Sunday night TNA presents Lockdown. With Samoa Joe facing off against Kurt Angle for the TNA World title in the main event, it promises to be an interesting show.
What do the Inside Pulse writers think will happen? Find out inside!
TNA World Heavyweight title
Kurt Angle (c) vs. Samoa Joe
Brad Curran: The build up for this has been interesting. Well, the shoot fight aspect of it, not Joe whining his way to a title shot. His winning seems obvious here, and I’ll be optimistic and go with it, even if all the crap about him leaving wrestling forever (and, you know, TNA and Russo’s track record in general) has me expecting a screw job of some sort to set up another match and deny the paying customer any kind of pay off whatsoever. But hey, they’re turning a profit now, so I can’t mock them that much. The interesting thing about Joe and his lack of a world title here is that it feels anti climatic and delayed and everything, but to a certain extent I can’t blame them for not putting the top belt on him yet. I think it’s how they did it is the problem. Hopefully he finally goes over here, even if Steiner as a first opponent isn’t exactly a great prize.
Winner: Joe
Danny Cox: So they took Karen Angle out of the mix so this could be a straight up contest between just Joe and Angle. Nice touch. But then to throw on the stipulation of Joe being fired or something if he loses…that just makes it all dumb. Joe should have gotten the title a long time ago, and deserves it here at the very least. It would seem quite obvious that he’d win because you know he isn’t going anywhere…but knowing TNA and having that stipulation on makes me wonder. Would they really “shock” the world and get “rid” of Joe the way they did with Christopher Daniels and then just find some sort of stipulation or loophole that means he can come back? I wouldn’t put it past them, but God I hope they don’t.
Winner and finally NEW Champ – Samoa Joe
Mark Allen: This should be an easy “duh” but with TNA one is never sure.
Winner – Samoa Joe
Charlie Marsh: They should just call this a “Foregone Conclusion Match”. Considering it’s pretty much taken an act of Congress to get the title on Joe, it should at least be satisfying to see it finally happen. I’m not looking forward to the MMA aspect to it, since I’m not an MMA fan, and neither are a lot of people, so here’s hoping it’s light on that.
Winner – Joe
Paul Marshall: I know it’s sad…but when you hear Samoa Joe say at the TNA Conference Call that his contract is about up and he’s working with them to negotiate an extension…it spells trouble. The IWC wants Joe to win the title. Hell, anything but Joe winning the title spells doom for TNA in general. Joe has yet to win the big one…and we are waiting for it to happen. If this match does include MMA elements, this will be Match of the Year no doubt… You can cry all you want WWE & ROH fanatics, but if Joe and Angle give their best in that cage, they will trump the best WWE has to offer and will trump the best ROH has to offer. However if Joe loses, TNA is f*cked, plain and simple.
Winner and NEW TNA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION: Samoa Joe
David Brashear: Let’s face it. Several good things can come out of this match. One, the MMA stip may help cure Angle of his wanting to do an MMA match (which could very easily wind up embarrassing TNA). And second, Joe will finally get the title, only a year + later than he should have.
Winner – Samoa Joe
Lethal Lockdown
Team Tomko (Tomko, Team 3D, AJ Styles, and James Storm) vs. Team Cage (Christian Cage, Sting, Kevin Nash, Rhino, and Matt Morgan)
Danny Cox: Is Tomko really that over that he deserves top billing and his own team? Nope. Don’t care about him, the Dudleyz, Sting, Nash, or Matt Morgan. Wow, what a spectacle this will be.
Winners – Team Tomko
Mark Allen: I don’t really know where the booking goes from here with these ten men, but I’d say the face team is too stacked to not get the win here. Sting is always protected well and it looks like Matt Morgan may be the next guy to get a top card push.
Winner – Team Cage
Charlie Marsh: Matt Morgan helps the heels win and goes on to face Joe throughout the summer, as they seemed to be teasing not long ago but apparently they’ve forgotten already.
Winners – Team Tomko
Paul Marshall: Matt Morgan inserts himself in Lethal Lockdown…I smell a swerve. Russo hasn’t swerved anyone in the past few weeks so he’s overdue.
