The most confusing aspect of TNA's recent courting of Paul Heyman for their ECW invasion angle and a spot on their creative team was their apparent conviction that he was going to appear at their recent Victory Road PPV, despite Heyman publicly denying that would be the case. Given Heyman's track record as a master spin doctor who's economic with the truth, one could be forgiven for believing that he was stringing a gullible Dixie Carter along for a ride. However, it turns out that he was the honest one and Dixie Carter was the liar and all along was working the wrestling media, her company's fans and most of her talent roster, as Dave Meltzer reported in the July 26th 2010 Wrestling Observer Newsletter:
The irony of the ECW angle and Paul Heyman is that sources close to both Dixie Carter and Heyman, as well as Heyman himself, all confirm that on 7/8, when Heyman flew to Nashville to meet with Carter at her home, that Heyman told her he was against the angle. What is interesting is those close to Carter were well aware there was no deal after the meeting, yet she and Jeff Jarrett still hinted about their secret meeting with an unknown person and how changes were coming, teasing a surprise on the PPV. There were key people in the TNA organization fully aware Heyman wasn’t coming and there was no surprise past some sort of ECW angle coming that everyone had known about for weeks.
However, much of the talent the day of the PPV did expect Heyman to be there. Heyman himself was contacted by talent in the promotion close to him the day of the show who thought he was hiding in Orlando and would show up at the end of the show, even though he did respond and tell people he was in New York and wouldn’t be at the show.
I suspect the "key people" clued in included Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo, which shows how little they learned from the demise of WCW, because they didn't stop Dixie Carter from making a similar mistake. Those three regularly ran insider angles at WCW that required them to work the boys in the back, all of which meant nothing for business as they went over the average fan's head and only served to increase their talent's distrust in them. And well that's what happened here too, as Victory Road likely drew the same 8,000 buys their previous two PPVs drew, and according to Dave Meltzer their talent ended up demoralized by their bait and switch promotional tactics:
It was said to be a real mood change at TV on 7/12, the day after the PPV when the talent, which is just looking for some kind of carrot to hang onto so they can believe things are going to turn around, realized the stories out all day on Sunday were true and Heyman had not agreed to a deal, wasn’t coming and the sides really weren’t even close either financially or philosophically.
So what's the punchline to this stupidity. According to Jason Powell of prowrestling.net, Dixie Carter has finally got around to watching Paul Heyman's interview with Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez after UFC 116 and ever since then she's been in a foul mood. Aww, poor Pinnochio has had her feelings hurt by honest Mister Geppetto! Maybe it's the part at 12:20, where Heyman rants about how TNA hasn't got a fucking clue as to how to make a star, they don't understand how to market their television, their current television sucks and their brand means shit that got her in such a bad mood. She probably also wouldn't have been too keen on Heyman being so adamant that he wouldn't be at the Victory Road PPV, which exposed the con she was planning. So basically at this point the Heyman deal is dead in the water, but expect her to call him back soon with a better deal, because this bunch of out of touch idiots aren't going to be the people who turn her company around.