The Year of Immortal?

[It's Damn Real!]

Genesis. The beginning. A coming into being. 2011 is rapidly approaching, and come January 9th at TNA's Genesis Pay-Per-View, is the foundation not set for Fortune/Immortal to walk out with all the gold in TNA? Think about it...

Hardy is already the World Heavyweight champion and not even likely to have to defend his championship which means the biggest title in the company is already under wraps.

Styles is set to face off with Williams for a third time for the TNA Television Championship with the stipulation set that if he loses he's out of Immortal and out of Fortune. Beer Money, Inc. are set to face the Motor City Machineguns for the TNA World Tag Team Championships, and Kazarian is set to face Jay Lethal for a shot at the X Division Championship. That's every [male] title in TNA, folks. It happened with Main Event Mafia and it sure looks like it'll happen with Immortal and Fortune, and what could be more à propos for them as a stable right now anyway?

Fortune floundered with EV2.0 for months, unsuccessfully, and the various title shots Fortune and Immortal members have competed for for weeks now have all been unsuccessful as well. With Hogan barred from TNA (kayfabe) via Dixie Carter (who is positioning herself for a re-takeover), what strength would the biggest heel stable in the company really have without holding all the gold?

Thoughts on all of this? Predictions of your own?

 

[X]

It's clear this is the direction they're going, and it doesn't excite or impress me in the slightest. We've seen this done many times with stables in TNA, I know we saw it with the Main Event Mafia only a little more than a year ago. Fortune is fine, but Immortal is a shit stable with no identity that needs to end if TNA wants to move on in a positive direction in 2011. I imagine this next year will inevitably be just as frustrating as 2010 was however.

 

[Rasha]

I think Beer Money and Kaz are definitely winning the tag and X-Division titles. It won't be a clean sweep, though, as I see one of the following two scenarios going down with AJ and Williams:

1. AJ loses to Doug cleanly, leading to his being kicked out of Fortune/Immortal. It could even happen immediately after the match as Beer Money and Kaz come down wearing their new gold and take AJ out.

2. AJ loses to Doug via botched interference from Rob Terry. This way AJ may keep his spot in the stable without winning the belt. Then again, Bischoff may go uber-heel and kick AJ out anyway.

 

[klunderbunker]

I'm with you two as it does seem like something like this is coming. The X Title means jack, the Guns have held the tag titles for a long time now so a switch and the TV Title could be switched back again. Russo tried this once with the New Blood but left out the Hardcore Title so maybe there's a chance that we won't see everything go Immortal. Either way, Immortal is very dull as a stable because they're more or less just a stable. Tehre's no point to what they're doing and it isn't interesting in the slightest. This could be bad as I could easily see them wanting to push these guys for more months on end as fewer and fewer people care, which scares me pretty badly.

 

[Sting's Bat]

Well with the onset of the Dixie's counter attack getting all the gold and controlling the titles will be the only way that Immortal could remain a relevant threat in TNA. It just sad that they are making it so obvious that it could be the only outcome, but you never know TNA is known to throw a swerve at a what people believe to be certain.

 

[Hardcore Murphy]

I see Beer Money winning The IWPG Tag Titles on Jan 4, and losing their bout against MCMG, I can see Kaz winning The X Divison Title eventually, and AJ losing his rematch and being kicked out of Fourtune.

 

[The Shockmaster]

The situation with immortal and fortune bothers me greatly. Do I think this is the year of immortal...well no but I do think it will be the year of fortune...why yes.

Sure fortune comes down to the ring every time an immortal member cuts a promo but if they are really a part of immortal why do they still have the fortune moniker. In my eyes fortune is only associated with immortal rather than a part of them. If fortune members hold all the gold where does this leave the other members of immortal such as abyss and jarrett.

In my creative process I could see fortune using immortal in order to get the opportunities for these title matches. Then as the storyline gets deeper between dixie and bischoff fortune will break away from there association with immortal bringing the gold with them. With no more gold and no more power immortal will fall and fortune will reign supreme in tna as it should of been since the beginning.

Since I went on this mini booking rant i might as well finish. Hardy will end up losing the title eventually causing immortal to lose its last grasp at power. AJ will then once again feud for the world championship and eventually win it legitimizing Fortunes dominance.

