Hardcore Justice? More like Hardcore Injustice!

Last night was really a night of injustice rather than justice.  Firstly, the fans in the Impact Zone in their desperation to please pissed on the rebellious legacy of ECW by showering Dixie Carter at the end of the show with "thank you Dixie" and "TNA" chants.  It may have been a perfect ending for the audience of one Tommy Dreamer and Vince Russo were really catering the show towards, but honestly for the viewing audience at home it was sad and tone deaf.  Could you imagine the reaction Vince McMahon would have gotten if he walked into the Hammerstein Ballroom at the end of the first One Night Stand PPV show and tried to take credit for the generosity of allowing it to take place?  He would have been booed out of the building.  In essence the Impact Zone fans were guilty of what the old ECW fans accused every wrestler who sensibly jumped ship to the WWF and WCW for more money.  They sold out and compromised their principles for one last night of nostalgia.

The injustice doesn't end there.  Despite the show being shoddily promoted (most of the line up wasn't even announced on TV, relying instead on Dixie Carter's Twitter feed) and, as jlamb detailed, questionably executed, the big winners last night were likely to be Tommy Dreamer and Vince Russo, who may have successfully conned Dixie, through all the chants for her, into thinking that the show was a big success.  Dreamer may even be rewarded with a permanent position on TNA's creative team through this carny trick.

But wait there's more!  Dixie would be rewarding someone who willfully traumatised his two six year old daughters by mutilating himself right in front of them to get over his fake pro wrestling storyline.  Just like Mick Foley traumatised his young children by allowing them to see The Rock bash his brains in with a steel chair for Beyond The Mat and Mark Coleman did by allowing his daughters see Fedor Emelianenko beat him senseless.  The wrestling media was united in their condemnation of TNA for allowing this incident to happen.  Bryan Alvarez and his friend Vinny went on a passionate rant against Dreamer for being so screwed up to think such behaviour was acceptable on the August 8th Observer Radio Show.  Dave Meltzer later added that it was "horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible" and was "appalled" by it.  Wade Keller summed things up nicely on his VIP blog: 

One of the most egregious lapses in judgment I've seen in pro wrestling came on tonight's show.

For the parents of those two little girls to script and sanction them to be sitting four feet away from their father getting hit with a chair in the skull and bleeding was inexcusable.

For Dixie Carter to allow that, and be part of it by sitting next to them so she could be the one to order security to take them away, was inexcusable.

Those girls are not old enough to fully grasp real and fake, especially because the blood is real and the chairshot to their father's skull wasn't fake.