On the following episode of Impact!, Abyss was forced to give Chelsea's custody back to Desmond Wolfe, much to the reluctance of Chelsea. Later in the night, he competed in a three-way match against Mr. Anderson and Jeff Hardy to determine a number one contender to Rob Van Dam's TNA World Heavyweight Championship, which ended in a triple countout. After the match, Abyss turned heel by destroying both of his opponents and having a heated confrontation with Hogan. The following week Abyss revealed that he was being controlled by an entity, who was coming to TNA, before returning Hogan's Hall of Fame ring to him, shoving it down his throat. On the July 15 episode of Impact! the new top ten rankings were revealed with Abyss picking up the top spot to become the new number one contender to Rob Van Dam's TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Abyss then began going after Van Dam with a new weapon, a board filled with nails, which he named Janice, which led to Eric Bischoff booking him and Van Dam to face each other in a Stairway to Janice match for the World Heavyweight Championship, with Bischoff himself serving as the referee of the match. The match took place on the August 12 episode of Impact!, when Van Dam defeated Abyss to retain the title. After the match Abyss joined Fourtune members A.J. Styles, Kazarian, Robert Roode, James Storm, Douglas Williams and Matt Morgan in assaulting Van Dam and the rest of EV 2.0, a stable consisting of former Extreme Championship Wrestling performers, during which he apparently hit Van Dam with Janice. As a result of the attack Van Dam was sidelined with a storyline injury, which forced him to vacate the TNA World Heavyweight Championship the following week. This led to people like Jeff Hardy, Hulk Hogan and members of EV 2.0 targeting Abyss in order to avenge their fallen friend. At No Surrender Abyss defeated EV 2.0 member Rhino in a Falls Count Anywhere match. Rob Van Dam returned on the September 23 episode of Impact!, confronting Abyss and demanding a match against him at Bound for Glory, which Eric Bischoff agreed to give him. Later that same night Abyss attacked Jeff Hardy, trying to make an example out of him, while also beating down the heavily taped up Van Dam, when he tried to make the save. On the October 7 live episode of Impact! Abyss was about to be fired by Bischoff for manhandling TNA president Dixie Carter, but was saved by Van Dam, who threatened to quit the company if he wasn't allowed to face Abyss at Bound for Glory. Later in the night Carter agreed to let Van Dam face Abyss, but signed papers to have Abyss fired from TNA the day following the pay–per–view. At Bound for Glory Van Dam defeated Abyss in a Monster's Ball match, after using Janice on him. At the end of the event it was revealed that the entity, who had been controlling Abyss, was an alliance of Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Jeff Jarrett and the new TNA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy, all of whom turned heel and aligned themselves with Abyss. On the following episode of Impact! the stable was named Immortal, as it formed an alliance with Ric Flair's Fortune. Afterwards, Abyss began attacking planted fans, which led to D'Angelo Dinero challenging him to a Lumberjack match. The match took place at Turning Point, where Dinero's own brother and the rest of his lumberjacks turned on him, after being bought out by Eric Bischoff, and helped Abyss pick up the win. The following month at Final Resolution Abyss defeated Dinero in a casket match. On January 9, 2011, at Genesis Abyss replaced an injured A.J. Styles and defeated Douglas Williams, with help from an interfering Styles, to win the TNA Television Championship for the first time. On the January 20 episode of Impact!, as Immortal was attacking Kurt Angle, Crimson made the save for him and hit Abyss in the back with Janice, causing him storyline injuries, which indefinitely sidelined him from TNA.