Considering the current state of TNA, there's no better time than now to get a tell all interview with promotion President Dixie Carter. That's exactly what Sports Illustrated did and it was full of interesting tidbits.
Go check out the entire interview by clicking here.
Among the topics covered was how beneficial Carter believed Hulk Hogan was during his time there and whether or not he was worth what he was paid:
"Yes, I think Hulk has been worth it. He's opened a lot of doors for us. When you're about to lose a deal in an international territory and one phone call from Hulk Hogan makes a man who doesn't even speak your language melt and you get your deal back, that carries a lot of weight. There's not another guy out there who could do that. If we did anything wrong with him, we used him too much on television. If he stayed with us, you'd probably see less of him."
She makes a good point and there's no questioning he helps a great deal on that side of the business. However, she's also right in saying he had far too much presence on television. The problem? He had creative control written into his contract and there's simply no way he was going to take a reduced role.
Elsewhere, she spoke of recent releases:
"Some people were let go... They didn't resonate. They didn't move the needle or the contract they wanted wasn't something that was good for this company. Sorry, but this company has to be in business in 10, 20 years from now. I have to run a company and grow it. I'm to the point right now where things have to be a certain way for us."
As well as taking TNA on the road before tucking tail and heading back to Orlando:
"We went on the road thinking if we could sell 1,500-2,000 tickets, we'd be good. We went in with a very conservative budget. We didn't come out here thinking we'd sell out arenas. The truth is we exceeded those budget numbers. We hit our revenue numbers, but we overspent when it came to loading out of the Universal studio. There was a two-month overlap that cost us... I think we've learned a lot from this. We learned that the show has to be shaken up, not the venue."
She makes plenty of good points throughout the entire interview, and it's hard to argue too much with her logic. Then again, her decisions over the past few years are damning enough as actions that speak much louder than her words explaining them.