TNA President Dixie Carter Talks To Fight Club Chicago hosted by Steven Muehlhausen. In the interview, Dixie talks about King Mo, Hulk Hogan and more.
On the signing of King Mo Lawal:
For the last couple of years I've felt like if we had that right talent and we worked with that right MMA promotion and kept it real and made it big that it can be huge. I know that if we can show that person's personality and help a fighter break out in that way.
I spoke with other MMA guys in the past and they just didn't want to go there, they didn't get it and that's fine. I think once Kevin Kay, the president of Spike introduced me to Bjorn at Bellator, I brought this idea to him the first time we met and he loved it. He got it. He is an out of the box thinker.
Originally thought of taking someone from the wrestling world because several of our guys want to fight and taking it that way but the more we talked about it but we talked and to make it as legit as possible lets get a killer MMA guy who has a record thats undisputed but who also has a serious wrestling background and if we could find a love for professional wrestling it would make it be that much better. When we heard that King Mo was available it was the perfect combination, that lethal combination of background, experience, personality, character and that great MMA record.
On whether or not Kurt Angle was one of the wrestlers she thought could make the move to MMA:
"Absolutely, he was. Kurt's one of those unbelievable athletes that rises to the top of whatever field. Let's say it's amateur wrestler. Then what's the next big thing he's going to concur? Then he becomes the greatest wrestler in professional wrestling history. Then, it's like, 'OK. I've done that. Now, what else am I going to do?'
"He really wanted to fight. He started training for it. But, I said, 'Look, if we can't get the right deal with the right organization to do it with, it's just not worth doing.' If we can't do it at the very top level. So, that's why he decided to make a run at the Olympics at his age. And I've got to tell you, if it hadn't been for that last minute injury -- I think he was just pushing himself so hard, working for me and training. I really feel like he had a good shot of making that team."
On the new format changes to Impact Wrestling:
"We're making some big changes to our show. I think over the coming weeks, you will hear more about them. But, we're trying to keep it a lot more real. We're allowing talent to call other talent out in an 'Open Fight Night' type of format. "Within that, we have a 'Gut Check' segment. So much of what we do is finding unsigned talent. This is the real deal. These guys that we've looked at out there in the independent circuit and they're going to be on live television, giving them a chance to perform in front of a live audience and literally be judged to see if they deserve an Impact roster spot.
"It was interesting, because last month on our first 'Gut Check', we had this kid who we had high expectations for and he had an average match in the ring. But he got out there and cut this promo -- and I knew we were not going to offer him a deal. The vote was two to one against giving him a deal. He got out there and cut such an emotional promo, Ric Flair changed his vote in the ring.
"It went from me thinking, 'Kid, stay in it. You're going to have a future. You've just got to work a little bit harder.' He walked off that stage and then I was like, 'Well, welcome to the roster.' It was great. It was such a real, emotional spot for us and it just made us want to do more and more and more of this on the show."
Source : http://www.tnainsider.com
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