TNA Lockdown Review

T|NA Lockdown 2009

So here we go my own personal review of this years all-cage ppv from TNA Lockdown. I was not able to review this for the Sun this year as our editor Si was lucky enough to be there live and you can read his own review on site.

The Danny Bonnaduce and Eric Young challenge match was the events dark match, I recommend you like myself watch it online and see how the former Hulk Hogan’s CCW wrestler fared. I don’t want to ruin it for you. I am a bit shocked that it was not part of the main ppv, as it has been heavily hyped up (including an exclusive story by myself).

The X Division kicked off the show as champion Suicide, Jay Lethal, Kiyoshi, Consequences Creed and Sheik Abdul Bashir took to the ring to do their stuff. This was a decent opener, the double duty Chris Daniels (as Suicide and himself later) impressed with some superb moves and a death defying finishing move off the cage. Nice X Division match and one to savour.

Unfortunately the Queen of the Cage bout next between Madison rayne, Sojo Bolt, Dafney and ODB could not rise to meet our expectations. Rayne fared well, Daffney (former WCW star) looked good and the liquored up ODB did well to win the match and a potential Knockouts title match down the line.

Now here’s a puzzle, LAX’s Hernandez can in no way be called a junior heavyweight grappler, yet the big man was featured in this three team tornado match for the IWGP Jr Tag Team belts. He and his partner Homicide were against champs the Motor City Machine Guns and former title holders No Limit.
This was a thoroughly exciting affair, all six having some fine moments, the teams all working well together and showing their own styles and talents. MCMG winning after a nice version of their made in Detroit finisher.

OK puzzle time part two, Abyss took on Matt Morgan in a Doomsday Chamber of Blood match next, now forgive me here but if this was a simple first blood match I’d have understood it, but no this had the stipulation that the winner was the man who pinned the other after the other had bled! A typical Abyss/Morgan match and yes they bled, the finish came when Dr Stevie (Ecw’s Stevie Richards) made his on screen debut and distracted Abyss, allowing Morgan to nail the win.

The TNA Knockouts Tile was on the line next as the monster of a woman that is Awesome Kong took on Taylor Wilde and Angelina Love in a triple threat match. All three did their best here, Wilde we know can wrestle Kong with aplomb, but Love did some decent working too. The Beautiful People member pulled off the upset win and raised the title form Kong.

Since this was taking place in Philadelphia, you just knew Team 3D would be making their presence felt, but when you factor in opponents Beer Money and the TNA/IWGP Tag Team straps were on the line, you just know it was going to be a storming brawl. This was a street fight for all of the marbles and boy did the teams work for them. The foursome battled in and out of the cage, through the crowd, used weapons and gave their bodies some serious bruises, before Team 3D netted their 22nd set of major tag team titles.

Lethal Lockdown was up next, now it at least has rules you can understand, two men enter, they battle for five minutes, then every minute or so alternate members of the four man teams join in the fray, giving one team an advantage for a few minutes. The eight men were Team Jarrett, Jeff Jarrett (of course), Samoa Joe, AJ Styles and Chris Daniels, on the other side were the Main Event Mafia members Kurt Angle, Scott Steiner, Kevin Nash (his first match in a while) and Booker T.

An enjoyable match the combatants brawled nicely, even on the roof of the cage, before the roof descended and the weapons came into play. We saw some nice pairings, Steiner pulled off a pretty good Frankensteiner, Jeff teased a change of sides by decking AJ with a chair shot and the suicidal Angle took some major bumps. Team Jarrett of course won and were like the live crowd in awe as former WWE star Bobby Lashley made an appearance on the entrance ramp.

Main event time now, current champ Sting was going back in time to face an old enemy he last faced a decade or so ago in WCW, Mick Foley (as Cactus Jack). Of course whilst Sting has kept in fairly enviable ring shape (for his advancing age), Foley is a pale shadow of his former self. Saying that the duo really did have a good-above average bout. Foley gave as good as he got and Sting made him look like a star and every bit as dangerous as he was in his old days.

12 time champ Sting is the longest reigning TNA champion and for his own personal record has made this his longest tenure as champion too. Foley is a three time former World Champion himself and you feel he never thought he’d be back in the title picture again eh!

Foley re-opened his eye cut early on, showing his maniacal tendencies, the crowd seems mixed, Sting was the obvious face, even though he is part of the heel MEM group. This was a solid match, Foley used his barb-wire baseball bat, Sting battered Foley and the pair made the best of their ageing frames. The shock finish came as both brawled on the cage and Foley beat Sting to the floor to raise his first TNA title.

So Lockdown had some thrills, plenty of spills and title changes galore. Will Foley be a transitional champion? Probably, I’d say he’ll either jump to the Main Event Mafia and swap places with Sting or he’ll lose the belt to Angle. Sting will be a great addition to the Frontline group. Lashley may join the former champions on the MEM and the teased Taz (as Joe’s unseen mentor) may join the announce or backstage team.

All in all this is what TNA need to do on a regular basis, we need this level of creativity or we’ll simply turn off and not come back, we require a few decent PPV’s in a row, plus the always enjoyable weekly Impact shows.

Phil Allely