Original subtitles

Previously on Dark Side of the Ring. There would have never been TNA

without Jeff Jarrett.

Jeff Jarrett is not only a long -time professional wrestler, but he's a third

-generation promoter.

He's done everything in wrestling, but it was all with the eye on owning the

company. In 2001, Jeff Jarrett and his father, Jerry, founded TNA.

The early days of TNA, our biggest thing was we had to find out a path to

survival. They were mixing traditional wrestling with sports entertainment,

outrageous comedy, always teetering on the edge of disaster.

What do you think, I'm spanking my monkey?

We could do whatever we wanted to do.

I wanted to take a little bit from everybody, but I had a vision for what I

wanted the company to be.

Though TNA's early years were marked by financial struggles, Jerry Jarrett's

bitter departure, and the loss of Jeff's wife, Jill, the company's challenges

are far from over.

There's somewhat of a pattern between Jeff's story and TNA's story in that

get knocked down and they still get back up.

The journey that I had traveled, I never dreamed in my wildest dreams the set of

circumstances would go down to take my figure plans off of the brand.

When things went down, me and several others' heads rolled.

In 2002, just weeks after its first pay -per -view event, TNA lost its funding,

forcing founder Jeff Jarrett to seek new investors, Bob and Janice Carter and

their company Panda Energy.

But the deal comes with one small catch.

Who is Dixie Carter?

Dixie Carter.

Dixie Carter. Dixie Carter was the president of TNA when I joined. You

he's the daughter of Bob Carter.

When Panda came along, they took majority and they took financial

And I understood that. I had a decision. Do I want to stay alive or do I want

100 % of nothing?

So Dixie was named more or less as a figurehead president. She was kind of

faith of her father's investment.

But I was still the single largest shareholder of the company when they

I had the most to gain or lose in all decisions.

Dixie was a very charming southern belle.

Super warm and friendly, and she didn't know shit about pro wrestling.

So there was a lot of chatter that the Jarretts had found themselves a money

mark.

The money mark is the person who is such a fan or so easily swayed.

They will put up all their money just to be involved in this.

Did Dixie know wrestling? No.

But she showed up every day in that office. She tried to get involved. She

to learn.

You know, in my position, it's my responsibility. Really, it's my duty to

people focused and motivated.

As long as she stays out of the way and signs the checks and lets the

professionals handle the wrestling in, everything will be fine.

The way I look at it, People that want a TNA to survive and thrive, they should

be happy that it stayed afloat because her family invested in it.

At the end of the day, what does the business do? We come here to make money.

The promotion always comes first. We wanted to continue to grow as fast as we

could, and we were doing exactly that.

2004, 2005, the brand was really picking up momentum.

the right talent, the right network, the right time slot.

We were really clicking.

And then when I heard that Kurt Angle was going to be available, I said, if we

can get him, TNA would really, really grow to another level.

Kurt had just come off a successful run at WWE.

He was world champ multiple times. He was one of the hottest things in the

business.

There really was nothing else to prove over there. And I saw a company on the

rise. It was right here at TNA.

Just look at the lineage and the pedigree he brings to the table. He was

Olympic gold medalist. He personified total nonstop action.

I knew he wasn't happy with WWE.

Me and Dixie had a couple of phone calls.

I knew that, okay, this is a Bob Carter decision.

And Bob asked me, sell me on Kurt Angle. And I said, what's the name of our

company, Bob?

I said, it's total nonstop action. I said, if you want a wrestling machine,

that's what we're getting in Kurt Angle.

This was like me handing off the baton.

The day we signed Kurt Angle, we had our guy.

Can you believe it? Kurt Angle's in the impact zone!

When Kurt Angle made his debut, it's when Samoa Joe was holding the belt.

And the energy between Kurt Angle's faith and Samoa Joe in the ring, it was

incredible. And I'm cutting this with such excitement.

Kurt gets in there, headbutt, knocks Joe out.

And my God, the crowd erupted.

Kurt Angle came in to beat the shit out of the whole world.

I'm on the tight shot of Kurt Angle. All of a sudden, in the background, Samoa

Joe rises behind him, bloody, and Kurt let us know that he's behind him.

