Tag Archives: Total Nonstop Action Wrestling

TNA President Dixie Carter hopes changes will make an Impact

As Total Nonstop Action Wrestling prepares to celebrate its tenth anniversary, wrestling fans have seen some big changes on Impact Wrestling over the past few weeks. And beginning May 31, there will be two more big changes as Impact goes to a live format and begins airing at 8 p.m. EST, one hour earlier than its previous 9 p.m. start time. With additional behind-the-scenes additions such as General Manager Hulk Hogan‘s daughter Brooke as the new Executive in Charge of the Knockouts Division, TNA is once again looking for ways to shake things up in the wrestling world. As she prepares for at least 12 weeks of live airings, TNA president Dixie Carter takes a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about these and other developments in TNA.

With Impact Wrestling going to a live format starting May 31, what is the company’s attitude towards this change in comparison to the short-lived live Monday night broadcasts a couple of years ago?

We’ve had two or three live Impact shows in the past, but this is a completely different feeling. The fact that we’re going live all summer, it’s a new time slot shifting an hour earlier, everybody’s really excited. It’s better than a one-night kind of event because we’ve got things planned all summer long, including some new things I’m very excited about. And to be able to do them live will make them that much more impactful.

It’s also been announced that Impact will take on more reality TV-like elements starting with this first live broadcast. Following last week’s segment where Hulk Hogan was trying to determine who would take on Bobby Roode for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, what’s your take on that form of reality being interspersed into pro wrestling?

In that very segment you saw a different view of five very important people on our show. I am more excited about doing that than anything we’ve done in our company history. Fifteen years ago, reality TV didn’t exist. But it’s permanently altered the way the landscape is for network and cable television viewing today. We’ve done some stuff in the past, such as the fly-on-the-wall backstage element and the deliberation scene that you mentioned, and I think we’ve done an outstanding job of it. But it’s really time for us to take this to another level. It’s going to be an evolution in the coming weeks and months, but it is something that is going to be, in my opinion, a very much needed way of watching wrestling.

Why did you decide to hire Brooke Hogan to oversee the Knockouts instead of giving that role to someone with more wrestling experience?

This division is very important to me as the female head of a predominantly male wrestling company. For women to get out there and do this, I feel like we have to have a certain standard that needs to be better than anything else that’s out there. I feel like we have the best female wrestlers on the planet on any roster. I met Brooke a couple of years ago and we hit it off. My past life was in the music business and she’s been pursuing a music career and we really bonded over talking about music. Quite honestly, I went in with one perception of how she’d be talent wise and I was really blown away. I’ve been guiding her more and becoming more and more involved because I think she has a lot of potential. But during these conversations, they’d always find their way back to wrestling. Here’s a girl who has been living and breathing wrestling her entire life. She has been under the greatest single wrestler that will probably ever live in the history of our industry. We were having dinner with my daughter and my family the other night and she was saying, “I remember being 7 and sitting there while my dad was talking business with some of the greats.” She’s always learned from this, she’s incredibly intelligent and I think she’s a big star in her own right. We’ve got the big wrestlers, but what we really need is somebody to give them more exposure. I think Brooke is going to be a great character on television. She is not going to wrestle, she is going to continue to pursue her music. But one of the biggest things she will do for us is shine a spotlight on the Knockouts that they very much deserve.

With TNA celebrating its tenth anniversary this month, what has been your biggest challenge so far?

If you’re smart, you listen to your fans and you listen to your criticism and you learn from it and grow. Not everybody has the perspective or the information I have to make decisions within, so that’s a unique position to be in. But I do weigh that very carefully. I am so proud that in just a few short days we will be celebrating our tenth year in this business. I’ve never been more proud to be associated with anything in my professional career and I truly, truly love the men and women that make up our roster, that are behind the scenes and that work in the office. You have a group of people who work harder and care more, we have a really great working environment and we’ve achieved so much in ten years. It’s been really tough. There were times when I didn’t know if we were going to be in business for ten months – we almost didn’t last ten weeks – but we were strong, we pulled together, we made better decisions and I’m very proud of how much we’ve accomplished and where we’re going. I look back and we’ve made a ton of mistakes. I’ll be the first to say that and I’ll take responsibility for them, both creatively and how we’ve approached certain things. It’s been a learning curve and I think we’re on a very good road. If you’ve not watched our show in a long time, I would encourage people to tune in because I don’t think we’ve ever produced such quality television as we’re doing right now.

