Vince Russo Says Dixie Carter Did More Harm Than Good, Talks Problems With Eric Bischoff In TNA
On episode 18 of WOOOOO! Nation with Ric Flair, 'the Nature Boy' interviewed Vince Russo. During the show, Russo said working with Eric Bischoff was "difficult" and described Dixie Carter as "underhanded".
With respect to working with Bischoff, Russo noted that the two worked together for two separate companies at two separate times and that while both made efforts to work together and be respectful of one another, the chemistry just wasn't there.
"I don't think the chemistry was ever there, but, I think, when we worked together, I mean, I think that we respected each other and we both tried to make it work, but, I just think that because we are two totally separate people, it was just difficult."
According to Russo, Carter never told him that she was hiring Bischoff and Hulk Hogan. Russo claimed that Bischoff was originally hired to sit in on creative meetings as they pertained to Hogan, since Hogan had creative control in his TNA contract; however, Bischoff somehow became a full fledged member of the creative team. Russo attributed Bischoff's ascension to Carter's "bad habit of kind of working behind my back."
When Russo and Bischoff began having problems seeing eye to eye, Bruce Prichard came in to be a liaison between Russo and Bischoff. Russo said that Prichard was a mentor to him when they were in WWE together and that he brought Prichard in to TNA to return the favor. Unbeknownst to Russo, Prichard would meet privately with Carter and Prichard would become Russo's boss a week later.
"Dixie just did so much more damage than good just not being upfront and not being honest and everything was underhanded and behind people's back. I can't tell you how many times as my boss she would tell me something and then it always ended with, 'but you can't say anything, you can't tell anybody' and that was just so hard to work under that umbrella."
In addition to addressing the topics above, Russo talked about burying Flair in WCW, the birth of Austin 3:16, and many other topics. Click here to listen to the whole podcast.
Source: WOOOOO! Nation with Ric Flair