TNA post Lockdown - an honest appraisal

This morning/ last night, I watched TNAs Lockdown and am now sat at my desk reflecting about it - was it a good show and more importantly how has it left TNA in the long run?

If I was to sum it up briefly, I would say that TNA have gone about things in exactly the wrong way over the last 12 months but somehow, they are in an excellent position going forward.

Let me explain by highlighting the bad first.

The X Division - What a waste of talent at the moment. I have no idea why Christina York is on TV. He is truly awful. If anything, that match should have had RVD in it instead. Yes, that RVD. KK and ZI are both talented individuals but they cant keep fighting each other. Bring in some of the other gut check guys including Spud. I only think that York is about because he vaguely looks like Mickey Rourke from The Wrestler. This division could put on great matches but is stagnant at the moment. Why oh why wasnt Joey Ryan in there? Which leads me to ....

Ryan vs Park - now I dont have a problem with the performance (although not brilliant) but where did this come from? It was thrown together without build for a PPV. and lets not forget a PPV with two months of build towards. Why have Ryan in there when he could have been in the X Division match. Hell put Matt Morgan in there to destroy Park as he grows. Whats the point of having Morgan appear on the last Impact (in the main event interference) and then not at Lockdown?

The TNA vs A&8s - not awful but why give Young the rub of the victory? He is not going to be a main eventer ever in TNA whereas all the other participants could be. I get the feeling that it was only done to get crossover viewers from his fishing show. Solid match but didnt really achieve anything.

However, the good stuff was fantastic.

Tag team - 5 brillant performers and Chavo. Why they didnt put over Bad Influence who are in jobber mode currently is anyones guess. I cant really see Roode and Aries staying together long as they are too talented. However, the match was fantastic as expected and everyone did their part.

But the real story was Bully Ray (and Jeff of course).

A really good match with lots of inteference (Bischoff being thrown over the ropes and out of the cage was the best move he has ever performed - Wes go t it wrong though!). The Powerbomb from Bully off the top rope was brutal. Both men performed really well bu tthe big story was the end. Okay i dont like the hammer shot (please Hammer, dont hurt them) but the reaction was brilliant. He is a star. His speech was great and his taunting of the Hogans was incredible. This is a guy who is on top of his game - I would say he is up there with Punk at this moment in time. Different styles, different storylines, different characters, different crowds but on talent and generating heat, he and Punk are in a league of their own.

It also made the storyline come together - going forward Aces and 8s can now move forward and have legitimacy. They have finally become relevant and I am genuinely excited about their story going forward.

The final thing was the bottles being thrown. I know some people talk of the plants in the audience but I think it worked.

All in all, from a story telling point of view, the show was a success. From a wrestling point of view, it was good and bad. From a overall TNA offering going forward, I would say with what they had built it with, it was pretty much damn perfect.

I enjoyed it as well. I was surprised with how good the Knockouts Title, and Angle/Brisco were. That was as good as I've seen Velvet Sky perform in the ring.

I also thought Brian Hebner sold Angle's accidental clothesline brilliantly, Heath Slater would have been proud.

I disagree with you with regards to Joey Ryan, and the X division title matches. I think Ryan makes an excellent jobber, as he can get heat easily from a crowd, and you don't get tired of seeing him get beaten up. I've not been impressed with him in the ring. Pairing him with Matt Morgan was a mistake in my opinion, as they weren't a good match, so I'm not going to criticise TNA for pulling the plug on them.

Bully played his part brilliantly at the end, he even had me feeling sorry for the Hogans! As you say, Aces and Eights have been legitimised. I still feel the story went on for too long, but the pay off was great.

I'd score Lockdown as an 8 out of 10.

How long do people think that Bully will hold the title for and who will take it off him?

2 PPVs (6 months) and taken off him by Magnus

6 months but I think it will be Sting's final flutter fighting for TNA against Aces and Eights who beats him. Then Sting drops a few weeks later and retires

I think Joey Ryan was perfect for Parks to be honest, they're still trying to build Parks up and they're trying to re-establish Matt Morgan, so a filler match between the two would do no-one any good, at least this way they can. Keep building Parks without any real damage being done as sleezy Ryan is great for that role.

I think the pay-off with Bully Ray was superb, Devon throwing him the hammer was great from a nostalgic point of view, for the record I've never had a problem with Devons role in A&8s, it was the fact where he was revealed and the fact that for the best part of 6 months he's been the face of the faction that I had a problem with, I also thought Bully Ray's performance at the end was brilliant, he just took his game to the next level.

I mentioned on Monday that I felt A&8s finally became relevent but I still don't see them as a faction to be feared, that's something that must be worked on

I think Bully Ray really needs 6 months+ with the title to take him to BFG I also think it'll be AJ Styles that'll be the guy to take the Title off him, for me this is AJ's last chance to be a top guy, he's Mr TNA but just never looks it, I feel this comeback is make or break for him now to determine if he can be the automatic main event guy that TNA can trust, I also think we might just see a Fortune reunion in order to go to war with A&8s

He should hold it up until Bound For Glory.

The possibilities I see for the next champion are;

Matt Morgan - Hogan will try his upmost best to try and convince Matt to join his side and fight with him.

AJ Styles - the face of TNA. He's can play the hero and bring the end tp Aces N Eights

Austin Aries or Bobby Roode - there quest is to hold every title in TNA. One of them should take it.

