3. Arm Wrestling Match: Bullet Bob Armstrong def. Konnan
4. Chris Sabin def. Elix Skipper, Chase Stevens, Puma, Shark Boy, and Petey Williams
5. Samoa def. Sabu to retain the X-Title
6. Team 3D def. Team Canada
* Christy Hemme joins TNA; Raven returns
7. Christian Cage def. Abyss to retain the NWA Title
8. Team Sting def. Team Jarrett
"The tree lights up, and then I push the button. No, wait! I press the button, and then the tree lights up, I press the button, and then the tree lights up..." -- Ice Princess, Batman Returns (1992)
Here are some more thoughts from a demented mind in Central Florida: Lockdown was the first TNA PPV that I've been available to go to that I didn't see live. Long story on that one, not worth getting into. So, I went and ordered the PPV on DIRECTV. My thoughts:
Team Japan defeats Team USA - Is TNA developing a habit of starting PPVs with the heels winning? I actually didn't see too much of this match, as I was occupied with moving the laundry and on the computer, but what I did catch was good. TNA's formula of starting with a good X-Division match pays off yet again.
Senshe over "Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels - probably the most disappointing match of the night. Not the worst, but the most disappointing, in that I was expecting a little more from this (and yes, maybe I'm nitpicking. I can be like that.). Daniels ends up looking like a little bitch, when you compound this loss with the loss of the X-Division Title to Samoa Joe. However, this did pick up quite nicely at the end.
Bullet Bob over Konnan - It was what it was. Next.
Xscape Match - Sabin wins - Order of elimination, IIRC - Williams pins Shark Boy with Canadian Destroyer (that looked slightly botched), Chase Stevens eliminated, Petey Williams pins Elix Skipper, Sabin pins Puma after the Cradle Shock/Future Shock, then Sabin beats Williams out of the cage. Nifty sequence at the end with Williams and Sabin racing to get over the top and out, and a little sub-plot with Diamond/Skipper and D'Amore/Williams, with the double-cross of Skipper by Williams. Wonder if anything will come of that?
Samoa Joe retains X-Division Title over Sabu - on any other PPV, this would've been a match of the night. I missed the first few minutes (Nature called, and it was dialing 911!), but what I did catch was freakin' awesome. A nice difference from the typical X-Division matchup, with Sabu's violence. I wouldn't mind seeing a rematch of this sometime in the future. Kept relatively short, which is not suprising with Sabu's busted arm.
Christian Cage retains NWA World Title over Abyss - my complaint last month with Destination X was that the Ultimate X match should've probably ended the show, to send the fans home happy. This month, I was initally bothered that this match went second-from-the-end, but after seeing the Lethal Lockdown, it was the right choice to do. And this was still a good match. Better than last month with Monty. Brawl all over the studio to start, then they finally enter the cage. Abyss kicks out of the Unprettier and the frogsplash, Christian Cage kicks out of Abyss' finisher, Christian busts out a sunset flip off of the cage, a frogsplash off of the cage (which might work better as a finisher, I'm starting to think that Christian really needs to retire the Unprettier), and a tornado DDT off of the ropes/cage. Good story here with Abyss as an unstoppable monster and Christian taking all the punishment but still coming back after being so furious about the invasion of privacy. Christian tries to clobber James Mitchell after the match, but ends up getting hung by Abyss' chain after the match. Do I detect a rematch at Sacrifice?
Lethal Lockdown - Sting's Warriors defeat Team Jarrett when Sting puts on the Scorpion Deathlock on one of AMW - Wow. Just... wow. Even Scott Steiner (My Anti-Steroid) couldn't ruin this match. After the top of the cage lowers to start Lethal Lockdown, there was a gap where people could climb on the top of the cage. So James Storm (or it might've been Chris Harris, I honestly don't remember) climbs up there, and AJ Styles follows him. They set up a table up there, Styles lays AMW on it, sets up a ladder that's on top of the cage, climbs the ladder from the top of the cage, grabs the lighting rack hanging from the ceiling, and drops and splashes AMW through the table. THE Holy Shit bump of the night, if not the year. We're talking on par with Elix Skipper's huricarana from the top of the cage at Turning Point 2004.