It felt so real.

That validated us on every single level. Kurt Angle coming there, legitimized

that TNA was for real.

It was one of those...

Moments that the way the people responded was exactly the way we wanted

Kurt Angle, welcome to TNA.

He's just somebody to strive to be. He's a wonderful leader who sets the bar so

high. Where he was at in his career, his style and being able to work with

different talents, everything that went with it, he identified the brand better

than any single talent.

When those chants would start to ring out, it was, in a lot of ways,

I just knew the company is going to a different level.

We had a video game. We had action figures. We had licensees. Our

sales were booming.

Yes, we had had some great talent acquisitions, but his was at the very

TNA draws fans with a combination of familiar star power and a unique high

-flying style unlike anything fans have ever seen before.

It's four distinct divisions.

Heavyweights, tags, activations, and knockouts.

Long before there was the women's wrestling revolution in WWE, there was

knockouts division.

They started putting focus on serious women's matches instead of lingerie

bullshit matches.

It was women's professional wrestling presented in main event slots with main

event talent, with main event storylines.

And the cornerstone of that division was a young lady by the name of Awesome

Kong. Awesome Kong!

A lot of people ask me, like, what do you do?

I'd be like, I throw bitches.

That's what I do. I pick bitches up and I throw them.

My name is Kia Stevens.

You know me as Awesome Kong.

When I got hired, I felt like I was home.

I want to dedicate.

myself and my skills to making this company the number one company in the

There was a point in the late 2000s when our knockouts were the

highest rated matches.

We'd have to have them at our main events on our weekly show because

drawing the highest numbers. I mean, numbers don't lie.

The fans wanted this. The fans were demanding this, to respect women's

wrestling. It's amazing what women can do when there's no glass ceiling.

Jeff was very firm on the fact that each one of those divisions can headline a

show, and it did. And each one of those divisions is important and has stars,

and it did.

This perfect storm of magic was happening, and that six -sided ring was

It represented us. It was our thing.

Jeff called me. They're going to expand it into a two -hour show.

We're going to need some more producers.

I said, okay, I'll do it. We can do this, right? One more time for me, DNA!

They put all the pieces together in the right place and started to have a

vision. The ratings were doing pretty well.

DNA became a viable number two in the country.

Outwardly, everything's going right.

But inwardly, in my personal life, it was just a real...

Tough time.

I lost my wife to breast cancer.

I don't know if it's the paradoxical side, the dichotomy, in that my personal

life at times has really hit some real bottoms. And my professional life

had some real peaks and vice versa.

I had a responsibility to take care of myself and my family, but I also knew

my entire life.

I knew how to put on a mask.

And so for me to survive emotionally, I'm here to go to work.

That's what I'm here to do.

Wrestling's like showbiz.

If you get something and you lose it, you're afraid you can't get it back.

You got to remember his money was on the line too, so he had to keep the train

rolling.

I think he was trying to lead by example, but suppressing.

He was just trying to keep the team believing, keep us running through those

walls for Jeff, and we did.

When you're in charge of a television production, there's no off season,

no off days, except in this case, it can't be healthy.

If you don't go through the grieving process, the grief is always there,

you know it or not.

In a lot of ways, I look at the industry and know that it's the one thing that's

always been there for me.

I never gave a second thought that a big power play was coming.

This business, you know, they say that fame changes folks.

The real reality is fame doesn't change folks. It reveals folks.

As the ratings continue to go up and Dixie's title of president of TNA

Entertainment grew, she wanted more.

I had a video game call, and one of the guys on the call said, Hey, Jeff, I

don't think you have to be on the next call.

Dixie told us that she'll take your place.

I said, she did.

When I hung up that call, I knew Dixie began her

strategy.

With Jeff Jarrett focused on his family following the passing of his wife, Jill,

Dixie Carter becomes increasingly influential within TNA. Dixie was

She was out signing autographs, taking pictures with fans.

She was always around.

Dixie naturally wanted more people to recognize her, and nobody was talking

about Dixie Carter. She writes checks.

