Dixie Carter vs. Stephanie McMahon

[MikeCampbell]

Based off FPT's comment in the giant TNA thead.

 

Which of them has had been worse for the business over the last ten years?

[El Dragon]

I don't think either is really a great answer here, honestly, but probably Dixie because if TNA was more then just a vanity project for her it could have done a lot of good. But if TNA wasn't a vanity project for Dixie (or, more realistically, a "Make sure Dixie doesn't fuck up Daddy's company" project), TNA probably doesn't exist at all.

 

Steph... Personally, I think if she did actively hurt the industry in her role with the company, I don't think we could A: Quantify how much and B: Be able to establish if just about any other person in the same spot that actually could have landed in said spot, wouldn't have done as much, if not more damage. As a character, she has been pretty shitty, but there's a strong chance they'd have just picked a different shitty Authority figure in her absence anyway.

[DMJ]

I guess, by default, I'd go with Stephanie...but I actually think they've both probably done more positive than negative.

 

Without Dixie Carter, TNA doesn't exist, even in the sorry state it exists in now. The company needed a "money mark" to survive and, in Dixie, TNA has that. This led to more wrestlers being employed and, when the checks did come, getting paid. Having places to work and getting TV exposure are pretty important to pro-wrestlers, so, even if it is a shitshow of a company, TNA did (and, to a lesser degree, still does) provide that to a bunch of talent.

 

Stephanie inherited her power, so I can't give her the same credit as Dixie. Also, as a key figure in the company's Creative department, she's probably had her hand in more bad storylines than good. Still, I don't necessarily think she's been any "worse for business" than Vince himself, who is still really the top guy in charge.

[NotJayTabb]

I think Dixie has proven to be as much of a hinderance to TNA as a help. Though her money has kept them afloat, she also is the reason that TNA couldn't be sold on (I believe that the rumour was she had to be included as part of the package of taking TNA on), and she's been involved in several business decisions that have cost TNA dearly (the e-mails to the Spike executives that cost them their slot on the channel) or made them look really bad (firing "job for life" Jesse Sorenson, who broke his neck in a TNA match).

 

I will say that Dixie is far less of a detriment as a TV character though. Not only is she less grating, but she's seemingly far less afraid to look a fool.

[kjh]

I think if TNA hadn't survived past the summer of 2002, another company would have eventually filled the vacuum that was left by WCW closing. Who knows, maybe Ring of Honor would have ended up on Spike TV instead? There's definitely been a huge opportunity cost in TNA's existence, particularly over the past five years where Dixie Carter may have soured three networks on the idea of ever airing pro wrestling programming again. It might be scorched earth for some time to come.

 

Sure, Stephanie McMahon was an inexperienced head writer when she was put in that position and that likely led to WWE's Attitude Era boom fizzling out quicker than it should have done. However, it wasn't a complete disaster either, as Stephanie was the first key power player to get behind John Cena and the company would have been a lot weaker over the past decade if they had missed on him. Stephanie has been a mixed bag for the business, whilst Dixie Carter has been an overwhelming negative. There's no competition here.

[flyonthewall2983]

Whichever one hired Vince Russo.

[Loss]

Stephanie's Creative team turned Wrestlemania into an annual dome show that seems to break some type of record every year.

[El-P]

Dixie at 50 is hotter than Stephy at 35.

[sek69]

Baffled at anyone who thinks Steph did anywhere close to the damage Dixie has done. Any non WWE company faces a nearly impossible uphill battle to get TV clearance due to TNA's complete unprofessionalism and ineptness.

 

Sure, she's overexposed a lot as a TV character, but to think she's in the same galaxy as Dixie is insane.

[WingedEagle]

Dixie at 50 is hotter than Stephy at 35.

 

Fully in camp Steph here.

[Robert S]

Whichever one hired Vince Russo.

Whichever thought that the best way to book a wrestling show was to use twenty-five failed TV writers with no wrestling background.

[flyonthewall2983]

"Failed TV writer" is more impressive than "former ghost-writer of wrestling magazines".

[kjh]

Whichever one hired Vince Russo.

