Dixie Carter actually believed TNA could sign Goldberg during the Hogan era

The Ultimate Mark Gets Worked Again

Pull up a barstool, grab a cold one, and let's talk about the absolute delusion that ran rampant in the offices of Total Nonstop Action. We are talking about Dixie Carter, the woman who ran TNA with the enthusiasm of a lottery winner and the wrestling business acumen of a golden retriever. Yesterday at a Dark Side of the Ring Season 7 Q&A event in New York City, Jeff Jarrett finally pulled back the curtain on one of the most hilariously naive moments of the Hulk Hogan era.

According to a new report from Ringside News, Dixie Carter once sat down for a friendly lunch with Bill Goldberg. This meeting took place during the height of the Hogan and Eric Bischoff takeover of TNA. Carter walked away from that lunch absolutely convinced that she was about to pull off the signing of the decade.

When she returned to the office, she looked at Jeff Jarrett and delivered a line that should be carved into the tombstone of TNA's bank account. She genuinely believed she had landed the biggest star in the business.

"Yep, I think we can get Bill"

Jarrett, who wasn't even invited to the lunch, had an immediate internal reaction that sums up the entire history of the promotion. He knew exactly how the wrestling business worked, and he knew Dixie was getting played.

"You don't have a clue"

It is a hilarious story, but it also explains exactly why TNA never had a chance of actually catching WWE. Dixie Carter was playing checkers while the rest of the industry was playing three-dimensional chess with loaded dice.

The Hogan Era Delusion

To understand how Dixie could be this gullible, we have to look at the state of TNA during the Hogan years. Hogan and Bischoff walked into Orlando in January 2010 promising to change the wrestling world. Their first bright idea was to trash the six-sided ring, which was the only thing making TNA look different from WWE.

Then they decided to go head-to-head with Monday Night Raw on March 8, 2010. That night was an absolute trainwreck of WCW nostalgia. TNA rolled out Sean Morley, the Nasty Boys, and a mid-card roster of guys who were past their prime.

Raw responded by having Vince McMahon and Bret Hart share a ring. The ratings war was over before it started, with TNA drawing a miserable 1.0 rating while Raw sailed away with an easy victory. Yet Dixie still believed they were just one major signing away from taking over the industry.

Enter Bill Goldberg, who had been sitting at home since WrestleMania XX in 2004. His final match in WWE was a notorious disaster against Brock Lesnar in Madison Square Garden, where the crowd booed both men out of the building. Goldberg was retired, happy, and incredibly expensive.

He had no interest in taking bumps in a warehouse in Orlando for Dixie's amusement. But Dixie saw Hogan and Bischoff in her locker room and assumed Goldberg would fall right into line. She did not realize that Hogan and Bischoff were just there to cash checks from Panda Energy, the company owned by Dixie's parents, Bob and Janice Carter.

Goldberg was a businessman who valued his brand and his neck far too much to jump into a sinking ship. Dixie's blind optimism was the fuel that kept TNA's burning money pile lit for years. She was basically the Billy Madison of pro wrestling, except she never actually graduated.

How the Boys Played Dixie for a Fool

The truth is that wrestlers have been using Dixie Carter's checkbook to get rich since the day TNA started. As Jeff Jarrett discussed on the Dark Side of the Ring Q&A, this Goldberg lunch was just another chapter in a long history of talent using TNA as a bargaining chip. Dixie simply could not tell the difference between a wrestler who wanted to sign and a wrestler who was just using her to get a better deal from Vince McMahon.

In fact, the process of using TNA to squeeze money out of WWE became a formula. Wrestlers had a three-step playbook to get themselves a raise:

• Book a lunch meeting with Dixie Carter in Nashville or Tampa.
• Order the most expensive steak on the menu and nod enthusiastically at her ideas.
• Leak the meeting to the dirt sheets and wait for WWE to match your asking price.

Jericho perfected this formula in 2007, but he wasn't the only one. Almost every major free agent used TNA as a threat to force Vince McMahon's hand.

At the time, Jericho was looking to return to WWE after a two-year hiatus. He had a specific financial number in mind, but WWE was refusing to meet it. So Jericho set up a lunch meeting in Tampa with Dixie and Jarrett.

Jericho had no intention of signing with TNA. He even had his cousin leak the news of the meeting to dirt sheets using the fake name Ralph Molina, who was actually the drummer for Neil Young's band.

The fake leak worked like a charm. WWE saw the news, panicked, and gave Jericho the contract he wanted, leading to his famous Save_US return. Jarrett was in the room for that lunch and saw the play, but Dixie remained oblivious to how the game was played.

This was the standard operating procedure for every free agent in the business. They would fly to Nashville or Orlando, let Dixie buy them an expensive steak, and then fax the menu to WWE to get a ten-percent raise. Dixie thought she was building a locker room of superstars, but in reality, she was just a free negotiation tool for WWE's roster.

The Sinking Ship in Orlando

The idea of Goldberg in TNA during the Hogan era is a wild what-if, but it would have been a booking nightmare. Hogan and Bischoff were already hogging the spotlight, leaving young stars like AJ Styles and Samoa Joe to rot in the mid-card. Adding Goldberg would have just meant another million-dollar contract for a guy who couldn't work a fifteen-minute match.

TNA already had a history of blowing money on big names who delivered nothing in the ring. Think about the infamous Victory Road 2011 event. TNA charged thirty dollars for a pay-per-view main event featuring Sting and Jeff Hardy.

Hardy showed up in no condition to perform. Sting had to force Hardy to the mat and pin him in 88 seconds while the crowd chanted for refunds. That was the reality of TNA's creative direction under Hogan and Bischoff.

If Goldberg had signed, he would have likely suffered the same fate as every other WCW legend who went to TNA. He would have ended up in a three-way feud with Abyss and a leather-clad Bully Ray over a plastic belt. Goldberg knew this.

He waited until WWE offered him the right match and the right money in 2016, where he squashed Brock Lesnar in 86 seconds at Survivor Series. He did not need to ruin his legacy in a half-empty theme park in Florida.

In the end, Jarrett's story is a reminder of why TNA failed to grow. The company was run by a fan who wanted to hang out with the wrestlers. Dixie Carter wanted to be one of the boys, but the boys just saw her as a walking ATM who spent millions of dollars trying to buy credibility without understanding the business.