Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

Got the chance to check this PPV out. This is one of their biggest PPVs of the year and it felt like some people were working harder. But last year's PPV was better on a pure wrestling-quality point of view. On paper, some of the matches ought to have been better because the workers paired together seemed decent. However, the matches, while good from an action point of view, weren't great "wrestling" matches. Meaning, that you didn't get Ricky Steamboat vs Ric Flair, Bret Hart vs Steve Austin, Chris Benoit vs Kurt Angle, Misawa vs Kawada, etc. level of matches. Certainly, there were great moments (Steiner pulling off a Frankensteiner, Gail Kim hitting a near top of the cage cross body block, AJ Styles taking a gnarly fall). WWE learned that in order for their PPVs to be memorable, they need moments. So it seems that TNA is attempting to do the same. The first match was the best pure wrestling match on the card. But most of the match's quality was due to having five people in the match. Also, this match happens all the time so there's little novelty involved. It didn't make use of the cage so the stipulation seemed meaningless in this context (which for the most part was the case for all but say 3 matches on the card). The good thing about this match was that it was first, which is where it belongs in getting the crowd warmed up. The other two X-Division matches (Senshi vs Starr and Lynn vs Daniels) were solid but not spectacular. They needed either a longer period or the killer spot to put an exclaimation point as X-Division matches. One key about the previous year's Lockdown PPV was that the killer spots were more remarkable. Since the arena was big, they needed to make a bigger statement, whether it was through one swank spot or a long match that would get people talking. In both of these cases, while the work was solid, neither made this type of statement. The women's match was the bright spot, only because expectations were low. But they did something that the other matches didn't: make a statement. Instead of having the long match which would've exposed both girls' weaknesses (which is not having the moveset nor psychology to handle long matches), they did make it memorable due to Gail Kim pulling off a sweat cross body block off the cage. The actual body of the match (minus the beginning) wasn't great, but the finish left a better taste in people's mouths. The electrified cage was gratuitous. It was a stupid stipulation. Why not just have the cage explode like in FMW's old Onita days? Or extend the cage so that barbed wire and glass were outside? The silly effects were like a B-rated movie and the crowd let people know their thoughts on the production quality. The thing is that people expect realism, not some goofy effects you'd find in Disneyland. The goofy effects from Disneyland are what people expect from the WWE. TNA fans expect more realism (even though most people understand that wrestling is worked). So if the spots look real and the action looks real, people will appreciate it more. This is a key point that TNA management needs to understand. Lastly, there seems to be a big debate on the final match. The thing is that the match itself was a clusterfuck. It lacked any sense of organization, except that one guy would be able to come in, show his five moves of death (a la Bret Hart) and then make room for the next guy to come in and show his five moves of death. I did appreciate the few moments in the match though (Rhino goring Tomko, AJ nearly committing suicide, Steiner doing his Frankensteiner), but nothing else was really memorable AS A MATCH. In terms of the booking, nothing was unexpected. Sting winning doesn't bother me as most because he'll probably job to Christian in an unsavory manner next month. He ought to lose cleanly just to give Christian credibility. I think that match is not going to be great from a workrate perspective. Christian can have good matches but I've only seen them in TNA with AJ, Daniels, and Abyss so far. Sting's offense is too limited for TNA's main events while Christian is more of a bumper. So I don't see how that type of match will gel well (although Christian's promos ought to be entertaining at the least). On a side note, in terms of Tomko, I'm not against him as some people are. I think Tomko is TNA's answer to Batista right now, while Christian is trying to be a cockier, hipper version of HHH. Well, if Tomko can add more power moves and take bumps like the cage door shot, he might fare better than Batista. Regardless, I can't say that the PPV was incredible. But it wasn't horrible. Just not memorable outside a few mouth dropping bumps. But those bumps simply do not make for excellent wrestling matches.