If you somehow needed further proof that nobody producing TNA actually watches their own show, Dixie Carter addressed Vince McMahon’s now-infamous statement on Millenials and their failure to reach for that brass ring. Or, in TNA’s case, the dinky ring that doesn’t close all the way in the back that you get out of a grocery store vending machine.
“I can’t even comprehend that statement. It doesn’t sit with our group. My own roster’s completely different than that. I don’t have a complaint about anybody on my roster.
“The young guys are just as hungry … the young guys from 10 years ago are now the Bobby Roodes, Samoa Joes, James Storms. My main eventers, who were brand new young talent from 10 to 12 years ago, I’m proud of how far they’ve come.”
Of course, of course. It’s really easy to be proud of how far someone like, say, Samoa Joe has come when he started out with a gimmick centered solely on the big angry-looking dick you drew on his face. Going from that to half-heartedly shlumping yor way through storylines behind Kurt Angle is really a great achievement. Or how wrestlers not named Hogan, Sting, Flair, Nash, Booker T, or Rob Van Dam had to wait patiently for them to jump ship so they could really come into their own. And by their own I mean giving up focus to the dilapidated Hardcore generation, real young guns like Bully Ray, Tommy Dreamer, or even Matt Hardy. It’s a real point of pride to be able to point to how TNA has really embraced fresh talent like World Champion EC3, or the long, aggressive X-Division title run of Seiya Sanada haha whoops, sorry, those things never happened.
“If you look at this year, the return of Matt Hardy, Low Ki, Homicide and so many others, I think it’s good for the product to keep it fresh.”
Now, it’s super easy to nitpick these quotes, but if you’re not convinced that wrestling companies are run by delusional old white people, let’s go further into the interview:
But the topic of swapping talent with WWE spurs an interesting reaction. TNA has been often been criticised for taking in ‘WWE castoffs’, but Carter feels the shoe is now on the other foot. “For so many years, I’ve caught so much negative flack, people saying that all we do is hire WWE people. The truth of the matter is, if you look at the WWE roster of late, they’re full of TNA talent even if that means a Sting, Hulk Hogan or a Rob Van Dam, Ric Flair. That’s a passé complaint.
“When you only have two leagues there’s only so many talent that you can find that are on a worldwide level. I think the tide has turned and WWE is taking our talent of late, not the reverse of that. It’s just the way it’s been.”
Quick, somebody buy me a Strawberries & Creme Frappucino because I literally can’t even.