Well whatever happens i believe that this is definitely the year of Fortune rather than Immortal.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

All signs do point to a Immortal gold frenzy at Genesis. I can't see Jeff putting the title on the line, The Guns have had a pretty lengthy title reign, and Beer Money is climbing the ladder in TNA's tag team division again, so it wouldn't surprise me if they won the titles. AJ being booted out of Immortal and Fortune doesn't seem like a realistic possibility, so I do expect Styles to win the gold at Genesis.

Immortal will probably hold all of the titles after Genesis, but the thought of this happening doesn't excite me at all. I have no problem with Fortune. Flair has done a good job as the leader/mentor, and this stable could really grow with more time....and it would help if they weren't attached to Immortal. Jeff Hardy is the only thing worth looking forward to in Immortal. I'm enjoying him as a heel, and he is the right guy to pull of the Antichrist Of Professional Wrestling character. But I have no interest in seeing Hogan and Bischoff playing the power roles again, and Abyss has lost his luster. He's been pretty uninteresting ever since he stooped screaming "THEY!"" into the camera. Also, I hate Jarrett's MMA gimmick. It just bores me to no end, and he looks like a fool most of the time.

If this does happen, I hope TNA won't have this last too long. Immortal has been dull for quite some time, and having this mega stable win all of the titles won't help add a spark to TNA. There's nothing wrong with Fortune, but Immortal(minus Jeff Hardy) has been VERY underwhelming so far.

 

[DangerousDave]

The Shockmaster: In my creative process I could see fortune using immortal in order to get the opportunities for these title matches. Then as the storyline gets deeper between dixie and bischoff fortune will break away from there association with immortal bringing the gold with them. With no more gold and no more power immortal will fall and fortune will reign supreme in tna as it should of been since the beginning.

I have to agree with Shockmaster, the only reason Flair and his boys are involved with Immortal is to eventually take over. The dirtiest player in the game isn't going to take a back seat to Hogan & Bishoff for long. When Flair buddied up to Hogan at BFG I figured something was up. I think a loss to Williams by AJ might get the ball rolling. Who is Bishoff to tell Flair to fire one of the core four? If you look at Immortal, minus Fortune, you have 2 jobber body guards, Abyss who can be easily manipulated to side with anyone, Hogan who is a cripple, Bishoff who doesn't want his pretty face smashed, leaving Jarrett & Hardy as the only formidable challenge to Fortune. Fortune can easily, systematically, take these guys out to gain power. 2011 will be the year of Fortune.

 

[Zeven_Zion]

What I actually see happening is AJ losing to Doug Williams and getting kicked out of Fourtune. He said on ReAction that noone can split the core four. No matter what happens, it's Roode, Storm, Kaz and AJ. AJ even said "Between me and you, I couldn't give a damn about Immortal". I see AJ losing, getting kicked out and maybe fired, kayfabe.

Anderson will beat Morgan and go on to become Number one Contender. And maybe, at the next PPV AJ comes back and him, Kaz and Beer Money turn on Immortal.

I'm not sure of the time line, but I feel like something of that nature will come about.

Will this be the year of Immortal? I don't know how long they'll last, storyline wise. This story has more chapters. You've got Anderson's revenge, you've got Morgan, you've got RVD, you've got Dixie, lawsuits, lots of cool things to watch. I don't think it'll be THEIR year, I think this is the year when AJ goes back on top of TNA, Anderson becomes Champion for the first time and Roode, Storm and Kaz become main event players.

I honestly feel that Beer Money should go singles after their inevitable Tag Team titles run. They are a great, great tag-team but these guys are awesome individually. To me, Roode can be the second coming of the Cerebral Assasin. He just reminds me of a Triple H type of guy. Storm on the other hand is the Austin type of guy, a bit funnier, the guy we all love and can whip some ass.

 

[ABMorales787]

It also lays some foundation for Fourtune to eventually defect from Immortal. For one, aside from Hardy, they are the one's with all the title shots. In a previous edition of Reaction, they talked about how they wanted all the gold, including the World Heavyweight Championship. It's pretty accurate to say 2011 may be Immortal's year, but who's to say Fourtune wont play a separate part?

 

[waylon p]

i imagine immortal comes out of this with all of the belts, cause that is exactly the kind of NWO retread that tna has led us to expect.

