TNA Impact Results (7/7/11): Why Does Mr. Anderson Need Immortal and Hulk Hogan?

After the ending to tonight's Impact, some of you may be legitimately shocked while others of you may have seen tonight's events coming without the need of reading spoilers.

If you missed it, Sting got attacked backstage by Hulk Hogan, taking him out of a planned Handicap Tag Team Match with Kurt Angle opposite Gunner, Bully Ray, TNA X Division Champion "The Monster" Abyss, and "Big Poppa Pump" Scott Steiner.

The main storyline was surrounding the ultimatum given to Mr. Anderson, current TNA World Heavyweight Champion, and the question was "Will Mr. Anderson join Immortal one week before defending his title against Sting?"

I for one hoped and prayed that the answer would be "no," seeing as how I forgot to look at the spoilers, but one Mic Check later to Angle from Anderson, we got our answer.

Hulk Hogan stood on the ramp applauding as the champion was held on the shoulders of Gunner and Bully Ray and the crowd showed their disapproval.

Now, I'm not saying Anderson should have gone face at all, because to be honest, I find him as entertaining as a tweener or a heel as I do when he is face, so alignment makes no difference to me.

My outrage stems from the fact that somebody in TNA Management, or possibly Vince Russo, got this idea into their brain that this "NWO revival" that we have called "Immortal" since last October is what Anderson needs to get over as a major heel against Sting?

Anderson is not only one of the business' best stick-men right now, and not only is he a solid enough performer in the ring, but he's also one of the best heels in the business right now.

He's showed signs of a turn for the longest time, cementing his turn at Slammiversary by capitalizing on Eric Bischoff distracting the referee and beating Sting for the belt, but the thing to take away is that he has been a natural "asshole"  and should remain as such.

He has played a self-admitted "asshole" beautifully without needing a group, Eric Bischoff, or Hulk Hogam to boost his heel heat and help him get over as arguably the biggest and best heel in the sport right now.

TNA has done similar things to this in the past. Former TNA Champion Samoa Joe turned heel and joined the Main Event Mafia by helping Kurt Angle win the King of The Mountain match at Slammiversary a few years back, and Sting formed MEM months after first attacking then-champ Joe at Victory Road 2008.

The key thing to remember here is that while Joe, like Anderson, is a good heel and can draw heat well enough on his own for people to care, the TNA brass felt aligning a natural loner with a group would draw more heel heat and add more depth to Joe, but what it did was turn Joe and MEM in the perfect direction necessary for a dissolution.

The same mistake is about to be made by the TNA brass, as I anticipate that Anderson will not turn on Immortal after his bout with Sting, regardless of the outcome.

Anderson's character is the same type of character as Joe (a natural loner) with the obvious difference being the move set and Anderson's character being a comical, always-entertaining "asshole" who works as a solid tweener, and an equally solid heel or face, but here's the thing:

An "asshole" is the wrong person to align with a nostalgic NWO recreation, especially when recent history outside of All-Star Championship Wrestling shows that while Anderson can be put in tag team matches, he's never made for a good on-screen "team player."

Why is that?

Because the character that Ken Anderson portrays is not supposed to be a team player, but a loner who is admittedly a jerk that nobody can stand.

Ken Anderson will one day leave TNA as an "immortal asshole", a legendary figure who always entertained crowds and was not shy about being a live-mic personality with a live-mic brain.

Unfortunately, TNA has officially made it known that we must remember Ken as something else.

Instead of being an immortal asshole, Ken Anderson is being Immortal's Asshole.

Now you tell me there's nothing wrong with this picture.