In a shocking twist on last Thursday’s episode of TNA Impact!, the new “They” was revealed to be none other than Immortal’s supposedly closest allies, Fortune. All night the build up to the big reveal had been done brilliantly with Kurt Angle declaring that the new “They” were already in the Impact Zone, much to the bewilderment of the conniving Eric Bischoff.
“They” Were Never the Main Event Mafia
When Impact! came on the air, Eric Bischoff and the rest of Immortal were standing in the ring. Taking the mic Bischoff referred to last week’s surpise appearance of Scott Steiner who ran in and saved Kurt Angle from a vicious post-match beatdown by Immortal. Bischoff then swiftly moved on to how he had told Kevin Nash to “take the money” and appear at WWE’s Royal Rumble PPV (which was a nice way of explaining the failure of TNA to sign Nash to a new contract), how he didn’t care about where Booker T had gone (also to the WWE), how Sting was never going to come back to TNA, and how he had seemingly foiled Kurt Angle’s plan to reband the Main Event Mafia group who had dominated the company from 2008 to 2009. Following his supposed ruining of Angle’s plan, Bischoff then called upon Scott Steiner to come to the ring and join Immortal.
After a huge crowd pop to his familiar siren entrance music, “Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner did indeed come to the ring but rather than join Immortal he told Bischoff that he was going to “snap his scrawny neck”. Kurt Angle then hit the stage with his “messenger” Crimson and informed Bischoff and Immortal that the new “They” were never the Main Event Mafia, and that “They” would make themselves known during Impact!.
Tension Builds within Immortal
Throughout the episode of Impact! the announcers Mike Tenay and Taz, as well as the ever humourous Eric Young, kept making references to the fact that “They” were already in the building but the identity of the group was a mystery- well except to Eric Young who had apparently seen Angle talking to “them” earlier- and that later on tonight “They” would arrive to begin the destruction of the all powerful Immortal super faction. This constant referral to “They” by Angle, the announce team and even members of Immortal only added to the tension being felt within the heel group and by Eric Bischoff. The only people offering reassurances to Bischoff were Fortune, particularly Beer Money’s Robert Roode and Bischoff’s whipping boy AJ Styles, who promised to beat down “They” with Styles declaring that him and the rest of Fortune were never going to take a “back seat” to anybody.
However, without the back up of his right hand men Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair, Bischoff still seemed to remain paranoid about Angle’s threats and the possible imminent arrival of a group to rival his master creation, Immortal.
Fortune Take Control
The main event of the night saw former World Heavyweight champion and chosen one of Immortal, Jeff Hardy, take on the current TNA World Heavyweight champion Mr Anderson for the heavyweight belt. The match had been set up in an earlier in-ring promo by the two competitors to occur without outside interference so that the “best man would win”. The bout was well fought with both Anderson and Hardy scoring near falls before the dramatic climax.
When the rookie ref Jackson James took a bump, Hardy took advantage and hit the “Twist of Hate” on Mr Anderson. However with no referee “The Anti-Christ” Hardy couldn’t score a pin, so he called down the rest of Immortal to beat down Anderson once he had counted the three count himself. This seemingly proved that Hardy was the “better man” but didn’t enable him to win the title.
Whilst half of Immortal- Matt Hardy, Rob Terry, Gunner & Murphy- beat down Mr Anderson in the centre of the ring, the other half of the group ,Fortune, ambled into the ring to seemingly pick the bones of the prone champion. AJ Styles beckoned Rob Terry to lift up Anderson so that he could punch him back down, but as AJ was about to strike he stopped himself, threw up the Fortune hand sign and then him and the rest of Fortune took out Immortal, with AJ delivering the Styles Clash to Jeff Hardy.
The Impact Zone seemed in shock at first but then the fans began to take in the events unfolding and gave Fortune a huge pop. Styles then took the mic and gave perhaps his best promo ever in TNA, saying that he and Fortune were the people who built TNA long before Bischoff and Hulk Hogan arrived. This prompted Bischoff to come down the ramp, take a mic and say that AJ Styles, Beer Money and Kazarian were nothing before Immortal, and that Jeff Hardy was a bigger star on his worst day than AJ ever will be. Styles then retaliated with the fact that he wasn’t going to let Eric Bischoff destroy another company like he had WCW.
Angle, Crimson and Steiner joined Fortune in the ring, indicating that they are now alligned with the group in some capacity. The show then ended with AJ Styles staring down Immortal and with Fortune firmly in control. Next week’s Impact! should be intriguing to say the least.