TNA-Immortal Forever?

Ever since the announcement in 2009 that Hulk Hogan was coming to TNA Wrestling, nothing has been the same since as he promised change & that's exactly what we got but only a small few saw the type of change he would bring to TNA & that's all chronicled here in "Immortal Forever?" Along with a selection of matches, we get the story of what happened from the moment Hulk Hogan announced he was coming to TNA all the way to the infamous date of "10-10-10", the hostile takeover & formation of Immortal to Sting making his return to TNA. You'll hear throughout the documentary from the various names involved including Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Dixie Carter, Ric Flair, Sting, Jeff & Karen Angle, Abyss, Bully Ray, Matt Hardy, Rob Terry, A.J. Styles, Kazarian, and Beer Money. It should also be mentioned that during the interviews, they censor the references to WWE related properties of WCW, WWE, or ECW.

The documentary begins with highlights & discussion about the Madison Square Garden press conference where Hogan announced his partnership with TNA & Dixie Carter before showing the talent meeting Dixie Carter with all the talent in the Impact Zone. Hogan's debut night in the Impact Zone is talked about with the other debuts that night of Ric Flair & Jeff Hardy with Dixie talking about the significance of Hogan & Bischoff "ripping up the format" for the match that night. The issues with Jeff Jarrett were talked about next dating back to WCW Bash At The Beach 2000 & Jarrett attacking Hogan in Japan before going into the change from a six sided ring to a four sided ring with footage of how the fans reacted to it at Genesis & A.J. Styles completely burying the idea of the change. Abyss was discussed next talking about how he was lost with no direction & the importance of Hogan's Hall Of Fame ring before going into A.J. Styles' alliance with Ric Flair & later briefly discussing the formation of Fortune. The move to Monday nights was heavily discussed with Dixie talking about the major differences in television today than how it was back then during the "Monday Night War" & how this idea was being thrown around before Hogan & Bischoff came into the company before showing highlights of that night such as Rob Van Dam's debut. The discussion turned to Sting talking about his issues with Hogan dating back to WCW, the reasoning behind his cryptic messages to Dixie, and showing his first face to face confrontation with Hogan on Impact. The transformation of Abyss was heavily discussed next with Abyss going crazy after a match on Impact & the confrontation with Hogan next week revealing "THEY" are telling him what to do before shoving the ring down Hogan's throat along with why Dixie dismissed the whole "THEY" prophecy at first with Bischoff explaining the entire plan behind "THEY." EV2 was talked about next with Dixie explaining what she meant behind her comment comparing the ECW Originals to Hulk Hogan & reasoning of giving them their own PPV while Hogan gives his point of view behind the whole situation before showing the highlights of Fortune attacking EV2 the Impact after Hardcore Justice & Abyss talking about why he took out Rob Van Dam. Setting up the hostile takeover was heavily showcased here with Hogan & Bischoff overturning Dixie's decisions such as Ric Flair's suspension along with the entire setup behind Dixie signing the company over to Hogan & Bischoff with comments from everyone involved with the formation of Immortal. Dixie's injunction on Hogan was shown next along with the fallout of that with Bischoff pushing the importance of Immortal needing all the championships before going into Crimson warning that "THEY" are coming for Immortal, the return of Scott Steiner, and Fortune breaking away on their own with both sides commenting about them leaving the group. The final moments of Hardy regaining the championship from Mr. Anderson is shown before showing footage of Impact in North Carolina where Hogan came back to TNA after winning his court case against Dixie before "the network" got involved forcing Jeff Hardy to defend the championship against their selected opponent...Sting with the documentary ending on everyone talking about what's in the future for themselves, Immortal, and Impact Wrestling.

