#sonjay dutt wins x division

[spanishannouncetablepodcast]

May 30, 2017 - The TV tapings for IMPACT! Wrestling were held in Mumbai, India.

In the main event of the show Sonjay Dutt defeated Low Ki to win the Impact Wrestling X Division Title.

This was Dutt’s 35th title shot for the X Division Title and his only successful attempt.

The match would air on television on June 15th.

Start each day off right with a trip in The Spanish Announce Time Machine as Tim and Tom discuss something that happened ON THIS DAY in Pro Wrestling history.

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[blowflyfag]

Inside Wrestling: Volume 26, 2009

wrestling timeline 

Samoa Joe

Inside Wrestling journeys back in time to examine the career of a superstar who has left a major imprint on the sport

MARCH 17, 1979: The future “Samoa Submission Machine,” Nuufolau Joel Seanoa, is born in Orange County, California.

DECEMBER 18, 1999: After only a few months of formal training, 20-year-old Joe competes in his first professional match for UIWA. 

MARCH 3, 2001: Under a developmental deal with WWF, Joe loses to Essa Rios on the company’s Jakked program.

MARCH 14, 2001: Joe wins first singles championship–the UPW heavyweight title–by defeating Christopher Daniels.

JUNE 14, 2001: Joe and Keiji Sakoda win the first-ever NWA Intercontinental tag team championship in Pro Wrestling ZERO1. 

OCTOBER 5, 2002: Joe returns to the United States and begins wrestling for Ring of Honor. He loses his first official match to Low Ki. 

JANUARY 11, 2003: In the first of what would be many epic battles, Joe defeats “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson.

MARCH 22, 2003: Joe captures the Ring of Honor heavyweight title by defeating Xavier.

NOVEMBER 29, 2003: One-time partners A.J. Styles and Joe square off with the ROH champion getting the best of the “Phenomenal One.”

FEBRUARY 14, 2004: At ROH’s second anniversary show, Joe retains the promotion’s championship by defeating Low KI. Dan Maff, and B.J. Whitmer in a “Fatal Four-Way” match.” 

APRIL 23, 2004: When he can’t defeat Joe in the ring during an ROH event, Homicide attempts to end the big Samoan’s career by hitting the champ with a fireball.

SEPTEMBER 18, 2004: In the final round of the IWA: Mid-South Ted Petty Invitational tournament, Joe and Bryan Danielson fall to A.J. Styles. 

DECEMBER 4, 2004: Joe finishes his trilogy of matches against C.M. Punk as the victor. These bouts would go down in ROH history as some of the best the promotion has ever seen. 

DECEMBER 26, 2004: The longest ROH title reign in the promotion’s history comes to an end as Austin Aries beats Joe to win the gold. 

JANUARY 15, 2005: A bitter Joe receives a chairshot to the head and a DDT for good measure from a visiting Mick Foley during a special appearance for ROH.

APRIL 1, 2005: Joe’s downward slide on the indy circuit continues when he loses a number-one contender’s match to A.J. Styles in Pro Wrestling Guerilla. 

MAY 7, 2005: In a fitting change of pace, Joe captures the ROH Pure title when he defeats Jay Lethal. 

JUNE 11, 2005: Joe is victorious in a fiercely intense and physically destructive match against Necro Butcher in IAW: Mid-South. 

JUNE 19, 2005: Only eight days after his match with Necro Butcher, Joe makes his TNA debut at Slammiversary, defeating Sonjay Dutt.

JULY 8, 2005: A very active Joe chokes out Chris Sabin for fun and defeats Shark Boy and Elix Skipper in a three-way match in his Impact debut. 

JULY 17, 2005: Moving to 2-0 at TNA pay-per-views, Joe handily defeats Chris Sabin. 

AUGUST 12, 2005: In another shot at capturing the ROH title, a surprisingly opportunistic James Gibson defeats Joe, C.M. Punk, and Christopher Daniels. 

AUGUST 27, 2005: Two weeks after failing in his attempt to win the ROH title, Joe drops the Pure championship to Nigel McGuinness.

OCTOBER 1, 2005: In a critically acclaimed match, Joe is defeated by a visiting Kenta Kobashi during an ROH event. 

NOVEMBER 13, 2005: At TNAs Genesis pay-per-view, Joe breaks the code of the X division by attacking Christopher Daniels with a chair. He appears in the months that follow with a towel stained with Daniels’ blood. 