With the live format, do you plan on continuing to broadcast from Universal Studios in Orlando or would you like to eventually air live while on the road?

I think it’s interesting to hear about the rich history of wrestling in Florida, and I’ve gotten to experience a lot of that and hear about it from some of our talent. But as far as Orlando’s concerned, I’d rather be able to go live and stay there. The goal is ultimately to go live and on the road. There’s no doubt that that would be the very best product we could put out. But I want to be in business and having this conversation with you in another ten years, and to do so we’ve got to make some good business decisions. The touring market is soft right now and we’ve got to get to a place where we can generate the kind of income that will help cover the expenses of going both live and on the road. I think the new format will allow us to utilize the Universal property to its best ability, then take viewers on a greater journey outside the other seven days a week where you might see scenes playing out from any city in the country in a variety of different ways. And I think that will, in itself, freshen up our show, even staying at Universal.

Is there any possibility of Impact remaining live after this summer series is over?

Right now the plan is to go live a full 12 weeks. There is one dangling week between pay-per-views, so I hope we will at least be able to stretch it to 13. But that’s really all the talk there’s been so far. I wanted to do something and stay with it consistently for a period of time. It’s going to take a little while for us to see what will happen. We’re not only going live, we’re not only working on some elements that are changing in our format, but we’re also changing our time slot, too. And we’re doing it during the summer, so that’s a little bit of an uphill battle. Hopefully the product will speak for itself, people will find us and it will be very successful. We’d love to do it from here on out, obviously.

What have you learned from some of the mistakes that were made during the Monday night live experiment in 2010?

We’ve got an incredible competitor that has a 25-year head start on us. But the main thing I learned was that people watch television differently today than they did back in the Monday Night Wars. Even in the last 12 months we’ve seen a huge shift in how people watch TV. I practically don’t watch any show during its initial broadcast anymore. I’m a DVR person, I don’t have a lot of time in life and I think that we’re finding that the entire television industry is facing this same dilemma right now. I think there’s going to be a shift in how we look at our ratings and that will be interesting over time. But I feel good about the changes we’re making and I think it will have a big impact on our success.

It seems like WWE‘s attitude towards TNA and other wrestling companies has changed over the past several months, specifically with Ric Flair‘s recent induction into the WWE Hall of Fame again with the Four Horsemen. Why do you think that might be happening?

I can’t speak to how they feel. My personal opinion is that to not acknowledge competition is ridiculous. I think competition is absolutely critical to the success of any business, whether you’re The Home Depot and Lowe’s, Walgreens and CVS, Coke and Pepsi, Hertz and Avis. When you look at it, it doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, it makes you better – it makes you work harder, it makes you pay more attention and it makes it exciting and fun. That’s how we feel about it. I don’t know how other people take it, but I think it’s absolutely critical for the fans, more than anything else, to have options.

Heading into your tenth anniversary celebration, and given all the changes that have been taking place on Impact leading into the new time and live format, how do you think all these changes will affect your standing against your bigger competitor? What other changes might you have planned to perhaps further elevate TNA to something close to WWE’s status?

Our thought is instead of trying to compete in the same form and format as our competitor, let’s compete in the same industry but let’s try to be different and unique and look at it through fresh eyes and try to present our product in a way we feel we can do that will be best for us. We feel that will give us a really strong competitive advantage. The thing I’m most proud of is wrestling matters. Wrestling matters to me, to us, it’s not a dirty word and it’s something we’re all very, very proud of. And we’re very excited about taking what we do best and presenting it in a unique way, pulling that curtain back and livening the focus of the real elements that go into our business. I think it’s going to be absolutely fascinating.

Since you will be starting an hour earlier than usual, do you plan on toning down any of the blood, violence and sexual innuendos that have become part of the show?

