TNA – Lockdown ’06 DVD Review

TNA – Lockdown – Impact Zone – Orlando, Florida – April 23, 2006

We open with a video package highlighting how dangerous and sadistic this pay-per-view can be. Tonight we’ll see Christian Cage defend his NWA World Title against Abyss, a Lethal Lockdown match featuring Jeff Jarrett’s team against Sting’s Team, TNA X-Division Champion Samoa Joe defending his title against Sabu.

MATCH #1: World X Cup Preview – Team USA (Sonjay Dutt, Alex Shelley & Jay Lethal) vs. Team Japan (Minoru Tanaka, Black Tiger & Hirooki Goto)

This is a preview of the World X Cup Tournament that will start this coming Thursday on Impact. Team Japan will be joined by their captain Jushin “Thunder” Liger, and Team USA’s captain is Chris Sabin. Shelley hands off the Shelley-cam to So Cal Val at ringside. Shelley insists on starting the match, which is a good sign due to the communication problems he’s had with his teammates. Tanaka starts for his team. They do some wrestling and Black Tiger (AKA Rocky Romero) is tagged in and he goes to work on Shelley. Shelley rebounds but Lethal tags himself in, and Goto comes in as well and they do some mat wrestling. Goto oddly has just one kneepad on. Lethal hits his hiptoss-cartwheel-dropkick. Tiger comes in and Team USA triple teams him awesomely. Dutt is the legal man and gets a near fall. Team USA continues their cool double teaming. Tiger comes back and tags Goto. Shocker, Magno, and Puma of Team Mexico are up by the entrance to watch this match and scout as Team Japan dominates Dutt and gets some near falls. Dutt comes back with a nice rana on Tiger and he tags out to Lethal, who is on fire. Goto comes in and Team USA takes advantage on him. Shelly hits a nice frog splash but Goto kicks out. He then helps Lethal score a nice German Suplex for a near fall. A standing shooting star press by Dutt gets two, and the referee clearly doesn’t care about who the legal man is. Tanaka puts the cross armbreaker on Lethal, but it gets broken up. The referee can’t gain control at all as everyone just comes in whenever they want. Shelley accidentally kicks Dutt, and Tanaka not so accidentally kicks Lethal right into the Tiger Suplex from Black Tiger to get the pinfall at 12:01. That was a hot opener and a nice preview of the World X Cup. Everyone looked good here but Alex Shelley really stood out as being awesome.
Rating: ***¼

Tenay and West are at ringside to welcome us to the show. They plug the card, featuring an anthem match between Team 3D and Team Canada, Samoa Joe vs. Sabu for the X-Title, Christian Cage vs. Abyss for the NWA World Title, and Jeff Jarrett’s Team vs. Sting’s Team in a Lethal Lockdown match.

Jeremy Borash is backstage with the special Lockdown edition TNA action figures. He’s also with all three members of Team 3D, including Brother Runt, who is making his TNA pay-per-view debut tonight. The brothers get in a shot at WWE, which is really funny because it was WWE that decided they didn’t want them, NOT the other way around. Larry Zbyszko comes in and asks Borash what the big announcement is for tonight, and he doesn’t know anything.

MATCH #2: Former Partners Collide – “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels vs. Senshi

I think Daniels’s original opponent was going to be Jushin Liger, who couldn’t make it, so they advertised a mystery opponent and it’s the former Low Ki, now known as Senshi. Daniels is very surprised to see his former tag team partner, with whom he won the NWA World Tag Team Championship back in 2003. Senshi attacks right away with a flurry and Daniels gives it right back. They exchange offense in the early going. Tenay learns that Senshi is Japanese for “Warrior,” and deems it appropriate. Senshi takes control with his kicks and locks on a camel clutch and tries for the Dragon Clutch. Daniels recovers and they trade chops in the middle of the ring, with Senshi winning that battle. Daniels goes for a sunset flip but Senshi hits a double stomp while yelling like a girl. He locks on a bear hug but Daniels gets out and hits an enziguiri. He then hits a cool suplex into the cage and an STO for two. Blue Thunder Driver by Daniels gets two. Senshi comes back with a kick and sidesteps Daniels and delivers the shotgun dropkick for two. Daniels comes back with a DVD and both guys are down. He hits the Best Moonsault Ever for two. A faint “this is awesome” chant starts, and I’d like to go ahead and declare that chant overused. Daniels tries to set up a super Angels Wings but it’s blocked and Senshi goes for a super double stomp. Daniels hits the flatliner. He goes for the Angels Wings again but it’s blocked and Senshi backdrops him and puts his feet on the turnbuckle to get the pin at 12:18. That was solid and had some cool stuff, but was a lot of “you do a move, and then I do a move.” I’m also not a huge fan of Senshi in general, but we’ll see how TNA handles him.
Rating: ***