Winner – TEAM TOMKO
David Brashear: I would love to see Team Cage get the win here, especially after that goofy shot of Sting they closed out Impact with a week or so ago. However, I believe that it’s SWERVE TIME!
Winners – Team Tomko (after Morgan turns)
Brad Curran: I was wondering when Morgan would actually wrestle. This seems like as good a place as any to debut him, since this match shouldn’t expose his weaknesses (in theory). They seem to want to do a Tomko/Styles vs. 3D feud, so they can spin that out of their losing here. Christian and friends could use the win, I think, and babyfaces tend to go over in War Games matches anyway.
Winner: Team Cage
TNA X-Division Title
X-Scape Match
Jay Lethal (c) vs. Johnny Devine vs. Curry Man vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Shark Boy vs. Consequences Creed
Mark Allen: It’s kind of silly to put Creed in here and have him job after only having one match, but it seems like all signs point to a big Lethal-Dutt feud. What’s with all the faces in this match? Why wasn’t Chris Sabin even included in the qualifying matches? Why do TNA matches always bring up more questions than answers?
Winner – Jay Lethal
Charlie Marsh: They should run an angle where Stone Cold Shark Boy gets sued for gimmick infringement. They don’t have to bring Austin in, they don’t even have to mention him by name, all they have to do is hire someone to play the role of a lawyer who tries to censor everything Shark Boy does. Or they could just scrap the whole thing all together and come up with their own ideas. Speaking of people who should come up with their own ideas, Black Machismo gets screwed by So Cal Elizabeth who helps Sonjay win and joins up with him.
Winner – Sonjay Dutt
Paul Marshall: This match will be fun. You have five people that can work their asses off and one that I haven’t seen wrestle yet since I’ve yet to catch Impact this week. However, Christopher Daniels Curry Man is in this match…so…give me some spice.
Winner – He’s hot…he’s spicy…he tastes great…he’s CURRY MAN! *does the dance*
David Brashear: I think that this is going to kick off the brewing Dutt/Lethal feud, but I don’t think that Val’s going to turn. Instead, I think that Dutt’s going to keep chasing her and causes Lethal to lose the title (kind of a George Steele-Savage thing). Who’ll win?
Winner – Curry Man
Brad Curran: It’s tempting to go with TBA, since they’ve been getting a huge push and really getting over with the crowd. Of course, by time this goes up, Consequences Creed will be revealed as the last entry (from what I get out of the spoilers), so that joke will be shot, but I’m too self indulgent to cut it. Anyway, this highlights the fact that the X-Division is pretty much entirely about comedy acts right now, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. The purist in me cries foul, but the absurdist in me is okay with it. It would help if more of this stuff were funny, mind you, on both ends. I do find Christopher Daniels with Indian Food on top of his mask captivating, so there is that.
Wait, I have to pick a winner? Well, they seem to want to do Lethal vs. Sanjay, based on all the cock blocking Sanjay has been doing lately. Sanjay could steal the belt here to turn fully heel (in stead of merely being a fairly annoying but harmless face), but this doesn’t seem like the match for a title change, so I’ll pick Lethal to retain.
Winner: King Macho Madness, Jay Poffo
Danny Cox: One can only hope that Lethal keeps this and continues the frickin hot streak he is on. Now that I say that, they’ll probably let Dutt win this whole thing or Devine. Ugh.
Winner and STILL Champ – Black Savage
Grudge Match
BG James vs. Kip James
Charlie Marsh: I cared about this 10 years ago. I don’t now. Hopefully they each move on to bigger and better things after this, ie: going away and never coming back.
Winner – BG James
Paul Marshall: This is equivalent to last year’s Storm v. Harris. Sadly, Storm and Harris can put on a more interesting match than them.
Winner – Kip James
David Brashear: I’m not sure of who will win this, but I know who’ll lose. The loser will be anyone watching this match.
Winner – Who cares? But let’s flip a coin and say BG.
