Tuesday, April 1, 2025

The Last Of The Americans Elseworlds: Wrestling With Wregret: Dixieland: Dixie Carter in TNA

(The Scene begins with James and Mistress Net in the crimson void) 

TLOTA: 
I’m beginning to think you don’t like me very much! 

Mistress Net: 
My feelings towards your well-being doesn’t matter, what I am doing to you must be! 

TLOTA: 
Here I go again 

(James screams again as the scene cuts to a “Sliders-”esque tunnel and a musical theme like the “Arrowverse: Elseworlds” theme song plays as a voiceover of James Faraci asking “What if there were alternate realities? What if you saw what could’ve been or what might have been? And What if you realize, you’re in a better place than you really are?” The “Sliders-” esque tunnel leads to James in different ways either dressed like “Rowdy” from “TV Trash,” “The Blockbuster Buster,” James dressed like “Todd In The Shadows,” and James dressed like Brian Zane from “Wrestling With Wregret” as we then see James Faraci The Last Of The Americans as he falls through all of them and the words “THE LAST OF THE AMERICANS: ELSEWORLDS” are shown as it cuts to the Wrestling With Wregret opening then to James dressed as Brian Zane.) 
 
James Faraci [Wrestling With Wregret]: 
If there was ever a wrestling organization worthy of the Phoenix metaphor it must be TNA Wrestling! (Cut to the current TNA Impact Wrestling show and their Pay-Per-Views as James does a voiceover) 
 
James Faraci [Wrestling With Wregret] (V.O.): 
While it is under the WWE Independent Development program under our old friend Paul Levesque. TNA has survived so much, from the Claire Lynch storyline, the Aces & Eights storyline, watching their home-grown talent leave, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff’s involvement with the brand, losing multiple network deals, so much of the talents that got buried, the legends that came in embarrassing themselves and the talents having gimmicks that didn’t work, nearly going bankrupt and closing shop MULTIPLE times and yet they’ve persevered to a point where they can compete with the WWE. (Cut to James physically) 

James Faraci [Wrestling With Wregret]: 
And if a certain someone had her way, that would not be possible and before I get any sort of heat from this, at the time I am working on this, the subject of this review just lost her mom and I honestly send my condolences, and the fact that I have three nieces and two great nieces and support feminist rights and would gladly support a woman in charge of anything, that doesn’t mean that the subject of this review is not capable of anything, it’s just that this was what she will be most known for. (Cut to images of former TNA President Dixie Carter as James does a voiceover) 

James Faraci [Wrestling With Wregret] (V.O.): 
Yep, finally giving into the demand to see what I honestly think about the one thing that unintentionally did more damage to her own company than any storyline, any recycled gimmick, any sort of returning older wrestler trying to reclaim a drop of their former glory with a final moment of trying to be a champion. Today we go over the career of the former TNA Wrestling President Dixie Carter. (Cut to James physically) 

James Faraci [Wrestling With Wregret]: 
Now Full disclosure, I support women’s rights and if things had gone differently then you can bet that I would not be doing this review the way I am. With that said, all this review is based Soley on my thoughts about Dixie. While I have talked about certain events that she allowed to happen under her tenure as President of TNA/IMPACT Wrestling, this is not about her as a person. I do believe in the Kayfabe, but I also have a great business acumen to allow me to share The Time Dixie drove TNA Down. With that said, here we go! (Cut to TNA Wrestling through the years as James does a voiceover.)  

James Faraci [Wrestling With Wregret] (V.O.): 
The year is 2002 and an upstart company founded by Jeff Jarrett called TNA is working with the National Wrestling Alliance to break into the business trying to be the next great company to try and take on Vince’s dynasty. However, by the end of the first year TNA was in the RED and close to shutting down. Enter Dixie Carter who had NO history of wrestling in her family, convinced her father to buy into TNA and before you can say “Cha-Ching!” convinced her father’s company, Panda Energy, to buy into TNA. Dixie became the president and Jeff worked on the booking for the company. (Cut to James physically) 

James Faraci [Wrestling With Wreget]: 
Now before Dixie, TNA was trying to get into a TV deal with a weekly Pay-Per-View series and a once a month Pay-Per-View event. However, there was no audience that was willing to shell out $9.99 a week and $19.99 a month for that! And just for context this was early 2000s money. (Cut to TNA Wrestling through the years as James does a voiceover.)  

James Faraci [Wrestling With Wregret] (V.O.): 
However, under Dixie’s leadership, she was able to land them a network deal with Fox Sports Net to create Total Nonstop Wrestling: Impact” however, the network wasn’t paying the company for their services. Dixie was just shelling out Daddy’s dough to make sure the show was on the network and that wasn’t conductive to the longevity of the brand. But salvation was on its way as Vince McMahon’s deal with Spike TV was done and they wanted to keep wrestling on their network and bought the series and made sure that “TNA: Impact Wrestling” would get a good time slot and with that deal, the network and TNA prospered... (Cut to James physically) 

James Faraci [Wrestling With Wregret]: 
For the time being. (Cut to TNA Wrestling through the years as James does a voiceover.)  