And finally, Sting - It all started with the beatdown of the Icon Sting. It would be fitting from a storyline perspective for Sting to end the reign of Bully and Aces N Eights.

TheCultOfPersonality wrote:He should hold it up until Bound For Glory.

The possibilities I see for the next champion are;

Matt Morgan - Hogan will try his upmost best to try and convince Matt to join his side and fight with him.

AJ Styles - the face of TNA. He's can play the hero and bring the end tp Aces N Eights

Austin Aries or Bobby Roode - there quest is to hold every title in TNA. One of them should take it.

And finally, Sting - It all started with the beatdown of the Icon Sting. It would be fitting from a storyline perspective for Sting to end the reign of Bully and Aces N Eights.

I agree with this. AJ makes the most sense to me, as he can't challenge for the title until Bound for Glory. By winning the BFG series, then the title, will make a excellent redemption story.

I like the idea of Morgan, but MM is always the answer. I'm not sure the story is there to put Magnus into the picture but he really should be being moved forward. AJ also makes sense.

If its Sting then I retire from watching TNA.

the AJ redemption story is written all over this heel turn - AJ returns to save the TNA world title from staying in the Aces & 8s camp and redeems himself and TNA at the same time.

I like the Magnus idea, I think he has massive potential and with the right push could make a great face. I like the fact that his new image doesn't involve the Union Jack stereotypical patriotism. He needs to be respected as a singles wrestler regardless of nationality.

Although AJ seems a great redemption storyline, TNA currently have been building Styles up for a heel turn with the "You just don't get it" attitude towards TNA management.

And he could be proven right, he doesn't need to be a heel to be against management, he could say he was against the whole idea to promote Bully Ray as the poster boy but management couldn't see the wood for the trees, now everything is clear, he could be one peed off guy! AJ doesn't need to be a heal to have a chip on his shoulder, storyline wise it could help motivate him to be the World Champion again

AJ Styles returning to save TNA and take the World title from Bully Ray at BFG just makes too much damn sense, so I can see TNA completely botching this. They botched Bobby Roode at BFG 2011, they botched James Storm at last year's BFG so I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them make it a hat-trick this year.


Really hope I'm wrong on that one, because it could be a damn good storyline.

watched it last night...

X-Division title match - an entertaining opener, some good spots by all three men and some good combo link up moves. At times it did just feel that they were setting up spots rather than letting the match flow but some of the triple play spots were enjoyable. Thought York did alright, he wasn't just there to make up the numbers and had some good combo moves of his own. The botch by Kenny King looked horrible, I hope TNA invest in the padded barriers like WWE in the future. Other than that, which king recovered well from a decent match.

Tag Team title match - excellent match, great chemistry between all three teams; some good spots and all worked at the right kind of pace. Thought Chavo could have sold his beating a little better than he did but he didn't do too badly, naturally being the smaller man he was going to be targetted and it made sense he would be worked over in order to get the hot tag to Hernandez. I think Roode/Aries have just got the balance right between humour and seriousness in their partnership. They do humour well but at the start of the match I was worried they would over do it, but they didn't and worked really well as a tag team.

Angle v Brisco - decent cage match, predictable screwy finish but a solid match. Angle's double leg slam at the very start of the match was something you'd see in the UFC so I enjoyed his use of wrestling at the start of the match, sometimes you forget Angle did wrestle for real at the Olympics.

Lethal Lockdown - I thought it was a good match, overall the Aces & 8s members came off looking quite weak, they didn't sustain as much offense as I thought they would get and didn't really use the weapons when they came into play to the best of their advantage. I thought Team TNA could have sold the fact that they were up against psychotic men but it just turned out to be a good old fashion heel beating. Nevertheless it gave the PPV a nice unique gimmick match.

World title match - a good match but definitely not my favourite Hardy title match. I much prefered his ladder match against Aries. It was a decent match, Jeff sold Bully's intensity well and Bully played his role throughout the entire match to perfection. The powerbomb off the turnbuckle was by far the best spot and I was actually a little shocked they did it as it was very high up. The heel turn was done brilliantly, although I think they had to work hard to turn the crowd against Bully as many initially cheered him when he hit Hardy with the hammer. But his remarks to Brooke and Hogan were nasty and hurtful so the Bully definitely has returned.

Overall I'd give the PPV 7/10 it definitely had that PPV feel and some very good matches/moments but the problem with the main event was you were just waiting for Aces & 8s to turn up (and I would have even if I hadn't read the spoilers) and the Lethal Lockdown was more one sided than I would have liked.

P.S. Taz's commentary was hillarious - he's so great as a heel, so funny!

The Powerbomb off the top was an incredible move.

As for Christian York, the sooner they drop him the better. Awful in the ring and awful on the mic. So many more deserving - Spud for one. I dont care if he was on the first show, he is rubbish.

On the Gut Check Open fight night, the two gut check winners who faced off were way better - dont understand why they havent been brought up to the X division yet.

In spud related news he posted this picture on his facebook yesterday

Spoiler:

Hi tooze - I cant see that at work - what is it?

its a picture of his leather Jacket and tights with the OVW TV title draped over them

So, they showed him off for the UK crowds and threw him into OVW. Granted its their developmental and he doesnt do the US style, but I do wonder if they even plan to use him. Considering some of the absolute crud they have on the roster I think OVW should be packed with stars in training