HOWEVER....

this is how i would handle it. aj loses his match, causing eric b to come out and throw him out of the group. ric comes in and tells eric that he has no authority to kick anyone out of fourtune, this sets up a battle between the two stables for a later date, or even right then. the upshot could be that fourtune repels immortal's forces, aj celebrates his status as a member of fourtune.....only to have flair kick him out for being a loser, anyway.

then later, fourtune can reveal their newest member...MR. ANDERSON. 2011 could be the year that "real wrestlers" finally beat down the "sports entertainment" crowd

 

[Zeven_Zion]

i imagine immortal comes out of this with all of the belts, cause that is exactly the kind of NWO retread that tna has led us to expect.

HOWEVER....

this is how i would handle it. aj loses his match, causing eric b to come out and throw him out of the group. ric comes in and tells eric that he has no authority to kick anyone out of fourtune, this sets up a battle between the two stables for a later date, or even right then. the upshot could be that fourtune repels immortal's forces, aj celebrates his status as a member of fourtune.....only to have flair kick him out for being a loser, anyway.

then later, fourtune can reveal their newest member...MR. ANDERSON. 2011 could be the year that "real wrestlers" finally beat down the "sports entertainment" crowd

... and this is why fans are considered mindless sheep by just about anyone in the wrestling business.

Why in the hell would you bury AJ Styles like that? For being a loser? I thought Fourtune defeated Immortal.

Mr.Anderson being a part of Fourtune is all fine, but ... "real wrestlers" beat down the sports entertainment crowd? Which crowd? TNA's crowd? TNA's crowd is anything but a S.E crowd. Besides, why kick AJ Styles out when there's no more real-er wrestler than him in Fourtune? He gets kicked out of Immortal and then Fourtune? Where does he go afterwards? Jobbing to Jarret in the double J double M A challenge?

What you suggested doesn't make a whiff of sense to me.

 

[waylon p]

it's just that the trio of hardy, rob terry, and abyss COULD be painted as three archetypes of what sports entertainment has to offer.

as far as burying aj, i see it going a different way than that. flair can give him the "you need to get back to your roots. figure out what made you a winner. come back when you have some gold" speech. of course, when the fourtune/immortal program has run it's course, aj gets a belt and as a result is invited back in. which he, of course rejects, starting a new storyline, as the audience realizes that fourtune are not REALLY faces, they just seemed like it when they were fighting immortal.

i'm not saying that it's an ideal storyline, but at least it is a story with twists, while still making more sense than what tna has been feeding us in terms of plot

 

[Zeven_Zion]

it's just that the trio of hardy, rob terry, and abyss COULD be painted as three archetypes of what sports entertainment has to offer.

as far as burying aj, i see it going a different way than that. flair can give him the "you need to get back to your roots. figure out what made you a winner. come back when you have some gold" speech. of course, when the fourtune/immortal program has run it's course, aj gets a belt and as a result is invited back in. which he, of course rejects, starting a new storyline, as the audience realizes that fourtune are not REALLY faces, they just seemed like it when they were fighting immortal.

i'm not saying that it's an ideal storyline, but at least it is a story with twists, while still making more sense than what tna has been feeding us in terms of plot

You bet it's not ideal, and to call this better than what TNA has been feeding us is ludicrious. What TNA's been feeding us is more than logical. Besides, personally, I'm sick of the twists and turns. I'm sick of wondering if this guy will turn face or if that guy's heel. Fuck that, just have these guys go at it, have great matches, cut some promos, advance the storyline, push some face to the moon and call it a day.

 

[Kitten Cutter]

i imagine immortal comes out of this with all of the belts, cause that is exactly the kind of NWO retread that tna has led us to expect.

Actually you're thinking more of the Four Horsemen or Evolution. The NWO really only coveted the WCW Title and the Tag Team Belts. Every now and then they held the US, TV, or Cruiserweight title, but they never made consistent efforts to keep them. I can't even remember an NWO Cruiserweight champion except Sean "Syxx" Waltman, only Scott Steiner held the TV title, and Curt Hennig and Scott Hall were the US Champions. What's even sadder is the Main Event Mafia already did the "claim every title" storyline in TNA, but not as the establishment like the Immortals have.

You bet it's not ideal, and to call this better than what TNA has been feeding us is ludicrious. What TNA's been feeding us is more than logical. Besides, personally, I'm sick of the twists and turns. I'm sick of wondering if this guy will turn face or if that guy's heel. Fuck that, just have these guys go at it, have great matches, cut some promos, advance the storyline, push some face to the moon and call it a day.

