Dixie Carter | |
---|---|
Born |
Dixie Carter October 6, 1964 Dallas, Texas, United States |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | University of Mississippi |
Years active | 1993–Present |
Employer | Anthem Sports & Entertainment |
Board member of | Fight Media Group |
Spouse(s) | Serg Salinas |
Children | 2 |
Parent(s) | Robert W. Carter Janice Carter |
Dixie Carter-Salinas (born October 6, 1964), known professionally as Dixie Carter, is an American retired promoter and businesswoman, who is the former Chairwoman, President and Chief Strategy Officer of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (now known as Impact Wrestling)
Carter was born in Dallas, Texas to parents Robert W. and Janice Carter. She graduated from The Hockaday School in 1982 and subsequently attended the University of Mississippi, graduating in 1986 with a Bachelor of Business Administration. While a student, Carter was active on the Student Programming Board, and was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma women's fraternity. In addition, Carter worked as an intern with Levenson and Hill, a marketing and advertisement firm in the Las Colinas suburb of Dallas, Texas. Upon graduating, Carter became a full-time employee of Levenson and Hill, receiving a promotion to the position of vice president at the age of 32. In 1993, she started her own business in Nashville, focusing primarily on sport and music representation.
In 2002, the president of Monterey Peninsula Talent (a booking agency) contacted Carter and informed her that Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, a professional wrestling promotion, required a marketing and publicity outlet. Carter began working with TNA, but, two months later, was informed by Jeff Jarrett (a part-owner of TNA) that a key financial backer (HealthSouth Corporation, which was having financial problems due to its being investigated for accounting irregularities) had withdrawn support from TNA, and that the company was in dire straits as a result. Carter, claiming to "[See] the potential in a marketplace that had one company WWE with a US$900 million market cap and no competitor", contacted her parents, the owners of Panda Energy International, a Dallas-based energy company. In October 2002, Panda Energy purchased 71% of TNA from the HealthSouth Corporation for $250,000. On October 31, 2002, TNA (which originally traded as "J Sports and Entertainment") was renamed "TNA Entertainment". Carter was appointed president of TNA Entertainment in spring 2003. In December 2007, Carter voluntarily appeared before United States Congress to be interviewed regarding professional wrestling in the wake of the Chris Benoit double murder and suicide. Carter served as the president of TNA until August 12, 2016, when she was announced as the new chairman of the promotion, with Billy Corgan taking over the presidency. Soon after, however, it was announced that Corgan would sue the company and Carter, as he was lied to about when he would get his money back. On November 30, it was reported that Corgan had settled his lawsuit against TNA, with Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp. acquiring the loans Corgan made to Carter in the process. In late November 2016, it was reported that, once Corgan's lawsuit was settled, TNA would go through a restructuring period that would see ownership change, with Anthem taking 85%, Aroluxe 10%, and Dixie Carter 5%, making Carter the minority owner and making her have no decision-making power in TNA going forward.