Well, you know, I am a behind -the -scenes type of person. I like to keep

focus on those great guys and girls that are in the ring.

Dixie was the president of a company in a male -dominated business and the next

highest -ranking female in that office when I joined it with Caroline, our

receptionist. Like many women, multiple times I'm sure she's dealt with

misogyny. She's dealt with people that dismissed her simply based off of

I did respect Dixie because she was a woman in wrestling, so I wanted her to

succeed more than anybody.

I love the fact that she kind of rolled the dice and invested in TNA. So I got

lots of love for Dixie Carter personally.

But there came a time that she really got tired of Jeff and his crew getting

all the credit.

Whether you liked Jeff's vision or didn't like Jeff's vision, he had a

And Jeff also had a fiscal responsibility.

I think that if Dixie wanted something, she was going to have something.

They were trying to get stars. They were trying to get people that were

established. Now viewed as WWE's main competition, TNA begins attracting

names, eager to take advantage of the opportunity.

In more ways than one. Obviously, WWE is well rehearsed. It is well laid out.

TNA kind of gave the talent more freedom to play in the ring.

More fly by the seat of your pants. More chaotic.

It was about entertaining and having fun.

Some of those guys that came over from WWE really were assets that helped us

make other people. And I think some of them just showed up.

The ex -WWE guys are coming down here for a paid vacation to lay on their ass

and not give a shit.

There were some business decisions that were very sketchy at that time, no

doubt. We have the permission to do anything we damn well please.

There were many stories with Dixie getting, you know, seduced, should I

the shams of the behind -the -scenes in wrestling.

I'll never forget a time when I was sitting next to her and Kevin Nash at

bar at Universal Studios.

Kevin is just schmoozing her because his contract is up. There's Nash sitting

right next to her, pouring her another glass of wine. Here you go, Dixie. Let

tell you again all the things you need to know.

Dixie, you know what I can't wait for? And she's like, what? I can't wait until

we become number one and we can go tell Vince, gulp yourself.

And that's what Dixie wanted to hear.

They all...

In their own ways, you know, buttered her up, took advantage of her, whatever

the case.

Everybody in pro wrestling behind the scenes is working with somebody else.

There is no sincerity for the most part.

She's swimming with carny sharks, and she doused herself in blood before she

in the water.

As Dixie Carter focuses her attention on high -profile stars, the wrestlers who

built TNA begin to feel overlooked.

I do think they've reached a point in time with bringing in...

So many ex -WWE guys that it certainly didn't help the morale backstage.

And it kind of felt like she didn't appreciate her homegrown talent.

Kurt is making about a little over a million dollars a year. Kurt Angle

more than a million dollars a year, in my opinion. Can you tell me that I'm not

worth one -tenth of Kurt Angle?

So I asked for a raise.

Let them know that as you break it down, I make less than a manager at

McDonald's. The reply that I got was, we do not dispute any of the points you

made. However, we cannot pay you that sum at this time.

There was more than two TNA knockouts who held

the TNA title.

that had to moonlight in, I would say, very blue -collar jobs.

One worked at a bar.

She would be on TV, and the customers would say, isn't that you?

And she would say, yes.

May I take your order?

Dixie knows that we're struggling, and she's still hiring people in front of

If you're putting all these other folks on a pedestal instead of your own

people, we're never going to make it, you know? You've got to believe in us

way we're believing in us.

But with Dixie serving as president and Jeff overseeing creative, many within

TNA are left unsure of who is really in charge.

I assumed that Dixie was the boss, but there wasn't a clear line.

It felt more like Dixie was in charge, but Jeff ran the thing.

The only thing I knew about Jeff Jarrett is that he carried a guitar and he used

to work with Chyna, my hero.

That was it. I didn't even know he started TNA. And because Dixie liked to

promote herself, he would tell everybody who the hell she was. She was Dixie

Carter and she was the mother boss.

I always either call Jeff J -double or I call him boss.

Dixie pulled me aside and said, you are not to call Jeff boss.

This is when I'm starting to realize how deep the power struggle is. At the

time, the creative team is myself and Jeff and Dutch Mantel. There was never

jealousy. There was never fighting.

