Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

This PPV wasn't as good as Lockdown. I think the lack of X-division type of matches and the crowd heat detracted from the overall PPV. Also, they attempted to move some of the X-division guys away from the X-division, which isn't bad, but that hurt from the overall match quality. On the other hand, you can see a path that TNA is attempting to carve with the direction of the wrestlers. Liger vs Petey Williams - The feed cut so you missed the "climatical" moment of the ball shot. I haven't seen Liger wrestle for a while but he's definitely slowed down. Main thing is that Petey Williams' selling lacks badly. I mean REALLY badly. as in non-existent. when in with a guy like liger, you still need 4-5 more minutes to build the drama leading towards the bigger spots, but you don't get that feeling in a Petey Williams match. This is something critical Petey needs to work on if he wants to exceed the tag of being a generic spot machine with a visual candy finisher. A-1 vs Raven - I read Lance Storm's commentary about A-1 being limited. That's an understatement! Most of the match consisted of A-1 performing a bunch of shoulder blocks in the corner while posing. Obviously, in those posing moments he was attempting to discern what to accomplish next. Poor Raven. The guy's obviously been through a lot but definitely not the one to carry A-1 at this point in time. A-1 should not be wrestling in singles but in tag matches for the time being. AMW vs AJ Styles/Christopher Daniels - Probably the best match of the night. These two teams probably can have even better matches against each other. Daniels and Styles can bring in the face offense while AMW sells and bumps for them as well as overpowers and tricks them. Honestly, I see AJ and Daniels getting the tag belts before Team 3D. Probably it'll lead to a 4-way tag match between all four teams down the road. Rhino vs Bobby Roode - Roode is kinda like a Curt Henning and Arn Anderson minus the mic skills and experience edge. With D'Amore around though, he doesn't get much personality development. These two didn't really mesh well. Roode works well in a late 80's context while Rhino does best in brawling matches. So you have a pretty wide gap in terms of styles. Unless the upcoming feud means to expand on Roode working the brawling style. He was more on defense in his matches against Team 3-D while Young carried the group in terms of bumping comedy. So it's hard to take Roode credible even if people recognize he's got tons of potential. The X-Division Gauntlet - This was the Royal Rumble of the X-division. Except the sequence of people entering was pretty much by country rather than randomness. The other problem here was that the sequence even under those circumstances didn't really help the situation. For instance, Jay Lethal coming out last but not getting any memorable moments in. Or Puma coming in first and not really getting in any significant time towards the end to make him lasting 20 minutes worth mentioning. And the sequence of people getting thrown out was silly. Minoru and Liger, for instance, ought to have been in longer. Instead, their exits made them look weak. This wasn't booked well. Team 3d vs The James Gang - The basic match itself wasn't good but some of the booking in this was better done. Most of the better elements was to exceed the expectations of what both teams normally would do (e.g. Bubba Ray throwing a dropkick) while returning the favor to Team 3D of beating them via a pipe. The execution could've been better towards the end though. Nonetheless, this pairing seems to bring out a little more color in both teams. Where's Runt? Sting/Samoa Joe vs Scott Steiner/Jeff Jarrett - Probably the most anticipated match of the night. It's obvious people want to see Samoa Joe vs Scott Steiner down the road. The booking for this match was done pretty well. Sting pulled a few more things out but he's still far from his prime. Anyway, I think the better match would be Jeff Jarrett vs Samoa Joe just because Jeff is a better bumper than Steiner. The best part was the solidification of Joe's character. He's just a no-nonsense guy who does his job and loves it. He's like a bigger, stiffer Dean Malenko, which is why people probably get behind him. Christian Cage vs Abyss - It was good they put this on last to boost Cage as the champion. However, it didn't have the heat factor you'd expect in this type of match. I think the problem is that people already realized Abyss wouldn't win this type of match and hadn't been made to look like someone that was capable of beating Christian. He doesn't have that killer factor that Joe vs Christian would create in terms of anticipation. I think Abyss would be better off challenging Sting since it would seem as though he's more capable of moving up the ladder (no pun on the match intended) through a veteran rather than someone who's just taking on all comers. That said the real challengers against Christian who'd bring that "heat" factor, imo, are Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Sting and Scott Steiner. The biggest two challengers in TNA to Christian really are Sting and Scott Steiner. However, Samoa Joe and AJ Styles are listed because they're the two guys capable of knocking Christian off the top of the ladder that would appear to elevate both people in their careers.