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TNA NEWS: Dixie Carter to ESPN - "I feel sorry for the wrestling business if we’re not around," more quotes on TNA's business prospects, shorting A.J. Styles on contract offer, more

Sep 16, 2014 - 2:56:25 PM
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By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

TNA_Wide_7.png



In 2002, TNA Wrestling was launched to try to fill a void when WCW was bought out by WWE. 12 years later, TNA is still operating with the same mindset, according to quotes attributed to TNA president Dixie Carter in an in-depth article published by ESPN.com off-shoot Grantland.com.

“All these people say, ‘I hope you go out of business’ - why would you ever want that? You don’t think we make wrestling better just by exposing more people and giving people more options? It’s the most ludicrous, shortsighted thing - the sheer absurdity and stupidity of it blows my mind,” Carter told reporter Thomas Golianopoulos. “I feel sorry for the wrestling business if we’re not around.”

The main focus of the article was whether TNA can (a) stay in business and (b) turn around its business in light of recent office cuts, potentially losing their TV deal with Spike TV, and sagging revenue in 2014.

“We were overstaffed in certain cases,” Carter claimed about the office cuts. “Certain times you have to take a step back to take a massive step forward.”

Carter added: "We will die a slow death on the vine if we just stay as one two-hour show in the U.S. I have big decisions to make. I want this to be a big play. I don’t want this to be a status quo play.”

The article also captured Carter developing a defiant attitude as head of TNA, especially "whispers" about whether she knows the wrestling business.

“Did I hear, ‘Well, you don’t know wrestling’?” she said. “I just wanted to say, ‘I understand, you don’t know business.’ I chose not to be bitter about it and just do my job. I don’t need people to tell me what I know and don’t know. At some point I said, ‘If I hear that again, you may not have a job.’”

Carter was also defiant about the contract offered to former franchise player A.J. Styles, who commented to Grantland about wanting to stay in TNA until he received the contract offer. (A similar result pushed Sting from TNA to WWE.)

“For a guy who’d been a staple of that company for 11 years, who busted his tail, never got in trouble, never did anything to embarrass your company, and what [Carter] offered me was enough for me to go, ‘I’m not working here.’ I loved that company. I did. I put everything I had into it," Styles said. "It was insulting," noting the contract offer would have resulted in "about a 40 percent paycut.

Carter's response: "I hate that we lost A.J. Are you listening? I hate it. I felt like we gave him a great offer. I really did. I felt like we gave him a great offer and I think he made a mistake.”

Styles has gone on to have an MVP-type year headlining for New Japan and Ring of Honor and writing his own ticket taking independent bookings.

The story also dives into Creative mismanagement throughout company history, including recently when Vince Russo was secretly hired to be a consultant while TNA was shifting to a Creative approach the complete opposite of Russo's approach.

“I think the audience was challenging us to give them something a little more straightforward - good old-fashioned wrestling instead of laborious talk or long, drawn-out stories,” said TNA VP John Gaburick.

Gaburick also took a dig at TNA's previous long-form storytelling that typically resulted in no pay-off or increase in business: “The long-form story lines that take forever to play out were not that effective.”

The article also includes quotes from TNA co-founder Jeff Jarrett, who is pushing his Global Force Wrestling promotion the same way he was trying to push TNA 12 years ago. Jarrett found Dixie Carter and Panda Energy to fund the company back then; similarly, Jarrett is looking for funding in 2014.

Carter's quotes indicate she does not think much of GFW, especially trying to grab international share from TNA. Asked if she's concerned about GFW, Carter said, “Not at all. Not even a bit. Don’t know what it is, don’t understand it, and don’t need to.”

As for TNA, the article concludes with Carter saying she is confident she can "turn this thing around."

[ LINK: Full Article HERE ]

Caldwell's Analysis: Pride, arrogance, defiance. Those are three takeaways from the article as Carter tries to defiantly promote her company and fend off detractors in the face of sinking business prospects. The root issue is TNA operating with a mindset that it's providing a service to the wrestling business by filling a gap left behind by WCW 12 years ago. The issue is the wrestling business has moved on, other companies have risen up, and other companies are capable of filling the void of an alternative to WWE. If TNA wants to avoid going out of business and actually grow after rebuilding, it's time to step up, step into 2014, and get rid of a mindset that TNA is doing some sort of public service to wrestling fans by simply existing and presenting a ring, a bell, some matches, some wrestlers, and a show with "wrestling" in the title once a week for two hours.


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