MATCH #3: Arm Wrestling Match – Konnan (with The Latin American Exchange) vs. “Bullet” Bob Armstrong (with The James Gang)

Borash is backstage with Bullet Bob Armstrong and the James Gang. Tonight Bullet Bob will face Konnan in an arm wrestling match. The winning team gets to give the losing team 10 lashes with leather straps. The video package is punctuated with Latin music. This feud has been going on for ages, and what a better way to settle it than the two non wrestlers going at it in an am wrestling match? The LAX now consists of Konnan, Homicide, and Hernandez, a combination that lasts to this day. Konnan grabs the mic to say that he is at a disadvantage after all the knuckles he put down in Orlando last night. This is actually a rematch of an earlier arm wrestling match on Impact. How does one call an arm wrestling match? Bullet Bob wins, and the face referee Andrew Thomas makes is kinda funny. Then the opposite of funny, BG James, gets on the microphone and tells them to assume the position, and the whippings begin. It is a bit funny when BG calls Kip “Billy” though. They finish the whippings. I don’t rate arm wrestling matches.

Jeremy Borash is backstage with Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner, and NWA World Tag Team Champions America’s Most Wanted. Larry Zbyszko comes in to tell Jarrett that his team has first entrance in the Lethal Lockdown match. Larry comes in to interrupt and ask what the big announcement is. Jarrett says to go find Earl Hebner, since he knows about screwjobs. Seriously, fucking let it go. Steiner looks subhuman.

MATCH #4: Xscape Match – Chris Sabin vs. Petey Williams vs. Elix Skipper vs. Chase Stevens vs. Shark Boy vs. Puma

Last year this match had four participants, now it’s up to six. Skipper walking across the top of the cage is still one of the most ridiculous things I’ve seen in wrestling. Puma is very much not from Mexico, but he’s wearing a mask, so whatever. Sabin is the only one that was in last year’s match, giving him a distinct advantage. D’Amore comes over to the announce table to tell Tenay and West that he and Simon Diamond have made a deal to ensure that Williams and Skipper are going to be the last two in the ring. Shark Boy and Williams are going at it for a few minutes, until Williams tags Puma in. Puma does some flippy stuff, but then Sharky hits a top rope rana and a missile dropkick. Puma tags out to Skipper. Sharky continues to do well, hitting a bulldog off the cage. They then climb the cage for no apparent reason, and Shark hits a Russian Leg Sweep. Williams then gets tagged in and hits the Canadian Destroyer to eliminate Shark Boy at 5:02. Sabin comes in for the first time now. He and Williams do stuff together, and they know each other so well because they trained together and have worked together about a million times. Sabin tags out to Stevens. Williams goes for the Destroyer on him but it’s blocked. Skipper hits Sudden Death on Puma, and Sabin hits him with a leg lariat. Everyone’s down, and Stevens climbs to the top of the cage. He delivers a shooting star press and all four guys manage to not catch him, so I’m not sure why everyone is down because they didn’t take anything. Stevens tries to pin Williams, then Skipper, but Skipper instead hits the Sudden Death to get the pin at 8:53. Rudy Charles manages to confuse people on a fairly simple three count. What a clusterfuck. Williams takes advantage of Skipper and reneges on their deal by pinning him at 9:36. Diamond is pissed at D’Amore, but what do you expect. Williams gives Puma a catapult right into the Cradle Shock and Sabin pins Puma at 10:21. To win the match now you have to escape the cage. Sabin takes advantage and nails the hesitation dropkick in the corner. Sabin goes up and over, but D’Amore holds Sabin from reaching the floor. Williams is climbing over as well. Sabin knocks Williams’s head into the cage, and he falls conveniently right onto D’Amore’s shoulders, giving Sabin the chance to hit the floor first. Heaven forbid TNA do a finish not involving Scott D’Amore. That was more irritating than the usual TNA X-Division scrambled egg match, with blown spots and a stupid finish.
Rating: **

Borash is backstage with Abyss and Father James Mitchell. He says that The Monster Abyss has brought out the monster in NWA World Champion Christian Cage. Abyss screams in the background. This should actually be a really good match though.

