Dixie Carter Comments on Spike TV, NYC, and More

Ring Rust Radio with Dixie Carter
Hosts: Donald Wood, Mike Chiari, and Brandon Galvin
Audio available at Blogtalkradio.com/ringrustradio
Dixie on going through a table on Impact: "I think if you've been watching lately the show has been, in my opinion, some of the best programming that we've been putting out. I'm so excited about it. I'm just thrilled to see how many of these young talents that we've debuted in the last six, eight, nine months in such a prominent role. And at the same time we're starting to have such amazing increases in ratings, so that makes me really proud. (Tonight) is a big night for us. I would happen to call it must-see TV and if you haven't tuned in in a while it would definitely be a show to catch."
Dixie on running in New York City: "It's one of those things, we wanted to play here. We're like, 'Let's bring a pay-per-view,' and then we couldn't get the dates cleared. Do we play across the river in New Jersey? Do we play in the city? It's like what are we waiting for? We need to bring TV there. This was such a great idea. I'm thrilled that we did it. The crowds have been phenomenal. I loved bringing back the six-sided ring here.  It's been very, very special and I think it's really contributed to how great the shows feel."
Dixie on whether she has considered working a match: "I said I would never be on TV and I am. I don't think I ever said I wouldn't take a bump, but the answer is no, though. No desire to do a match, I'm going to have to draw the line somewhere. To be honest I've really enjoyed the last few months. I have loved working with all of these young, new talents that I get to: Rockstar Spud and Ethan (Carter III) and Magnus before that. It's just been a lot of fun and I finally just said, 'You know what, you don't care, just let go and have fun with it.' And that's exactly what I've tried to do."
Dixie on criticism of her table spot featuring male on female violence: "We have taken man-on-female violence I would say even more seriously from Day One than even a chair shot. That has been banned from the beginning and it took us a while, but chair shots are not right and going to be handled either. It's very important to our network that this happened. It's why we have done my character a certain way. It's why we've treated this with the 'Boss Toss' and we've tried to take it more tongue in cheek. And we also have a disclaimer before this show saying it's not something that we condone. It's a spot and it's an end to a four-month story of something that I have continuously put myself in this position, and we've tried to make it as light as possible."
Carter on Bound For Glory being held in Japan and whether there will be tape delays in North America: "I don't have that exact information yet as far as the airing is concerned. I think it should be in the exact same time it always is. That's my understanding. I feel like we're having such tremendous global success and we really are trying to listen to the fans, and part of what they love is the Japanese-style wrestling. So, we've introduced the character Sanada into our show. The wonderfully talented Great Muta has honored us on our show. We thought it would be a great opportunity just to continue to show this international growth and take our biggest pay-per-view of the year on a global stage to Tokyo. I'm really excited about it."
Carter on what she has learned from working with wrestling minds such as Kurt Angle and Jeff Jarrett: "From Hulk (Hogan) and Sting and Ric Flair, all of those guys, you talk about the truly great performers, Kurt (Angle). What they do is they just let go. They don't think about it, they don't worry about it, they just be their character, and they do what's right for the company. I think when you play yourself— because I'm not playing Sanada, I'm not playing Tigre Uno or The Wolves— I'm playing the president of a company. I think for so long I just felt very business, presidential about it. It did take me just a beat to say, "You know what, you're not really playing yourself now." This is a caricature of someone who you're really not and you just need to have fun with it, so that's what I've tried to do."
Dixie on her health following the table spot: "It hurt like hell. I have such mad respect for these men and women and what they do every time. I sit there as they come backstage and they're warriors. I talk to professional football players and fighters and NBA guys, and they all tell me they could never do what these men and women do 52 weeks a year, no offseason, multiple times a week. People are like, "Is that table fake?" No, this stuff hurts, it hurts like hell. To be able to do what they do, it was just a small way of me paying respect for what they do for me personally and to our company and for the fans. So, it did hurt, you'll just have to watch and see what really does happen and then maybe I'll tell you how serious it was, but yes, I was injured."
Dixie on changes she would still like to implement: "I think if you look at us over the last six-to-nine months we've made more changes to our company that I think are really starting to resonate with our fans. Fans who may have left at some point and some people who are just now finding us, and that is really trying to listen to what our fans and viewers want to see. Bringing back the six-sided ring, that was a change. Letting the fans decide; if it had won by one vote or another it would have gone down as the fans' decision. Instead we got a landslide and made the change. The introductions just in the last nine months I counted almost 15 new talents, either brand new or completely repackaged characters that we've interviewed in the last nine months. We did not do that in the last nine years. Excuse me, not nine years, maybe five or six years. Don't hold me to the date, I don't know the math, but I'm just telling you it was years and years and years. To see some of them doing so well and in such amazing, great roles and just knocking it out of the park every night I just couldn't be more proud. I think we have undergone changes from the ring to the new characters on the show, how young our talent is to the way we're trying to tell our stories right now to the way we're going about focusing on the wrestling. I think that those have been tremendous changes. Are there more to come? Absolutely, but I'm really proud of all that we've accomplished in the past few months."
Dixie on negotiations with Spike TV: "Every two years I go through this. This is just the first public negotiation I've ever had. I think social media has really changed this kind of thing. I'm used to every two years negotiating with Spike and negotiating with other networks. This time is absolutely not any different. We're still talking with them, but there are other people, thank God, that are interested in our product. I want to grow this brand; I want to grow it domestically. I want us to be able to start having the kind of success domestically that we're having internationally. I'm not going to stop and none of us are going to stop until we get there. I'm real excited to see and I think we'll know sooner than later what's going to happen."