DECEMBER 11, 2005: Joe captures his first X division championship by defeating A.J Styles at TNA’s Turning Point pay-per-view, still carrying the blood-stained towel.

FEBRUARY 12, 2006: In a three-way match with A.J.. Styles and Christopher Daniels, Joe retained the X division championship at TNA’s Against All Odds pay-per-view.

MARCH 22, 2006: In the culmination to their long-running three-way feud, Joe loses the X division title to Christopher Daniels as A.J. Styles looks on in an Ultimate X match at Destination X.

APRIL 22, 2006: Joe takes part in the interpromotional feud between ROH and Combat Zone Wrestling. Joe’s ROH squad is defeated in a six-man match. 

OCTOBER 12, 2006: A no-decision is the result of an unsanctioned ladder match for the NWA World championship between Joe and Christian Cage on Impact. 

JANUARY 14, 2007: After struggling with TNA acquisition Kurt Angle for several weeks, Joe loses to the former Olympian at Final Resolution. 

JANUARY 31, 2007: Joe announces he will no longer work for ROH full-time and embarks on a “Samoa Joe Farewell Tour.”

MARCH 4, 2007: In his final appearance for ROH, Joe defeats long-time nemesis Homicide.

MARCH 11, 2007: Another shot at the NWA World championship proves to be in vain as Joe loses to CHristian Cage at TNA’s Destination X pay-per-view. 

JULY 15, 2007: Joe gains the pinfall at TNA’s Victory Road pay-per-view and becomes TNA World tag team champion while simultaneously holding the X division title as well. 

AUGUST 12, 2007: Putting up his X division and TNA World tag team titles against the TNA World title and IWGP championship, Joe loses to Kurt Angle at TNA’s Hard Justice. 

DECEMBER 2, 2007: When Scott Hall no-shows Turning Point, Joe delivers an intense promo aimed at TNA management and his would-be-partner.

FEBRUARY 14, 2008: An unlikely partnership forms on Impact when Joe teams with Christian Cage and Kevin Nash in an ongoing effort to eliminate Kurt Angle’s Alliance from TNA. 

APRIL 13, 2008: Upon eliminating the Angle Alliance, Joe captures his first TNA World Championship by defeating Kurt Angle at Lockdown in a “Six Sides of Steel” match.

OCTOBER 12, 2008: Sting defeats Joe for the TNA World championship at Bound For Glory IV.

OCTOBER 30, 2008: Along with A.J., Styles, The Motor City Machine Guns, Jay Lethal, and Consequences Creed, Joe helps lead the team of the Frontline against the Main Event Mafia.

NOVEMBER 9, 2008: In a grudge match against former mentor Kevin Nash, Joe loses in a controversial finish that sees his opponent use the ropes for leverage.

[shitloadsofwrestling]

2 Out Of 3 Falls Match for the GFW X Division Championship Low Ki Vs. Sonjay Dutt (Champion) GFW Slammiversary XV [July 2nd, 2017]

In the early days of TNA Wrestling, the TNA X Division was one of the biggest rocks in the foundation of the company, featuring exciting matches from wrestlers of all calibers and experience levels competing in high speed, hard-hitting encounters. Two of the wrestlers who helped define that division were Low Ki and the GFW X Division Champion Sonjay Dutt. Both wrestlers competed in impossibly quick matches where one or both men could out-quick or out-maneuver several wrestlers despite their smaller stature.

On April 20th, Sonjay returned to Impact Wrestling in a six-way match for the X Division Championship. During that match, Dutt sustained an eye injury at the educated feet of Low Ki, who went on to win the match. As Dutt continued to heal, he made it clear that he would continue on his quest to take the X Division Championship from Low Ki. During a match in India, Low Ki sustained an eye injury of his own during a match against Caleb Konley. Afterward, Dutt and Low Ki had an encounter where Low Ki asked for a shot at the championship. In that match, Dutt defeated Low Ki, and would defend the championship at Slammiversary XV in a 2 Out Of 3 Falls Match.