We were all contributing like literally as a team.

Things stopped going well when Dixie would cross over into creative.

That was kind of out of bounds when it came to Jeff.

I'd heard the little inklings from Russo that, hey, Maybe we should do this or

maybe we should do that creatively and I'd press Vince. Why are you saying

Well, Dixie wants that.

Jeff would make her feel like you know nothing about the wrestling business.

Keep your mouth shut. He didn't say that, but that's what he was getting

The thing is, you don't want to fill a creative room with all people that are

going to agree with you or see things the same way.

The problem is you've got black and you've got white.

Sometimes the worst possible thing to do is gray.

I think it led sometimes to a disjointed show.

I've never eaten marijuana in my whole life.

Dixie and Jeff are constantly butting heads.

Dutch and I are always in the middle of that. When Dixie had an issue with Jeff,

she would come to me. I think at some point, Vance Russo became a lightning

Anything that was different, anything that wasn't good, he was going to get

blamed for.

You can see right there.

You know, like seriously, my critic, sometimes, honestly, you could just

freaking blow me.

In wrestling, man, where passions fuel everything, hate is the strongest

involved. Each one is vying for control and top position.

There's no way that's going to work.

I think there's lots of people who spend a lot of time trying to convince Dixie

that Jeff was holding the company back and that they needed to go in a

direction. I had heard rumblings that there was tension between Dixie and Jeff

for various things. That eventually blew up much worse later with the Karen

Angle situation.

Karen Angle was Kurt Angle's wife.

There were always parties after the TNA TV taping. And then you would always

start hearing that Jeff and Karen were there and Kurt was not.

You know, there was always the...

Underline, hey, wonder what's going on there.

The word on the street was that Karen had left Kurt for Jeff.

They were having an affair.

The perception was this was something illicit happening.

At a corporate level, that's just a no -no.

If here's the boss and his number one talent and you, like, with his

wife.

I can understand.

I don't know exactly why. You got to ask her.

Karen don't hide nothing. She'll tell you. She'll tell you.

Is this your first time doing an interview like this?

I've never talked about it.

Ever.

Ever.

I've never felt I needed to discuss it or that it was anyone's business.

But this is a part of Jeff's story.

It needs to be made right.

Things are never what they seem.

I'm here to set the record straight.

I will say this. The only thing that's thrown me off so far since we started

you saying that people thought Kurt and I were still together.

How do you want to be introduced?

That you're the wife of Jeff? Yeah, that's what I am.

People thinking that that marriage got broken up by a love affair couldn't

be more wrong.

Kurt and I were legally separated in 2006.

I was pregnant and living in a townhome with my daughter. At the time, Kurt was

going through some very dark days. He had been released from WWE.

TNA was his only other option at that time, and he really needed me to pretend

we were the perfect couple and family.

But in reality, it couldn't have been more broken.

I wanted things to be good for my kids.

I thought, okay, well, if he gets this job and he does this, like, he will

get his life on track.

And that wasn't the reality.

When Kurt came to TNA, I don't want to give the impression he's just some, you

know, wild rock and roll lifestyle guy that's doing rugs on purpose. He'd

his neck in the Olympics. And my God, he was just injuries everywhere.

After every match that Kurt Angle did in TNA, you'd go back to the dressing

trailers and he'd be laid out on the floor with an ice pack on his shoulder,

pack on his neck, ice pack on his back.

But then the very next day.

Red light, camera came on, he'd do the same thing again.

Unbelievable!

Oh, my God! So Karen came along as part of the package to get Kurt to the show

and back to the hotel, and it worked for a while.

You know, Kurt was having more bad days than good days. I'm trying to say that

as nicely as possible. You could tell in Kurt's eyes at work how bad he was

struggling. It was no secret.

It goes without saying the amount of pressure that goes on.

He was our top star.

The disease of addiction is undefeated, battling it alone.

I looked at Karen as the top talent's wife, was so glad that she was there

supporting him, and he was motivated to get things turned around.

And so that was...

you know, the extent of our relationship, if you could call it that.

Kurt and Karen would show up with the kids.