Brad Curran: Speaking of being sick of things… I don’t know, I’ve ignored their dueling promo video packages, so maybe those would have convinced me to pretend it’s 1999 again and this is a viable feud. I don’t really see where they go with either guy as a singles wrestler, either, but I refuse to put any more thought in to the damn New Age Outlaws wrestling in 2008.
Winner: Attitude Era Nostalgia Buffs! And Kip James, I guess.
Danny Cox: Stupid.
Winner – BG James
Mark Allen: Ok, I’m surprised that no one around the web has really given any love to the Roughcuts segments between these two. They have been one of the favorite parts of every Impact that they have aired. They didn’t do any wacky in-ring angles to get this angle. They didn’t have a lot dumb swerves or finishes (other than the initial angle-starting one). I felt that these video packages really set this match off as something different and made it feel special. If WWE ran a series of videos like this they would praised immensely, but maybe they’ve just been buried in the mess of the usual Impact broadcast. All that being said, I loved the videos but I’m still not really excited for the match itself. We all know what these can do in the ring, and unless the pair has spent these past few weeks really working on something special then it should be your basic middling mid-card match. I don’t really see this feud being a one-and-done, and it looks the starting stages for another Billy Gunn push so he gets the win here.
Winner – Kip James
Queen of the Cage Match
Angelina Love vs. Velvet Sky vs. Salinas vs. Rhaka Khan vs. Traci Brooks vs. Christy Hemme vs. Ms. Jacqueline vs. Roxxi Laveaux
Paul Marshall: This is another one of Russo’s finest matches. You have eight ladies on the floor and the first TWO that climbs the cage to get inside the ring faces off against the other. This shit almost writes itself. Let’s say that Jacqueline and Rhaka Khan gets in the cage. Here’s another memo to Russo…
Dear Russo: Again, I beg you…PLEASE leave TNA and start up another wrestling promotion with Hulk Hogan and call it the Russo-Hogan Wrestling Federation.
Winner – Rhaka Khan
David Brashear: Let’s guess. Jacqueline’s going to be one of the competitors, and I’ll guess Rhaka for the other because of the Steiner connection.
Winner – Rhaka
Brad Curran: I really like the Knockout Division in general, and even some of the women in this match, but this is still a massive trainwreck waiting to happen without someone like Gail or Kong to hold it together, although at least they have a veteran hand in Jackie. And hey, not only are there two women’s matches on here, but they’ve established enough of these women that they can have one of these big things and people might conceivably care! Okay, that’s probably stretching it.
Winner: Rahka Khan, because her name amuses me.
Danny Cox: Seriously, how many chicks are there on this show? Could care less about this unless Salinas (Ariel) gets her top ripped off. Not to mention this is the dumb reverse battle royal format to start off the match.
Winner – Rhaka Khan
Mark Allen: Reverse Battle Royal was so successful the first two times that they decided to do it again, but this time with women and a cage. This is “vintage Russo” (TM Michael Cole). Winner? I don’t really have an educated guess so I’ll just say Tracy. She’s a face that hasn’t been squashed by Kong yet.
Winner – Tracy Brooks
Charlie Marsh: God bless Vince Russo.
Winner – The fans, who will be graced with what will be the pinnacle of sports entertainment, the reverse cage match!
Cuffs in the Cage Match
Rellik (which is Killer spelled BACKWARDS!) vs. Black Reign vs. Super Eric vs. Kaz vs. Scott Steiner vs. Petey Williams vs. Sabin vs. Alex Shelley vs. Homicide vs. Hernendez vs. Rave vs. Hoyt
David Brashear: So we have Rellik (which is Rellik spelled forwards!), Black Reign (which is Boring spelled sideways!) and Lance Hoyt (which is Useless spelled everyways!) in a match together. I’ll give it to Steiner. Why not?
Winner – Scott Steiner
Paul Marshall: So let me break this one down. There will be 11 pairs of handcuffs attached to the cage. You’re eliminated when you get cuffed. Also the winner is a sole person and not a tag team. This has never been done before but there is a good reason. 12 people inside a cage at the same time…either you’re drowning out the Lethal Lockdown Match or you’re Vince Russo, who likes to reinvent the wheel every chance he gets. You want a winner? Good luck… Here’s a memo to Russo.
