Dixie Carter (wrestling)

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Dixie Carter (right) with Jerry Jarrett

Dixie Carter (born 1964 or 1965) is an American businesswoman, currently serving as president of the limited liability company TNA Entertainment. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, TNA Entertainment produces professional wrestling television programs and pay-per-views, and is the second largest televised professional wrestling promotion in the United States.

After graduating from The Hockaday School (in 1982) and The University of Mississippi (in 1986), Carter began working for Levenson & Hill Inc., a marketing and advertisement firm in the Las Colinas suburb of Dallas, Texas. While residing in Hackberry Creek Apartments in Las Colinas, she lived next door to her future business associate Jeff Jarrett. 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 fledgling 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which was having its own financial problems due to its being investigated for accounting irregularities) had withdrawn support from TNA, and that the company was in dire straits as a result.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 with a $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 Jerry Jarrett (the father of Jeff and another part-owner). On October 31, TNA (which originally traded as "J Sports and Entertainment") was renamed "TNA Entertainment", and Carter was appointed president.

Carter was instrumental in securing a television deal with Fox Sports Net in 2004, and in July 2005 she announced that she and several other TNA employees, including vice-president Jeff Jarrett, had negotiated a more lucrative television deal with Spike TV. Carter brought a bottle of champagne to the meeting in order to celebrate. Her creative influence on TNA storylines has been less publicized, although she is known to be a fan of Jonny Fairplay, a reality television contestant who has worked for TNA in the past as a manager. She has also expressed admiration for the work of Vince Russo, a controversial booker.

Carter has ruled out any possibility of becoming an on-screen character, as was once the case with World Wrestling Entertainment chairman Vince McMahon, former World Championship Wrestling president Eric Bischoff, and former Extreme Championship Wrestling owner Paul Heyman. All three individuals eventually became prominent on-screen characters, albeit Heyman was already one before ECW was formed.