Kurt even called me on the phone because he was trying to get Karen on TV.

You know what, you skank? I know the real reason you're here.

I have no idea how the f*** they convinced me to be on camera.

But I did it. You can take that gold medal and you can stick it where the sun

doesn't shine.

I think I let a lot of frustrations out.

I think their thoughts were, if Karen's here, maybe she can keep

him straight.

I definitely really gave it a shot and tried.

But I think there was so much damage.

I became angry, I became resentful, and I left.

I can assure you that Dixie Carter, Jeff Jarrett, Vince

Russo, all knew the reality of my marriage with Kurt Angle. It was

over.

When Jeff called me to convince me to stay with Kurt, wanting to check,

Is there anything they can do?

Actually recited some scripture to me and talked to me about his wife that had

passed away.

That was the first phone conversation that I had with Jeff Jarrett.

And I can remember all I could think was, they don't make men like this.

There came a time when Karen had had enough.

That's when the divorce proceedings started.

She went home and there was no law on the show.

And I didn't see her from that point forward for months.

And kind of one day out of the blue, I get the call.

And, hey, how are you?

I wasn't looking for anything.

I just wanted to live.

Jeff was so full of life and so happy.

I loved being around him.

There was just a good energy.

We began to develop a friendship.

When I knew that Kurt was seeing other people, I'm like, okay, let's see

where this goes.

Backstage, I don't think anyone truly had a grasp of what was going on because

your only point of reference was what you could see with your own eyes.

That's what started leading to a lot of problems between Jeff and Dixie. And

that's when the power struggle really started to play out.

When I was real young, I woke up every Saturday morning and watched my dad on

television.

And I want to follow in his footsteps and be the best wrestler I can.

At the end of the day, life happens.

I lost my wife to breast cancer.

I'm a single dad raising three kids.

It's time for me to move on.

And I did.

This was never an affair.

This was two people falling in love and bettering their lives.

I'm a lucky man because I've got to fall in love not once but twice.

I looked at it as my personal life is my personal life and my business life is

my business life.

The rumor and innuendo was so spun out of control in that the sneaky hiding

around nonsense, it just was never in the equation.

We hid it from no one or nobody within TNA, outside of TNA.

Everyone knew. From Kurt to the creative team,

everyone knew.

But then, you know.

There's Dixie Carter.

She's the only one that didn't know.

And I think she was embarrassed what she did found out.

I think Jeff felt so comfortable at one point that he had a party and he invited

Dixie to come over to it. And Dixie goes, rings the bell, and Jeff and

Karen are hosting the party together.

To me, She was elated.

Oh, I'm so happy.

No issue, no anger, no red flags that I detected from her at

all.

And I get a call from Dixie and she's cutting a hellacious promo on me.

How did you not tell me Jeff and Karen are together?

I've always heard about Dixie looking for reasons to send Jeff home.

And this, he just gave her a reason. Because Dixie was the last to know that

might have pissed her off.

And then somebody, one of the boys or someone in the office told the dirt

sheets.

James out of Orlando, you're on protection, James.

Hi. Hi, I just wanted to call you up and let you know, man. You know, Karen

Engel, she's actually living with Jeff Jarrett now.

And Dixie is. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

And Dixie is upset, man.

And boom, that gave her the foothold. This was her reason, her excuse

to put Jeff to the side once and for all and be able to run the company on her

own.

I think she'd been waiting for the moment.

And when the time came and I gave her the rope, she snatched it.

Jeff Jarrett, the delusional optimist that always looks at things in a

way, thought Dixie Carter would actually be happy for him.

Lost his wife, has three daughters that he has to take care of, found love a

second time. How rare is that?

But instead, what did she do?

She nuked his whole life.

I was given documents sent from Panda Energy that had me removed and said

that I was no longer executive producer, no longer the head of creative.

And I get the lawyer calls and, hey, Jeff, we're going to send you home with

pay. We just got to let things subside and all this kind of nonsense.

But I knew exactly what was going on.

The bottom line is there was a personal situation that affected.

And it put all of us in a very difficult position.

Jeff was placed on leave, both as a talent and in his

capacity with the company.

