Color me surprised.
I'm sitting here just minutes after TNA's Lockdown Pay Per View, their second biggest show of the year, and I'm not pondering an idiotic heel turn!
You'd think this fact would mean that this was a well executed show and that TNA is set up well for the future though right? Well, you might just be wrong.
This show had its ups and downs, but much like Wrestlemania just weeks ago, the hype was too great. This was supposed to be the place where feuds were blown off and a new direction would be known, and in some cases that's true. In others........well, let's just get right to it and look at how this show was booked.
Xscape Match: Chris Sabin vs. Robbie E. vs. Jeremy Buck vs. Max Buck vs. Brian Kendrick vs. Jay Lethal vs. Amazing Red
I joked earlier about this match in that the lack of booking to it rendered me useless in trying to predict a winner. Somehow, my method worked! Max Buck did indeed win just as my little piece of paper informed me that he would, but now knowing the stipulation, it makes sense. He is a heel that is now the #1 contender to Kazarian's belt. While I still have NO idea why Immortal hasn't gone for the belt considering they were hellbent on getting the belt on Kazarian when he was IN Immortal, this at least is an attempt to build a feud for a belt since you have a heel that will take on the face. Let's put it this way, it's better than Robbie E! The only issue I have with this match is when it went on. I get that it's a fast paced match which should rile up the crowd, but when you have a heel go over in the opening contest, it gives the crowd a bad vibe right at the beginning. For that reason only, this shouldn't have opened. Otherwise, it's just fine and the right guy in terms of moving forward probably won.
Eric Bischoff cuts a promo
Is this guy's ego THAT big that he had to be on the Pay Per View? I'm sure what he said will mean something in 6 months and will be featured in a video package, but promos are for TV tapings, not for Pay Per Views. Absolutely pointless and only furthers my theory that Bischoff is an egomaniac that still doesn't have a clue.
Ink Inc. vs. Scott Steiner/Crimson vs. Orlando Jordan/Eric Young vs. British Invasion
I still have no idea if the winner of this contest becomes #1 contender to the tag titles so my feelings here are based on that actually being true. If it is true, the finish is just fine. I guess Ink Inc. are full heels now (or at least Shannon Moore is?) so maybe this heel attitude helps against Beer Money? I have no idea either, but here's the problem. TNA just started their Pay Per View with two straight heel wins. You are performing in front of your biggest crowd ever and you killed them two matches in! I don't have a problem with the winner but you can't start a show with two straight heel wins. Somehow, you have to separate those to make this work. As for Ink Inc., we'll see if Neal goes full heel or if this goes somewhere. I still think Immortal should just take two dudes and have them go against Beer Money, but if this is where they are gonna go with the Tag Titles, I can live with it. As long as Young and Jordan didn't win, I was just fine with it.
Knockouts Title (Title vs. Hair): Madison Rayne vs. Mickie James
Remember when the TNA Knockouts division was something to brag about and something that TNA was clearly better than WWE at? Yeah, me neither. Coupled with the nonsensical Angelina being "drugged" angle, this finish basically kills the division for me. Madison had run roughshed over the division for months and even gave Mickie runs for her money before cheating to win and now she loses in 30 seconds? Mickie needed to win but this was a little ridiculous. Give this 5 minutes where Madison gets only a little offense and Mickie dominates and I'm fine. This basically says that every girl that lost to Madison is a joke, which essentially renders this division a joke. I have hope that MAYBE Mickie will draw Sarita and/or Winter and those could at least be passable matches but for now, the division looks a little ridiculous. Still, the right person won so credit TNA for getting this one right 3 months too late.
D'Angelo Dinero vs. Samoa Joe
No complaints from me here. Decent match and the right guy won. I've made no secret of the fact that I'm not a Pope fan and I'm glad he lost here. He is vastly overrated and I hope he takes this loss and tries to figure out why it is he went from main eventing last year to jobbing out early in the card this year. It's because he's annoying, has a stupid accent that makes him hard to understand, and his character makes no sense. Granted, part of that is TNA's mistake for turning him heel so quickly when he promised Sting that he'd stay and "fight the good fight", but let's ignore that just as TNA has. Joe needed to win here and he did. I have no idea where he goes next but hopefully it is not to the buffet. If he keeps his weight in check, he's a much better badass than Anderson so maybe we'll see something out of him. Fine booking here and the show started looking up at this point. And oh by the way, I was 3 for 4 in picks at this point!