[enbywrestlingfan]

Trevor Lee vs. Sonjay Dutt - GFW Destination X 2017

3.75/5 (*** ¾) - When it comes to gimmick matches, I do enjoy a good ladder match, and this is a good one for sure. Trevor Lee is an underrated talent, and so is Sonjay Dutt, so them being in a feud for the GFW X-Division championship only serves to help both men, and it’s been great. Trevor Lee had stolen the title, which was the lead in to this ladder match. It started off quick as a brawl, then once Ladders came in things got a bit crazy in the best way. Caleb Konley made a run in and powerbombed Dutt through a table, prompting Petey WIlliams to return and attack Konley hitting the Canadian Destroyer, effectively ending his retirement and evening the odds.  Dutt would win after winning a ladder top brawl that lead to Lee falling onto a ladder he’d previously set up.  Not the best ladder match I’ve seen, but a very fun one, especially with the return of Maple Leaf Muscle himself.

[lostinyourears]

CMLL Gran Prix Hype Train #1 : 2008′s 16 man Torneo Cibernetico

This series might not get many editions since the next CMLL International Gran Prix is September 1st. I felt like highlighting some old Lucha Libre and after the historic Mask vs Mask match at Triplemania featuring Dr. Wagner Jr. I also wanted to see some of his older work. 

So, what’s Torneo Cibernetico? Well, this team variation is basically like Survivor Series. 8 Men on team Mexico will take on 8 men from around the globe. Sometimes Japanese, Sometimes TNA, recently NJPW/RoH. They also have some non native CMLL talents like Marco Corleone or Johnny Idol who will fill the ranks of team international.

The match is Lucha Libre tag, since so many people are in the match  they normally stay standing at ringside. When one man from any team leaves the ring, someone from his same team can come in. No tags are made, instead you just leave the ring. Once pinned or submitted that person leaves until only one man/team is standing.  

Team International/TNA(2008)

Alex Koslov - a great talent who got his start in CMLL from 2006-2008, he recently retired from wrestling in 2015 after having a pretty good run in NJPW’s Junior division. 

Sonjay Dutt - At the time Sonjay was feuding on again off again with Lethal in the X Division. He briefly left TNA, but is now back with them and is currently their X Division Champion. 

A.J. Styles - You probably know AJ Styles. At this time in his career he had been NWA Heavyweight Champion 3 times, Inaugural X Division Champion and held the belt 5 times more between 2002-2006, though had not captured the TNA Heavyweight title or the TV/Legends Title which was created in 2008. 

Jay Lethal - Lethal had been in RoH before in 2006 he jumped to TNA to chase the X Division title. 2008 was at the tail end of his Black Machismo period where his gimmick was basically Macho Man. 

Marco Corleone - Mark Jindrak from the states, in 2006 he made his debut in CMLL and worked there for a while before leaving for AAA for a few years before coming back to CMLL. He is the only person from 2008′s Team International to also be on 2017′s team. 

Chris Sabin - Another TNA X Division champion, Sabin had held it 4 times by 2008 and is one of TNA’s most decorated talents, later in his career winning the TNA Heavyweight Title. 

Alex Shelley - Tag team partner with Sabin together known as Motorcity Machine Guns. Alex was just on the cusp of breaking out in 2009 he would become TNA X Division Champion for the only time and IWGP Jr Tag Champs with Sabin. 

Johnny Devine - Probably the most forgotten name on this list. Devine only had one title in his TNA tenure, the X Division Champion which he held a brief 20 days earlier in the year before dropping it to Lethal. 

Team Mexico/CMLL(2008)

Averno - In 2001 El Satanico used his powers of evil to turn tecnico  Rencor Latino into Averno. Satanico used Averno as a minion to help him fight Rey Bucanero  and Ultimo Guerrero who had turned on him. Averno was tag champion earlier in the year having beat Ultimo/Atlantis, though he lost it pretty quickly to Mistico/Garza. So Averno wasn’t exactly buddies with those two. Later in the year Averno would become double middleweight champion and was pretty big in CMLL Kayfabe at the time. 

Hector Garza - Was current tag champions with Mistico and the two were very well liked by the crowds of Mexico. Hector Garza was a very popular wrestler who sadly passed away at the young age of 43 of Lung Cancer in 2013. He was  Mexican National Heavyweight Championship and so beloved that the belt was retired rather than striped from him, as per the boxing/lucha libre commission of Mexico’s orders... who are the ones who control the Mexican National titles.

