10 Times Impact Wrestling Went Too Far
3. Sit Down & Shut Up
The success of the Stone Cold Steve Austin/Mr McMahon storyline in 1998 following Eric Bischoff’s defection to the New World Order in 1996 gave creative heads and wrestling promoters a false impression that fans were completely enthralled by the backstage hierarchical administration that takes place in running a wrestling company like a business.
Often, companies can use their audience’s increased knowledge of insider dealings to play into a storyline in order to elevate talent or present a new heel boss, but babyface Dixie Carter’s passive aggressive b*llocking of her loyal roster TNA that aired on a November 2009 edition of Impact was a gross misread of how to utilise the technique.
Responding to several talents’ public concern on the hefty financing of Hulk Hogan's impending arrival, she inadvertently took on the role of a bullish headmistress chastising schoolchildren that weren’t 100% committed to her and her alone.
Demanding full surrender to her methods, she exclaimed "When you question things in this company, you question me. And I cannot have that”, before getting a little more threatening by suggesting that talent could “choose to support me, choose to support the direction TNA is going, or you can choose not to, but you’ll need to find another place to work”. Dividing to rule as she closed her monologue, she doubled down on her message. “I’m asking all of you to step it up. If you don’t believe it, you’re hurting the person next to you, you’re hurting me, you’re hurting our fans”
Unnecessarily brutal and completely misguided, it shone a light into some significant problems afoot for the group, and foreshadowed the complete collapse of the decade’s most diverse talent roster in the months and years to come.