Dixie Carter On If Kurt Angle Has Signed, New TV Deal, Being In Fewer Homes, More Opportunities

It's become somewhat of an annual tradition that Jeromy Borash interviews TNA Wrestling's Dixie Carter at the end of each year. This year's certainly held more weight than years past, as for the first time in 9 years TNA will be switching networks.

"I will forever be grateful to Spike TV for giving us an amazing national platform," said Carter. TNA Wrestling was relegated to regional Fox Sports Networks, and later internet broadcasts before being picked up by Spike in 2005. "I'm not interested in having somebody picking up our two-hour show, I'm interested in someone becoming a partner on much bigger level," said Carter. She also said some of their talents will continue to compete on Spike under the Bellator MMA banner.

Read: News On TNA's Move To Destination America

Talent and media were left in the dark for months about TNA's ongoing negotations with Spike and eventual partner Destination America, but Carter said that wasn't the intent.

"There's so much speculation, people trying to figure out what's going on. I told the talent as much as I possibly could I told them 'Please just trust me. I can't tell you every little detail, that's not going to help you. What I'm for is something more. Somebody to come in and really try to elevate our brand. Promote us across all platforms, be proud of the fact that we're going to be the centerpiece of a network," Carter said.

Carter spoke candidly about her desire to be treated as a top show for a channel, specifying how she got hot at a talent meeting months ago. "I've never had so many talent come up to me and say 'We're proud of you. This is what we need, I believe.' I was very glad to finally get it out." Borash said that an individual talent told Carter to look him in the eyes and tell him that they would have a television deal, and without hesitation Carter did that, which put a lot of employees at ease.

"There's always an uneasiness that comes with change. I have hundreds of livelihoods that I was responsible for, and I didn't take it lightly and I wasn't going to let people down, but I wasn't going to take a bad deal," Carter said of her employees. "We have babies backstage, wives and husbands. It's a great atmosphere and I think that helps everybody."

The television deal takes TNA from the cable juggernaut of Spike, to an upstart network in Destination America. Carter says she isn't worried, and looks forward to the fresh start. "You don't have opportunites very often to have a fresh start. What can we do to distinguish ourselves. Do we break the mold?"

Carter was tight lipped about new talent, new production, or other changes that would be going on with the show. She noted that many things will be tweaked, but there would be new faces on the show. "Hopefully there will be some old faces return. I love this young roster we have. Looking back, this is the best, freshest group of talent we've had," she said, crediting John Gaburick, head of talent relations. She said Spike was supportive in letting them put fresh faces on the program in order to invest in the future of the company.

Borash brought up Kurt Angle's name, and the fact that he announced his re-signing on Vince Russo's podcast. She had no idea that he'd announced it yet, but confirmed the signing and said it was a done deal. "I've been vocal in saying that I want Kurt to retire in TNA. I can't put into words how much he's carried the load and led. He brings so much to this company. I wanna see him do some new and exciting things," Carter said of Angle.

Carter was prodded about the move to a smaller station as well, saying "Obviously it's a smaller channel. If it was looked at as an apples to apples comparison you'd look at me like I'm crazy. But they're a part of Discovery Communications. They're growing Destination America, it's already one of the 5 fastest growing channels on cable. This is a global deal, I'm really excited." She also said there will be additional programming, and will be in markets they've never been in before. "If we have success, there's no bigger deal we could have done."

Borash and Carter discussed TNA's return to New York for their first Destination America taping. "We're going to have some surprises, and things that are going to be announced in the coming days," said Carter.

Carter also spoke about British Boot Camp, and the upcoming tour of the UK. You can listen to the entire interview at this link.

Timothy Shane Harvey contributed to this article.