Watching TNA’s Lockdown for no reason other than pure boredom, forgetting it’s a overused gimmick calling itself a PPV, maybe I should have passed. TNA’s Lockdown was utterly forgettable but I want to spend time writing about it to prove a point about TNA.
Psychology in wrestling in general is a lost art and there is zero psychology in TNA when every match has an ‘out bump the last match’ mentality. It’s violence for violence’s sake the way it’s set up, and a crowd in as traditional a town as St. Louis gets bored quickly and just wants to move forward to get to the main event with talent that they care about.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the TNA locker room works hard as the alternative product to the WWE. For example, X Divsion Championship Xscape Match was a good match to watch. It’s the closest to what TNA should be right now in terms of work rate and good energy. I find the Black Machismo gimmick hilarious, especially since Jay Lethal can nail Macho Man’s voice. For the passive TNA fan, they are going to attach themselves to the mockery and pull for Lethal. If the TNA PPV stopped after Sabin was declared the winner, I would be giving this show a more positive rating.
TNA tried to demonstrate throughout the night the struggles Team Angle had with Kurt bringing in Jeff Jarrett. This is fine but it was played up too often and made it feel nothing more than trying to be the WWE product and worse, making the TNA PPV all about Jarrett which has been the problem with TNA all along.
Petey Williams and Rick Roode was a timewaster, and Roode’s gimmick needs to change, it is about as functional as Chris Masters gimmick.
I want to give props to Gail Kim and Jackie Moore’s match. It woke me back up again and I liked their brawling energy. Gail nailed a impressive crossbody and up to this point, the ladies stole the show.
Austin Starr versus Senshi with Bob Backlund as special guest refree was another time burner. Senshi looks like he’s out of a Mortal Combat video game. It’s hard to care about this match when there isn’t a big purpose to this (though I understand they are trying to make a good story with this) yet with Backlund’s always kooky energy.
Samoa Joe gave a good promo which makes him who he is, a guy who just wants to win the championship and doesn’t care what he has to do to be there. He remembered the point of the match, not Jeff Jarrett, but about getting a shot at the NWA World Championship.
I want to give the Blindfold match a negative 2 out of 10. That’s how bad it was. It’s such a bad idea, blindfold matches are incredibly dated. They are not exciting to watch, you can’t tell a story in the match, it’s supposedly blind skill to pull a guy into a move and hopefully end the misery. It went entirely too long and should have been taken home sooner.
The only hope to save the PPV up to this point was Christopher Daniels versus Jerry Lynn. I did like the match, and they bring out good talent in each other. If all the other matches up to this point could work as good as they two worked, TNA would be better off.
Nothing makes me more disappointed about this PPV then Team 3D finally becoming NWA World Tag Team Champions, only getting about five seconds to celebrate what they’ve worked hard for before TNA cuts away to move the show along to the main event, and to have to take the win in a lame Non-Electrified Cage Match. This match shouldn’t have happened because we were delivered a lame cage match parading itself as a up to 10,000 volts cage. Slam! Sports reported this was the first changing of the NWA Tag Team Titles in St. Louis and I don’t believe the commentators (even the Professor himself) pointing this fact out. The announcing of the show was way off the mark too, even Tenay didn’t bring anything good out of this show. Don West is dreadful as a dresser and as a commentator and the day TNA realizes this, the product will be better off.
The Number One Contender Team Angle versus Team Cage match was good for what it was. The match was indeed more about who would Jarrett screw and he turned out to not screw anyone, allowing Sting to take the clean victory. I popped for the Frankensteiner because I hadn’t seen that move in years by Scott Steiner. Other than that and AJ’s fall of the cage onto wrestlers on the outside, nothing else was that memorable about the match. Jarrett best served the company by not being a main event player, let’s hope we don’t revert back to last year. By the way, remember when Kurt Angle was a star in the business? I long for those days again.
For another commentary on the state of PPVs, check out Andy Wheeler’s commentary on cross-brand PPVs being a bad idea.
Always remember, for things to change, you have to make movement. Thanks for reading and for all the feedback, feel free to contact me anytime at Bam@4sternstaging.com.