We do take all of those elements very seriously and try to present them in the right way. Too much blood means nothing, too much language means nothing. I think whatever happens has to have meaning and it’s got to make sense. And in our attempt to keep things as real as possible, some of that is going to [happen].

Is there any concern about not having any sort of filter for censorship in the live format?

Live TV is live TV. There’s always going to be some mistakes, but I think that’s what makes live TV so special. Since our last TV tapings two weeks ago, all of this has transpired. When I left that week, I didn’t know we were going to be able to go live, much less be going live May 31. This is happening at warp speed for us, but I know we’re ready and we’re going to do great. I’ve gotten more texts than I ever have before from the guys about how excited they are about going live. If an F-bomb is dropped, it’s going to be bleeped out. We have that ability and we will do so. But if you’re watching a sports show that’s taped there’s not the same desire or need to watch it in real time. DVRs are just making our lives completely different and one way for us to try and combat that is to present our show live. One challenge has been that two or three people can sit in our audience during our taped shows and give their opinion of it and tell exactly what order the show’s going to happen in. So if you’re reading that, you’re going to make a decision based upon potentially two or three people’s opinion of a show versus watching it live. You’re also going to know when things are going to happen, so you may think, “This isn’t going to happen until the middle of the show, I don’t need to tune in until the top of the hour.” This eliminates all that and I can tell you from what we are going to do in this format, you are not going to want to miss it. We’re not going to stay the same from week to week. We’re going to mix it up and we’re going to make it a real challenge not to tune in for the full two hours.

For more information, go to www.impactwrestling.com.

Bound for Glory 2011 shows TNA heading in a slightly new direction

Leave a reply

Every good wrestling organization has a marquee annual event to build towards, where feuds come to fruition, old grudges are settled and new rivalries begin. For Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, that event takes place every October in the form of Bound for Glory. And 2011’s Bound for Glory took place in Philadelphia, a city rich in wrestling history thanks in large part to now-defunct Extreme Championship Wrestling being based there for most of the ’90s.

The Bound for Glory 2011 DVD shows how pivotal this event was to what has been going on in TNA for the year or so leading up to event. With most of the company’s top stars in action, Bound for Glory 2011 is headlined by two matches that proved to be detrimental to the company’s future – a battle for control of the company between Hulk Hogan and Sting, as well as a World Heavyweight Championship main event between then champion Kurt Angle and the winner of the Bound for Glory Series, Bobby Roode.

But the event gets off to a fast-paced start as Austin Aries defends his X Division Championship against former champion Brian Kendrick. With sprinklings of crowd support for Aries (despite his villainous behavior), this match has a lot of back-and-forth action as each competitor looks to outdo the other both in and out of the ring. And Kendrick puts up quite a fight, almost defeating Aries on several occasions, even hitting him with his signature Sliced Bread reverse DDT backflip off the top rope. But in the end Aries hoists Kendrick up and drops him to the mat for a brainbuster to retain the title.

Honoring their contributions to Philadelphia’s wrestling scene, longtime ECW rivals Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn are up next in a Full Metal Mayhem match where any metal object is legal. While neither man (especially Lynn) is as good as he was during ECW’s prime (as seen by a minor botch here and there), this match still offers a lot of nostalgia, not only with the use of steel chairs and ladders, but also with impressive athleticism. RVD hits Lynn with a chair kick before hitting his Rolling Thunder somersault onto a ladder to evoke “ECW!” chants from the enthusiastic audience. Lynn reciprocates by hitting a sunset powerbomb onto a ladder outside the ring, but RVD wins after hitting his Van Terminator dropkick with a chair.

That’s followed by a triple threat match between three of TNA’s most dominant wrestlers, the undefeated Crimson, Samoa Joe and Matt Morgan. With Joe having eliminated Crimson from the Bound for Glory Series by injuring his ankle, and Crimson and Morgan forming a bit of an alliance during their friendly rivalry, this match really could go either way depending on how each man works with the others. Establishing some teamwork early on, Crimson and Morgan take it to Joe before their bond begins to break down. Things come to a somewhat unexpected end after Morgan hits Joe with a knee lift only for Crimson to capitalize by pinning Joe to win the match.

