Eric Bischoff: “I think Dixie Carter deserves a lot more respect and credit than she gets”
With Dark Side of the Ring spotlighting TNA’s history, Eric Bischoff defended former TNA president Dixie Carter during an episode of 83 Weeks. Bischoff stated the following…
“I think Dixie deserves a lot more respect and credit than she gets. I’ll be honest, I’ve been a little hard on Dixie from time to time when this subject comes up, but I don’t think I’ve been unfair.
I think Dixie is one of the nicest people I’ve ever worked with. I think she’s got a very good heart. I think her intentions when she got involved with TNA were as righteous as yours or mine would be in that same situation. I think she had every intention of really trying to make a go of it.
But she wasn’t prepared for it, and neither was anybody around her. That was her biggest problem. She didn’t have anybody around her who really understood, A, entertainment, and B, the wrestling business.
The wrestling business is unique. Professional wrestling as a televised property is a unique business model. She was surrounded by a bunch of people who were probably successful in other parts of their lives, whatever that may have been. Some of them were tangentially in the music business in one way, shape, or form, as most people in Nashville are at one point in time or another, but they had zero feel, instinct, or experience for the professional wrestling business.
Because Dixie wasn’t surrounded by enough people who could insulate her from bad choices, bad decisions, or bad directions, she became a victim. ‘Victim’ is not the right word—she got pulled in a lot of different directions, and she didn’t have enough knowledge or experience of her own to make decisions that were really hers. I think she was so heavily influenced by so many people, and unfortunately, there were people who didn’t know their ass from a bag of rocks when it came to the wrestling business.”