Dear Russo: Please retire.
Winner – Hell, let’s go with Scott Steiner since he has a title match next month.
Mark Allen: What an absolute clusterf*ck. They take virtually every other active guy on the TNA roster and pair them up with their nearest buddy and put them in a handcuff match? Twelve men in a small ring like TNA’s and surrounded by a cage will make this match a logistical nightmare first off. Second, what does the winner get? Does he get his a singles Title shot, or does he and his partner get Tag shots? Why are they fighting with handcuffs? None of these guys use cuffs as a gimmick, do they? Why is Scott Steiner, the already announced number one contender for the next PPV, buried in a twelve man undercard schmozz? Wow too many questions, and no answers. As for a winner…let’s see…Steiner is booked for a Title match next month, LAX are already the announced number one contenders for the Tag belts, and Eric Young is getting another comedy push…hmmm….logic would say that the number one contender wins a twelve man match to establish himself for the next month. Of course, that will probably mean that Rellik, which is killer spelled backwards, will win.
Winner – Scott Steiner
Charlie Marsh: As long as Black Reign and Rellik (that’s “Killer” spelled backwards, by the way) destroy Super Eric and we never have to see him again, I’ll be a happy guy.
Winner – By virtue of eenie meenie miney mo, Kaz
Booker T/Sharmell vs. Robert Roode/Payton Banks
Brad Curran: I dunno, for some reason this feud bores the crap out of me. It’s not Booker, who seems motivated, and it’s not even Roode, who I am indifferent to but can tolerate. I just want it to end. So it will probably go until Slammiversary. Roode could use a win to justify his never ending upper mid-card push, but denying Booker some revenge doesn’t seem right either. I’ll go with Roode anyway, with Book savin face afterword and leading to another match.
Winner: Roode and Banks
Danny Cox: So Booker was siding with Traci Brooks who was feuding with Payton Banks because Roode fired her while Sharmell was off doing random stuff…so now Brooks is thrown aside Sharmell steps in like she was there all along? And are Booker and Roode REALLY still feuding? Ugh again!
Winners – The T’s
Mark Allen: Seems like this should be the final blow off to the long-standing Booker/Roode feud. I don’t want to speculate what screwjob or schmozz that creative has got lined up so I’ll just go with the logical choice.
Winner – Booker and Sharmell
Paul Marshall: After last month, I don’t think I can handle another craptastic match. Just give us Booker/Roode. None of the sideshow crap between Sharmell, Payton, & Traci. I say Sharmell kicks Robert in the million dollar nutsack and Booker gets the win.
Winner – Booker T & Sharmell
David Brashear: I’m calling the end of the Roode/Booker feud here. Sharmell kicks Roode in the crotch, Booker plants him and gets the win.
Winners – Booker and Sharmell
Awesome Kong/Raisha Saeed vs. Gail Kim/ODB
Danny Cox: Since Kong won’t lose a singles match right now; it makes sense to have her at least lose a tag match.
Winners – Gail Kim/ODB
Mark Allen: The faces win by pinning Raesha. That way they can put heat on their feud with Kong without actually pinning her. Whoever gets the pin on Saeed can lay claim to the next Title shot.
Winner – Gail and ODB
Paul Marshall: At least the women in this match can…well, you know…wrestle. Logic says that the faces win and Raisha Saeed is the one that takes the loss.
Winner – Gail Kim & ODB
David Brashear: Kim and ODB will wind up putting Saeed down. I’m not sure which one, but they’ll be the ones to do it.
Winners – Gail Kim & ODB
Awesome Kong/Raisha Saeed vs. Gail Kim/ODB
Brad Curran: I assume Cheerleader Saeed’s in there to do the job and give the faces something to work with during this feud beyond determination and alcohol, respectively. I assume a lot of things that don’t turn out the way I expect them to. Still, I’ll go with the faces here, in pretty much the only feud in TNA I give a damn about these days.
Brad Curran: Kim and ODB
