It was gimmick match overload time again this pas Sunday night as TNA presented their annual Lockdown pay-per-view, shown on a three day delay on Challenge TV here in Britain.
The broadcast began with the pre-show, and the match pitting Brother Devon against Anarquia.
It’s a short and sweet encounter with Devon taking the fight to Anarquia on the ramp before a brief brawl around ringside.
They soon made it into the cage. The newcomer looked quite good, but it wasn’t enough against the veteran as Devon took the pin after a spine buster.
The former Dudley continued the fight3 after the bell, taking his man down with two suplexes on the ramp.
The main show began with the X Division escape match, featuring Chris Sabin, Robbie E, Jeremy and Max Buck, Amazing Red, Jay Lethal, Brian Kendrick and Suicide.
Contested under elimination rules it featured the staples of the X Division, fast paced hit and run action, with the eliminations coming thick and fast until it got down to the final two, Kendrick and Max Buck.
It was then that the escape rules came into play, with Buck putting in a good effort, pushing the referee into the cage to knock Kendrick off the top of the cage so he3 could scale the fences himself and claim a shot at the X Division title.
Tag team action followed between Ink Inc, the British Invasion, Eric Young and Orlando Jordan, and Scott Steiner and Crimson.
Well, this one was okay, and the majority of the performances were solid, but I couldn’t help but think that that match was a little too long.
As always Eric Young was as annoying as hell, especially as he forgot the rules of the match.
In the end it was the ever-aggressive Shannon Moore who took the win for his team, taking Doug Williams down with the mooregasm for the pin as Young climbed out of the cage and hit the floor.
By the way, am I the only one who thinks that the career of Doug Williams as taken a backward step with the return of the British Invasion?
The first title match of the show saw Mickie James challenging Madison Rayne for the Knockouts title in a hair versus title match.
After an overlong entrance from the champion Mickie took it to her as soon as the match began, throwing Madison into the cage three times before taking her down with a jumping DDT for the wining pin. Well, that was quick, wasn’t it?
The grudge match action continued as D’Angelo Dinero went up against Samoa Joe.
Another good outing for the Pope and Joe here, but like other matches I just got the feeling that it went on a little too long. Mind you, that’s also how I feel about this feud.
Once again Joe came out on top, taking Dinero down with the muscle buster and getting the submission win with a rear naked choke.
Then it was on to another feud that seems to have been going on forever as Hernandez faced Matt Morgan.
This is another feud that I’m rapidly losing interest in. The action between these two was as solid as ever, but let’s face it folks, we’ve seen it all before, just with the roles reversed.
Hopefully this feud ended when Morgan took big Super Mex down with the carbon footprint as Hernandez came off the top rope. When then saw a impromptu brawl between Sarita and Velvet Skye, which didn’t really add anything to the occasion.
Yet more grudge match action followed as Jeff Jarrett faced Kurt Angle in what was hyped as an “ultra male rules” match, a best of three falls encounter, with each fall contested under a different stipulation. Sadly “ultra male rules” didn’t involve both men drinking until they could puke before engaging in a kebab throwing contest.
While this may have been an entertaining encounter, like many others on this card it suffered because it seemed to drag on and on.
With both men securing a fall apiece early on it went down to the cage escape part of the match. This was were we got the sick moment where Angle landed on his head after a Jarrett power bomb from the top rope.
We also had Angle re-enacting his Mr. Anderson feud when he had second thoughts about leaving the cage when Jarrett was well beaten.
We then got appearances from a chair swinging Gunnar, Scott Steiner, who chased him off, and Jarrett’s wife Karen before the King of the Mountain eventually managed to get out of the cage to secure the win.
The first main event saw Mr. Anderson and Rob Van Dam challenging Sting for the World title.
Well, this certainly was better than last month’s main event, but then again that wasn’t a difficult act to achieve.
It looked a bit messy to begin with, although it developed nicely with some interesting three way spots.
Then we got the appearance from Hulk Hogan, metal pipe in his hand as he attempted to help RVD. But Van Dam was having none of it, unwilling to use the pipe in the name of Immortal.
However, Anderson was willing to use the pipe, not for Hogan but for himself as he smashed RVD in the back.
Seconds later it was all over, with Sting taking out an unsuspecting Anderson with the scorpion death drop. Hogan wasn’t happy, but as Sting invited him into the cage the Hulkster refused.
The final match of the show was the Lethal Lockdown affair, pitting Immortal, Bully Ray, Matt Hardy, Abyss and Ric Flair, against Fortune, Beer Money, Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels.
Beginning with Kazarian against Abyss, with Immortal having the one man advantage throughout, there was plenty of hard hitting action, with Flair doing his usual easily seen blade job after James Storm clobbered him with his beer bottle. I swear that old man is looking more like Sir Jimmy Saville each and every day.
This year it was Daniels’ turn to take the big bump. Having been taking out with a twist of hate from Hardy on top of the cage he recovered enough to pull off a remarkable dive off the top of the cage onto Hardy and Abyss on the floor below.
Later, just as Immortal looked like they were going to win A.J. Styles made an unexpected appearance, charging into the cage and attacking Bully Ray. Moments later Roode applied an arm bar to the blood-stained Nature Boy, getting the submission win for his team.
In conclusion - once again a TNA pay-per-view leaves me feeling a little disappointed.
Although the majority of the action was okay the majority of the matches just seemed to drag on and on, with no sense of direction at all, while others, such as the Knockouts and World title matches just seemed too short.
So sadly this year’s Lockdown doesn’t get the thumbs up, which is once against worrying considering the talent that TNA have on their roster.
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