The next match is another nod to ECW’s Philadelphia roots with a falls-count-anywhere contest between ECW alumnus Bully Ray and the loudmouth Mr. Anderson. While you might expect Bully Ray to appeal to the fans since he has such history in this town, he instead cuts a pre-match promo where he says, “Screw Philly!” before heading to the ring. Anderson gets the early advantage with a very ECW-like move where he takes a sign from the crowd that reads “Welcome to Philly, Asshole” (referring to Anderson’s self-proclaimed nickname), which is revealed to be a metal Dead End street sign. They fight up the entrance ramp and Bully mocks Anderson by using Anderson’s own micorphone to berate Anderson (and Philadelphia) before Anderson attacks him and the fight goes backstage. They make their way back to the ring and both men employ objects such as a guardrail and tables. After several near-falls, Anderson finally hits his mic check (reverse facebuster) through a table outside the ring for the pin.

The four-way match between Winter, Mickie James, Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky for the Knockouts Championship is about as chaotic as you might expect, especially with the obviously biased Karen Jarrett as guest referee. With little regard for any rules, it’s hard to keep up with who the legal competitor is and who is interfering. When Winter inadvertently spits red mist into Jarrett’s face, it looks as if James is going to pin Winter to win the title. Traci Brooks runs to the ring to make the count, but by then it’s Sky who gets the win to regain the Knockouts belt.

Before the I Quit match between AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels gets underway, a nice video package recaps their rivalry dating back to their early X Division battles at the Asylum in the six-sided ring. Once the match gets started, Daniels‘ arrogance is apparent as he aggressively tries to make Styles quit very early on. The two trade submission moves until Daniels opens a toolbox and throws a wrench at the steel steps (to prove that these are real tools, I guess). He then tries to stab Styles in the face with a screwdriver, making it clear that their longtime friendship is definitely over. Styles ducks and Daniels embeds the screwdriver into the turnbuckle before hitting a beautiful Best Moonsault Ever to continue his dominance. Daniels goes on to straddle Styles’ neck with a steel chair while threatening to make everything Styles has done for TNA his own. A smack to Styles head with a microphone draws blood and Daniels instructs Styles’ wife Wendy to take the kids away from the TV screen because he’s going to murder Styles. Styles has time to recover a bit and when Daniels tries to smash him with the chair, Styles fights back, hitting him with a vicious series of clostheslines and kicks. He then nails Daniels with the Pelé kick, followed by the Styles Clash, before picking up the screwdriver. As soon as Daniels sees the screwdriver in Styles’ hand, he pleads “just don’t hurt me” before quitting and running to the back. As Styles celebrates his victory atop the entrance ramp, Daniels reemerges and attacks Styles from behind to get the last laugh.

Jeff Jarrett, who is not scheduled to wrestle, then comes to the ring and says, “Nero, I’m calling you out, bitch.” Jeff Hardy answers and a fight ensues. Security eventually breaks them up while the crowd chants, “Let them fight!” That leads right into the match between Hogan and Sting for control of TNA. Sting, still doing his mentally unstable Joker-like thing, comes to the ring in a purple trench coat that looks like a cross between a Mardi Gras marching band jacket and something Michael Jackson might have worn. When he removes his jacket, he reveals a Hulkamania T-shirt, which is clearly a psychology game on the part of the man who has been trying to get Hogan to return to his more noble ways. Hogan responds by signaling for Ric Flair to come from the back to be in his corner. Despite his recent back surgery and overall inability to move around like he used to, Hogan gets a surprising jump on Sting early on, Hulking up, then doing a D-Generation X-style crotch chop to anger Sting. Sting rips his Hulkamania shirt off and throws it at Flair, giving Hogan an opportunity to hit Sting. The fight goes to the floor and Flair and Hogan double-team Sting right in front of former TNA owner Dixie Carter, who will regain control of the company if Sting is victorious. Hogan hits a low blow on Sting and referee Jackson James inexplicably does nothing to stop Hogan and Flair’s dirty tactics.

