Bleacher Report Featured Columnists Donald Wood, Mike Chiari and Brandon Galvin had TNA President Dixie Carter on Ring Rust Radio this week. You can check out the interview above and read some highlights below:
Donald Wood: There has been some controversy surrounding your table spot with Bully Ray from people who perceive this as endorsing violence against women. What do you say to fans and supporters who have similar concerns?
“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.”
Mike Chiari: TNA made headlines when it was announced that Bound For Glory is going to be held in Japan this October. Why do you feel like that is a beneficial move for TNA and what are the current pay-per-view plans in terms of either tape delay or showing it at an uncommon hour in the United States?
“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.”
Mike Chiari: Over the past week there has been a lot of talk about TNA’s future on Spike TV. How do you believe negotiations are progressing with Spike and what are TNA’s other options if a new deal with Spike can’t be reached?
“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.”
