TNA Lockdown 2009

TNA Lockdown 2009

Philadelphia, PA - April 2009

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into this show, the TNA World Champion was Sting, Beer Money were the TNA World Tag Team Champions, the X-Division Championship was held by Suicide, the Legends Champion was AJ Styles, and the Knockouts Champion was Awesome Kong.

I've seen one or two Lockdown PPVs before and have always thought this was a loser of an idea, but the brain trust in charge of TNA seemed to think it was a great idea so here we go. The pre-match video features Billy Corgan singing a re-imagined version of "Bullet with Butterfly Wings," which is stupid enough to earn an extra point for this show. (+1)

The show begins with an X-Division Escape match for the X-Division Championship with Suicide defending the title against Jay Lethal (still doing the Black Machismo shtick), Consequences Creed, Sheik Abdul Bashir, and Kiyoshi. Like the Ultimate X match from the previous show, this underwhelmed me only because, with the X-Division, one was often led to believe we would see innovation and high-flying and risk-taking unlike anything we'd seen before but that really wasn't the case, especially not with guys like Bashir being involved. Suicide, once again being played by Kazarian, was being pushed strong here and the final spot of the match - a dive off the cage and onto the arena floor - is incredible, but it's the lone truly memorable moment in an otherwise mostly "just kinda there" match. (2/5)

This match was followed by a Queen of the Cage bout between Daffney, ODB, Madison Rayne, and Sojourner Bolt. Maybe its because of all the entrances or maybe it was the talent involved but this felt like a very, very long and boring 6 minutes. ODB was the most over woman in the match so it was fairly obvious that she would be getting the W, but I find her gimmick and character work to be grating and the addition of Cody Deaner didn't make things any better. Maybe there are matches of hers that are above average, but I don't think I've seen one yet. (1/5)

The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships were on the line next as The Motor City Machine Guns defended against LAX and the team of Naito and Yujiro (Takahashi). It is interesting to watch this match with Naito not yet established as a major Japanese star. Him and Takahashi aren't super impressive, but they're also not really given as much time to shine as the other two teams. Sabin's bumping in this match is tremendous, by the way. Loved Hernandez' power moves as he is always so impressive when he gets to toss small guys around. Homicide sort of faded into the background of this match. Watching this match inspired me to look up Yujiro because I was unfamiliar with him and I was somewhat surprised to see how much he is thoroughly despised by the raters over at Cagematch, many of whom consider him among the worst wrestlers in NJPW history. He wasn't offensively bad here, though I didn't think him and Naito shined at any given moment either. Not a bad match and the work of the other teams carried it to above-average territory. (3/5)

A Doomsday Chamber of Blood match followed between Matt Morgan and Abyss. I really wanted to root for these two guys to have a great hardcore match, but their series has been underwhelming with poor match structures and gimmicks that actually hurt more than help. Here, no winner can be decided until their opponent is bleeding. Why? To guarantee blood? Blood in a cage match being fought between two monsters should be boilerplate, not part of the stipulation. Both guys looked like they were wading in water at times with really slow, plodding action and the amount of blood, especially out of Abyss, was almost gross. I can handle a super bloody, wild brawl at times, especially when it feels "earned," but this was clearly Abyss blading himself to get a reaction because the match itself wasn't going to do it. The big reveal happened at the end of the match when Abyss' psychiatrist, "Dr. Stevie," was revealed to be noneother than Stevie Richards. This, of course, led to loud "ECW" chants from the Philadelphia crowd and nobody seeming to care about the culmination of a months-long storyline. I remember, at the time, being under the impression that Matt Morgan had a ton of potential, but now I'm fully understanding why the WWE wasn't as interested in him as some theorized. Sure, he was tall. Sure, he had a good physique. At times, he showed glimmers of charisma even. But, between the bells, there'd be no heat. (2/5)

The Knockouts Championship is on the line next as Angelina Love and Taylor Wilde challenge Awesome Kong. I think the booking idea was to have Angelina Love, the heel leader of the Beautiful People, cheat her way to the title, which would've led to Awesome Kong becoming the de facto babyface...but the Philly crowd isn't as behind Kong as one might've thought and, by the end of the match, because Love is so clearly concussed, she ends up the one gaining the sympathy. This wasn't a bad match, but the ending is really hurt considerably by Love seemingly getting knocked loopy on a somewhat routine bump onto her back. The best spot of the match was Awesome Kong busting out a ridiculous front-flip splash. I also thought the heels tying Kong's braids into the cage was something that helped make the match and division stand out as a fresh twist that you wouldn't see in a men's match. (2/5)