In those early days of the formation of T &A, it had been such an uphill climb

and struggle.

And it just felt like...

The walls literally began to crumble around me before my very eyes.

It didn't have to happen. It really didn't have to happen.

But that's, you know, what ego will do.

It was a power struggle and a power grab.

And it was shock through the locker room.

The heart and soul of wrestling.

of this company is now being removed from this company.

So what's going to happen now?

Despite remaining a major stakeholder in the company, Jeff Jarrett is frozen out

of TNA's day -to -day operations.

Jeff was heartbroken.

Crushed.

And that's where it's so sad.

It was his whole life and the company he started.

I apologized over and over again and felt like I destroyed his life.

I still feel responsible.

I had multiple conversations with him where I was like, we just need to end

And he just was like, absolutely not.

Absolutely not.

I looked at her.

And I said, do you not think I've already really thought this through?

You would think that someone being sent home could destroy a relationship that

had just started, but it didn't.

It only made the two of us stronger.

Not many women can say, my husband risked everything to be with me.

My husband risked absolutely everything.

to be with me.

This is what happens in the TNA offices.

Oh, two in the morning.

It's about half an hour before we open the doors until they run in.

From 2002 till September 2009, those seven plus

years were my vision of TNA.

That's my baby.

And 2009,

From January to September, it was the most successful ratings run that TNA had

ever had.

In September is when Dixie pulled the power play.

Dixie wanted to make her father proud, and I understood that better than

anybody.

She's not the first, certainly won't be the last, that would look at this

industry and say, I can do this. I can run this.

It looks real easy.

But boy, oh boy, she found out different.

Now firmly in control of TNA, Dixie Carter wastes no time putting her stamp

the company.

When Dixie sidelined Jeff, she empowered Ben Truso to have complete, total

creative control.

And then they fired Dutch.

And Dutch was Jeff's right hand man and had been actually the backbone of the

wrestling ideas of the creative team. It was clearly a cleansing of, you know,

Jeff Jarrett aligned people.

This is what Vince Russo actually does. Get ready, you sons of bitches.

It didn't really change without Jeff there because I always did my own thing.

Yeah, Dixie, that's not going to be a problem for the first time.

He had nobody policing his work. He had the free ride.

If Vince Russo was there, there would be five minutes of wrestling in a 120

-minute show.

Bro, we can't do pro wrestling.

Bro, what I do, I go in the other direction, bro. And that's why it works.

Every time we had something going, Russo has to put Sharkboy in a fish tank.

or something on our television to make it look like it's a goddamn

hallucination. Jim Cornette to this day does not understand this is a television

show. This is not a house show in Louisville, Kentucky.

It was frustrating to see the guys beating their bodies up in the ring, and

moron thinks he's writing goddamn daytime television.

Dixie thinks I'm not behind creative.

Russo's mad, so then they fired me.

What the did I do?

Did you ever make a terroristic threat to Vince Russo?

Well, it depends on what you call terroristic.

The letter was, and I quote, if I could kill Vince Russo and get away

with it, I would kill him.

You're going to kill somebody over professional wrestling?

Are you kidding me?

So they reported me to the FBI because he knows that I legitimately despise him

because he's a moron and he's in over his head.

You could see it coming down the road that this was the beginning of the end.

It's a hot mess.

Is the company over? Like, how do we survive this?

Dixie Carter is smarter than what people give her credit for.

She wanted the power.

He wanted to call the shots.

And she definitely took advantage of the situation.

To usher TNA into a new era, Dixie Carter devises an ambitious plan. To

off, she'll have to turn to someone she thought she no longer needed.

Within a month, I got a call.

Hey, Jeff, Dixie wants you to go to Tampa to meet with Hulk Hogan.

I was surprised.

It was a very revealing moment.

Had she had the real confidence to be the CEO, she'd have done it solo.

She knew without question that she needed Jeff to go or she wouldn't have

there. In his mind, Mr. Positive, eternal optimist, he thought Dixie was

bringing him back in.

Dixie Carter never wanted me out of TNA.

She wanted Jeff to work for Dixie.

