TNA Lockdown on Challenge - TV Review

It’s time to head over to the Impact Zone…..oh, wait…..I can’t use that line anymore.

It’s time to enter TNA territory once again as we take a look back at Lockdown, shown this past Wednesday night on Challenge here in Britain.

The show began with the first title match of the evening, with Zema Ion and Christian York challenging Kenny King for the X Division title.

This I liked. It proved to be a highly entertaining show opener packed with fast paced action and high risk moves, as well as three great performances.

We also had our fair share of three-way moves. A lot of them impressed the hell out of me, but the best of all was when Ion took King down with a hurricanrana from the top rope and landed on York with a moonsault at the same time.

There were also plenty of near falls before King finally sealed the deal with his Royal Flush finisher.

The singles action began with Joey Ryan taking on everyone’s favourite lawyer Joseph Park.

This was kind of fun. Before the match began Ryan basically told Park that he had no business being in a wrestling ring, but when the match began Park took the upper hand with a couple of nice moves.

It wasn’t long before Ryan took control as he worked over the big man’s knee. The lawyer found a unique way of making his comeback though by grabbing a couple of handfuls of Ryan’s chest hair before following it up with wedgie. And I can’t believe I just wrote that sentence while reviewing a wrestling match.

A few minutes later Park took the win. Ryan went for a sunset flip, and when he couldn’t get the big man over Park came down with a sit-down splash for the three count.

More title action followed as Gail Kim challenged Velvet Sky for the Knockouts title.

Now this certainly wasn’t filler material. Unlike their Diva counterparts these ladies were given a storyline to work with, and this made it a very enjoyable encounter.

The exchanges between these two were pretty good, with both girls putting on decent displays, but as the match went on Kim began to get more and more frustrated with referee Taryn Terrell.

It got to the point where Kim shoved Terrell into a corner and slapped her, daring the referee to disqualify her. But when Terrell didn’t do this Kim calmly walked away right into a spear…from the referee. Yep, the official attacked the wrestler as the green mist descended. Terrell then realised what she’d done.

Sky then took advantage of the situation when she took Kim down with her In Your Face finisher for the title retaining pin.

Then it was on to the battle of the Robbies as E took on T.

Basically what we had here was one of those five minute throwaway type of encounters. T threw E around the ring a few times before missing a corner attack. E then took control before T came back into the match and took the pin after taking E down with a one-handed spine buster. It wasn’t bad I suppose but it was also nothing special.

More title action followed as Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez and the Bad Influence team of Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian challenged Austin Aries and Bobby Roode for the Tag Team titles.

This one was great. It was packed with an absolute ton of action as all six men put in tremendous performances.

The first few moments saw some great exchanges between Bad Influence and the Tex-Mex team. Hernandez and Guerrero looked in top form as they took Daniels apart early on with some great double team moves.

Then it was the turn of Daniels and Kazarian to show what a well-oiled unit they were. Their two man moves looked just as good as they used Guerrero for target practice.

As for Roode and Aries, while they didn’t look as polished as the other two teams their efforts weren’t too shabby as they continued the good work on Guerrero.

Eventually we got to the all hell breaks loose part of the match as the bodies flew all over the place, with big Hernandez matching the smaller guys move for move once more.

It all worked up to the point where Daniels fell prey to Guerrero’s frog splash from the top rope. It meant nothing though because Roode got the blind tag before Guerrero took to the skies, and all he had to do afterwards was cover Daniels for the title retaining pin.

The first of the steel cage matches saw Aces & Eights’ Wes Brisco taking on Kurt Angle.

This veritable battle of the generations proved to be pretty enjoyable. Although there was a vast difference in experience levels young Brisco did a very good job of keeping up with the Olympic hero.

It started off well for Angle as he took Brisco down early on, but as the match progressed Brisco began to take control, starting off when he choked Angle with his own tee shirt.

The action moved along nicely, with Angle making his comeback and going for the Angle Slam and the ankle lock, but the tide turned when he accidentally clobbered the referee. Angle applied the ankle lock again as Brisco tapped out in seconds. But with the referee down there wasn’t anybody to give him the win.

Angle’s frustrations continued when he left the cage. This would have also ended the match if the referee hadn’t been snoozing, so when Brisco’s buddy D’Lo Brown came out and attacked Angle the referee didn’t see a thing as he threw Angle back into the cage before dragging Brisco out.

The referee soon came to, and the first thing he saw was Brisco outside the cage. He immediately called for the bell, giving Brisco the upset win.

The Lethal Lockdown match saw Team TNA, Sting, Magnus, Samoa Joe, James Storm & Eric Young taking on Aces & Eights, Devon, Mr. Anderson, Knox, Doc and Garrett Bischoff.

Well, seeing as how Nick Aldis still hasn’t offering any apology for his past transgressions towards me…..

The main event saw Bully Ray challenging Jeff Hardy for the World title.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen these two against each other over the years, and while this may not have been their best encounter it certainly had a high drama content.

It began with Ray using his power advantage early on before Hardy made his comeback with some good old fashioned speed, and as the match went on both guys had their fair share of good moments.

Then Aces & Eights tried to interfere as Wes Brisco and Garrett Bischoff climbed into the cage. Their attack didn’t last long though as Hardy and Ray doubled up to send them flying out of the cage door.

The action quickly returned to normal, with the best high impact move coming when Ray took Hardy down with a sit down powerbomb from the top rope.

A few moments later our esteemed General Manager Hulk Hogan and his baby girl Brooke came out to support their boy. But they weren’t the only ones who came down to get a better view. They were soon joined by another Aces & Eights contingent led by Devon. Ray handed Hardy a chain as the bad guys climbed into the cage, but as Ray and Hardy stood back to back, ready to face off against their foes Devon handed Bully a weapon. Ray then turned around and clobbered Hardy in the back.

Ray then gave Devon a double high five before covering Hardy, and a three count later we had a new World Champion.

The Hulkster and his baby girl looked shocked as Ray celebrated, telling his bride that she meant nothing to him before he took to the microphone and announced that he was the brains behind the bad guys.

In conclusion - you know what? I’m really liking TNA’s new pay per view schedule. It really seems to have freshened up their big shows a little, because Lockdown was a very enjoyable show.

I really liked the decision to move away from the all steel cage match show. It meant that the action could be built up nicely as they moved towards Lethal Lockdown and the main event.

As for the matches most of the ones I actually watched were pretty good. There was plenty of solid action from the usual suspects, and I ended my night’s viewing feeling very entertained.

As for main event, I wrote an article back in 2002 saying that Bubba Ray Dudley deserved a main event push. The smart marks on a certain fan forum laughed at me. I wonder if they’re laughing now.

Finally it’s time to give out my match of the night no-prize, and this time around it’s going to the three-way Tag Team title match for it’s tremendous action.

So with all of that out of the way it’s time to wrap this thing up by giving the bits of Lockdown I reviewed the thumbs up.