Amen to that! TNA needs stability and keeping the storylines moving with consistency, not plot twist after plot twist. That's how the NWO got stale, because soon EVERYONE in WCW turned to the NWO or turned heel in some form within a very short span. It's ridiculous that in only 2 months, we've seen Jeff Jarrett, Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Jeff Hardy, Sting, The Pope, Kevin Nash, Matt Morgan, Douglas Williams, Rhyno, and Brother Ray all turn face or heel in some form. Now, we're staring in the face the possibility of A.J. Styles turning face, the Beautiful People breaking up, Mr. Anderson's condition to wrestle and hoping for the return of Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe, which isn't even including the probability of bringing in reject WWE stars. TNA is convoluting the storylines and not letting the wrestlers breathe and tell one story.

If this storyline of Immortal is going to work, Bischoff needs to show the same patience with the Sting vs. Hogan storyline in 1997. Build up the champion and his stable, and build up one top contender and the rebels fighting the establishment. Let the Immortals be build up in 2011 until Bound For Glory with top champion vs. top challenger, and maybe the 5-on-5 Lethal Lockdown to determine the power structure. Don't have too many turns and keep the group elite without adding or subtracting too many people. The more consistency they show in 2011, the more casual fans can follow the story and stay hooked. The brilliance of other TV shows is having great plots you can follow throughout the season, with cliffhangers to end each episode, and saving the big twists for the finales.

 

[wrestlingfan]

Fortune will break away from Immortal. I can see AJ not getting the TV Title than say to Jeff Hardy "It was always meant for us two to face for the Heavyweight Championship for I am the longest reigning Champion not some WWE reject." which leads AJ being to the top of the Main Event Division a feud between Terry and Douglas Williams, Kaz getting the X-Division title and Beer Money getting the Tag Titles meaning Fortune will take over TNA but Samoa Joe will start a rebellion leading to a three way feud between Joe, Styles, and Hardy for the Main Event title.

More to be revealed.

 

[waylon p]

Actually you're thinking more of the Four Horsemen or Evolution. The NWO really only coveted the WCW Title and the Tag Team Belts. Every now and then they held the US, TV, or Cruiserweight title, but they never made consistent efforts to keep them. I can't even remember an NWO Cruiserweight champion except Sean "Syxx" Waltman, only Scott Steiner held the TV title, and Curt Hennig and Scott Hall were the US Champions. What's even sadder is the Main Event Mafia already did the "claim every title" storyline in TNA, but not as the establishment like the Immortals have.

i seem to recall a time that the nwo had every belt except the women's and tv titles, it was early in the run, much like immortal now. i didn't say they would keep possession of all the belts long, so i don't see why this would be so different.

look, folks. aj is too good for the tv belt. he was at the beginning of what looked to be a good face run as champ when it all got derailed when he hooked up with flair and turned heel. i just think this would be a decent way to get him back to where he was. over as a face and in the world title picture.

i realize that this would leave a gaping hole in fourtune that rob terry cannot fill. kennedey seems ideally placed to go either face or heel, and would fit well in fourtune, keeping fourtune in the top belt picture.

i agree that tna needs to push someone to the moon as a face. i just think that guy should be aj styles. (i WOULD settle for joe, though)

 

[shattered dreams]

Either way, Immortal is very dull as a stable because they're more or less just a stable. Tehre's no point to what they're doing and it isn't interesting in the slightest. This could be bad as I could easily see them wanting to push these guys for more months on end as fewer and fewer people care, which scares me pretty badly.

So no one who watches TNA cares about AJ or Beer Money being champs (while having at least two matches with MCMG)? How the fuck is there no point to what they are doing? They took over the company, now Dixie is trying to take it back, so they are trying to get all the belts for an edge in a possible power struggle to retain control and power. Weren't you incessantly bitching about how the booking should be fortune and immortal at odds with eachother not a month ago? Now they tease that and you claim it is so boring that no one will watch? So was your idea stupid or is consistency not your strong suit?

Anyone saying it is obvious what happens is full of it. It is far from obvious what happens in the AJ-Williams match and it is it even less obvious what exactly happens after the match with storylines going forward. I just do not know how a story where AJ is the prime player is such a bad idea in TNA.