TNA has finally managed to do something right in 2009 as Lockdown ended up being a good show. It wasn’t anything spectacular but certainly better than any other TNA PPV this year. While many will be upset with the company’s current World Heavyweight Champion, much of the card was very enjoyable.

Xscape match for the TNA X Division Championship: Suicide(c) vs. Jay Lethal vs. Sheik Abdul Bashir vs. Consequences Creed vs. Kyoshi

 

As usual, Lockdown opened with the Xscape match. This was a pretty solid opener with nothing big to gripe about. However, it wasn’t anything too special. Kyoshi was the first person eliminated as Lethal gave him the boot. Creed was surprisingly the second one eliminated after he was ousted by Bashir. Suicide would later connect with a Suicide Solution on Lethal, who was promptly pinned by Bashir. Bashir and Suicide had some good back and forth action for the next minute or two. As Suicide attempted to escape, Kyoshi came back out to try and cost Suicide the match. As security held back Kyoshi, Suicide dove off the top of the cage onto the mob of men to retain his title. A pretty solid opener, nothing great but nothing bad.

Match Rating: 6/10

 

 

Queen of the Cage: ODB vs. Daffney vs. Sojournor Bolt vs. Madison Rayne

 

The rules of this match were modified for this year’s edition. Last year it was a reverse battle royal where the girls started outside the cage and the first two to get in would battle it out to try for the win. This year’s edition was simply a fatal four way. This was probably the worst match of the night, as Bolt and Rayne didn’t do too much due to ODB controlling the match. It’s nice to see Daffney back as herself but I wished she would have won this match. Some ridiculous moments saw ODB “hulking up” after drinking beer and even springing up like Shawn Michaels does. I didn’t enjoy it at all. ODB gets the win after a powerslam. Very poor women’s match.

Match Rating: 2/10

 

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Motor City Machineguns(c) vs. No Limit vs. LAX

 

This was a pretty good match, about what I expected. LAX I at first did not feel were needed but they ended up greatly contributing to the match. It was nice to see a mix between the Guns’ double team moves and Hernandez using his power moves. Hernandez was really throwing Shelley and Sabin all over the place. Homicide was able to connect with a Gringo cutter on one of No Limit, who was positioned on Hernandez’s shoulders. Hernandez also hit a running Border Toss into the cage on Shelley. The sole flaw in this match was that No Limit was botching often early. One of them completely botched a Gringo cutter from Homicide by falling backwards. A moonsault was botched as well. Eventually the Guns retain after hitting the Made in Detroit (powerbomb/sliced bread combo).

Match Rating: 6.5/10

 

 

Doomsday Chamber of Blood: Abyss vs. Matt Morgan

 

For the third straight time, these two fail to put on a good match. This was simply a bloody mess, but it was slightly better than the disastrous Match of 10,000 tacks at Destination X. Abyss bled early on and both guys ended up shedding a ton of blood. Abyss busted open Morgan by stabbing him in the head with a piece of broken glass. A chair was also brought into play. Despite all of this, this match was actually very slow and plodding. It was gory yet boring at the same time, much like the Last Man Standing match between Triple H and Shawn Michaels at Royal Rumble 2004. Near the end of this match, Abyss leaves the cage to get a chair. However, Stevie Richards (making his TNA debut as Abyss’s therapist who we have heard about) stops Abyss from using it. Abyss then gets a bag of tacks from under the ring and dumps them out in the ring. Richards then enters the ring and gets very aggressive and physical with Abyss, distracting him. Morgan is able to capitalize by hitting a Hellevator onto the tacks to get the win. Very disappointing match.

Match Rating: 4/10

 

 

TNA Knockouts Women’s Championship: Awesome Kong(c) vs. Taylor Wilde vs. Angelina Love

 

This was a very impressive women’s match, one of the best ones I’ve seen all year from WWE or TNA. I thought this was smartly booked by having Kong get her time to dominate yet also allow time for Wilde and Love to battle one on one. My only gripe in this one was the weak ending. Kong ends up tied to the cage by her braids courtesy of the Beautiful People, and Wilde and Love brawl. Kong then kicks Wilde in the stomach hard, allowing Love to pick up the win. The finish was poor but I enjoyed the rest of the match for the most part.

