Check This Out...

4.14.2008

Lockdown: Joe's Gonna Kill You!

The buzz around TNA Lockdown was Samoa Joe taking on Kurt Angle for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in a cage match. Not only was it a cage match it was booked as an MMA fight. Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle delivered. It was an MMA fight with rope breaks and pins. Frank Trigg provided some heel commentary and Karen Angle didn’t provide any interference. That was unexpected.

With that match being the true focal point, the others took a backseat and rightly so. With so many multi-person matches it gave some a headache the two singles matches needed to deliver. One of them did, and the other didn’t. With Lockdown certainly having lofty expectations, did it deliver?

The six man Xscape match jerked the curtain and with the finish they gave it’s no surprise. I was sorely disappointed to see Consequences Creed eat the third pinfall. Sonjay was eliminated by Devine to start it off, and Shark Boy went out second.

The final three were Curry Man Daniels, O Show favorite Johnny Devine and X Champ Black Machismo. I was a little surprised by the final three, but I know that all three of those guys can work so I figured the fireworks they put on would be well worth it.

Johnny Devine was able to send Curry packing, which was his second elimination of the night making him the man with the most elimination’s. In heel fashion he taped Jay Lethal to the ropes and this is where TNA dropped the ball on the finish.

The plot of the last several weeks has seen a teased heat between Sonjay and Lethal over SoCal Val, but last night even though Sonjay stayed at ringside with Val he held the door shut and then threw Lethal a knife to cut the tape. With Devine climbing out of the cage Lethal did a swan dive to the floor to retain his title.

A finish like that makes me think that they’ll continue the Devine/Machismo feud, with Dutt playing a role in that as well, and the eventual turn of Dutt on Lethal will be later. They wasted a six man Xscape on furthering a feud that hasn’t even started yet. The saving grace of the match was the action and the way Devine was a dominant factor.

The Queen of the Cage match is head and shoulders above the regular reverse battle royal because it is a challenge to get into the cage, but with how quickly Angelina Love got into the cage, the match was doomed from the beginning.

Angelina Love and Roxxi Leveaux did a fine job of working the match once inside and Roxxi looked very strong and very good while on the way to being the number one contender, but with Traci Brooks, and Jacqueline on the outside one has to wonder why those they couldn't make it the first three or four.

After praising TNA Rough Cuts over the past five weeks I look like an asshole. I was legitimately hot after the finish of the match. I knew it wasn’t going to be a classic because I’m realistic, but did I think the whole thing would end up in a rollup? No.

After the match I was shocked. I’ve never seen a hug, and hand raise end in a clothesline before. Not only that but Kip got in a DX crotch chop. Come on Russo, you can do better. At least I think you can. Apparently this feud will continue, and now I doubt I’ll praise it.

The whole point of Cuffed in the Cage was to get Eric Young on the show with both his characters. Don’t get me wrong I like Eric Young, but I’m not a fan of this gimmick. Was it any mystery that he would be victorious? I didn’t think so. Kaz also “won.”

The women’s tag team match was shockingly very good. Not that I didn’t think they could work a good tag team match. I just didn’t know how well they could do it inside the cage. Gail Kim’s hurricanrana was sick. I literally stood up for the O. Had it been a dude I probably wouldn’t have, but that doesn’t matter.

It wasn’t your formulaic tag team match, but it was close enough for that too to elicit an O. I never expected that match to be the one that kept me talking, but in my eyes that match was the show stealer. Kong still looks strong, but none of the four come out looking weak.

So I also expected Bobby Roode and Booker T to be the match to steal the show. Boy was I dead wrong. The mixed tag gimmick had no bearing on the match except for the absolute finish. To me that was a mistake, especially the way the finish played out.

Payton Banks got rolled up after she slapped Bobby in the face. Give me a break. This one should have drawn the “Fire Russo” chants from the crowd. Not only did the women decide the match, but Roode is about to go in search of yet another valet. Do better.

Lethal Lockdown was ok. There wasn’t a damn thing Lethal about it. Actually there wasn’t much that was impressive about it. Sting’s lifting nut-kick on Styles was about the most O-tastic thing to happen until James Storm’s leg broke through the cage.

Then we get the token ladder on top of the cage spot. Styles and Cage took the fall through a horrible table after Storm pushed the ladder. I can’t recall a table ever breaking that terribly. It broke into three tiny pieces on one end and the other stayed intact.

I was incredibly surprised that Rhino went over for Team Cage. I don’t really have a problem with it, but I figured it’d be Sting or Christian. With Christian laying on a piece of table on top, I figured it’d be Sting. Either way the match wasn’t what I thought it would be.

Now I’m going to take a break from the matches in the event. I wanted to title this article Lockdown: There Will Be Blood, but had I done that, I’d have been a damn liar. D-Von was the only dude to get some color, and he is colored. How the hell does that work? Is that some kind of joke we’re not in on?

So with seven matches down and the main event to go we’ve seen one dude get color in a match. We’ve also not seen a heel go over, period. This was the most face dominated PPV in some time. TNA usually doesn’t allow heels to go over a lot on PPV, but I can’t remember, probably because I don’t watch their PPV’s that much, an all face’s in the winner’s column PPV.

That led me to believe two things. We’ll see Vince Russo all the way with a swerve at the end of Joe/Angle and see Joe “leave wrestling.” I also figured we’d see a blood bath in an MMA/shoot style Cage match. Damn, I was wrong again.