Mild interest in seeing Christy Hemme with TNA. And Raven's back. And boy, does Larry Zybisco (SP?) look like a bitch from this. LOL. I wonder - if this story with Raven being back and Larry on probation and a shakeup of TNA members, does that mean that someone might remember that Larry swore at Against All Odds 2006 to fire anyone who interfered in the Cage-Jarrett match, and Gail Kim intefered multiple times? (ergo, Gail should be "fired"?)
Bottom line - I'd have liked to see this live. But this was definitely worth my $30.
Why yes, I am both a musician and a lawyer. Thanks for asking. :)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Senshi was spelled with an "i" on the end and not an "e."
climbs the ladder from the top of the cage, grabs the lighting rack hanging from the ceiling, and drops and splashes AMW through the table. THE Holy Shit bump of the night, if not the year. We're talking on par with Elix Skipper's huricarana from the top of the cage at Turning Point 2004.
Ehh, I saw the PPV and it to me, Jeff Hardy going off the VERY tall ladder on to Bubba at WM 2000 (or was it Summerslam) was more impressive. To me, the lignting rack looked like it was just as high as the ladder.
I was hoping Styles was going to jump off the ladder on to the table and not just fall like dead weight. I thought Styles just letting go of the rack and falling was on par from SNME where Hogan and Mr. Wonderfull fell off the cage at the "same" time, but I might be in the minority with this one.
I thought the PPV was "eh" at best. It started fast and hard and sorta fizzled out at the end. Also, weren't they supposed to play The Star Spangled Banner for the Team 3D win? Or did I just misunderstand the stips for the match?
(edited by Zeruel on 24.4.06 0207)
"You want to tempt the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing?" --Toby, West Wing
I really dug this one. Outside of the arm wrestling thing, I thought everything clicked nicely. I don't know if anyone else noticed but it looked like they deliberately ramped up the cage spots as the night went on, which is as it should be. I would have normally expected someone earlier in the card to go a little gonzo and upstage what would happen in the next match, but good pacing. The only awkward things for me were the aforementioned arm wrestling and having to come back from the Sacrifice promo to the National Anthem in the background.
Opener was hot, with some innovative stuff from both teams. Yes, some spots are convoluted, but man it's not like you can tell what's coming next. Nice subplot added to the X-cup.
I was glad to see Low Ki back, but as soon as Tenay mentioned that he was going to be a great addition to the X-division, I figured Daniels wasn't getting a win. Kind of unfortunate that in that position, neither man needed a loss here.
X-scape was on par with the opener, and I really thought Chase was going to end up dead after that Shooting Star. It almost looked as bad as the Lesner one, but for different reasons. He didn't land as awkwardly, but the added height and having four guys who were supposed to catch him certainly didn't help him. Cute finish.
Samoa Joe/Sabu was a little short, but I'd expect that at least part of it was the broken arm on Sabu. Of course, without a steady stream of plunder due to the cage, Sabu is a little more limited in what he can do.
World Title was the match that Christian needed after the one with an injured Monty last month. Abyss can go with anybody and unless he's squashing someone, I have yet to see a bad match of his. The frog splash could have been the finish with the Unprettier thumbtack spot earlier, but that's just me nitpicking. And the feud WILL continue...
Lethal Lockdown was very good. With a smaller ring compared to the traditional Wargames, I would have expected them to be running into each other constantly, but it went well. I absolutely loved AJ and Rhino jumping JJ on the way to the ring, which made perfect sense given their situation. The big bump with AJ and Storm had me almost as scared as seeing Chase doing his spot earlier. Too many things could have gone wrong and I can't watch anything on the top of the cage and not thing of Foley going through in the Cell. I'm glad AJ did the drop off the light fixture instead of the ladder, which looked really unstable. I remember the Sandman doing something similar in a match on ECW TV way back when but that was just a low-ceiling in the building. This one was insane.
For once, I wasn't let down by a TNA "Mystery Opponent" -- it's usually Sean Waltman, and in this case I was predicting Daniel Puder, so Low Ki was quite the pleasant surprise. Good match, too. I hope maybe there's a plan to peel Skipper away from David Young and put him in a program with these two -- I think Skipper tends to wrestle up toward the level of who he's working with.
Man, Chase practically landed on his face in the Xcape match. Good match -- ending was almost too cute, though.
Joe/Sabu was a disappointment from what I was expecting it to be a few weeks ago, but better than I was expecting after hearing that Sabu had broken his arm. What's next for Joe? Low Ki? Bullet Bob?