Ultimo Guerrero - Ultimo Guerrero was still teaming with a rudo Atlantis. The two being for the most part the strongest rudo faction in CMLL for a few years as  Los Guerreros de la Atlantida. Ultimo Guerrero was the hottest guy on the team this year. He had been the winner and sole survivor of the 2006/2007 edition of this event and his team won the TNA X World Cup, with Volador Jr. being the won that won the event for Team Mexico. 

Shocker - Shocker returned to CMLL in 2007 after leaving the company for a few years to work in TNA/AAA. He came back in 2007 to some fanfare, but CMLL were never as hot on him again his biggest days in the company being in the early 2000′s he still works in CMLL, but is not on Team Mexico this year. 

Dr. Wagner Jr. - The reason I wanted to look at this particular Gran Prix. Wagner Jr. was no stranger to Gran Prix matches. In fact in 2003 he won for Team Mexico over Team Japan. Beating the last man on Team Japan, Ultimo Dragon with his patented Wagner Driver. 

Dos Caras Jr.(Alberto Patron/Del Rio) - Alberto Del Rio got his start in AAA, went to Japan for a few years in until 2005 when he would join CMLL. He was then signed by WWE 2009, went to FCW and debuted as Alberto Del Rio. 

Rey Bucanero - Most famously tag team champions with Ultimo Guerrero for the most combined days ever at this point, still hold that record, but current champs Negro Casas and Shocker are only 20 or so days away. Rey Bucanero won Leyenda de Azul... a yearly CMLL secondary tournament.

Volador Jr. - Was a young masked kid having debutted in 2001, but having not done much those first few years. He was Mexican National Trios Champion, but those belts aren’t as prestigious as the CMLL belts. He won TNA’s World Cup for team Mexico, which was one of the first big wins for the upcoming talent. He would of course later be in the monumental 80th CMLL match vs La Sombra years after this. 

I’m not going to say what they are all wearing because the video does a good job of telling you peoples names as they are eliminated in text. Really nice formatting CMLL in 2008! 

How’s the match?

Great! Genuinely great, I don’t know how anyone wouldn’t have some fun with this match. It’s a great look back at wrestling about a decade ago. Starring many talents who only grew greater as the years passed. Really, only Johnny Devine disappeared from the wrestling scene, and I suppose Kozlov who seems retired at the time of this writing. While guys like AJ Styles would be a defining wrestler of the next decade. As were guys like Ultimo and Volador Jr. 

This might be one of the best performances and most high profile for Sabin and Shelley who really take it to Dr. Wagner Jr. on a big CMLL show. They were great in the later half of this match. It’s also nice to see a young AJ Styles the Styles Clash he delivers in this match is one of the better highlights. 

Because this event’s importance it means pretty much anyone could win. I don’t think CMLL always wants Mexico to win because it would become predictable. Last year Mexico won, will they go 2 for 2 in the revival of this event? 2016 being the first time since this one in 2008. I’m glad it’s back because if this year's is half as fun as this one, it’ll be great! Seeing Motorcity Machineguns here and their use of superkicks has me really jonesing for Young Bucks in Gran Prix some year, though I’m pretty happy getting Juice and Elgin too. 

If you liked this match, this year's format is exactly the same. 8 vs 8 elimination Team Mexico vs Team International. It’s an iPPV on the first and can be bought in a bundle with CMLL Anniversary for $20. I’d really suggest 2008′s and have made a playlist here with all 5 parts of the youtube source I used for to make these gifs which was uploaded by the fittingly named lawagnermania youtube channel

Wagner/AJ Styles/Jay Lethal are great in the early half of the match, I like Ultimo though and he lasted for most of the match. Seeing MCMG double teaming fools has to be one of the best takeaways from this match. The two worked great as a team and really pulled out all stops vs Shocker/Wagner/Ultimo. 

Highlights : 

[daleisgreat]

