TNA president Dixie Carter and former TNA wrestler AJ Styles both recently opened up about several different topics about the company and many different issues that have happened within the last year.
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Grantland.com posted an article about several former and current TNA stars and personalities, and Carter and Styles both had some interesting things to say.
Carter touched on the TMZ report that surfaced a few months ago about Spike TV dropping Impact Wrestling from its schedule in October due to the network looking to get out of the professional wrestling business. Spike TV has since said it will keep TNA on through the rest of 2014 as it searches for a new home for its flagship program.
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"TMZ asked me, 'Hey is this story real, should we run with it?' I was watching a movie and didn't see it until some little wrestling site ran it," Carter told the site. "Then I gave TMZ a quote, which said we're still negotiating. That never made it to print."
Dixie also spoke about her inability to lockdown a new contract with Styles, who ended up departing the company.
"I hate that we lost AJ. Are you listening?. I hate it," she said. "I felt like we gave him a great offer. I really did. I felt like we gave him a great offer and I think he made a mistake."
Styles didn't see it that way, as he told the website that he would have taken a 40% pay cut and the offer wasn't respectable.
"It was insulting," Styles said. "For a guy who'd been a staple of that company for 11 years, who busted his tail, never got in trouble, never did anything to embarrass your company, and what [Carter] offered me was enough for me to go, 'I'm not working here.' I loved that company. I did. I put everything I had into it."
Styles also shared his thoughts on Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff's time in TNA.
"I don't think Eric and Hogan knew the roster at all," he said. "In fact, I don't even know if they watched the show before they came in, and if they did it had to be very little. No one knew who I was. No one knew who [Samoa] Joe was. We added Rob Van Dam because everyone knows him."
Carter also discussed Vince Russo, who no longer serves as a consultant for the company after some controversy reportedly stemmed between him and Spike TV.
"He's a lightning rod," she said. "People hate him, but sometimes people love what he does but they don't realize he does it. He's a really talented guy."
Carter also talked about Jeff Jarrett, who left TNA and is in the process of launching his new promotion Global Force Wrestling.
"I will always give props to Jeff. Out of the thousands of wrestlers out there he's the only one who decided to create something with his own money," she said. "I have mad respect for that, always have and always will. I love Jeff as a person. I wish him and his precious family nothing but success."
Lastly, Carter spoke about the future of TNA, which has been a hot topic ever since word broke that the company is looking for a new network home.
"All these people say, 'I hope you go out of business' - why would you ever want that?" she said. "You don't think we make wrestling better just by exposing more people and giving people more options? It's the most ludicrous, shortsighted thing -- the sheer absurdity and stupidity of it blows my mind. I feel sorry for the wrestling business if we're not around."
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