Monday, April 24, 2017

TNA Lockdown 2010 Review

It's one of TNA's biggest shows of the year, Lockdown! The 2010 edition may have been the biggest one in the company's history. With big matches like Team Hogan facing off against Team Flair in a Lethal Lockdown match along with AJ Styles defending his gold against D'Angelo Dinero, perhaps none were more epic than Kurt Angle taking on Mr. Anderson in the company's biggest grudge match of all time!

Match 1: Rob Van Dam vs. James Storm
Winner of the match gives their respective team the entry advantage for the Lethal Lockdown match later in the night. The match spills outside the ring before the bell rings as Rob Van Dam gets cut open early on. Pretty basic opening match here that saw James Storm focus on the cut of RVD and nearly pick up the win after spitting beer in his face before landing a sick DDT. However, RVD was able to turn the tide and hit his patented Frog Splash to score the win for himself and for Team Hogan in the Lethal Lockdown match later on.
Winner: Rob Van Dam
Rating: **

Match 2: Xscape - Homicide vs. Brian Kendrick vs. Alex Shelley vs. Chris Sabin
The second match of the night has similar rules as the winner of this match joins the X Division match later in the evening. Why do they have to do this? Why can't they just have a separate match for these guys if they really wanted to have them on the card instead of booking them in such a short match? This was a fairly quick and forgettable match here that saw Homicide trick Brian Kendrick in double teaming against Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin before making the quick escape. Liked the ending, but that match did no favors for anyone else. If anything, it really made The Motor City Machine Guns look like complete fools.
Winner: Homicide
Rating: *1/4

Match 3: Eric Young vs. Kevin Nash
After being betrayed by Kevin Nash, Eric Young seeks revenge inside the steel cage. Unfortunately for him, Nash was more than enough for him to handle. Young managed to squeak in a tad bit of offense before Nash hit a Jackknife Powerbomb to seal his fate. Poor Eric Young, a guy who completely deserves so much better yet falls to one of Hulk Hogan's friends. Afterwards, Nash gets on the microphone and inserts himself into the Team 3D vs. The Band match later on.
Winner: Kevin Nash
Rating: 1/2*

Match 4: Knockouts Championship & Knockouts Tag Team Championships - The Beautiful People vs. Angelina Love (c) & Tara
Can you believe TNA really had Angelina Love win the Knockouts Championship by opening up a box? And they really booked all the Knockouts belts in one match. Man. Love is forced to team up with Tara as they take on The Beautiful People who have Lacey Von Erich in their corner. Long story short, Von Erich interferes in the match as Tara eats the pin in a quick match. With that pin, Love loses her to title to Madison Rayne because reasons. Afterwards, Tara beats down Love. That was a joke.
Winners: The Beautiful People
Rating: 1/2*

Match 5: X Division Championship - Homicide vs. Kazarian vs. Shannon Moore
With the champion in Douglas Williams being unable to make the show, this match is now for the vacant X Division Championship. That also means that the winner of this match won't have the physical belt since Williams still has it. Only in TNA. Regardless, the match itself here was pretty decent as the three guys got in an equal amount of offense as they Kazarian eventually captured the win and earning himself the vacated X Division Championship in the process. If they were given more time, I guarantee you that this may have had the chance to be the best match on the card. Glad Kaz at least got the win.
Winner: Kazarian
Rating: **1/4

Match 6: St. Louis Street Fight - Team 3D vs. The Band
I feel like every TNA PPV that I have seen involves Team 3D spilling the match to the stands. Because Syxx-Pac didn't show up to the event, Kevin Nash replaced him as Scott Hall's partner for this thing. The match starts outside the ring before finally The Band gain an advantage by trapping Brother Devon inside the cage while Brother Ray looked on from the outside. Ray is finally to get himself in the ring as Team 3D get the upper hand. Team 3D then hit a 3D on Hall through a table to get the win. That may have been the easiest paycheck of Nash's life. Just glad that The Band didn't get the win here. The card has been pretty lackluster so far, let's see if the next matches can take a turn in the right direction.
Winners: Team 3D
Rating: *1/2