Team 3D challenged Beer Money for their TNA World Tag Team Championships next. I've not a been a fan of "shticky" Beer Money can be at times with all the homophobic comedy spots. This was about what one might've expected as the match started with prolonged brawling around the arena because this was a Philadelphia Street Fight. Things got much more interesting when they made their way closer to the ring and we got a table spot on the outside and then some back-and-forth double-team maneuvers once they got inside the cage. I liked the nearfalls and felt like Beer Money really shined here while Team 3D kept things moving and energetic and worked hard to deliver a match that would please the hardcore fans in attendance. My one criticism would just be that Team 3D really went "all out" in their pre-match promos, promising blood and violence and essentially murder, and because they are such intense promos, I thought we might get a truly ultra-violent match. So did some people in the crowd (as they, at one point, chanted for fire). This match, while certainly hard-hitting and physical, wasn't exactly the bloodbath that they had hyped and, because of that, almost felt a little too tame. Still, one of the better Team 3D matches I've seen from their TNA years. (3/5)

Team Jarrett (AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, and Jeff Jarrett) vs. The Main Event Mafia (Kurt Angle, Booker T, Kevin Nash, and Scott Steiner) was next. Daniels and Angle started things off and stuck to some rather basic wrestling, which was nice, but not very riveting. As expected, the highlights of this match came courtesy of AJ Styles - who performed an incredibly risky and awkward-looking splash from the top of the cage (which was supposed to be reinforced so that nobody could climb up there, wink wink) onto a bunch of Mafia members below. I also liked Scott Steiner hitting the Frankensteiner. Aside from those highlights, though, there really wasn't much to this bout aside from everyone getting a little bit of "their shit" in and then a finish where Don West sounded like a moron questioning whether Jeff Jarrett would turn on his team when, as far as I know, dissension between team members and guys not being able to trust Jeff Jarrett was never a major part of this storyline. (3/5)

Main event time - Mick Foley vs. Sting for Sting's TNA World Heavyweight Championship. It's been years since I read Mick Foley's book about the build-up to this match, but I remember that he put a ton of thought and planning into it, knowing that he wanted to deliver a high-level match but also admitting that his best years were behind him in terms of his ability to perform. To his credit, Foley's bumping is great and the pace doesn't seem too slow at any time. Unfortunately, I think what hurt this match was that it was a bit overcooked. The story coming in was that Foley wanted Sting out of the Main Event Mafia but the Stinger wouldn't budge despite clearly still being somewhat of a babyface. Foley, the babyface Authority figure, attacked Sting in the weeks leading up to the match, which sorta made him a heel - except, remember, Sting wasn't really a full-fledged babyface because he was part of the MEM. I'm not sure if Foley expected a hero's welcome in TNA or if they thought Sting's membership in the Main Event Mafia would play a bigger factor or what but this just didn't feel like it had true heat because both guys' motivations were murky. Foley clearly worked the match as a heel and did a fine job at it, but it didn't always make perfect sense. For example, earlier in the show, he'd made the decision to lock the cage door, meaning neither man could win by simply exiting through it. This makes perfect sense if you're a babyface trying to get your hands on a cowardly heel...but that's not the dynamic. Then, during the actual match, it is Foley who wants the cage door unlocked because he's now the heel and wants to get the easy victory? Confusing bits like that aside, I did really like the cameraman spot where Foley dropkicked the cameraman in order to try to climb through a hole in the cage as it was something I had not seen before. Unfortunately, I was not a huge fan of the ending, which felt a little flat. Again, I understand the concept - that Foley won the match by taking one last wicked bump to the floor, ironically winning the Championship while also putting himself through incredible pain - but it would've worked better if Foley was at all sympathetic during the rest of the match as it felt more like a babyface act of self-sacrifice. This was too messy of a match to work for me. (2.5/5)

With an overall Kwang Rating of 2.44-out-of-5, Lockdown 2009 was an improvement from the previous month's Against All Odds show, but it was still mostly subpar. While all three of the tag team matches were good, I wouldn't consider any "must see" and both the Philly Street Fight and the War Games-inspired Lethal Lockdown match were underwhelming.