Man, I hope Abyss had extra padding in his mask for the Unprettier-into-the-tacks spot. Ouch.
Lethal Lockdown was fun. The Styles / Harris spot was nutty -- but more in the setup. I mean, the actual bump looked relatively low-risk, but the part where AJ was climbing up a wobbly ladder perched on the top of the cage -- that was the scary part.
Oh, but you know what should've happened? AJ should've been hanging off the light rigging, and then the rig would've come loose -- just on one side -- and fallen onto the cage, and ELECTRIFIED IT. AWESOME! Oh well, an opportunity missed.
--K
Last 5 movies seen: Match Point - Mrs. Henderson Presents - Breakfast on Pluto - Vodka Lemon - Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers
I think the Xscape match was booked better last year, but I liked the finish and it was good to see Sabin get some retribution over his long time rival of Williams for once. I'd say this and the International X match last month easily make Sabin the #1 contender for the X division title.
Low Ki or not, I'm damn glad to see him back in TNA. I hope this leads to a huge feud or blowoff match in TNA between Joe and Low Ki. Which ROH can not do anymore.
I'm getting tired of the one-sided LAX/James Gang feud and the racism in the feud as well, its pretty pathetic.
Abyss and Christian was pretty good and I hope what happened afterward is foreshadowing of another match. Anything to not see Jeff Jarrett in another world title match ever again.
Now that Team 3D has finished up their boring side-feud with Team Canada, hopefully they can finally blow things off with AMW.
I hope see more matches like the opening one in the world X cup. I didn't think it was a spotfest or convoluted at all. It was just a great match with junior heavyweights. They mixed plenty of great wrestling in between the high spots, and the triple team spots by both teams were awesome and brilliant. Plus you had a story there in the Alex Shelley factor and how much he truly supports Team USA and he's a team player. He looked like he was for the most part save for that he cost his team the match. So I wonder where TNA is going with that.
I'm thrilled Christy is back on TV. I'm even looking forward to the eventual Christy Hemme vs. Gail Kim match. Sure, it won't be Angle vs. Michaels, or even Trish vs. Mickie, but when it happens, it ought to be worlds better than the Gayda vs. Gail match they've been building to for months.
But they debuted Christy by having her walk out and hand Mike Tenay an envelope? Asinine.
Originally posted by The Vile1Abyss and Christian was pretty good and I hope what happened afterward is foreshadowing of another match. Anything to not see Jeff Jarrett in another world title match ever again.
I didn't see the match or the PPV but I find it hard to believe Abyss had a good match with Christian. I've been thinking about it though and I suppose it could be good if the psychology was done right. Judging from the comments in this thread though it sounds like it was done well. I'm going to check out this match at least because of people's comments. I agree that JJ needs to stay away from the World Title for a while though.
Originally posted by JohnHaydukeI didn't see the match or the PPV but I find it hard to believe Abyss had a good match with Christian.
It's surprising, really, the number of people that Abyss can have a good match with. This match I though was pretty good -- certainly not as good as, say, Abyss vs. Styles from last year, and maybe Abyss vs. Styles from last week, too.
--K
Last 5 movies seen: Match Point - Mrs. Henderson Presents - Breakfast on Pluto - Vodka Lemon - Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers
One thought I had from the PPV was about the opening match. I thought it was so cool that, with the limitations of the cage meaning that no one could brawl outside of the ring (allowing for near falls), they instead blocked. The reason Team Japan won was because they were able to block better than Team USA. Awesome.
Originally posted by cammytuffThe audience and Team 3D sang the anthem (with no music) and the two windbags Tenay and West HYPED over it. What a disgrace.
Moreso than Bubba cutting a promo over the initial anthem (which was barely recognizable?)?
Originally posted by matt trackerDid she provide the TNA debut of the Ken/Ryu Happy-To-Be-Here Jumping Punch?
Sadly, no.
There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Well, they made up for that with the final scene of Impact tonight, which not only brought out Luger, but Buff Bagwell to boot. Could there be any better way of getting wrestling fans around the country to shout "no, no, NO!!" in unison? They even mentioned Buff's mom and the WBF just in case anyone forgot how much those guys suck.
Too bad, because the wrestling tonight was good. Shelley and Dutt were doing some SWEET double-team work against the Japan guys.