10 Things We Learned From Dark Side Of The Ring: TNA (Part 3)
3. Why Russo Thought Hulk’s Exit Was “Disgusting”
As aforementioned, Vince Russo has previous with Hogan and is biased. Obviously. However, Russo nonetheless thought the way Hulk bowed out by having Dixie beg him to stay on camera and grovel at his feet was humiliating for her, for TNA, and showed how brutally bad the creative influence Hulk and Eric Bischoff had could be. Then, to VICE, Eric admitted it was his decision to have Carter “go as far as she did” on camera.
Jarrett thought it was “a masterpiece of a job to convince [Dixie] to do that”, and that it showed how much of a rookie she was to the machinations of the pro wrestling business. To him, it made no sense for her to go out there and literally beg for Hogan to stick around lest TNA be doomed. No other promoter in history would even contemplate putting themselves or their company in that sort of position with an outgoing star, even one as big as Hulk.
Russo described the sorry affair as "disgusting". The former WWE, WCW and TNA writer was clearly ready to shotgun blast his way through this segment without sugarcoating his thoughts. It was like all of his pent up rage from BATB 2000 exploded onto 'Dark Side'.
Everything said about Dixie on all 3 episodes led up to this moment. Those keenly aware of TNA's history knew it was coming at some point. Jarrett, Russo, Scott Steiner, David Sahadi and more torched it as nothing more than Hulk's ego clashing with Dixie's.
An embarrassing skit, to say the least.