There is an old saying “There can be too much of a good thing.” This was definitely the case with TNA’s sixth monthly Pay Per View offering “Lockdown” which saw all of the matches settled in the “six sides of steel.” Panned by wrestlers and observers alike, despite the cage and abundance of gimmicks within the cage, everyone seemed determined to put on a good show.
While by the end of the show I was tired of seeing the cage, AJ Styles and Abyss, as expected, quickly brought my interest back with a brutal and fun bout that ended off the show on a positive note. Styles started things on a high note with a dive out the door of the cage onto Abyss. The two brawled through ringside, where Styles springboarded over the barricade through the crowd and leapt over them to ringside with a forearm to Abyss. Styles crashed and burned over the barricade allowing Abyss to drag him back to the ring and slam Styles’ head with the door, drawing blood in the process. Abyss brought the chain into the ring and used it to batter Styles. The big man also brought out the bag of thumbtacks, which much like many gimmicks in TNA is getting repetitive. It took awhile before they came into play as Styles came back with a headscissors and a belly-to-back suplex. Abyss came back with the black hole slam for a two count before pouring the tacks onto the mat.
Abyss’ attempt at a black hole slam onto the tacks was avoided. He then tried a powerbomb, which Styles reversed into a styles clash face-first onto the tacks. This only got a two count. Styles scaled the cage, and Abyss threw the official into the cage, causing Styles to lose his balance. The two men battled on the top of the cage, where Abyss hung his foe with the chain. Abyss tried to finish Styles off with a chokeslam from the top of the cage to the tacks below, but Styles reversed it into a sunset-flip powerbomb off the top to the tacks for the win. The show quickly went off air with Styles celebrating.
The semi-windup six-man “Lethal Lockdown” match amounted to a poor man’s Wargames bout. The match started off with Jeff Jarrett and Sean Waltman battling around and in the ring for the first five minutes, and then every two minutes afer another wrestler joined the fray. While entertaining, the match was mostly brawling and use of weapons as The Outlaw, “Diamond” Dallas Page, Monty Brown and BG James (Replacing an injured Kevin Nash) joined in. While the match teased a show down between former partners James and Outlaw, the two never actually came into contact. Brown took control with a series of pounces and then attempted to press Waltman, something went wrong, and they went into the sequence again with Waltman snaring Brown in a hurricanrana for the three count.
The next TNA Pay Per View is “Hard Justice” on May 15th.
TNA “Lockdown” results
Pre-Game Match: Ron “The Truth” Killings & Konnan vs. The Naturals vs. David Young and Lex Lovett.
Originally scheduled to be a nine man tag, the match got the crowd pumped and ready for the event. Killings pinned Young with a pedigree to win the bout.
Winners: Ron Killings & Konnan.
The show kicked off with an awesome video package and the announcement that due to a staph infection Nash would not be allowed to wrestle and Dusty Rhodes would have to choose a replacement. Considering the BG James was pulled from the pregame show it wasn’t hard to guess who the new player would be.
Match 1: Lance Hoyt and Chris Candido vs. Apollo and Sonny Siaki
The show did not start off well, as within a minute Candido landed badly on a back bump and snapped his ankle. The company later showed a replay and this was Sid Vicious level sickening. You can’t help but feel bad for Candido, who was once again reestablishing himself on a national stage. You have to give credit to everyone else involved in the match as they quickly overcame the unexpected removal of Candido and worked a handicapped bout, which saw Hoyt take a great deal of punishment before coming back with a moonsault. The double-team was too much however and Siaki hit a top rope splash for the pin. After the match the Natural’s beat down Hoyt.
Winners: Apollo & Sonny Siaki at 6:56
Rating: 5/10
Match 2: “Prince of Darkness 2 out of 3 falls match” – Bobby Roode vs. Dustin Rhodes.
