Dixie Carter “Wanted To Be Stephanie McMahon So Bad” Says Ex-TNA Star

One former TNA star says Dixie Carter wanted to be Stephanie McMahon so badly that it turned people away from television.

Angelina Love spent years working in TNA under Dixie Carter, and speaking in a new interview with Steve Fall of WrestlingNews.co, she spoke about the circumstances that led to one of her departures in 2012.

“It was a change in management that was the catalyst for that. If you have 14 girls on the roster, Vince (Russo) is going to make sure that like 10 to 12 of those girls, if not all of us, are somehow incorporated on the show, so it was always very fair. I will just say this because they were not fond of me and I was not fond of them.

“Eric Bischoff and Bruce Prichard, once they kind of came in and got like an office position, it was just like, for me anyway, they were so nice to me before they had any kind of position, and then once they got into position, they would just walk by me like they never saw me, ever. They changed up so much stuff, and then it did become like, at least 40% less people that were always on the shows before were on the shows. It was minimal. There was like tumbleweeds blowing by backstage. There was like nobody there.

“I happened to be in the storyline with Winter at the time and it sucked. So then they didn’t like it. So then it was just like, ‘Well, we’re not going to do anything with that.’ We were all paid per appearance, so if you don’t work, you’re not getting paid. I had already been there like for five years at that point. They already knew what I could do, but once Vince kind of got pushed out, a lot of it was just was real negative and went downhill. I ended up quitting in July 2012. Hogan gets a lot of flack. I really liked Hulk. I put it all on Prichard and Bischoff.”

“She Definitely Had The Wrong People In Her Ear” – Angelina Love On Dixie Carter

At the time, Dixie Carter was the one in charge of TNA, and according to Angelina Love, Carter took bad advice on how to run her promotion. Instead of featuring the talented roster, Carter put herself on screen in increasingly prominent roles, and Love believes she wanted to emulate the on-screen success of WWE’s Stephanie McMahon.

“I had heard of a situation where Eric had had a conversation with her (Dixie Carter) in the offices that really made her flip a switch and it went less from a kind of cozy family-ish, nice vibe backstage to being cold, like heartless, kind of just gray kind of vibe, and it was like, everybody could feel it. No one liked it. She definitely had the wrong people in her ear giving her very bad advice, and well, we see where that took them. She went off in her own world.

“She wanted to be Stephanie McMahon so bad. 80% of the Knockouts ended up getting pushed off the show because Dixie had to have 11 segments every show. She put herself all over the show, and it’s like, that’s not what people want. It’s not what people are tuning in for.”

h/t WrestlingNews.co