MATCH #5: X Division Championship Match – “The Samoan Submission Machine” Samoa Joe vs. Sabu

This should be an interesting matchup. The video package reveals just how little these two had to do with each other in this “feud.” The action starts right away as Sabu goes for the Camel Clutch. Sabu has a cast on his arm, which is supposedly broken. Joe comes back and starts dissecting Sabu. Sabu yells at the camera man and he’s busted open. Joe hits the Big Joe Combo. Sabu comes back and goes for the spike, but Joe puts on the cross armbreaker and the referee removes the spike. They head up top and Joe hits an Ace Crusher for a near fall. Sabu tries the Triple Jump Moonsault but eats a chair to the face and the Muscle Buster and Joe wins at 6:12. That was pretty short but given that Sabu was on his way to signing with the new ECW it was the right move to make Joe look like a killing machine. The match really wasn’t much, unfortunately.
Rating: **¼

MATCH #6: Anthem Match – Team 3D (Brother Ray, Brother Devon & Brother Runt) vs. Team Canada (Bobby Roode, Eric Young & A1)

Backstage Jeremy Borash is with a singing Team Canada. Scott D’Amore imitates Brother Ray and sounds quite a bit like him. D’Amore points out that Roode and Young are two-time NWA Tag Team Champions, while Team 3D has never won those belts. Larry Z interrupts again and wants to know about the big announcement, which is really getting old. D’Amore says Zbyszko can take the wrap this time. The video package features the usual Brother Ray xenophobia. Young and Runt play goalies, since the object of the match is to capture the flag. Team 3D have painted their faces. It’s a big brawl to start out, with no one taking a defined advantage. Ray delivers the Bubba Bomb from the top rope, which as much as I dislike him it looked pretty cool. People start going for the flags but can’t get them. The referee takes an unnecessary bump. Ray grabs the flag, but since the referee is down it doesn’t count yet. This is Runt’s pay-per-view debut in TNA. The Canadians administer a beating to him and replace the American flag. D’Amore knocks out the security guard watching the door with a chair and slides a table into the ring. Runt hits A1 with the Acid Drop. Roode takes the 3D. The referee is up and this time sees it when Runt grabs the flag. At least the gimmick benefited from being in a cage, but as with everything involving Team Canada it was needlessly overbooked. D’Amore foolishly gets in the ring and takes the 3D. I am beyond sick of seeing him.
Rating: *¾

Tenay and West welcome us “back,” making me think that something was cut out of the DVD. They hype the big announcement from the TNA front office, as well as the two matches left to come. You can hear the crowd singing “The Star Spangled Banner” in the background. Some mystery music hits, and its former Playboy Playmate Christy Hemme making her way down. Tenay asks the idiot question “is that who I think it is?” She hands idiot Tenay a note, and he wants his microphone opened up so he can make this announcement to everyone in the building. He reads the letter, which has a lot of fluff in it. Basically, TNA management is being restructured, with a new face debuting shortly. Larry Zbyszko is being placed on probation due to his questionable actions. Zbyszko wants to know who’s responsible for that decision. Furthermore, Larry’s suspension of Raven has been lifted, and the man is here. The chase is on and Larry tries to hide in the cage.

MATCH #7: NWA World Heavyweight Title Match – Christian Cage vs. Abyss

Jeremy Borash is backstage with NWA World Champion Christian Cage. He tries to get thoughts from the Champ, who speaks no words. The video package does a good job in making Abyss look like a complete monster. Mitchell’s “click, doomsday” detonator thing is extremely stupid. The tale of the tape reveals the serious size disadvantage the champion is at. Cage has been the champions since 2.12.06, and this is his fifth defense (Monty Brown, Jeff Jarrett, Abyss, and Samoa Joe being the first four). The fight starts in the aisle and they continue up into the crowd. They get back towards the ring and Abyss is using his size to dominate. Abyss tries to slam the door into Cage’s head, but he moves out of the way and slams the door repeatedly into Abyss instead. Mitchell distracts Cage and then he does take the door to the face. They make it into the ring and the bell finally rings. Abyss continues to control the action, cutting Cage off every time he tries to make a comeback. Things are looking dire for the champion. Abyss goes for Shock Treatment but Cage blocks it only to get cut off and rammed into the cage. He finally makes his comeback, and Abyss levels the referee with an inadvertent clothesline. Mitchell uses the camera man’s hole (boy does that sound wrong) to give Abyss the belt and his cane, but Cage blocks it and hits the Unprettier for a near fall. I think a huge clothesline from Abyss would be enough to knock a referee out for the duration of the match. Cage climbs to the top of the cage and hits an awesome frog splash. It only gets two. Another Unprettier attempt gets reversed to the Shock Treatment. The thumbtacks make an appearance, and Cage nails Abyss with the cane. Cage climbs to the top again, and Abyss follows him up. This leads to the sunset flip powerbomb onto the tacks. The referee is down, so Rudy Charles tries to replace him but Mark Johnson slides in and counts the near fall. Black Hole Slam by Abyss gets two. I see no reason to kill his finisher. Abyss spreads out more thumbtacks. Abyss goes for the chokeslam but Cage hits the Unprettier instead and that will do it at 14:04. That was a good title defense that made both the champion and the challenger look strong. Abyss attacks Cage after the match and levels him with the steel chain. He then hangs him with the chain, strangling the champion. This would setup for a rematch the next month. Mitchell hands the title belt to Abyss, but rest assured Christian Cage is still the champion.
Rating: ***½

