Not too long ago, I'd written in this space how Ethan Carter III had zero credibility as champion. He couldn't win a match without help, and while he wasn't pinned or made to submit in losing the TNA World title to Matt Hardy at Bound For Glory, the worst champion in TNA history raised a bigger stink about it than you could possibly imagine.
TNA, knowing full well that they won't be on Destination America much longer, was desperate. They took the belt off Carter (Michael Hutter), and rather than put it on the more deserving Drew Galloway, the former Evolve champ, they gave it to Hardy, just because the event was in his home state of North Carolina. You can imagine in Ring of Honor that color analyst Steve Corino, a Hardy associate, is having a cow over this. Maybe two.
All this does is it degrades TNA as a promotion even further. It gets Carter over even more as a cowardly heel who has been over-protected since the day they pulled him off the WWE scrap heap 2 years ago. The spoiled brat taken to the nth power. If he was developed as a parody of the McMahons, it's gone beyond that. The artificial entitlement of his character has gone to his head, and that's sad.
On Monday, Carter "filed an injunction" prohibiting Hardy from ever appearing on TNA as champion. That's worse than your average temper tantrum. Today, Hardy vacated the title in order to protect the company, for which he's on his 2nd tour of duty. TNA is dying, and it's because of bad ideas like this. Tournament matches, already taped, will air over the next month, but one has to hope they don't take this tack with Carter ever again. If I'm a writer, I go in a different direction. Period.
This is more proof that the current uncreative team in TNA has learned too much under the influence of on-again-off-again has-been Vince Russo. This would be something he'd do. I'd like to know who actually wrote this angle, so I can find a book on creative writing to send down to TNA, with the geek's name on it. It is so shameful that this is going down.
If Impact airs on Destination America on Wednesday, no one will watch. Not when the baseball playoffs are on, and hockey season is starting. This, then, is Dixie Carter's waterloo. Once and for all.
