promoting several talented performers such as James Storm, Bobby Roode, Kurt Angle, Bobby Lashley, the Hardy Brothers and the sort in the Impact Zone.

The essence of her common decency and business ethics is the fact that despite losing a ton of money by trusting Hogan and Bischoff, she still kept an optimistic approach towards the game, while according the same amount of creative freedom to all top stars in TNA.

#3 TNA Glory Days

Dixie Carter managed to keep TNA from shutting shop despite suffering huge losses after Hogan and Bischoff used up TNA's funding

Most fans opine that TNA’s prime was relatively short-lived, and lasted only from 2005-07. Nevertheless, when one talks facts, the numbers show that TNA was doing quite well until the Eric Bischoff-Hulk Hogan era capsized TNA in 2010 until both of them left in ‘14. After 2014, TNA never quite recovered.

Hogan and Bischoff, despite helping the company secure international broadcast deals—solely on the basis of the Hulkster’s name value—ultimately led to the company’s downfall owing to the ridiculously high salaries being paid to both of them. Regardless, 2005-10 saw TNA rise as arguably the most-entertaining pro-wrestling promotion in the world alongside WWE and NJPW.

Dixie Carter guided the promotion from strength to strength, on the backs of bona fide star attractions such as AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Bully Ray, Velvet Sky, and Gail Kim. Despite the fact that she faced several monetary issues after Eric Bischoff convinced her to take the tapings on the road, Dixie still managed to keep the company afloat and put on highly entertaining shows for fans of the product.

#2 Edgy characters & storylines

In order to better comprehend Dixie Carter’s brilliance, one simply has to look at the time WWE went PG, around 2007. Vince McMahon and co. adopted a new strategy after the commencement of the aforementioned era, roping in Hollywood celebrities as ‘Guest General Managers’ with a new on-screen GM every week—a plan that wasn’t too well-received by fans.

Meanwhile, Carter struck when the iron was hot, putting forth more realistic, wild content on TNA programming, including colour (blood) for a realistic touch in Lethal Lockdown matches, the Knockouts revolution and so much more!

The TNA head honcho pushed performers such as The Beautiful People, Awesome Kong, while simultaneously ensuring that the X-Division matchups in the promotion were pure in-ring magic.

What served to truly grab fans’ attention were characters like Velvet Sky, Madison Rayne (of the Beautiful People) and the edgy storylines put forth by TNA between 2005-10, including the rivalries between legends such as Kurt Angle and Sting, as well as younger stars, especially the Stinger’s rivalry with Samoa Joe which reached a final crescendo at Bound For Glory in 2008.

TNA had some of the most intriguing buildups to its PPV events, and was consistently edging out rival professional wrestling promotions when it came to building intrigue and hype surrounding the content put forth by the company.

Well, fans have one person to thank for being able to handle all the craziness which came with handling storylines, setups, etc with the star-studded TNA roster…the woman in question being the one and only Dixie Carter.

#1 Talent management

Dixie Carter shared a great relationship with her employees up until TNA found itself in financial trouble courtesy Eric Bischoff

As noted earlier, Dixie Carter was viewed by many as a 'messiah' who saved TNA from going under, however, this perception somewhat changed in the aftermath of the Hogan-Bischoff era of the company. With Bischoff and Hogan’s influence on the promotion officially ending for good, after Easy E left in 2014, TNA found itself in a financial mess.

While Carter tried her best to clean up after Hogan and Bischoff left TNA in shambles, the performers began experiencing serious issues as regards them getting paid on time. It would be wrong to accuse Dixie for TNA’s failure in paying its talent on time, given the fact that she was the only person in the company who tried to salvage it until the very end.

Carter’s relationship with TNA employees was a great example of workplace camaraderie, not only in professional wrestling, but in any business for that matter.

Nashville’s famous daughter was highly-regarded for being easy to deal with—her cool demeanour and consummate professionalism being the key component which aided TNA in the long run. Although several employees started experiencing troubles with management, including disagreements with Dixie over pay after the Hogan-Bischoff sucked TNA dry and bailed in 2014, numbers back up the truth.

Dixie was and will be one of the nicest personalities in the business, and irrespective of her having sold TNA to Anthem a few months ago, a true wrestling fan would always welcome her back to the business with open arms.