You can roll over and play dead.

And die a slow death?

Or you can get up and fight like hell?

I'm going to put on a game face.

I said, hell yes.

He had to support three daughters.

He definitely had to play the game.

Dixie dangled the carrot and he grabbed it.

Months after sidelining Jeff Jarrett, Dixie Carter turns to him for help with

high stakes meeting with Hulk Hogan.

So me and Dixie, we got on the plane and flew down to Tampa, walk in,

and Hogan's there. And then to my surprise, so was Eric Bischoff.

When I first heard about TNA, frankly, I was very, I don't want to say negative,

but I didn't have a lot of high hopes. And let's be clear.

The only reason that I ended up meeting Dixie Carter was because of Hulk Hogan.

I'm Eric Bischoff, formerly of TNA, formerly president of WCW, formerly

manager of WWE.

In other words, I can't hold a job.

There are a lot of parallels between where WCW was in 1994 and where TNA was

2009.

Both companies needed that high -profile, well -recognized media star.

And just like Hulk was able to contribute to WCW and our success in 94,

same opportunity existed for TNA. I think Dixie would have much preferred to

have to deal with Eric Bischoff, but Hulk was pretty adamant.

Hulk liked to be surrounded by people that he trusted.

Hulk obviously trusted me.

Hulk Hogan had...

Real issues with Vince Russo, professionally, creatively.

And let me tell you who doesn't give a shit about this company.

That goddamn politician Hulk Hogan. Hulk made it clear that the only way he was

coming in is if I came with him to protect his character, to work on his

individual storylines, because Vince Russo is a fraud.

But I was confident that I could manage it on a day -to -day basis, and she

really wanted Hulk.

You know, I had worked for Eric at WCW and Hulk. I had 25, 30 year history.

In the meeting, it revealed to me immediately that he doesn't have a clue

TNA wrestling. Like zero clue or context of who or what we are.

I always said with a caveat, if he stays in his lane and does what he does best,

and that is a mouthpiece. Look at all the Hulkamaniacs. Can you hear them,

Gene?

If he's out playing that role for the brand, it's a win.

Anything else is a loss.

I never was really sure where Jeff fit into the equation. I knew that he had

some equity in the TNA organization, but it was pretty obvious that there was a

strained relationship between Dixie and Jeff.

That was one of the really unusual things right away.

From my perspective, at least, Dixie Carter was running the show.

Oh, boy.

From the time Hogan Bickoff came on board, I knew that my time

had come to an end at TNA.

I'll just say that I think Dixie was very nervous because she knew I knew

she did.

I know what you did to myself.

I know what you did to my three little girls.

I know what you're doing to the brand.

She knew I knew.

The one, the only, Hulk Hogan!

Jeff was used for a meeting and then sent back home.

I'd like to introduce you to my new business partner, Dixie Carter.

Dixie loved when Hulk came on board. She took that as her own signing. I am that

powerful. Your first thought is, it's Hulk Hogan. It's the biggest name this

industry has ever seen.

And he's choosing TNA. This can only be a positive thing, right?

When I heard that Hogan and Bischoff were coming in, I thought it was going

be a disaster.

Dixie was being manipulated by Master Carnies.

TNA is going to be the number one company in the world.

Vince Russo and Jeff, they protected Dixie for years.

For years. And she didn't know it.

They protected her from herself.

I think she thought, oh, I'm going to bring Hulk Hogan in here and everyone's

going to praise me. Oh, look what Dixie did.

Look what the Dixie did.

Dixie thought she'd seen the last of Jeff.

Well, the games had only just begun.

She wanted to bring in Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff.

To think me and Eric Bischoff could work together? Eric Bischoff is dead to me.

This is going to end up being a disaster, because it always is.

Slight change of plans here, ladies and gentlemen. The changes were drastic and

severe all at once.

The company went into a financial death spiral, but nobody's going to tell the

emperor. Dixie wanted a short of revolver out here, not on my watch.

I knew that I had to make progress quick or the wheels were going to fall off.

The reality was the progression of my disease was in full force.

And I had no idea.

I was headed for the biggest valley of my life.

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