Match 7: Mr. Anderson vs. Kurt Angle
One of the biggest hidden gems in the history of TNA Wrestling was the 2010 feud between these two. During this time, there was a lot of hot garbage being tossed around but the chemistry these two were able to display throughout their feud was incredible. It all started when Mr. Anderson beat Kurt Angle in a match at Against All Odds that left Angle in a pool of his own blood. Anderson used a necklace that was given to Angle by a soldier to carve him up with. This led to some awesome promos between the two before they finally looked to settle the score here. They had a ladder match prior to this on Impact with the winner gaining possession of the key to open the cage door. It seemed a bit unnecessary to do that but they made it work for this match and even built a little story around the key during this match. First off, I loved Anderson's entrance to this match. He kissed the microphone and looked cool and calm for this match as the video promo before the match presented him to be the driver's seat. One word to describe this match would be intense. The crowd came back to life for this as Angle got cut up early on in the match as Anderson pounded away at the cut and even mocked him as he drove Angle's skull into the steel cage. Angle eventually got the upper hand on Anderson and had the chance to escape through the cage door before he locked it and pretended to throw the key away. The announcers failed to realize that Angle faked the toss and it led to some confusion later on when Angle actually opened the lock with the key. Anyway, Anderson was absolutely relentless in his ways and even tried choking out Angle with the wrist tape. You couldn't help but feel bad for the defenseless Angle as he spit out his mouth guard and had blood pour down his face. Angle is the best at this. However, Angle suplexed his way out of the jam and even hit one off the middle rope. The crowd roared as the intensity grew. Then, Angle looked to the top of the cage and slowly made the climb up. Angle leaped off the top of the cage and hit a moonsault onto Anderson. What. A. Sight. Angle majestically flipped himself off the top of the cage and barely hit his target. The silence both Mike Tenay & Taz presented was a nice touch. Let the picture speak for itself. Surely, this is the end of the match. Not even close. Angle looked to leave the cage as he unlocked the lock with the key he had pretended to throw away earlier as Tenay tells us that he got another key somehow. Angle looks back as Anderson screams and flips off Angle. So awesome. Angle steps back into the ring only to walk into a low blow and a Mic Check! What is going on?! Anderson might seriously win this match! However, Angle puts Anderson in an Ankle Lock as Anderson tries to escape! Anderson is tapping but the only way to win is through the door! Anderson rolls himself out of the lock and tosses Angle into the cage in the process! Anderson tries to escape once more by slithering out. Such a nice touch to show the desperation in Anderson at this point. Angle pulls out the necklace given to him by the soldier and chokes the living daylight out of Anderson! Angle then spits at Anderson's unconscious body before stepping out of the ring and kicking Anderson in his junk before finally walking out and winning the match. The lifeless face of Anderson tells the entire story. Wow. They really left it all out there. Angle then gets on the microphone and says he needs to take some time off as the blood pours down his face. Angle said that when he comes back, his only goal was to regain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. He would eventually come back a month or so later which kind of made that promo pointless. The only things that bothered me were after Angle's big jump off the cage, they did not really sell it as long and as much as they needed to. Also, Angle faking to throw the key away was somewhat confusing as the commentators did not know where Angle got the key later on to open the lock. However, I am not going to let that stop me from giving this match the full *****. That was incredible from the start to the finish and writing about this only makes me want to watch it again. Hands down, my favorite cage match of all time and one of my favorite Angle matches. The intensity was there and the stories all tied together. Take away the epic leap off the cage and this match is just as good. I loved everything about this match, from Anderson's cockiness to Angle choking out Angle at the very end. Credit to both men on what I believe to be the biggest hidden gem in the company's history. Go out of your way to watch this match!
Winner: Kurt Angle
Rating: *****

Match 8: TNA World Heavyweight Championship - AJ Styles (c) vs. D'Angelo Dinero
Before the match even begins, referee Earl Hebner dismisses Ric Flair from being ringside for AJ Styles. Loved their little exchange as Hebner refused to back down from Flair. D'Angelo Dinero won the tournament at Against All Odds to earn his shot for the richest prize in TNA against AJ Styles. Really good exchanges from the two, Styles basically has good chemistry with anyone. It's basically impossible for him to have a bad match, especially with someone as talented as Dinero. They gradually turned the heat up on the match and even saw Styles leap off the top and miss a dive onto Dinero who narrowly missed the win following it. The leap was smooth but didn't have the same effect like the one Angle did. Styles was able to take a pen from a cameraman and hide it from the referee before stabbing Dinero in the eye with it. That was corny. And why did he have to hide the pen? Isn't this no disqualification or am I missing something? Styles follows up with a Styles Clash to retain. Great match here as Styles was hitting his strides on all cylinders at this point. A better ending would have bumped this up to ****, but take it for what it was, a great championship match.
Winner: AJ Styles
Rating: ***3/4

Match 9: Lethal Lockdown - Team Hogan (Abyss, Rob Van Dam, Jeff Jarrett & Jeff Hardy) vs. Team Flair (Robert Roode, Desmond Wolfe, James Storm & Sting)
Because Rob Van Dam won his match earlier against James Storm, his team gets the man advantage when the participants enter the match. I'm normally all for stupid fun here and there, but this crossed the line. No pun intended. This match was simply a perfect representation of how TNA was stuck in their old ways and basically wanting to make this company WCW 2.0. I don't know where to begin. Team Hogan looked to be in trouble when Jeff Hardy was savagely beat down by Sting backstage which left their team down a man. However, Hardy makes a comeback and saves the day before taking out Beer Money, Inc. by himself on top of the cage through a table. I'll admit, that was cool. It was all the drama that was so bad. Why do they always insist on bring thumbtacks out? The novelty has been murdered to death in TNA. Ric Flair sees that his team is in trouble so he comes out to take matters into his own hands before Hulk Hogan comes out. Of course, Eric Bischoff has to come out to convince Hogan to stop before tossing him brass knuckles. Hogan beats down Flair and drops him in the tacks. Abyss hits a Black Hole Slam on Desmond Wolfe to secure the win for his team. Team Hogan then celebrates as they salute Hardy who is on top of the cage. Feels like I was watching a movie from 1980 with that corny ending. The match should have ended once Hardy jumped off the ladder or even when Sting got Chokeslammed by Abyss. That was just another bad ending to another bad TNA PPV. Hard to believe these guys really thought they were making groundbreaking content at the time.
Winners: Team Hogan
Rating: *3/4

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
This is the peak of TNA's 2010 disaster year. Aside from the two matches that actually did deliver, everything else was pretty much a train wreck. The main event really showed how TNA had no idea what they were doing and it was very evident that Hulk Hogan basically owned the company. However, go out of your way to watch Mr. Anderson vs. Kurt Angle because that was easily the company's best match in a very long time.
Rating: 5/10

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