Hernandez vs. Matt Morgan
I was more than happy to be wrong here and I'm very happy that Morgan got the win. This guy is very over and deserves to be in the main event more than both the clowns opposing Sting. Yep, I said it! Unfortunately, he had to finish a feud that was finished last year against a guy he turned heel on at that time! It never made a lot of sense and I'm glad the payoff came here so Morgan can finally move on! I'm not sure who I want to see him feud with next though. I'd like to see him win the title but that sure as heck isn't happening. The important thing here is that Morgan doesn't have to risk further injury fighting Botch-nandez anymore! I honestly don't care where Mexican America goes as I hate them more than Immortal (and not in a "I hate them because they are heels" way). The right guy won, so let's just move on.
Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett
Wow, just wow. Going into this show, I said that there were two matches whose outcomes shouldn't be in doubt. Those were Madison vs. Mickie and Angle vs. Jarrett. In no way, shape, or form should Jarrett have won here. And no, this isn't like Cole and Lawler where I was pissed that Cole got the weird win. That feud never had a match before whereas this one has had many and this was to be the payoff where Angle finally won. It didn't happen and I can safely say that this is the most poorly executed story of all time. I may do an entire article on how bad it really is, but keep in mind that this has kept Angle from feuding with all of Immortal (who "ended his career") and kept him in a "personal" story that was going to get him nowhere in the first place. At first, Angle ignored Jarrett and focused on the title, but TNA thought it would be a good idea for all logic to be ignored with this feud, allowing Angle to appear every week despite the retirement stuff and to get fully engrossed in this feud. There were stupid segments, a lot of vignettes, and the payoff came about 3 months too late (see a trend with this show?) Of course, this may not even be the payoff as shenanigans led to Jarrett getting the win! Forget that Angle should have won, a match like this should deliver by itself, and it did before all of the interferences. They were so unnnessary for the two veterans and it just killed it for me. We're going to have to get another match most likely and even though these guys work well together, I may care less about that one than I did here. Just a terrible way to go and really the low point of the evening from a booking standpoint.
TNA World Title Match: Sting(c) vs. Rob Van Dam vs. Mr. Anderson
This was the surprise of the night for me as no one actually turned heel! I was glad to see that as there would be such a lack in logic for anyone to do so. Well, had Anderson not been teased to do so a few weeks ago, I'd prefer him because he's annoying to begin with. However, they seem to be hell-bent on pushing him as the anti-hero despite being annoying and whiny so that's that. This was short and just fine, but of course, Hogan had to get involved. I'm glad it went nowhere though and even though I picked Sting to win (though doing so while turning heel), I was a little surprised by it. I shouldn't be though, as both other men wouldn't be exciting champions at this point. What does scare me though is that the end of this segment alluded to Sting facing Hogan in the future. Please, on this day before Pesach, here me now: DO NOT DO IT! Sting is struggling enough with guys who CAN still work. Don't put him in a ring with Hogan. These type of matches belong on the indies where 200 people show up for a "nostalgia" show. They shouldn't be done on the second largest wrestling company's TV or PPV shows. Seriously, why can't the old guy in TNA (like Flair and Hogan) just manage!
Lethal Lockdown: Fortune (Robert Roode, James Storm, Kazarian, and Christopher Daniels) vs. Immortal (Matt Hardy, Bully Ray, Abyss, and Ric Flair)
Well, at least the end of the show worked. No nonsensical turns, no stupid swerves, and oddly, no Immortal shenanigans. There was a fun brawl, some crazy spots, and AJ Styles returned to help the good guys win! That is how a Pay Per View SHOULD end and I'm glad it ended that way. I'll ignore the fact that the cage was open and the rest of Immortal could have prevented this because big shows SHOULD end with babyfaces triumphing and I'm glad TNA got it right in this case. The face of your company made his big return, helped his team, and that team won. It was right and it made sense. I was pleasantly surprised here and while it didn't alleviate my anger for other booking decisions, I was certainly glad to see this one done right.
Like I said, this was an up and down show. Some stuff was booked well while others will leave you scratching your head so hard that you might bleed and end up looking like Flair (g-d forbid!) If you change the match order to open with maybe Pope and Joe and you put Angle over, this goes from an average show to a good show. However, some booking decisions certainly hold it back. Considering not a lot has changed as a result of this show, it should be interesting to see where TNA goes from here. At this point, I have no idea, but at least a few of the bad feuds are over and we can hope that the new ones will be better. We'll talk again Thursday when we have a better idea of the fallout of this show. For now, look out for an Edge retrospective, some Raw stuff tomorrow, and some other surprises coming up!
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