By Rich Twilling

TNA Impact on Spike TV
Taped in Orlando, Florida

[Q1] Footage was shown from Turning Point, concluding with the confetti bath Immortal took at the end of the show. Tonight's show is entitled, "Night of the Immortals." ...

Immortal came out to a guitar variation of Hulk Hogan's music. The music isn't bad, but I prefer Hogan's normal music. Eric Bischoff said Immortal loved each and every one of us. He then said Jeff Jarrett put on a MMA clinic at Turning Point.

Ric Flair took over and said Immortal dominated the wrestling world like nobody else. A.J. Styles threw up the four fingers and mocked Sabu being unemployed. He then accepted Stevie Richards and said he was going to break his neck tonight.

Bischoff introduced the "TNA Immortal World Heavyweight Champion" Jeff Hardy. Hardy came out to his own music. He even had a shirt and tie on. Hardy said he annihilated Matt Morgan at Turning Point. The crowd chanted "Overrated" at him. He said, "Overrated, my ass."

Bischoff then introduced Hogan, who came out to his own music. They should just use that for Immortal's music. Hogan came out crutches free and hugged every member of Immortal. "Do you know what it feels like to be surrounded by nothing but family?"

Hogan said when he came to TNA to run the company, he said the one thing he had to have was Ric Flair because, "Without Ric Flair, you don't have a wrestling company." Hogan praised Flair for raising the bar within Immortal while he was away.

Hogan said he had a surprise for the champ. The lights went out and some fireworks were lit. A new TNA Championship belt was lowered from the ceiling. Hogan gave it to Hardy and said the belt represented life. He said Hardy was the greatest heavyweight champion of "all times."

[Q2] Hogan then threw the old belt a trash can because it represented Dixie Carter and the old company. He then challenged anyone to do something about it. Pope's music hit and he had a microphone in the crowd. He said he has arrived.

Pope almost started crying because Bischoff paid off his family. He then said he was going to put Bischoff in a casket and push it over the edge of the ramp, watching him crash and burn. He then said there was not one damn thing Bischoff could do about it...

Twill's Two Cents: I'm guessing he could just avoid Pope and have Immortal stand guard for him. Just a thought.

Samoa Joe's music hit and he came out to the stage. He said Pope was not the only problem Immortal was facing tonight. He said he was going to take Jarrett down and put him out. Rob Van Dam was the next to come out.

RVD said EV2 was the family he thought it was and Jeff Hardy was the only friend he had that sold out. He said Hardy had the title RVD never lost and Hardy never won. He said he was going to leave the building tonight as the TNA World Heavyweight Champion.

The never ending segment continued and Matt Morgan came out next. He said no disrespect to RVD because he will get his title shot. but not until Morgan received his shot first. He said he beat Hardy at Turning Point and he would do it again if given the opportunity.

Morgan said Hogan was pulling all of the strings. Hogan said Morgan called out the wrong guy. Morgan said it was Hogan's integrity, not the prayers or the vitamins that made him want to be a pro wrestler. "Where's your balls Hulk?" Hogan said Morgan would get the fight he wanted.

He said himself, the greatest of all time Ric Flair, and Bischoff were going to the back to come up with a plan. He said Morgan better beware of what he asks for because if it is a fight he wants, it was a fight he was going to get... [C]

Twill's Two Cents: That felt very much like a NWO segment, but a lot of those were good segments during hot times in wrestling, so that is not necessarily the worst thing. The babyfaces all coming out is a nice start toward drawing some battle lines and establishing some feuds. TNA has to make people want to see these matches involving wrestlers representing themselves (and TNA) vs. those representing Immortal.

Backstage, the big three discussed what went down. Flair said he and Hogan did not get old, they got great. Hogan said Morgan was ignorant. Flair said Morgan wanted to hear himself kiss Hogan's ass.

Hogan then booked tonight's show. He pitted Samoa Joe vs. Gunner and Murphy, RVD vs. Kaz, and Matt Morgan vs. Beer Money and Doug Williams. "If they want a war and a fight, let's give them one." Flair said they all wanted to be a part of the team. Flair took Hogan to check out the women...

[Q3] Robbie E. and Cookie were walking backstage and Cookie said she was not a wrestler, but she was a fighter because she was from Jersey. Okay then...