Complete Matches Include:
Hulk Hogan & Abyss vs. Ric Flair & A.J. Styles - This was originally planned to be the first match of the night but after a few minutes, Sting appeared only to attack Hogan & Abyss with Flair & Styles joining in leaving Hogan a bloody mess causing Hogan to have the match rescheduled for later in the night under "no disqualification" rules. Hogan's head is bandaged from the assault by Sting earlier & starts out with Flair brawling on the floor leading to Flair being opened up. Flair tried chopping & punching Hogan to no avail with Hogan returning everything Flair gave him & went as far as to whip Flair with his weight belt in the ring. Flair had to resort to dirty tactics to gain some offense tagging in A.J. Styles who reopened the cut from earlier & beat on Hogan in front of his daughter Brooke building up to the hot tag to Abyss. This was a fun back & forth match that was entertaining with the aftermath being full of complete chaos with appearances from Desmond Wolfe, D'Angelo Dinero, and the return of Jeff Hardy.
"Impact" Mar. '10
[TNA's Greatest Moments]

Lethal Lockdown - Team Hogan vs. Team Flair: Abyss, Jeff Jarrett, Jeff Hardy, Rob Van Dam vs. Sting, Desmond Wolfe, Beer Money - For those who haven't seen a Lethal Lockdown match, it's held under the same rules which the old WCW/NWA match of War Games where under. One man from each team starts the match and after a period of time, another member from one team (which in this case was Team Hogan due to RVD winning the match earlier) enters and after each time period, the teams alternate sending members in. Once all team members enter the cage, the roof containing all the weapons is lowered onto the cage and the only way to win is by pinfall or submission. Unfortunately, this turned out to be my least favorite Lethal Lockdown match since the very first one back in 2005 was as there wasn't much that stood out during the match past Abyss starting the match with an injured hip from being hit by a car on Impact (you read that right) against Robert Roode & Desmond Wolfe going after Abyss' Hall Of Fame ring. From there, the action in the ring with everyone was completely ignored & forgotten about as Jeff Hardy came out (after Sting prevented him to appearing sooner) & going completely crazy with a kendo stick on the outside with Beer Money before taking it to the roof of the cage & putting James Storm through a table. From there, the action in the ring completely stopped (as if time stood still) as Flair entered the match to take Abyss' ring followed by Hogan & Bischoff getting in the ring and had their own little brawl with Flair bleeding before Abyss got the pin. This match went from being a normal Lethal Lockdown match before everyone in the ring (including Sting of all people) was forgotten about, the focus got put completely on Jeff Hardy (who never entered the ring for the record) and after his stunt, it became the Hogan/Flair/Bischoff show. This Lethal Lockdown match was bad but it was definitely my least favorite since the first one 5 years earlier.
LockDown '10

Jeff Jarrett vs. Sting - This was one of those "put a storyline over" segments more than an actual match as Sting just beat down & bloodied Jeff Jarrett from the backstage area all the way down to the ring to the point where he left a big spot of Jarrett's blood on Mike Tenay's format sheet at the broadcast booth. Sting used his bat & the ringside steps to injure Jeff's shoulder before eventually getting the win & warning Jarrett about playing the "deception game" with the rest of "them."
Sacrifice '10

Falls Count Anywhere Match: Rhino vs. Abyss - EV2 member Rhino was out for revenge against Abyss for the attacks he did on fellow EV2 members Rob Van Dam & Stevie Richards. They started fighting on the ramp to the backstage area with a cameraman getting knocked out in the process. While fighting at the bottom of the stage, Abyss was thrown through the stage wall & brawled with Rhino underneath the stage (with another cameraman getting knocked out in the process) before Rhino was thrown through the wall on the other side of the stage. Back in the ring, weapons like a cookie sheet & a trashcan were used while both men were able to kick out of each others signature's moves before the guardrail from the outside was the deciding factor in the finish. This was a very fun match to watch & if you enjoy this match, be sure to look up their other Falls Count Anywhere match from Against All Odds 2006.
No Surrender '10