Match Rating: 5/10 (which is VERY good for a women’s match)

 

 

Philadelphia Street Fight for the TNA World Tag Team Championship and the IWGP World Tag Team Championship: Beer Money Inc. (TNA champions) vs. Team 3D (IWGP champions)

 

This was a very good match. While it wasn’t really much of a street fight, the cage was used very well. Camera angles hurt the opening minutes, where the teams brawled in the crowd. You could hardly tell what was going on, but thankfully there were no real big spots. The match vastly improved once it returned to ringside. There was a nice table spot where Beer Money double suplexed Devon through a table while standing on the ring steps outside the ring. Ray got busted open after the cage door was swung into his face. Overall this was a very entertaining cage match and the best I’ve seen from Beer Money since Turning Point last November.  The finish was one of the best of the night. Storm was outside the ring and attempted to slam the cage door into Devon, who was being pushed toward it by Roode. Instead, Storm accidentally hit Roode, who was promptly hit with a 3D through a table set up inside the ring. Team 3D gets the cover to retain their IWGP titles and become the new TNA Tag Team champions. One of the best matches of the night and highly entertaining.

Match Rating: 7/10

 

 

Lethal Lockdown: Team Angle (Kurt Angle, Scott Steiner, Kevin Nash, and Booker T) vs. Team Jarrett (Jeff Jarrett, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, and Christopher Daniels)

 

This was definitely the match of the night as it was very enjoyable from start to finish. The match started off with Angle and Daniels, who had a great match for the first 5 minutes. Booker T was the next one out before AJ Styles entered third. Styles and Daniels really worked together well in this portion of the match, bringing back memories of the duo as a tag team. Scott Steiner was also very impressive in this match. He entered fourth and began to dominate Daniels and Styles and hit a Frankensteiner. This was some of the best I have seen from Steiner in quite some time. Samoa Joe took a while to get out when he was the next entrant but did just fine in this match. Nash was the final entrant for Team Angle and didn’t do much. I did like the way that they were initially able to isolate Joe after Nash came out and have a brief 4 on 2 advantage. Jarrett was the last guy out, which was followed by the roof being lowered with all of the weapons to play with. This is when the bad production values made their return once again as they split the screen into two small parts making it difficult to catch everything. Styles and Angle went on top of the cage to battle, but Angle was eventually able to crawl back inside. Styles then did this insane spot where he dove through the middle of the cage before landing on everyone! It looked pretty cool but made no sense at the same time. I think this spot would have worked better if AJ splashed Angle through the cage and they landed on everyone that way instead. Jarrett also teased a heel turn twice in this match. First, he accidentally nailed AJ with a chair and was confronted by Joe. Then at the end of the match, he teased hitting AJ with the guitar before plunking Booker with it instead. Styles then made the cover and Team Jarrett won. Somewhat of a weak finish to a very good match. Then all of a sudden, the pre-announced recently signed world champion made his TNA debut. It turned out to be Bobby Lashley. This was very unexpected for me as I had been under the belief that Lashley was training for MMA and even a potential fight with Brock Lesnar in UFC in the future. But still, I feel Lashley is a guy that can really work well with a lot of guys on the TNA roster so I think he will be good for the company. For the match itself, very good.

Match Rating: 7.5/10

 

 

TNA World Heavyweight Championship: Sting(c) vs. Mick Foley

 

Unfortunately, TNA was unable to end the night on a high note. The highly promoted Sting vs. Foley championship match failed to deliver the goods. It did feature some good psychology and storytelling with the working over of Mick’s leg and also Mick kicking a cameraman away from the cage to try to escape through the hole in the side. But this match was very slow and plodding and the crowd was mostly dead, but was into it a little more than expected. The match got a lot better during the final few minutes when Foley brought his trademark barbed wire bat into the cage. Foley initially used it against Sting’s leg when Sting attempted to climb out of the cage. He also rammed it into Sting’s forehead, busting him open. Foley also was busted open very early in the match and had half of his face covered in blood. A very anticlimactic finish hurt the match where Sting and Foley both tried to climb out of the cage, and Foley hit the ground first to win the TNA title. I completely dislike the idea of Foley holding the championship as he has mostly been a non-wrestler since signing with the company late last year. This was a WCW moment for me, and not in a good way. Foley hopefully will drop the belt soon to a younger talent who can actually have a good run with it. The title match here was just OK.

Match Rating: 5/10

 

 

Overall PPV Rating: 7/10