 

Stephanie, with her boyfriend's help, were the one's responsible for Russo's WWE return in 2002 only lasting a matter of days. So that's another plus in her favour, even though it was largely just family politics at play.

[Jimmy Redman]

Steph's failures (if you want to blanket blame her for the entire Creative direction of the last decade or so, and I don't think that's fair while Vince McMahon exists but for the sake of argument) are more immediately apparent and more...annoying, I guess. It's tough sitting through Raw every week.

 

But Dixie's failures are so much wider, and have so many bad repercussions for the wrestling business as a whole. I don't think they are even close.

 

Dixie's ineptitude has slowly destroyed what was a viable, if very, very distant #2 North American wrestling company. They had national TV, PPV, huge stars like Angle, Jeff Hardy, Sting, Hogan going to them, international reach...the works. TNA were always being stupid in some way or another, but they always survived, and actually showed small signs of growth at certain times. They didn't have to end up like this. And once the dominoes started falling, we see at every turn Dixie doing something horrifically dumb (the leaked email nonsense, hiring Russo again and again, even trying to secretly hire him so nobody would get upset and then getting caught (!!), demanding that she remain as an active performer and decision maker and scaring off potential buyers...) that drove nail after nail into what is now the coffin.

 

As people have already said, her fuckups have got them booted off so many TV networks and made it twice as hard for any potential replacement company to get national TV on the same scale they did. They may have actually salted the earth for wrestling companies to follow.

 

Further to that, TNA being a viable alternative could have been - and was at one stage - something that gave wrestlers themselves a little more bargaining power when it comes to WWE. Christian found it safe to walk away in 2005 because he had TNA. Angle and Jeff landed on their feet after their fuckups because TNA would have them. Ageing wrestlers like Booker T and the Duds didn't have to put up with McMahon/Hunter nonsense indefinitely because they could work their twilight years in the ring in TNA making good money. AJ Styles and Samoa Joe didn't have to take miserly developmental deals and low chances for MR success in 2005, because TNA was a place where they could make steady money, get chances to wrestle and stay close to a home base. When Hogan was on the outside looking in at WWE, instead of tucking his tail for Vince he could simply lend his name to TNA instead and try to compete. Not to mention the simple fact of all those people employed by TNA, wrestlers and non-wrestlers alike. For all its faults as a product and an operation, they kept people in business and gave certain wrestlers an outlet. An option. Now they're barely that. Soon they won't be at all. One less option for wrestlers means the world is a little poorer for wrestlers.

[Jingus]

Whichever thought that the best way to book a wrestling show was to use twenty-five failed TV writers with no wrestling background.

The "failed TV writers" still manage to book the most profitable wrestling company in the history of America. Russo has done nothing but lose money since 1999.

 

 

Come on, this is a joke. It's not even close. Steph helps run the most successful wrestling company on the planet. Dixie's company is so poor that it just relocated its executive offices to the inside of its merchandise warehouse. Even in terms of their characters, it's not even a contest: Stephanie's a really good performer, and Dixie is a worse actress than your average porn star.

[Robert S]

It's no doubt that Dixie is a horrible businesswoman who has no clue about how to be successful in wrestling and has lost her family tons of money, but it's not that TNA 2003 (or whenever Panda took over) - 2016 had any effect on the business as whole, neither negative nor positive. When she took over TNA was basically bankrupt, as they are now. To quote Life of Brian: "You have come from nothing and you'll go back to nothing. What do you have lost? Nothing!"

I also have no doubt that Dixie in Steph's position would much much worse than her.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

Dixie by far. I'm hardly one to talk about the modern product since I rarely tune in, but TNA is bad in a "oh my god this is awful" way whereas WWE is bad in a "yeah it sucks overall, but there's enough here to lure me back every now and then." Plus it's frustrating to see that TNA had a legit opportunity to possibly provide some real competition for WWE and instead chose to make itself into a lame imitation of the worst aspects of WWE.

 

I also don't mind Stephanie's TV character in small doses. If she'd quit booking herself and her dipshit husband for 20 minute promos and multiple segments every Raw, I'd probably go so far as to call her TV character pretty damn good.