Lockdown 2008

Greetings and welcome to the fourth installment covering every year of the all cage-format PPV from TNA/Impact Wrestling, Lockdown. Catch up with past editions by clicking here. Since the previous Lockdown, the following major changes have transpired for TNA: In May 2007, TNA came to an agreement with the NWA to end their partnership. This saw TNA putting NWA World and Tag Team titles in a state of abeyance by relinquishing them back to the NWA. The other big change was when Impact expanded to two hours on Spike in October 2007. There is a part of me that loved the ‘one-hour adrenaline rush’ era of Impact because somehow TNA found a way to cram in their entire roster and I barely had a chance to breathe by the time it was over, and even though I detested the name, that one-hour show delivered…..Total…Nontstop…Action. I welcomed the change to two hours though because it was the catalyst for TNA launching its Knockouts division on the first two-hour episode of Impact. It could not have debuted at a better time because a year prior both Lita and Trish Stratus retired from WWE and for several years WWE’s women’s roster got watered down with mostly untrained Diva Search contestants that dominated WWE’s women’s division until around 2014. Since its 2007 debut, TNA has had a strong Knockouts division, and there were even a couple periods in TNA history where rating proved and fans stated TNA’s Knockouts were outperforming the men. For all the self-congratulating WWE has been doing themselves for their ‘Women’s Evolution’ in recent years TNA/Impact beat them to the punch years earlier by featuring their women in a plethora of standout rivalries and top-billed matches and having several all-women PPVs before WWE will have their first in several weeks from this writing.

Lockdown 2008 is emanating from Lowell, MA. Once again it is refreshing to see a TNA event not in the Impact Zone and in a bigger arena. They had a great opening too with cameras going to shots of Jeremy Borash and Don West in the stands with a red-hot crowd that kept up their enthusiasm for most of the night. The opener was the annual ‘X-Scape’ match for the X-Division Title. Jay Lethal’s Black Machismo persona was still running wild as he walked in and walked out champion. This marked the first Lockdown with one of my favorite TNA characters, Curry Man and also the first Lockdown to see Shark Boy with the addition of his Steve Austin impression to his act--I do not kid--click here to see proof with a Curry Man and Shark Boy interview. Also competing in the X-Scape match were Sonjay Dutt, Johnny Devine and a pre-WWE Xavier Woods then known as Consequences Creed. The match got the crowd lit up with tons of solid action and high-flying. Johnny Devine played the heel heat perfectly by teasing a win by slowly going up the cage while taunting during his escape attempt, but taking too much time to allow Lethal to recover and leap through the cage door to victory. The ‘Queen of the Cage’ bout was next and saw Christy Hemme, Salinas, Jacquelyn, Traci Brooks, Velvet Sky, Angelina Love, Rha-ka Kahn and Roxxi Laveau compete in the women’s answer to the infamous ‘Reverse Battle Royal’ match. Yes, all six started off outside of the cage and the goal was to have the first two women who climbed up and enter the cage then square off in a match. Needless to say, it was an ugly start, with Roxxi and Love getting into the cage in order to have an ok three-to-four minute match with nothing too special that saw Roxxi emerge victorious after her VooDoo Drop finisher. Speaking of VooDoo, the tag team known as the VooDoo Kin Mafia split up shortly before this PPV just in time so Kip & BG James could face each other at Lockdown. Kip dominated the contest with his trademark slow, plodding offense to ‘you can’t wrestle’ chants before BG won over the crowd with his comeback that lead to a roll-up for the pin. The only gratifying part of this bout was the post-match when BG wanted to hug it out with Kip, only to see Kip reel the sucker in and repeatedly clothesline BG.

The next match is a debacle and easy inclusion for my dream ‘Top 50 OMG Incidents in TNA/Impact History’ DVD. It is a six team, handcuff elimination match. The goal is to handcuff all opponents to the cage. That may work in a smaller match, but with 12 guys it looks awkward to see so many stationary bodies all around the cage. Fun fact, I saw this match before on a best of Motor City Machine Guns DVD. I found it to be an awkward inclusion on the compilation, because the Guns did nothing special and were in fact the first team eliminated after a minute or two into the match. Speaking of the Guns, the announcers mentioned how it was the team’s one-year anniversary after aligning up at the X-Scape match the previous year. Joining the Guns in this match were the Rock ‘n Rave Infection (wrestlers capitalizing on the hot Guitar Hero-craze….seriously), LAX, Kaz & Eric Young, Rellik & Black Reign (Dustin Rhodes in a B&W themed version of Goldust) and Scotty Steiner & Petey Williams. Petey Williams is awesome here as he is Steiner’s Little-Poppa-Pump-In-Training protégé and came to the ring in the same attire as Scott. This match had a dumb theme with Young getting attacked before the match, only to see him make a late entrance in his superhero themed, ‘Super-Eric’ persona that saw Young doing a heroic leap off the cage and hand-cuffing everyone to earn a victory for him and Kaz…..what a mess. You may now know her as ‘Welfare Queen’ on the hit Netflix series, Glow but back in 2008 Kia Stevens was kicking ass in TNA as Awesome Kong. Kong teamed up with her manager Rihisha Saeed against Gail Kim and the booze-loving ODB (think a more amped-up version of Sandman). ODB was always a wild card and I could not help but crack up as she swigged away from her flask during the match to get psyched up. ODB wound up getting the feel-good pin after a splash from halfway up the cage. Following that was a forgettable mixed tag match with Booker T & Sharmell against Robert Roode & Traci Brooks. I recall the Roode/Brooks tandem always being at odds, and sure enough that happened here when Brooks inadvertently struck Roode and Sharmell capitalized by rolling up Brooks for the win.

