When wrestling legend Hulk Hogan joined TNA it seemed as if the wrestling world had turned on its head.
Yes Hogan had jumped ship once before from the WWE to join its rival WCW and he was instrumental in creating the most exciting faction in wrestling the N.W.O.
Hogan at that time was one of the world’s hottest stars and he alongside WCW almost broke the WWE as they warred over Monday Night TV ratings. That period was a wonderful time to be a fan of wrestling as two of its biggest companies waged a bitter battle of wits and traded talent.
This is something TNA must have surely longed to happen once again when they signed Hogan to a big money contract, company President Dixie Carter and her organisation had of course big plans to push TNA to the max with Hogan on board.
So here in this double disc DVD set we get to see just how those plans have progressed. The only issue being that many of the comments, interviews and talking heads are in full on storyline/character mode and that does take away slightly from the task at hand. If you can bypass the fact that everyone featured talks about events like they are reality then this set will work for you. If we had have had honest normal views on the events this may have been a much better (and more marketable) piece of work.
We kick off with the Hulk Hogan/TNA signing press conference and proceed at speed to a spirited (and somewhat baffling) backstage speech by Dixie to the TNA roster. We also see Hogan’s business partner Eric Bischoff get cemented into proceedings too.
Hogan’s TNA debut made headlines across the globe (your reviewer was fortunate enough to break the story in the mainstream UK press), his initial in-ring appearance made for entertaining viewing and he was the Hogan of old during it. Proving that even with age and collective injuries working against him The Hulkster could still work it in the squared circle.
Across these discs we get to see some of Hulk’s old pals make guest appearances (Scott Hall, Sean Waltman et all), plus we get to see his initial encounters with Ric Flair and Mick Foley. Alongside the signings of Foley and Flair we see former WWE superstar Jeff Hardy turn up on TNA TV and even the former Mr Kennedy (Ken Anderson) all of which certainly livened up the TNA product.
One big thing about the Hogan regime has been the removal of the six-sided ring. This was one of the things that made TNA different from its rivals and removing it did create an awful lot of bad blood. The once unique X Division also got lost in the mix as Hogan/Bischoff took control of things thankfully that is being re-addressed now.
One more featured story here is the ill-fated jump to live programming by TNA, at least those concerned do talk honestly about this experiment. TNA did find the error of their ways pretty sharply and returned to their old time slot asap.
This two disc set has got an awful lot going on in it and over its six hour run time you do get to see just how much Hogan and Bischoff have brought/changed in relation to TNA’s product.
We also get to relive the exciting (if slightly disappointing) match between Hogan and Flair, alongside AJ Styles and Abyss, the Fortune/Immortal Lockdown main event and a few other matches. The emphasis here is of course more on the storylines and talking than the in-ring activity.
Immortal does fulfil its end of the bargain to a degree, it highlights the Hulkster’s TNA career to date and it showcases the good and bad that it has led to. The inclusion of the EV2 feud and some candid comments by legend Sting all help too.
Immortal Forever is available now from all good retailers.
By Phil Allely
