TNA Lockdown

TNA’s lockdown pay-per-view was the first all-cage-matches, all-the-time show in the history of the business. There is a theory that you shouldn’t overdo the gimmick matches because something special can very quickly become something ordinary if people see too much of it. WWE have been sparing with their Hell in a Cell matches. Once a year – if that – do they bring out the big cage. They haven’t always been terribly choosy about who goes into it (Big Boss Man? Kevin Nash?) but it has retained the aura of being a big event. And that aura translates into money when the buy rates come in. TNA’s two big gimmicks are their six sided cage – "The Six Sides of Steel" - and the "Ultimate X Match". Both have featured several times in TNA’s short history of monthly PPVs and both needed to be rested for them to retain any kind of box office drawing power. So the last thing TNA should’ve done was expose their six sides of steel eight times in one night. But TNA is a company whose future is never secured for more than a month or two at a time so they can’t work for the future, they have to work for the now. So a PPV crammed full of steel cage matches seemed like a good idea in the right circles. But was it? Let’s have a look at ten things which I liked, loved or loathed about TNA’s "Lockdown" show.

The opening match was barely a minute old when an innocuous looking bump from Chris Candido left him unable to stand up. The storyline (apparently – I wasn’t up on my angles) was that Candido had recently faked an injury and the announcers speculated that this was what was happening here. But it quickly became obvious that Candido had broken either his ankle or his leg. It is horrible to watch if you know the end of the story. He was operated on and died as a result of a blood clot.

Lance Hoyt – Candido’s partner in the opening match – seems to have a bit of potential. He’s agile, he’s got a good look and the crowd seemed to ignore his official heel status and treat him as the babyface in the match. I hope TNA doesn’t push Hoyt to one side and bring the former Test in as their designated "fairly big guy with long hair". Hoyt (who needs a new name in a hurry) is about a hundred times better than Test ever was and is probably also a lot cheaper.

TNA – to their credit – realised that eight cage matches would be awfully repetitive unless each was given its own identity. Sometimes it worked, other times it didn’t. The latter was the case with the "prince of darkness" stipulation added to the Dustin Rhodes vs Bobby Roode match. The PoD match is one of the worst ideas in history and sees both wrestlers blindfolded so they flail around in the dark and hardly touch each other. Thankfully, they amended it shortly before the show so it was only in the third fall of this 2-out-of-3 falls match that the hoods went on. The match ended when the Team Canada member, unable to see, mistook his ally for his opponent and knocked him out. I’m going to copy that sentence to the clipboard because I’ll need it again later.

Dustin Rhodes is such a disappointment. He does so many little things well but overall he is a massively ignorable performer. It’s clear that he’s only working for TNA because his father is booking the shows and even though he’s got in shape and he works hard he just doesn’t belong in a pay per view match. He is a student of the business, he’s a funny guy – why not try him as an announcer? It would be a shame to see him leave the business but his matches are just sucky.

But who knows, maybe he’ll find a way to bounce back. People have been writing Raven and Jeff Hardy off for a long time. Both have had their drug problems, both have had phases of sleep walking through matches and both seem to be back to something like top form based on their tables match at Lockdown. They did the big bumps, Jeff Hardy survived yet another suicide attempt and Raven added drama with the first blood of the night. Within the business people either love Raven or the hate him. I think he’s a special guy (read into that what you will) and TNA needs special guys if they’re to flourish.

America’s Most Wanted are the top regular tag team in the US right now. By that I mean they are one of the few regular tag teams (I don’t class pairings like current Raw champions Regal & Tajiri as a regular team as they are just two guys thrown together). AMW work old style tag team matches. Here they were facing their most regular foe – Team Canada. I don’t know which two of Scott D’Amore’s TC group they usually face but this time it was Petey Williams and Eric Young. It is worth buying a TNA DVD just to see Williams’ "Canadian Destroyer" finishing move. It is without a shadow of a doubt the most amazing move I have ever seen and words can’t do it justice. This match saw the heels working over one of AMW (the Ricky Morton role for those with long memories) while the other one was stuck on the outside desperate to get in (Robert Gibson). The match ended when the Team Canada member, unable to see, mistook his ally for his opponent and knocked him out. I told you I’d need that line again tonight.

Dusty Rhodes appeared on screen a couple of times with his two lady friends (because he’s in charge so he can rub himself and write about how two hot chicks want a piece of a blubbery man who is old enough to be their granddad). Dusty is beginning to look like Dorothy from the Golden Girls’ after a few thousand donuts.

The X Division title match between former tag team partners Primetime and Christopher Daniels was one of those matches which was good but not great. TNA has already set such a high standard for their X title bouts that it can be impossible to live up to expectations. So although this was a touch disappointing, it is worth saying that WWE has maybe half a dozen people on their huge roster capable of having a match this good.

So we came to the main event (except it wasn’t the last match despite receiving the most hype). It was a sort of War Games meets Bunkhouse Stampede match in which five people WWE didn’t want and one guy that they will surely snap up once his contract expires slugged it out in a pretty one dimensional brawl. Sean Waltman needed two goes before he got the finish right – that brought out possibly the only "You fucked up!" chant of the evening.

Rightly closing the show was TNA’s number one talent. If there is any sense in TNA Towers he will be the next NWA world champion and that is AJ Styles. Styles is nearing the end of his TNA contract and WWE has put out strong feelers. I think it would be a huge mistake for Styles to go to WWE. The money isn’t great at the moment and there is no way in hell he’d get anything more than a Paul London level push. Styles would be buried from the moment he set foot in a WWE ring because (a) he’s too short and (b) he’s so good that the top guys wouldn’t want to risk him impressing the public. So he’d be buried on the B shows (if WWE still has B shows when their new TV deal kicks in) and probably jobbing to boot. At Lockdown he won a title shot by beating Abyss – the company’s Kane wannabe – in the final match of the evening. Abyss is pretty good for a man of his size so, when in with AJ, he was made to look great. It says a lot for both Styles and TNA’s booking of him that the crowd are more than willing to accept his beating Abyss (who probably towers over him by a solid foot).

So Lockdown was an enjoyable show which both highlighted TNA’s strengths and exposed their weaknesses. Too many washed up old WWF mid-carders, too many anonymous high fliers and too many gimmicks on the show ensured it won’t be remembered as a great night but it was still better than any recent WWE single-brand show. I’d give it a solid 7/10.

PS - The match ended when the Team Canada member, unable to see, mistook his ally for his opponent and knocked him out.

Why waste it?