TNA’s rendition of War Games known as ‘Lethal Lockdown’ transpired next. 2008 saw Team 3D, AJ Styles, James Storm & Tomko against Christian Cage, Sting, Rhino, Kevin Nash & Matt Morgan. I completely forgot this was around the time when Tomko was surprisingly over for a short period of time in TNA as he was the captain of his team. I recall being disheartened to see TNA pull the plug on Tomko’s push shortly after this as he had some credible momentum at this time. AJ and Christian (in the last year of his TNA contract) opened the first five minutes. I was surprised to see Nash enter into the match earlier than anticipated and thought he would be somewhat prominently involved in this match. I should not have raised expectations because after a couple quick-fire clotheslines, someone started working over Nash’s leg and Nash went on to take a nap alongside the cage for the rest of the match. Also legit surprising to note is that Brother D-Von was the sole person of the night to bleed. This is jaw-dropping compared to the buckets of blood spilled in previous Lockdowns. Once all the wrestlers entered, the weapons-filled roof shut, and AJ and Christian proceeded to wage war on top of the cage which saw both men fall off the top of the ladder through a table that was on top of the cage for an impressive visual. This entertaining shmoz wrapped up when Rhino got the pin for his team after he gored James Storm. Finally it was main event time with Samoa Joe fighting Kurt Angle for the TNA World Title. Props to TNA for building up this match throughout the night with interviews with Samoa Joe, Angle and several of their supporters between matches to stress the importance of this feud. TNA also had an excellent history montage of the two’s past matches with Angle being the most dominant of the two and there being an added stipulation that if Joe loses, he will retire. Angle mentioned earlier how he underwent a big MMA-training camp in preparation for the match and he came out in MMA attire and wrestled in a MMA style throughout the match. This lead to a lot of close striking and submission sequences interspersed with an occasional suplex to pop the crowd. This was a daring way to book the match, because it could have flopped big time, but Joe and Angle were total pros and made the MMA-style match work and surprisingly the crowd was red-hot throughout the submission-heavy bout. Samoa Joe won his first ever TNA World Title here after his muscle-buster for the pin. If memory serves right, Joe’s contract was coming up for renewal and TNA guaranteeing him this title nudge Joe to re-sign with TNA. If I also recall correctly, TNA did not appreciate Joe forcing their hand into make Joe the top champion and they went on to book him to have an ugly failure of a title reign that tarnished his overall act much like Mysterio’s 2006 WWE Title reign.

There are three extra features on the disc. Like last year, there is a quick photo gallery of all the matches that I will give credit to for snapping pics of with my cell of for use in this blog. Also like last year, there is a 14-minute compilation of Jeremy Borash interviews with TNA talent at a fan expo meet-up the weekend of Lockdown. I would say it is worth the quick watch to see how much the Knockouts love Jeremy and you can tell everyone was having a legit good time with the fans while staying in character for their promos. Finally there is bonus Impact match with a Kurt Angle/Samoa Joe re-match at the following Impact. It is a good bout, but is plagued with ref bumps and interference setting up Joe’s next rivalry. I will give the 2008 Lockdown a thumbs up, despite some bumps in the mid-card. I would recommend sticking with only the Lethal Lockdown, X-Title and World Title matches and skipping the rest. Also props to TNA for finding a way to seemingly work everyone onto the show, I did a tally on my notes and in the eight matches counted 48 different wrestlers! I will close the 2008 Lockdown entry by once again referencing my love for Curry Man and being bamboozled that Brother D-Von was the only person to bleed the entire night! Past Wrestling Blogs Best of WCW Clash of Champions Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2 Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3 Biggest Knuckleheads Bobby The Brain Heenan Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes DDP: Positively Living Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials ECW Unreleased: Vol 1 ECW Unreleased: Vol 2 ECW Unreleased: Vol 3 For All Mankind Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection Impact Wresting Presents: Best of Hulk Hogan Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story The Kliq Rules Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman Legends of Mid South Wrestling Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story Memphis Heat NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1 OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History Owen: Hart of Gold RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Sting: Into the Light Straight Outta Dudley-ville: Legacy of the Dudley Boyz Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder TNA Lockdown 2005-2016 Top 50 Superstars of All Time Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season True Giants Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches Warrior Week on WWE Network Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition Wrestlemania 28-Present The Wrestler (2008) Wrestling Road Diaries Too Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money Wrestlings Greatest Factions WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017

