With Lockdown behind us, we’ve hopefully seen the last of the feud between Jeff Jarrett & the Angles Kurt Angle & the Jarretts. It was Jeff who reigned supreme last night, defeating Angle in their 2-out-of-3 falls match. Kurt took the first fall by submission (naturally), and Jarrett took the second and third, by pinfall and escape respectively. Jeff needed a little bit of luck and some interference from wife Karen, but a win is a win. Prior to Jarrett stealing the victory, Kurt hit a moonsault from the top of the cage that will surely be included in TNA highlight reels for weeks to come – it was pretty spectacular. He also, perhaps more interestingly, used an Ace Crusher in the match, which bares a striking resemblance to Randy Orton’s RKO. Given the recent Twitter war between the Olympic Hero and Orton stemming from Orton’s use of the Angle Slam at WrestleMania, I have to assume Kurt’s watered down RKO was a shot at the WWE star.
As much as I’d like it if we can now move past this rivalry, I doubt Lockdown marked the end of the bad blood between Angle and Jarrett. Given the dubious nature of Jeff’s victory, it seems likely that this tired feud is going to continue on. While the match itself was very entertaining, the lack of closure on the feud was irritating. Good matches that didn’t settle feuds seemed to be a recurring theme last night.
- Fortune succeeded in defeating Immortal despite the heels having the one man advantage on their side. The match was a good one that had some memorable spots (James Storm smashing a beer bottle over the head of Ric Flair comes to mind.) Towards the end, Fortune came off the rails and found themselves in the midst of a beat down by their rivals. AJ Styles, who’s been out since sustaining a powerbomb off the stage of the Impact Zone, returned to make the save and hand Fortune the win. I am shocked nobody turned heel through all this. Like the Angle/Jarrett match, I doubt anything was settled here. I’m relatively certain Bully Ray and his boys will complain about AJ Styles’ interference, and this feud will just roll on heading into the Sacrifice PPV.
- Sting retained the World Championship in a decent triple threat match that was tainted by the hands of Hulk Hogan. Hogan failed in his attempt to recruit Rob Van Dam to join Immortal, but in his quest, he inadvertently set into motion a chain of events that led to Sting’s victory. It certainly looks like we’re heading towards an eventually Sting vs Hogan match for the belt, which would be fine, you know, if it was 1997. Look for Anderson to keep demanding his rematch, RVD to continue floating around the main event scene, and Hogan to remain one of the stalest characters on television.
- If I could pick any feud to be decisively ended at Lockdown, it would be the one between Samoa Joe and the Pope, and luckily, I see no definitive reason to think that it’ll continue. Their entire rivalry through this point has been atrocious, a true pain to watch. Joe went over last night with the Muscle Buster, thankfully, hopefully having won the feud and put it to rest.
- Mickie James became the new Knockouts Champion in dominant fashion, defeating Madison Rayne in about a minute. It was a squash, but it was an effective squash. It served more to display how angry and driven Mickie was than it did to make Madison look weak. A split between Madison & Tara is definitely brewing, and I wouldn’t be shocked to see a triple threat between the two of them and the new champ at Sacrifice.
- Matt Morgan beat Hernandez in what I consider to be a disappointing match. Hernandez works so stiff sometimes that it’s kind of a let down when he lightens up. Despite attempted interference from the rest of Mexican America, the Blueprint took the victory after a big boot. Post-match, Sarita & Rosita cut a rather redundant promo until Velvet Sky hit the ring and took both of them out. Given the state of Angelina Love recently, Velvet will need to find a new partner if she intends on tangling with the Knockouts Tag Team Champions.
- Matt Buck won the Xscape match, last eliminating Brian Kendrick. Suicide, Jay Lethal, Amazing Red, Chris Sabin, Jeremy Buck, and Robbie E were all participants in this one as well, and were eliminated in that order. High spots galore.
- Ink Inc. picked up the win in their 4-way match against Crimson & Scott Steiner, Orlando Jordan & Eric Young, and Magnus & Douglas Williams. There was too much going here for anything to really stand out. Orlando Jordon is too strange for me to enjoy, and Eric Young is guilty by association. The end saw Shannon Moore nail a rather flat Moore-gasm on Magnus. This was kind of a snoozer.
All around, this was a sufficient show. Surely better than WWE’s most recent pay-per-view, although that isn’t saying much. All of the matches were passable, and a few of them were excellent. My only concern is that some of these feuds will continue on well past their expiration date.