The match was good. It wasn’t great, but it certainly wasn’t bad. It was almost great but it lacked something. Maybe a referee with knowledge because in the funniest spot of the night Angle mounted Joe to get some punches and the referee immediately dropped and had a one count before Angle could extend his arm.

Frank Trigg did a great job on commentary, and played up the heel role quite nicely. He wasn’t a bleeding heart, "I hate faces" heel, but for all intents and purposes he was pulling for Angle and that made him a heel. Don West on commentary still sucks, but I digress.

Some people may have the opinion that Joe and Angle spent too long on submissions and ground moves and not enough on wrestling, but those people probably didn’t watch "iMPACT!" over the last four weeks showing the MMA training and sparring that both dudes were doing.

As Joe hit the muscle buster I personally was expecting the Coquina Clutch to put Angle out. Instead Joe immediately covered and got the uno, dos, tres. At first I was hot. I couldn’t believe it, but then I realized that finish was nearly perfect.

In a submission heavy match both guys were worn down and both guys weren’t in any shape to take a high impact move. Angle maneuvered out of the first muscle buster early in the match and the culmination of the struggles of the match was Angle not being able to get out of the second one and it being too much for him to take.

In the end I was happy with the result, one reason being that the match between Joe and Angle was the closest we'll get to a King's Road match here in North America, but mainly because Joe won the match and now he gets his long overdue run with the gold. Hopefully this run will be more Jarrett-esque and less Abyss-esque as far as time goes. Give Joe a solid several months with the gold and he’ll pull out some solid matches. Expect Joe/Steiner to be as good as or better than Joe/Angle.

If I were as big a self mark as Dave Meltzer I’d rate the match on a star level, but I’m not so I won’t. I’ll only say that at least it lived up to its expectations, but it didn’t really surpass them, but I don’t have a problem with that. Lockdown as a whole was a little better than mediocre, but a little short of great.

Tha Lockdown Results…
*Black Machismo def. Johnny Devine to retain the X title
*Roxxi Leveaux def. Angelina Love in Queen of the Cage
*BG James def. Kip James
*Super Eric def. 11 others to win Cuffed in the Cage with Kaz
*ODB & Gail Kim def. Raisha Saeed & Awesome Kong
*Booker T & Sharmell def. Robert Roode & Payton Banks
*Team Cage (Rhino) def. Team Tomko (Storm)
*Samoa Joe def. Kurt Angle to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship


8 comments: on "Lockdown: Joe's Gonna Kill You!"

Anonymous said...

"D-Von was the only dude to get some color, and he is colored. How the hell does that work? Is that some kind of joke we’re not in on?"

i dont know why you brought this point up. sure only one guy bled but why did you mention him being colored, whats wrong with you?

Anonymous said...

You must be new to Tha O Show. Welcome, but uhh, dont take that personally, everyone cracks off jokes like that once in a while. Lighten up and enjoy your stay.

Anonymous said...

pyro said...
I agree with you DJB. I like your recap and it goes along with alot of what I thought. Even though I was glad to see Storm take the loss for Team Tomko...sorry, I still hate James Storm.

The first anonymous from 2:46, lighten up bro it was only a joke, they do that alot here.

Joe/Angle was good, but until you actually explained the finish that way it didnt make sense. Is it just me or was that incredibly old school? Doesn't really fit in today but it did make sense in that instance, so yeah I like it.

Eric Young is good. Super Eric is not. Don't like it, can't get behind it, it needs to go right out the door with Rellik and Black Rain.

Anonymous said...

MMA is a sport. Pro Wrestling is entertainment. Havng the 2 mix like TNA did is an insult to both genres and the fans.

Anonymous said...

Angle vs. Joe was great. Frank Tigg calling the match was great, he actually made reference to the holds and what effect they had while playing the heel commentator without going all Bobby Hennan. Every move made sense and the ending was perfect. What Kurt Angle was last night, he should be every night. A wrestling machine, the guy traded in the tights for Boxing trunks and went barefoot and was pretty much a no bullshit shooter, Joe came out looking great.

Was a little pissed that a pay per view which advertised using non-stop images of wrestlers bleeding all over the place, was a crimson free show, except for D'Von. I thought the James on James match would have benefieted from the look of an bloody all out brawl but the match was basic, Roode and Book shouldn't have had the ladies involved and should have been a bloody brawl but it wasn't... The show was pretty average but the main event was great.

D.J.B. said...

To the first comment: It was a joke, so please do lighten up. Check out the description to this weeks Radio Show. We aint censored nor do we care.

Pyro, come on bro get on the Storm wagon. Glad the explanation sorta cleared it up, but like I said at first I was on the fence and then it hit me. By the way I saw it but not to clearly due to how I was watching it.

Fourth annonymous, it wasn't insulting, it added to the match. Sure they are two completely different things, and while the finish may have been predetermined that was a snug ass match and I'm sure both guys are feeling it today. Hell, Joe is one of the snuggest workers in North America apparently, so he looked really good because he felt at home.

Anonymous said...

"furthering a feud that hasn’t even started yet."

uhh that's called 'laying the groundwork for a feud'...

D.J.B. said...

The groundwork for that feud has been layed. For the last 5-7 weeks they've been laying the groundwork for more than a month.