[wrestlingisfake]

Impact Fake Rankings, 1/18

Spoilers for the January TV tapings (which included some major happenings) under the cut.

Men’s heavyweight singles division - babyfaces

Austin Aries (Impact world champion, Impact grand champion)

Johnny Impact

Brian Cage

Moose

Eddie Edwards

Joseph Park/Abyss

Tyrus

Men’s heavyweight singles division - heels

Alberto El Patron

Kongo Kong

Eli Drake

KM

The “Don Callis is the 18th new boss” era got off to a big start with the arrival of Aries and Cage and the departure of Ethan Carter III and Bobby Lashley.  (Also Tyrus is back and Chris Adonis is gone, but that’s not as big of a deal.)  This looks like it’ll freshen up Impact, as EC3 and Lashley were two of the biggest names left from the “Dixie Carter is broke” era. I’m not wild about building the show around aging ex-WWE guys (Aries is 39, Johnny is 38, and Alberto is 40), but at least they haven’t been in this promotion for four years straight.

The situation with the grand title is that Matt Sydal awarded it to Josh Matthews, but then somehow Sydal defended the title anyway and lost it to Aries.  Presumably Aries will formally unify his two titles and get a new belt that doesn’t say “GFW” on it.

More interestingly, Impact has been feeding big wins to Brian Cage and Kongo Kong, while keeping them both away from the title picture and one another.  That’s smart long-term planning that you don’t usually see from Impact.  We’ll see how long they can sustain it, and whether it pays off.

Drake is currently holding two different “Feast or Fired” contracts, one for a tag team title shot he’s cashing in at the 4/22 PPV (with Scott Steiner as his partner), and the other for a world title shot.  I’m guessing we’ll see him back in the main event picture soon.  Moose and Edwards don’t have much to do, which is probably why they’re slotted for a six-man tag with Tommy Dreamer against OVE.

Women’s division - babyfaces

Allie (Impact women’s champion)

Rosemary

Kiera Hogan

Alisha Edwards 

Amber Nova

Women’s division - heels

Su Yung

Taya Valkyrie

The heel side is pretty weak, what with Laurel Van Ness quitting, Sienna being hospitalized, and Hania suddenly being fired for refusing to be squashed by Yung.  So the programs are Allie vs. Yung and Rosemary vs. Valkyrie, and maybe a four-way, and by then they’d better have some more women rising up the ranks.

Hogan and Nova both started with Impact this month but it’s not clear if either of them will be back--now that the promotion is getting away from lengthy contracts it’s hard to tell who’s here to stay or in for a one-off.

Men’s tag team division - babyfaces

LAX - Ortiz & Santana (Impact tag team champions)

Men’s tag team division - heels

The Cult of Lee - Trevor Lee & Caleb Konley/Suicide

OVE - Sami Callahan & Dave Crist & Jake Crist

The tag division is in need of attention.  LAX have thoroughly finished off OVE and need something else to do, but from the sound of the taping reports they’ve already made short work of Lee/Konley.  I don’t expect Drake and Steiner to actually win the title in April, but it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing...

Men’s X division - babyfaces

 Petey Williams

Taiji Ishimori

Men’s X division - heels

Matt Sydal (Impact X champion)

Rohit Raju

El Hijo del Fantasma

Williams hold the Feast or Fired contract for an X title match, which he’s set to execute on the 4/22 PPV.

Raju was Hakim Zane at the November tapings.  I don’t know if there’s a storyline reason for the change or if we’re supposed to pretend he’s a different character now.