TNA World Championship Match: Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Mr. Anderson - This was one of those triple threat matches that was non-stop action with each men having their moments to look strong with such moments like both Angle & Hardy going after Anderson early, Kurt Angle german suplexing both men at the same time while later applying an single anklelock to both men, Angle injuring his ribs via a samoan roll from Anderson off the top rope followed by a Hardy swanton bomb on both men, and Angle delivering a top rope Angle Slam. The big story here was the appearance of Eric Bischoff with a chair looking to hit someone with it before Hulk Hogan made his first appearance in weeks coming down the ramp & getting in the ring on crutches looking ready to fight Bischoff who took one of the crutches before Hardy intervened & took the crutch from Hogan...to nail Kurt Angle with it & hit Anderson with the other one causing Hardy to pin Anderson. From there, Jeff Jarrett & Abyss came down to the ring to celebrate with Hogan & Bischoff & Hardy when RVD made his way down only for Hardy to nail him with the championship. Abyss' words rang true as "THEY" arrived on 10-10-10.
Bound For Glory '10

TNA Champion Jeff Hardy vs. Mr. Anderson - Right after Anderson beat Matt Morgan to become the #1 contender for the title, Eric Bischoff announced that the title match would happen now obviously showing that they wanted to get Anderson out of the way after he was already spent. Hardy came out in his street clothes (tie included) smoking a cigarette & tried to pick the bones by just beating on Anderson trying to get an easy pin with Anderson constantly kicking out. After an overload of appearances & interference, this match served it's purpose with Anderson overcoming the odds to become the new TNA Champion with the bigger picture being Immortal winning all the championships only to lose the biggest one at the end of the night.
Genesis '11

TNA Champion Jeff Hardy vs. Sting - Sting came into this match with more motivation & aggression than we've seen from him in over a year as he was in control from the very start & even caught Jeff in the scorpion deathlock early causing Hardy to favor his leg. Jeff was overwhelmed & he tried to walk away only for Sting to catch him & suplex him on the ramp. Hardy caught a break when Sting missed a stinger splash on the outside railing but that didn't stop Sting as he delivered three separate Scorpion Deathdrops (including one with Hardy hanging from the top rope) to dominate his way to another TNA Championship reign.
"Impact" Mar. '11

In the end, this was a nice look at the storyline of Hogan & Bischoff taking over the company from Dixie Carter going into details of how everything was setup for months & the fallout of it. You can't capture each & every single storyline involving Immortal during that time (nothing was said about The Pope's alliance with Sting & Nash or Jarrett turning on Samoa Joe) but they did a good job capturing the important moments while each of the matches were quality in their own right so this is something I would recommend for a viewing.

I was actually stoked (if that word is still being used) to get this dvd. A documentary all about Immortal taking over TNA? What a concept! Unfortunately it was a fail.

As far as value goes it's long. There's about 2 hours worth of matches, making the documentary portion about 4 hours. But this was nothing more than a shockumentary of interviews from the wrestlers personas. There's little tid-bits here and there of real stuff (such as TNA trying to be live on monday nights to compete with raw only to switch back to being taped for thursdays) but it's all b.s. simply for entertainment purposes. This covers from the announcement that Hulk Hogan was coming to TNA all the way to the March 3rd episode of 2011 when Hulk got full control of TNA. Which if you've been watching TNA recently, the story continues and Dixie gets the company back, so it's not even the whole story.

There's lots of TNA Impact footage to help explain everything, so if you haven't been watching throughout 2010 then this is the dvd for you. But it was sad to watch because there's lots of censorship and bleeping out words, where as on the original episodes it's not censored. Which made it feel watered down.

There's already lists of matches on the other reviews so I'm not going to go into them, and if you don't own these matches then this dvd might be worth your money just for the matches alone. But if you're like me, who already owns every tna PPV dvd over the last few years, it's not worth it.

All in all I was let down.

I love Hulk Hogan. End of story. He is amazing and I will watch him and buy his merchandise until the day I die. I also love Ric Flair and Sting and all the Old School Wrestlers. Even Buschoff. This is a great DVD and I highly recommend it.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 3 reviews  3.3 out of 5 stars