This may be my greatest failure to date.
You see, when we sit down and do our predictions for WWE Pay Per Views, it is done with the knowledge that the company has a logical way of progressing stories. Yes, there are swerves and I've been wrong before, but it's generally something that is strongly based in logic. The same cannot be said of TNA.
After 6 long months, we finally get to TNA's OTHER big Pay Per View, Lockdown. Held entirely in a cage, this is a gimmick show at its finest. It is also the place where feuds are expected to be blown off and we should have a feel for the new direction of the main event without Jeff Hardy.
Still, there have been twists and turns galore on TNA TV lately and I honestly think you have to expect the illogical with this show. With that in mind, I'm going to make some predctions. Don't expect too high a success rate though. I will do my best, but no promises!
Ink Inc. vs. Crimson/Scott Steiner vs. Eric Young/Orlando Jordan vs. Brutus Magnus/Doug Williams - I'm not sure if this is for #1 contendership, but if it's not it should be. Beer Money are basically sitting on the titles right now and this is about the best TNA can offer in terms of determining the next contender. If that is the case, you'd want to go with the reformed British Invasion here since they are heels, but they just got pinned cleanly by Orlando Jordan on Thursday. As I told you before though, there's no reason to believe in logic in most cases, so I am going to go with the British Invasion in hopes that it leads to a tag title program and ultimately I'd like to see them win the titles so that Beer Money can focus more on singles competition.
X Division Xscape Match: Jeremy Buck vs. Max Buck vs. Robbie E. vs. Chris Sabin vs. Brian Kendrick vs. Suicide vs. Jay Lethal vs. Amazing Red - How do you predict a match that had absolutely no build? Yeah, I don't know either. I took out the rabbit's foot, called Miss Cleo, opened Nostradamus' book and even THEY didn't have an answer. I figured at that point that I had just as good a chance of picking a name out of a hat, so I actually did. Thus, Max Buck will win this match. I have no idea why, but that's the name that was pulled!
"The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero vs. Samoa Joe - I'm really not looking forward to this match as the build for it died quicker than a hot girl in the Scream series. I've never been a fan of the Pope and his heel turn made absolutely no sense. Keep in mind just 6 months ago he told Sting that he was staying around to "fight the good fight". Way to stick to a story TNA! Anyway, the guy is just not good and even though Samoa Joe starts to resemble Fat Joe more and more by the day, he should win here. Pope winning would build a heel and that's needed, but this isn't the guy to build. Plus, he's been screwing Joe over for months so this is the time for the face to finally go over and move on to something else. Joe for the win here.
Matt Morgan vs. Hernandez - Matt Morgan made a huge mistake.......he got over. When he turned face and got title matches, he was incredibly popular and the fans were begging for him to win. Even in the Impact Zone, this guy gets a great reaction. Naturally, this means that he's been relegated to a feud that should have ended last year and takes him out of the spotlight. Even worse, the guy he's feuding with now has a group which leads me to believe that there is some sort of push involved with having the group. Thus, I'm going with Hernandez here despite how much it pains me to do so. I sincerely hope Morgan wins as he's one of the few bright shining lights in TNA even if they dont' see it, but I get the feeling that Mexican America is going to get a push and it starts here.
Knockouts Title (Title vs. Hair match): Madison Rayne(c) vs. Mickie James - This match is basically a microcosm of what's wrong with TNA booking. At the beginning, the booking for this feud was strong. Mickie had to go through Tara to get to Madison and then she got her shot. After those great matches, Mickie had earned her shot like a good babyface, but then it all fell apart. For some unexplained reason, this feud dragged on for months with Rayne inexplicably beating Mickie TWICE, successfully taking all steam out of the feud. Now, we have pretty much the same situation as Samoa Joe in 2008. Mickie is going to win, but it's too late. You have to strike while the iron's hot, but TNA waited for the iron to cool, get put back in the box, be put on the top shelf, and the closet door to be closed. Can we please just get Mickie the victory so we can move on to programs with Sarita and probably Winter?
Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett (best of 3 falls - pin only, submission only, then escape) - Speaking of feuds that have gone on way too long.......here's this. Remember, Kurt should have been screwed out of his CAREER months ago, but instead of going after Immortal's leaders or even sort of retiring for a while (which could have made him "the network"), Angle was barely off TV and got involved in this. Forget that logic dictated that his career was the most important thing, TNA had to give him a PERSONAL feud that took away any form of logic for the Angle character. If you like this sort of thing, maybe you enjoyed Jarrett's stupid promo videos that have lasted months too long, but I didn't. They were doing them to milk this feud until now so that the payoff would be at Lockdown. The problem is that people stop caring. Yes, this will probably be the match of the night given the two experienced workers in it, but the feud is deader than Kurt Cobain in a garage apartment (too soon?). Kurt will win here, bceause if he doesn't, I along with many others will probably give up on TNA forever.
Lethal Lockdown: Fortune(Robert Roode, James Storm, Kazarian, and Christopher Daniels) vs. Immortal(Abyss, Matt Hardy, Bully Ray, and Ric Flair) - Oh boy. These matches are always weird but interesting. It's actually not a terrible concept and it works here with Fortune leaving Immortal and wanting to get nasty with them. The problem is that their leader is out with an injury caused by Bully Ray. Enter Christopher Daniels. He is the best friend of AJ Styles so naturally, he'll probably turn heel in this match. I'm hoping that doesn't happen for the sake of logic, but I'm expecting this to be the case. It's perfect really. Styles will have Bully Ray and Daniels to feud with when he returns if that's the case, so that will effectively take the face of TNA out of the title picture for more months. It's the perfect Eric Bischoff plan! Remember kids, AJ never worked for WWE or WCW so he can't draw! I digress, but I'm expecting something screwy here. I hope it leads to AJ coming back so Fortune wins but I'm expecting a turn so that Immortal goes over. For some reason, this Immortal thing is going to keep going, so you have to expect them to somehow try and pretend their still relevant. This will be that way.
TNA World Title: Sting(c) vs. Rob Van Dam vs. Mr. Anderson - The question here isn't who is going to win, it's who is going to turn? Yep, that's the build for the title match. Since Immortal has lost Jeff Hardy to th SL (stupidity list), they "need" a champion and are basically acting as the Emperor trying to find their Lord Vader to come to the Dark Side. Both Anderson and Van Dam have been heavily courted, which leads me to believe that Sting will be the one to turn. Yes, it's incredibly illogical and will basically ruin over a year's worth of stories, but would you expect anything less from TNA? He'll be in trouble, Hogan will save him and they will be friends, leaving everyone as confused as Paris Hilton at a MENSA meeting. Thursday will bring "the explanation" which will make sense to about 5 people despite leaving out major plot points and holes. Those holes will never be mentioned again as TNA will forge ahead hoping everyone just buys what they are selling. It's happened once, why wouldn't it happen again? Again, I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope this doesn't happen. I'd be fine with either Anderson of Van Dam turning, preferably Anderson because he's unlikeable to begin with. However, it seems TNA is hell bent on Anderson being the anti-hero feuding with Hogan while RVD refused to turn 6 months ago so I doubt he will now. You want to be ballsy TNA? Have NO ONE turn and leave Immortal to find someone else to challenge whoever wins. THAT would be a true swerve.
If you choose to tune in to Lockdown tonight, expect the unexpected. I'm not sure that I mean that in a good way, though. This should be the blowoff to a few feuds that are literally impossible to screw up. Others, however, have plenty of potential to do so. Let's just sit back, hope for some good matches, and hope there is at least some sense used in booking this show. Tomorrow, we'll Rate the Booking and examine just that. For now, get some snacks before Samoa Joe does and check out the show!
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