Thoughts on TNA Lockdown 2008

I love how TNA has a match called 'X-scape' and then Don West is quoted as sayg "you can't win by escaping". Jay Lethal won the X-scape match as expected, the stage is set for Sonjay Dutt to turn heel. Will TNA pull the trigger? My guess is that they are going to blow it by waiting too long. Impact this week is the best possible time for them to do it. So let's hope that happens.

The knockouts get-in the cage then fight match was kinda a bust for me (no pun intended). It seems like any time anyone wins a match they get a title shot. It's pretty dumb. I would have loved to see either Rhaka Khan (assuming that she can work) or Angelina Love win that match and have it not be for a title shot. That way they could get another girl into the top mix as a strong heel. So now we have 3 baby-faces in the title picture against Awesome Kong. Just because of Khan's physicality she would be the prime candidate to work with Gail Kim or ODB, but maybe she can't work.

I really don't like the phony shoot-style interviews, but I actually have been enjoying the 'rough cuts' segments that BG and Kip James have been having. I think it's been a good way to promote this match. I actually looked forward to it a bit. At first I thought the finish was kinda lame. BG was supposed to be getting his revenge and he got a fluky win. Then they shook hands and Kip hit BG from behind and I thought it was alright. I guess we're gunna get a longer feud out of these guys. I'm looking forward to that. I've been a fan of both of them since the DX days.



Next up was the clash of dumb gimmicks. Rock and Rave Infection, Super Eric, and Black Reign and Rellik (that's killer spelled backwards) all in the ring at the same time! There were a few good teams in the mix though, the Motor City Machine Guns and LAX were there. There were a couple good high spots in this one. Kaz took a chokeslam off the top rope, then Super Eric came in (after running away from Black Reign and Rellik (that's killer spelled backwards)) anyway when he came in he did a huge crossbody off the top of the cage. And then shortly thereafer Super Eric won the match. Didn't care much about this one. It probably would have been better if this match had swapped places with the X-division match at the beginning and they had given the X-Division guys some room to do some crazy stuff.

There is a new girl backstage interviewing people. I wonder what happened to crystal.

Next up was ODB and Gail Kim vs Awesome Kong and Raisha Saeed. I wish they had maybe had more of a backstory for Saeed. Maybe if she hit more people with chairs or something. There was really not much reason for us to care about Saeed being in a match. That being said was I ever impressed with her. Maybe she can be that other top heel that I mentioned earlier. This was a great match. Gail Kim did a sweet hurricanrana off the top of the cage. This match was really well put together. ODB and Kim got the win but Kong continues or streak of not being pinned. The TNA Knockouts division could very well be the best thing going in wrestling today. Bravo ladies.

Right after that match there was a short promo from Karen Angle. I didn't realize until right now just how refreshing it has been without her stupid love triangle being on the show for the last few weeks. I'm sure this is foreshadowing for how the Angle/Joe match is gunna end.

In the next match (Booker T and Charmelle vs Robert Roode and Peyton Banks) Charmelle got the pin on Peyton Banks for the win. After that Robert Roode blamed her for the loss and left her in the ring by herself. Maybe now we will actually get a one on one match with Booker and Roode without any silly stipulations.


Next up was the lethal lockdown match. Team Tomko vs Team Cage. In my opinion the feud between Christian Cage and Tomko/AJ Styles has been botched pretty badly. AJ and Christian could have had a great match back about three months ago when AJ screwed him out of winning the title from Kurt Angle. It's just another case of TNA not pulling the trigger at the right time. I really liked how they started this match. AJ got huge heat right off the bat after they made it look like Tomko was going to start the match and AJ snuck up behind Christian. As much as the gimmick and story behind this match was preposterous the crowd was totally into it (and so was I). But after the first 5 minutes the match went downhill fast. Christian did a cross body off the top of the cage like EY. If you noticed. James Storm was the very first guy to go to the top of the cage. Anyone remember how at the very last pay per view before his elevation X match they did those promos where they made it look like he was deathly afraid of heights? stupid. I know that wrestling isn't the most consistent thing in the world. But they can do better.

Holy crap talk about a big bump tho. AJ climbed up a ladder on the top of the cage and then christian got up there and started duking it out.. then storm pushed over the ladder and they went through a table on the top of the cage! oh man that could have been nasty. In the end though the match wasn't even really that special. It was basically just a goon fest with guys using weapons on each other etc. In the end Rhino got the pin to win the match.

The big match - Kurt Angle vs Samoa Joe - was up next. I really how TNA promoted this match. They made it a bit more serious, but getting Karen Angle involved killed it. This match was weird. They basically did a worked MMA match with pin falls and rope breaks. I didn't like it. It's funny that TNA's slogan is 'we are wrestling' and they have a worked MMA match for their main event. This match was submission hold after submission hold. There were some little bits of wrestling here and there but it was pretty boring. Joe had Angle in a STFU at one point. And then a crippler crossface. The match wasn't very good. But I'm glad that Joe won. And that he won with one of his wrestling moves and not a rear naked choke.

For the whole pay-per-view I was thinking that this was one of TNA's strongest shows in a while and I would give it an overall good rating. But that last match really left a sour taste in my mouth. So I thought about it for a minute...

What did we really see here tonight? We saw a whole bunch of cage matches where nobody really used the cage. There were 3 big cage moments and 2 of them were pretty much the same thing. So what was actually good about this show? We saw a fantastic Knockouts match, and BG James and Kip James get to continue their feud.... and that's about it. TNA has once again missed the nail with the hammer. They don't seem to realize that people are buying their pay-per-view to see wrestling. Not a worked MMA match. Wrestling is about excitement. Not a series of phony submission holds. For me, this show was a disappointment at best.