Jay Lethal and Taylor Wilde made their entrance. Robbie E and Cookie were out next. Cookie was reluctant to enter the ring... [C]

1. Robbie E. and Cookie defeated Jay Lethal and Taylor Wilde in 5:54. Lethal had the Cena purple and yellow on this week. Does anyone else see that Brian Hebner looks a lot like Lane Kiffin? Yes, lots of down time in this match.

Robbie tagged out and after running from Lethal. Cookie ran from Taylor and tagged out, forcing Lethal back into the match. Nice Terry Bradshaw jersey at ringside. Robbie beat on Lethal as Taylor did her best to look mad in the corner.

Cookie took off her boot and was chased around the ring by Taylor. Man, she was a weak link here. Anyway, Robbie hit Lethal with the boot and won the match...

Twill's Two Cents: Is getting hit with a boot being swung at you any worse then being kicked? No. Whatever. That was a huge waste of time. That was six minutes that felt like sixty.

[Q4] Footage was shown of Team 3D losing at Turning Point. They were shown walking through the backstage area... [C]

Team 3D came out to the ring and took a lap shaking hands with the fans at ringside. The fans chanted "Please don't go" at them. Brother Ray said their match against the Machine Guns was a hell of a tag team match at the pay-per-view. He said the Guns deserved their title reign.

Ray said he was proud to say they helped tag team wrestling in TNA mean something. He gave the audience a huge thank you. Brother Devon said they were respected whether they were loved or hated. He said there would be no Team 3D without the fans and it was time to move on.

Ray said he was going to be a rock star. Devon said his twin boys were coming up through their wrestling school and would be the next Team 3D. Devon did one more "Oh my brother... Testify!" They hugged and raised their arms in unison.

Ray knocked Devon down from behind. As Devon sat up, Ray kicked him in the back. Ray then shook his head at Devon... [C]

Twill's Two Cents: I expected that to happen at the pay-per-view and it should not have surprised anyone. The announcers were talking about how great Team 3D was up until the surprise attack, and then they went silent. Announcers letting an angle speak for itself is fine, but they should have expressed some shock and disgust over this. It was the wrong time to go silent.

[Q5] Footage aired of what happened before the break. Tenay asked Taz if he had an inclination this was going to happen...

Twill's Two Cents: Come on Tenay.

They ran down the card for the rest of tonight's show...

Bischoff chewed out the referees backstage for the "punk kid" messing up at the pay-per-view. The kid referee said it was his fault Matt Morgan was not the TNA Champion. Morgan came in and stood up for the kid. He suggested the kid referee Morgan's match tonight. Bischoff allowed it...

Twill's Two Cents: So, Bischoff is mad at the referee for messing up a call that would have resulted in Jeff Hardy losing the TNA Championship and Matt Morgan winning the TNA Championship. That would have put a damper on the opening segment of the show.

2. Samoa Joe defeated Gunner and Murphy in a handicap match in 1:25. Joe won a squash match with a muscle buster on Murphy. Gunner attacked him afterward, but Joe put him to sleep. Jarrett attacked Joe with a nightstick.

Jarrett applied the ankle lock to Joe. Kurt Angle came out of the crowd and fought off Jarrett. Jarrett retreated up the ramp as Angle checked on Joe...

Twill's Two Cents: Nice surprise to have Angle back, but that even felt rushed. Why not have Jarrett taunt Angle by using the ankle lock for a few weeks first? Or, why not have Jarrett done with his Samoa Joe feud?

Backstage, Flair was freaking out and said Gunner and Murphy were done. He said they needed to get Angle off of the property. Abyss went to take care of it... [C]

Bischoff was in the pisser and said he would sue Angle for everything. He told Abyss to hurry up and then he was attacked by Pope. Pope then beat on Abyss coming out of the stall. He took Bischoff with him...

[Q6] 3. Kazarian defeated Rob Van Dam in 3:26. The Fortune logo looks like a little sailboat. I know it is supposed to be two fours. Tenay said the Hogan regime did not renew Rhino's contract, which expired at midnight last Sunday. RVD becomes the number one contender with a win.

RVD scored a nearfall with a cartwheel into a moonsault. Kazarian hit a high cross body from the top rope and Earl Hebner took the move too. Way to be in the way Earl. Flair came out with a chair. The aforementioned Rhino came out and knocked the chair out of Flair's hands.

Rhino entered the ring and pretended to go after Kaz. Instead, he hit RVD with a gore. Kaz crawled over and scored the pinfall...

