A 2006 Leaked Email Between Russo & Dixie Carter

[Chrome]

Here's 2006 Vince Russo emailing Dixie Carter about TNA needing a “an attractive, sexy, female executive” character: pic.twitter.com/yAr48ZVoRr
— David Bixenspan (@davidbix) May 29, 2015

Russo doesn't think Cornette is hip and sexy. Who knew? Probably not all that cool trying to undermine Cornette, but Russo's gotta Russo.

To be fair I mostly agree with Russo's points.

For me personally, I could do without the "attractive, sexy, female authority figure" - who, FWIW rather than the obvious Dixie Carter - I wouldn't be surprised if Russo had someone like Traci Brooks in mind to play that role when he's pitching that there (the email's from 2006, it wasn't until 3 years later that Dixie first appeared on TV, I believe).

I absolutely agree that in 2006 they should have tried to distinquish their brand as hip and cutting edge. Something they obviously failed to do and something which in the current wrestling scene Lucha Underground, for example, has done brilliantly.

I also agree that Kurt (who had just debuted), Joe & LAX (who were both red hot) and characters like Truth and Hoyt (who had a big upside I felt) should have been guys built around.

Jarrett at that time desperately needed to be taken off TV, which in fairness he was and Cornette as generic TNA authority figure I could take or leave tbh. Jim Cornette doing a shoot interview has always been 10x more entertaining to me than Cornette as lame duck TNA authority figure #786 .

Im just hoping for another Cornette rant about this now lol. How do you all feel? Looking back was Russo right?

 

[Sexcellence of Sexecution]

He's completely right of course.

At the time, Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe worked a cage match that incorporated a lot of MMA elements. That PPV did a pretty big number, and fans seemed to respond to it, but TNA never did anything to take their show more in that direction. TNA was also on Spike TV at the time, the same network as UFC, so it would make sense to try and tap into that audience and attempt some cross promotion if it made sense to do so. Russo has always been correct on the main point, wrestling works the best when it rides the line of reality. He doesn't always deliver that week-in and week-out when he's writing TV, but the philosophy is solid. Doing the same old school southern rasslin style makes your promotion look bush league, and it doesn't have mass market appeal. Plus I can't fucking stand Jim Cornette so fuck him.

 

[TDFG]

There's nothing in that e-mail which I don't agree with.

The thing is that LAX could easily have went on to bigger and better things, another group/tag-team/storyline that TNA dropped the ball with.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

Cross-promotion is never going to work between wrestling and MMA, because the MMA world rejects the wrestling world, even if the wrestling world accepts the MMA world. It's a one-way street. Wrestling is scripted, which is why wrestling fans enjoy it, and MMA is absolutely not, which is why MMA fans enjoy it. You cannot reconcile this. This is why they remain separate worlds.

 

[Rayne]

This was actually about three years before Dixie Carter became a major on-screen presence. As much as we love to throw around power conspiracies in professional wrestling, wouldn't this refer to Daffney's god-awful character? (The Governor? The President?) I'd think it could potentially refer to the Miss Tessmacher character.

Eventually Dixie Carter did take over this role, but I don't think she was the first thought at this point in time for TNA.