Dixie Carter

Dixie Carter-Salinas (born October 6, 1964) is an American businesswoman.

She is best known for her time as president of the professional wrestling promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).

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Corporation, which was having financial problems due to its being investigated for accounting irregularities) had withdrawn support from TNA, and that the company was in dire straits as a result.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 was in a backstage role during her early time with the company, though began to appear on TNA programming from 2009, and became an on-screen storyline character in 2010.

After making only occasional appearances on pay-per-views, Carter made her first appearance on TNA Impact! on August 27, 2009, interviewing new signee Bobby Lashley.

In early 2010, after the debuts of Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff, Carter became a regular authority figure on Impact!, before losing her on-screen power to the two of them, on the October 14, 2010, edition of Impact!.

However, Carter would make another appearance on the November 25, 2010, edition of Reaction when, in storyline, she informed Hogan and Bischoff that a judge filed an injunction against the two on behalf of Carter over not having signatory authority.

On the March 3, 2011, edition of Impact!, the result of the court battle between Carter and Hogan was revealed, with Hogan declaring himself as the new head of TNA Wrestling.

Carter returned to TNA on October 16 at Bound for Glory, when Sting defeated Hogan to bring her back to power.

Carter made an appearance on the December 8 edition of Impact Wrestling, along with Sting to confront TNA World Heavyweight Champion, Bobby Roode.

The segment ended with Roode spitting in Carter's face.

In 2012, Carter purchased the majority share of TNA from Panda Energy International, making her the majority owner.

In the summer of 2012, Carter was also the focal point in a storyline where Kazarian and Christopher Daniels accused her of having an affair with company TNA mainstay A.J. Styles.

The duo provided compromising footage of Carter and Styles entering a hotel together as well as photographs of them embracing.

Carter's real-life husband Serg Salinas made a televised appearance on Impact Wrestling where he knocked Styles to the ground.

It was ultimately revealed that Carter and Styles were merely helping a mutual friend, Claire Lynch, work through drug addiction issues.

Carter appeared at the ending segment of Impact Wrestling on September 19, 2013, to (in character) confront A.J. Styles over the remarks he has made about the way she was running the company.

Carter responded by saying that Styles was not a great wrestler and claimed that she was the one who created the Styles' persona to get marketing for the company.

In 2016, Billy Corgan succeeded Carter as president, with Carter becoming chairwoman of the promotion.

Following a restructuring period, Anthem Sports & Entertainment purchased the majority of the promotion from Carter.

Carter served as the president of TNA until August 12, 2016, when she was announced as the new chairwoman 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 retaining 5%, making Carter the minority owner and leaving her with no decision-making power in TNA going forward.

The promotion was subsequently renamed Impact Wrestling in 2017, and Carter would remain a minority owner until she left.

Carter was born in Dallas, Texas to parents Robert W. and Janice Carter.

On January 4, 2017, Anthem Sports and Entertainment purchased 85% majority stake of TNA Wrestling and Carter resigned as chairwoman after fourteen years in charge.

Ed Nordholm of Anthem took over as president.

Carter joined the Advisory Board of Fight Media Group, the division of Anthem that deals with the combat sports-related assets of the company where she would focus on the global growth of the brands in that division, while also remaining as a minority shareholder of the company until she left in the same year.