Twill's Two Cents: Nobody saw it coming! Geez. Could the announcers have given that away any more than they did?

Afterward, Tommy Dreamer came down and yelled at Rhino. He then checked on RVD. Rhino then nailed Dreamer in the back with a chair... [C]

Pope was pissed at Eric for paying off his family. Pope screamed at Eric as he knocked him around. He put his chain and glasses on Eric. Bischoff apologized and said he went too far. Pope put his head gear on Bischoff and forced him to rap...

Twill's Two Cents: Shouldn't Pope be pissed at his family and not Bischoff? If your wife cheated on you, you should be pissed at her more than the guy. By the way, why didn't Bischoff fight back? Put that black belt to use.

Hogan got pissed at Abyss for letting Bischoff out of his sights. He told Abyss to find Bischoff and then tear off Pope's head...

A.J. Styles made his entrance and was attacked by Stevie Richards... [C]

[Q7] 4. A.J. Styles defeated Stevie Richards to retain the TNA Television Championship in 6:07. Yes, this is a title match. Has Styles even defended this version of that belt yet? Styles could not even get his shirt off. Stevie did it for him.

Styles hit a springboard moonsault knee to the back of Richards' head as Richards was draped across the second rope. Nice move, and long description of said move. He followed up with a great dropkick at the end of an impressive Irish whip sequence.

Stevie fought back and A.J. bumped like a champ for him. Stevie scored a nearfall with a swinging neck breaker. Richards hit a super kick off of a springboard attempt by Styles. Styles quickly fought back and hit a nasty Styles' Clash for the win...

Twill's Two Cents: Years ago, Styles hit the Styles' Clash on Kazarian and Kaz took the move face up instead of face down, putting scary strain on the neck. Richards took the move the same way here and frankly, I wish he wouldn't have. They were playing off of Styles saying he was going to take Richards out, but damn, you don't have control of what could happen when taking the move like that.

Backstage, Pope forced Bischoff into the casket... [C]

[Q8] Back from commercial, Pope rolled the casket to ringside. Abyss came on the scene and Pope aggressively beat him down. Bischoff exited the casket and gave Pope a low blow. Abyss then hit Pope with a couple of shots before putting him in the casket.

They rolled the casket away and into the steel part of the ramp. Bischoff then hurt his foot by kicking the casket repeatedly. Abyss said they would take care of everyone one by one. He repeated "Immortal" over and over again... [C]

Twill's Two Cents: I'm still having trouble getting into anything Abyss is doing. I don't care to see him vs. The Pope again and I'm losing interest in Pope's character as well.

Beer Money, Doug Williams, and Ric Flair made their entrance. Is Fortune's music saying, "We are, we are..."? I want to follow up with, "the youth of the nation." ...

5. Matt Morgan defeated Beer Money and Doug Williams (with Ric Flair) in 7:52. Early three on one attack before Williams took over and worked on Morgan's knee. All three members of the team worked on Morgan's knee.

[Overrun] Storm applied a figure four leg lock. Both announcers were told in their headsets that Bischoff was pissed and coming to the announce table. Bischoff said he was fed up with how he was treated tonight.

Bischoff said if Morgan did not win tonight, he would never get another shot at Jeff Hardy. Robert Roode applied a Boston Crab on Morgan as Bischoff continued to voice his displeasure. Bischoff said Roode craps more talent than Morgan has.

Tenay asked Bischoff what would happen if Morgan won the match. They were screaming over each other, but Bischoff agreed to give Morgan a title shot if he won the match. Morgan dropped everyone and Flair jumped on the apron, only to take a shot from Morgan...

TNA Reaction:

Tenay reiterated that Morgan gets a title shot if he wins the match. That happened pretty quickly as Beer Money and Flair took off, leaving Williams alone with Morgan. Morgan hit the Carbon Footprint for the win...

A Jeff Hardy promo played on the big screen. Hardy attacked Morgan from behind. He hit the "Twist of Hate" and the Swanton on Morgan. He held up his new belt as his music played...

Twill's Two Cents: I guess Williams is out of Fortune. I thought he fit well in the group. We get Hardy vs. Morgan again, presumably at the next pay-per-view. This was not a good show tonight. I've praised the Hardy heel turn, but they need some organization right now. We'll see how some of these budding feuds work out. Thank you for following along with me tonight.

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