TNA Lockdown 2005

Seeing as I’m planning on going to this year’s Lockdown show in Cincinnati I figured now would be the perfect time to look back at the inaugural Lockdown event. Remember, all matches are inside the SIX SIDES OF STEEL!!!!

1) Chris Candido & Lance Hoyt vs. Sonny Siaki & Apolo – 3
2) Bobby Roode vs. Dustin Rhodes – Best of Three Falls Prince of Darkness Death Match – 4
3) Michael Shane vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Chris Sabin vs. Shocker – Xscape Match – 5
4) Raven vs. Jeff Hardy – Tables Match – 4
5) America’s Most Wanted vs. Petey Williams & Eric Young – Strap Match – 4
6) Christopher Daniels vs. Elix Skipper – 5
7) Diamond Dallas Page, Sean Waltman, & B.G. James vs. Jeff Jarrett, Monty Brown, & The Outlaw – Lethal Lockdown Match – 6
8) A.J. Styles vs. Abyss – 8

Opener is notable only for the fact that is was the match where Candido broke his leg after taking an awkward bump to avoid a cameraman that TNA stupidly decided to put inside the cage. Second bout was best of three falls but if it went to a third fall, the competitors had to wrestle with hoods on. That just spells bad news when hoods and a cage are involved (see: Harris vs. Storm, Lockdown ’07). Botched pinfall ended the first fall. Second fall had some really good action with Dustin throwing some wild brawling punches and busting out a bulldog from the top rope. Roode bounced around really good too. A ref bump and lots of interference from Scott D’Amore led to a third fall that was a bigger pile of shit than the dino droppings seen in Jurassic Park. For the first of its kind, the Xscape Match was acceptable. Four man submission spot was pretty cool. Sonjay, one of the two weak links in the match was eliminated first. Why was there random interference from Trinity? Even though it was a pretty cool moonsault off the top of the cage, was it really necessary? Most of the match was just them doing spots with not much rhyme or reason. Finish was reminiscent of the Hogan/Orndoff SNME cage match in ’87. First half capped off with a match where tables were involved in a cage? Was Russo booking this? The tables in the cage left little room for manuevering. Hardy had a couple big highspots that involved jumping off the cage. Raven did some overselling on a weak chair shot. The two double stacks of tables at the finish was an interesting sight but had kind of a sloppy end, much like the $1.00 double stacks at Wendy’s.

Petey and Eric made a fomidable combination. Young was so much better here that here than he currently is in his goofy, annoying persona, even though the boy can still bump around like crazy. First half of the match was Harris getting waylayed on the outside by A-1 and Storm getting double-teamed by Petey and Eric inside the cage. Harris took a wild bump off the side of the cage into the railing in my favorite spot of the bout. Second half boiled down into a basic Texas Tornado match with Storm bleeding buckets. Heel tactics from the Canadians were good. The X-Title match had the age old “former partners going at at it” story line. Daniels is a great heel, just bringing a great cockiness and a giant prick attitude. Skipper was selling the shoulder quite well and the hightlight of his offense was doing a diving cross-body off the top of the cage. Crowd seemed kind of dead throughout. Waltman and Jarrett were the first two in the war games, wait I mean, lethal lockdown match and immediately started brawling in the crowd. Fuck, is there any Jarrett match during this period that didn’t feature a crowd brawl? Waltman his a nice spin kick on the announcers table. Match was a wild brawl and a complete weapons fest. DDP looked like he was really motivated, coming in and just killing everyone with kendo stick shots. Why did BG hit the referee randomly? I miss seeing Brown destroy jobbers every week with that crazy ass pounce move. Outlaw and Jarrett just sort of meandered about after everyone got in the cage, not really popping off anything of note. Main event was the A.J. Styles show. He was just bumping, bouncing, jumping, and flying all over the place. Unlike the previous bout, the crowd brawl actually was really good and not a way to cover up lazy ring work (talking to you Jarrett). This is the version of Abyss that I always liked, the no bullshit, kick-ass, unstoppable monster, not the goofy one that was seen last spring with Hogan. Tacks, chains, and blood was the story inside the cage as A.J. was busted open one three straight stiff shots with the cage door. Abyss took wild bumps into the tacks and worked his ass off. One of the best 20-minute non-stop brawls I’ve seen in a long, long time. An awesome match to cap off an otherwise lackluster show.