In an interview with TNAwrestling.com, TNA President Dixie Carter talks about the company’s recent seven-year milestone. Yadda yadda, as interesting as it may be, we were much more interested to hear her comments on the Knockouts division — after all she is in a unique position of being a female head of a wrestling company. Dixie says:
I’m very proud of the Knockouts. As a woman, it’s important to me that these ladies be represented properly. They are the best in the business, and the recent addition of new Knockouts, such as Tara and Sarita, will only further strengthen this division.
I’ve always wondered about the politics that come into play when it comes to women in wrestling and female figures in management. You look to women like Dixie and Stephanie McMahon who is in charge of WWE’s Creative Team [for the most part], and you think: “Are you being serious?” While Dixie’s Knockouts division is far more respected in terms of wrestling, I’d venture to bet that behind the scenes, the women in TNA are treated much the same as the Divas of WWE. We’ve heard multiple times about the Knockouts getting lowballed in their contracts, with top attractions like Gail Kim during her time in the company earning less than $100,000.
And I have said this over and over again; the Knockouts are consistently the highest rated segment of Impact but do they get anything to show for it? Not so much. Why not try doing a Knockouts main event on Impact to push the envelope a little more? I know they did it once, but haven’t done it since. Show you are truly commited to the division. Because while WWE can justify through it’s ratings why the Divas are booked the way they are, in an ideal world, TNA would be booking Impact around the Knockouts in a way rather than the men because they are bigger ratings draws than Kurt Angle, Sting, Booker T etc.
It’s just good business; if something draws ratings — you do more of it, surely?