Let the crappy gimmicks begin. Confusing as heck as Roode rolled up Rhodes in a minute for the first fall. Rhodes came back with a catapult into the cage and a powerslam, and then threw Roode into the cage door, which opened. Back in the two brawled to the top rope where Rhodes hit a bulldog to get the second fall. It was then that the “Prince of Darkness” gimmick came into effect as both men were blindfolded and staggered around, bringing back not so fond memories of Rick Martel and Jake Roberts. Dustin mistakenly hit the referee, so Scott D’Amore threw a chair into the ring and climbed in. Roode mistakenly hit D’Amore with the chair, then was the victim of a chairshot himself to end the misery.
Winner: Dustin Rhodes at 15:00
Rating: 2/10
Match 3: Sonjay Dutt vs. Chris Sabin vs. Shocker vs. Michael Shane.
Someone clue me in as to why suddenly Trinity is with Shane. When did he and Tracy split? Things picked up in this with a fast paced X-division style match with the rules that after two pinfalls the first person to escape the cage would be the winner. Shocker eliminated Dutt after 10 minutes of fast paced action. The pay per view continued its annoying trend of interference (isn’t the point of a cage to keep people out) with Trinity hitting a moonsault off the top of the cage onto Sabin, Shocker and Shane. Tracy ran in but was tossed by Shane. The distraction let Sabin hit the cradle-shock for the three. Sabin and Shane climbed over the cage and dropped, with Shocker landing a second before Shane to take the win.
Winner: Shocker at 15:44
Rating: 7/10
Match 4: Tables and Chairs match: Raven vs. Jeff Hardy
Raven was busted open early on in another “gimmick in the gimmick” match. The highlight was Hardy leaping off the top of the cage and missing Raven but crashing through the table with the swanton. Raven busted open Hardy with a cookie sheet at that point before setting up two tables side by side and stacking two more on top. He and Hardy fought to the top, Jeff laid Raven out on the tables and flew from the cage with a legdrop, breaking three of the tables and Raven to get the win.
Winner: Jeff Hardy at 11:51
Rating: 5/10
Match 5: Strap Flag Tag Title Match – America’s Most Wanted (Champions) vs. Team Canada (Challengers)
The graphic before the match showed A1 and Eric Young while the match itself was Petey Williams and Young. More confusing as the straps were hardly used, the flags were taken off the cage and used as weapons, when in a flag match that would have been the ending, and Scott D’Amore and A1 interfered repeatedly. Young is wearing trunks now – every pay per view his outfit gets smaller, I fear he will be wearing a thong at Hard Justice. Petey brought powder into the ring and had it kicked into his face, and while blinded kicked Young low and hit him with the Canadian Destroyer. Petey then staggered into the Death Sentence to give AMW the win. I love Team Canada, they are all insanely talented and can get the crowd riled up like crazy, but this constant interference has grown very tired.
Winners:… and still tag team champions… America’s Most Wanted at 14:00
Rating: 7:10
Match 6: X-division Championship: “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels (Champion) vs. Elix Skipper (Challenger)
While this was technically a very good match, I expected more considering the talent involved. That said, the psychological aspect was excellent with Daniels stating that he knew his former Triple-X partner so well that he knew what Primetime was going to do before he did it, and proved it by countering a lot of the challengers holds. At one point they teased the infamous cage-walk rana, but Daniels bailed from the top of the cage, giving everyone a huge sigh of relief. Skipper instead dove from the cage onto Daniels. Daniels tried to end things with the Angels Wings, Primetime countered, and Daniels reversed into the Angles Wings to get the pin.
Winner:… and still X-Division Champion… Christopher Daniels at 15:30
Rating: 8/10
Match 6: Lethal Lockdown – Sean Waltman, “Diamond” Dallas Page and BG James vs. Jeff Jarrett, The Outlaw and Monty Brown.
Winners: Waltman, Page and James at 15:32
Rating 5/10
Match 7: Number One Contenders Match: AJ Styles vs. Abyss
Winner: AJ Styles at 18:00
Rating: 8.5/10
Overall Rating: 6/10
Jason Clevett is from Calgary, Alberta. After seeing this pay per view he needs to be locked away as well. He is the new owner of a baby tarantula. Name suggestions can be e-mailed to j_clevett@hotmail.com