Hogan hits Sting in the head with a foreign object of some sort before throwing a now-bleeding Sting back into the ring. As Hogan does some Flair-like gloating, Sting takes him down and uses the same foreign object on Hogan. With both men bleeding, Sting hits Hogan with a Stinger Splash in the corner, then locks on the Scorpion Deathlock. Despite the fact that Hogan taps out, the referee (who is revealed to be Garett Bischoff, son of longtime Hogan cohort Eric Bischoff) is reluctant to end the match, but finally awards the victory to Sting. Eric Bischoff, Flair and the rest of Immortal (Scott Steiner, Bully Ray and Gunner) rush to the ring and start beating Sting down with chairs. Garett has a change of heart and tries to stop his father, but Eric hits him with a chair as Flair continues the assault on Sting. Former Immortal member Abyss is seen watching from behind the curtain while Sting crawls to Hogan’s feet and begs for his help. With the audience’s encouragement, Hogan tears his shirt off and takes out the members of Immortal one at a time until there’s a standoff with Immortal stuck between Hogan and Sting. Immortal is vanquished and Hogan and Sting celebrate in the ring while Carter and her husband rejoice from ringside. Considering Hogan’s recent medical issues, and the fact that both of these guys are in their 50s, this match is a lot better than expected. Sting does carry most of the match, but the involvement of the rest of Immortal and Garett helps offset some of Hogan’s complications in the ring.

While Hogan, Sting and most of the members of Immortal are icons of wrestling’s past, Roode is one of TNA’s homegrown talents and has become the younger guy most fans want to see carrying the company. (Keep in mind Bound for Glory took place just weeks before Roode broke a bottle over his Beer Money tag team partner James Storm, effectively turning on the fans and the company.) Having won the Bound for Glory Series, Roode earned a shot at Angle‘s TNA World Heavyweight Championship. And having overcome Angle’s gauntlet on Impact Wrestling, where Roode was forced to square off against his Fortune stablemates and friends in the weeks leading up to Bound for Glory, Roode enters this match with a lot of momentum and appears to be ready to win his first TNA World Championship.

As the match begins, Angle immediately takes control with his grappling skills. But Angle gets a little too cocky and when he goes to the top rope for a moonsault, Roode hits him with a suplex off the top rope, proving he can hang with Angle as a wrestler. Roode soon follows that up with a crossface submission move, which Angle reverses into an ankle lock. Angle and Roode trade blows, wrestling moves and submission maneuvers, with Roode getting a few two-counts on Angle. But this back-and-forth culminates with an Angle Slam. Angle goes for another slam, which Roode counters with an arm drag. Angle resorts to a low blow, then hits Roode with two suplexes, but Roode counters a third suplex with another crossface submission move. Angle gets to the ropes, the two exchange some blows, then Angle comes off the second rope and falls right into another crossface. Angle counters with another Angle Slam then gets the pin while using the rope for leverage (and while Roode’s hand is under the rope). But since referee Brian Hebner doesn’t see any of that, the win goes to Angle.

With TNA fans and wrestlers alike rallying behind Roode during the build-up to this match, as well as the emotional battle that shows Roode coming so close to becoming the TNA Champion on several occassions, this convoluted ending is incredibly disappointing. But it’s a great match nonetheless and shows that the outcome could have gone either way. But such an anticlimactic ending (not because of who won, but how he won) leaves this Bound for Glory feeling a bit empty. And had Roode not left Bound for Glory feeling like he was screwed out of the title, he may never have resorted to the unscrupulous tactics he has since adopted.

Though Bound for Glory is not yet the pop culture spectacle that WrestleMania has become for WWE, it’s still the biggest event of the year for a company whose history isn’t nearly as rich as its more established rival. And even though this DVD is dominated by wrestling veterans who are past their prime, it also serves as a passing of the torch in many respects, with younger TNA talents proving their worth, and political power being wrestled away from Hogan and Bischoff.

The second disc features exclusive Before the Bell previews for each match, a Roode video package, wrestler interviews, the Bound for Glory pre-show (including the World Tag Team Championship match between Mexican America and Ink Inc.) and other extras.

For more information, go to www.shoptna.com.