James Faraci [Wrestling With Wregret] (V.O.): 
While TNA’s original roster was getting noticed as well as the people that were jumping ship from WWE, notably Monty Sopp aka Billy Gunn and The former Road Dogg AKA Brian James, Kurt Angle and former WCW standout “STIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!,” things between Jeff and Dixie were starting to break down as Jeff Jarrett was dating Kurt Angle’s ex-wife after Jeff’s wife had passed away. Instead of trying to find a way to make peace, Dixie relieved Jeff of his duties as the booker and eventually Jeff would leave the company he founded in the hands of Dixie Carter and with that this is where things in TNA start to go south. Dixie started to hire known names that have worked well in other companies including Bobby Lashley and hid the fact that she hired Vince Russo to work as a writer. (Cut to James physically) 

James Faraci [Wrestling With Wregret]: 
Then...came...Hulk HOGAN and Eric Bischoff! (Cut to all the stuff Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan did in TNA as James does a voiceover.) 

James Faraci [Wrestling With Wregret] (V.O.): 
And although I did go over EVERYTHING with these two in charge of creative including hiring former WWE, WCW and ECW talent that Bischoff had liked and were a draw putting the originals that had been there since the beginning on the backburner, even worse were claims that Dixie was spending the earnings from TNA in her closet instead of using the funds to better the product. Once Hogan and Bischoff came, the numbers from “Impact” and Pay Per Views were plummeting! And I’m not even going to go into how crappy the Pay-Per-Views were doing, I do that on the Classic Pay-Per-Views segments. (Cut to the rebranding to Impact Wrestling and AJ Styles leaving Impact and the status of Impact/TNA Wrestling as James does a voiceover) 

James Faraci [Wrestling With Wregret] (V.O.): 
Then came the moment when TNA left the Impact Zone, went on the road, turned the six-sided ring back to a squared circle and rebranded TNA Wrestling as “Impact Wrestling” and even then, Dixie was doing more damage by the rebranding because by this time, her dad pulled the plug on the financial black hole. Dixie bought them out, so now she had total control. Then we have the man who was a part of the brand since day one, The Phenomenal One A.J. Styles. Contract renegotiations were not good, with Dixie trying to rehire A.J. at a sixty percent pay reduction due to the financial state of the brand. But even the lowliest of employees deserves some measure of respect, and A.J. was an original and decided that if you’re going to disrespect me, then you’re not worth my time, and not only did A.J. leave, but so did a lot of the original talent that were there from the start. But Dixie wasn’t done yet, causing damage to the brand. Apparently, the internal email that said Vince Russo was hired as a writer caused Spike to lose confidence that Impact could be viable on their network, leading to further financial troubles. She had to beg and borrow, which led to Billy Corgan being a part of the company with the goal of Corgan taking over. However, Dixie wasn’t willing to let go of Impact as it played swap-a-network for several years, which included Destination America & POP TV. Eventually, Corgan had had enough of Carter’s chicanery and decided to file a suit against her, which he lost. However, Anthem Sports and Entertainment took care of Corgan’s debts and bought Dixie out, ending her chokehold on the brand. Then, after 12 years of sinking under the Impact brand, TNA Wrestling returned without Dixie, and the product improved. It has since returned to the TNA brand's iconography and seen its success return for the most part. (Cut to James physically) 

James Faraci [Wrestling With Wregret]: 
But after all of what has been said about Dixie, the question is this: Did Dixie intentionally do it, or was she just in over her head and didn’t know better? The answer is YES! (Cut to Dixie Carter as James does a voiceover.) 

James Faraci [Wrestling With Wregret] (V.O.): 
While it wasn’t intentional, she did make it clear that her presence was more than enough for fans to lose faith in the company. However, she should have known better as Dixie did have a Bachelor of Business so she should have known better, but she had not one idea on how to treat the business and use the funds from the gate after paying the boys a fair wage and paying the bills for the company. And many have said a lot about her, while people like Kurt Angle, Hernandez, and Eric Bischoff have nothing but praise for her. People like Bruce Prichard, Konnan, The Beautiful People (Angelina Love and Velvet Sky), and of all people to agree on ONE thing in the business, Jim Cornette and Vince Russo, who hate each other both agree that Dixie Carter was one of the worst people in Pro-Wrestling ever on the business end and did more damage to make a brand so irrelevant that even though the AXN.tv network and Anthem Entertainment having kept the brand alive, if she had used her head, then not only would TNA not have suffered under all the crap she had done. But on the other side of that coin is that had Dixie not gotten involved in TNA Wrestling, it would’ve closed in 2003 as yet another failed wrestling organization to give the WWE some healthy competition. (Cut to the Wrestling With Wregret usual end credits as James does a voiceover) 

James Faraci [Wrestling With Wregret] (V.O.): 
But what do you think of Dixie? Was she one of the worst people to run a wrestling organization outside of Herb Abrams of the UWF, the owners of the AWF, and other professional wrestling owners I have previously mentioned, or was she just over her head when it came to wrestling? (Cut to James physically) 

James Faraci [Wrestling With Wregret]: 
Let me know in the comment section what you think of Dixie Carter’s run in TNA. I’m James Faraci, and I will see you next time! (Cut to Black) 

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