I was watching Celebrity Apprentice on Sunday night, and a cast member told both Piers Morgan and Donald Trump about their idea of a “grass roots” approach. Before the words even fell from the player’s mouth, both Morgan and Trump were deep down her throat stating that any successful business doesn’t care about the grass roots, but rather the “BIG TREES”.
The grass roots approach has always been the Dixie Carter and TNA way, and while you can point to lack of finances as a reason, there’s also the argument that the money was there for Nash, Hogan, Sting and Angle. In other words, if Dixie wanted it, she had the money to buy it. But, in borrowing money from Peter to pay Paul, one would have to assume that those hefty dollars to pay talent had to come from other areas within the company – maybe even marketing, advertising and promotion.
Now, with no real budget to do what they really need to do – brand and sell their product – there’s really only one way to go: break out the seeds and hope to grow grass. Unfortunately, that hasn’t worked before, and it certainly won’t work now.
Do I have any confidence going in? Unfortunately, I really don’t.
The problem doesn’t lie with the talent either – it never has. The problem, as always, starts and stops at the top – Dixie Carter. And hey, to not just beat Dixie up, WWE is having the same exact problem as we speak – great roster, but the guy leading the charge is out of touch, creatively.
It’s so hard for anybody to understand how those “inside” the wrestling business are so “outside” when it comes to what the 2015 wrestling fan wants to see. They just don’t know how to do wrestling in today’s climate, so they settle for just playing it safe and doing what they know. Ain’t going to grow no trees that way!
But I guess we’ll see, starting tonight. For the sake of the wrestling business, I hope I’m wrong. As a matter of fact, I hope TNA Wrestling shoves it so far up my backside, I come out WHISTLING DIXIE!