MATCH #8: Lethal Lockdown Match – Sting, AJ Styles, Rhino & Ron Killings vs. Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner & America’s Most Wanted

Borash is backstage with Sting’s team minus Sting, all of whom are former NWA World Champions. Everyone says their piece, which reminds me of old Survivor Series promos. Sting shows up at the end just to say that its showtime. The video package reminds me how little I care about most of the people in this match, namely team captains Sting and Jeff Jarrett. I do like how Sting’s team revealed themselves alongside the rest of the roster though. Earl Hebner is the referee for this main event. The rules are similar to the rules of War Games, so I’m not going to bother explaining them in detail, because I hate doing that. Chris Harris is the first man in the match, and he’s accompanied by Gail Kim and Jackie. AJ Styles is the first man from Sting’s team. I’m kinda over Styles, but he’s one of the guys TNA has built up really well since their inception, and he can work in main events, X-Title matches, tag team titles, whatever, so there’s something to be said for that. These two will wrestle for five minutes. Styles controls the early portions with his dropkick and stuff. Harris comes back by ramming Styles’ back into the cage. Styles comes back and rams Harris into the cage a few times, and he’s about to be at a one-man disadvantage. Harris hits the Catatonic. He goes for another one, but Styles reverses to the Styles Clash, and the referee counts for some reason, even though the match can’t be won until everyone is in the ring. James Storm is the next entrant, and they have the advantage for two minutes. Styles dropkicks the door and Storm ducks but Gail is not so lucky. She gets up almost right away, I think just to irritate me. Storm slams the door into Styles, then gets in the ring and delivers the Eye of the Storm. Both Harris and Styles are busted open. Rhino is the next man in the match. He dominates for a minute and goes for the Gore but Storm moves out of the way and AMW double teams him. Jarrett is the next man in and both Rhino and Styles go outside the ring to beat him up. Back in the ring and Jarrett’s Army gets the momentum back on their side. Ron Killings is next out and it’s three on three. He’s on fire and he encourages Styles up to the top of the cage, just so that that they can do one of those Tower of Doom spots. Man, I’ve only seen about a million of those. Scott Steiner is out as the last member of Jarrett’s team, and this is his first actual match in TNA. He starts throwing people around, as he’s known to do. Sting finally comes in and now everybody is in the ring so pins and submissions are in play. Everyone of course bends over backwards to put Sting over. The roof comes down when Sting tells it to, I think for the sole purpose of irritating me. There are weapons on top of the cage, and Sting’s Warriors start to use them right away. Styles and Storm head to the roof of the cage. Gail tries climbing up, but Styles stops her and Jackie rips her skirt off. Weapons are involved in the ring, while Styles (still on top of the cage) sets Storm up on a table and then sets up a ladder and climbs to the top to deliver a splash on Storm. That’s a pretty impressive spot. Everyone starts hitting finishers and Harris goes for the Sharpshooter on Sting. He reverses it and Storm taps out in about half a second and Sting gets the big win. That had some cool spots in it and stuff, but I don’t understand why Sting has to be this unstoppable monster and why everyone has to bend over backwards for his sake.
Rating: ***

Bonus

This is the usual collection of backstage stuff that I don’t see a point to.

– Christy Hemme Photo Shoot
– Mike and Don Arrive
– T-Shirt Time
– Senshi’s Return
– James Gang & Bullet Bob
– Samoa Joe’s Entrance
– Raven Reinstated
– Cage vs. Abyss Highlights
– Lethal Lockdown Highlights

The 411: Half of the matches reached three stars or higher, so that’s a pretty good percentage. However, this show also included an arm wrestling match between a 60-year-old man and an almost non-wrestler, and that’s nothing I ever want to pay to watch. Cage and Abyss was fun and I’m interested in seeing the rematch, and the World X Cup Preview was full of stuff. But Lethal Lockdown did nothing except establish that TNA is putting all of their eggs in Sting’s basket, and I don’t think that’s the right move at this stage in their lifetime or Sting’s career.

Final Score:  6.0   [ Average ]