Ishimori (on loan from Pro Wrestling NOAH) and Fantasma (from AAA) seem to be the last remnants of Jeff Jarrett’s big notion of regularly bringing in talent from Impact’s international partners.  It’ll be interesting to see if these guys (and others like Garza Jr. and Laredo Kid) keep flying in for these shows.

Unranked: Braxton Sutter, Fallah Bahh, Homicide, Richard Justice

In a somewhat good sign for Impact’s storytelling, most of these guys had angles going on at the tapings, although it wasn’t clear reading the reports where they’re really headed.

Inactive:

Diamante (left knee - ACL injury)

Mario Bokara (right knee - ACL/MCL injury)

Sienna (lungs - pulmonary embolism)

Sonjay Dutt (right ankle - torn Achilles tendon)

Listed on ImpactWrestling.com roster, status unknown:

Andrew Everett

Ava Storie

Dezmond Xavier

DJ Z

Garza Jr.

Idris Abraham

Laredo Kid

Impact is pretty lazy about updating its roster pages, so take this list with a grain of salt.  (For example, Grado and James Storm are still listed despite leaving weeks ago.)  Many of these performers were last seen at the November tapings. DJ Z hasn’t wrestled for Impact in nearly a year.  It’s possible any or all of them will be back at the next set of tapings, or they’ll be in the next round of news stories hyping their departures as “Impact suffers another major blow.”

[twnpnewsdotcom]

Bobby Lashley Storyline Update (Videos), Trevor Lee Celebrates Title Win, After Impact

Bobby Lashley Storyline Update (Videos), Trevor Lee Celebrates Title Win, After Impact

Below is the latest edition of “After Impact” with Scott D’Amore and Josh Mathews looking at some of the action from this week’s GFW Impact episode:

As noted, Trevor Lee became a three-time GFW X Division Champion by defeating Sonjay Dutt in a Falls Count Anywhere match on this week’s Impact. GFW posted this video of Lee celebrating with Caleb Konley after the match:

A Victory Lap for @TL910afte…

[neoraven]

TNA Slammiversary 2017 late ass Review

I wish I could say that I was meticulously editing it for the last month, but I just straight up forgot to post it here. Same for the Battleground one coming shortly after this.

Don West hasn't aged a bit, just barely a little gray. Still branded as Impact! Wrestling. After the Main Event video package, we're going to a 6-person tag?

KM, Laurel Van Ness, Kongo Kong vs. Braxton Sutter, Allie, Maherabi Shera

They are still doing the six sided ring thing.

Kongo Kong tags himself in twice in a row, and the referee just stares right at him. LVN's gimmick is summed up as a dollar store Courtney Love cosplay. This big KM guy is basically a poor man's Cass, he hits a sick powerbomb into back breaker type finisher "Ego Driver", and then Shera completely misses breaking up the pinfall attempt, but it's still only a long 2. Kongo Kong hits a sick cannonball onto the steps. Allie hits a Codebreaker, then an "Allie Drop". "BS Express" by Braxton Sutter pins the bad guys in the ring though. Pretty fun series of finishers, but this was kinda short and barely got started. *

Now a video on the X Division title, Low Ki vs Sonjay Dutt.

Another one on the woman's title(s) unification match, Sienna vs. Rosemary.

Hahaha, just remembered DeAngelo Williams is in a match. The announcers talk about that tag match, but then a video starts for EC3 vs James Storm instead.

Pretty decent video package about 15 years of TNA. What the fuck, there's a goddamn owl and it flew and landed in the ring. Hahhaha. Still Don West and RoFlo on the announce team, thank god, based on what I have heard of Josh Matthews' commentary.

GFW Tag Team Championship - Garza Jr & Laredo Kid vs. El Hijo de Fantasma & Drago vs. LAX [c] vs Naomichi Marufuji and Taiji Ishimori This is some really good and fast action. It's still a bit of a car crash, but it's really crisp. The tag crazy moves and double teams are too fast to follow. Drago fucks up a relatively easy splash, though, but for the most part, these multi person set ups and towers are great and executed perfectly. Holy shit, Diamonte does some amazing high flying shit. Hijo De Fantasma has some sick package tombstone piledriver. Holy shit, Homicide with a Gringo Killer on the apron. LAX finally wins with a sick powerbomb + blockbuster. Great shit. **** (LAX in 15:25)

Joseph Parks tells Borash that tonight's tag is No DQ. Then there's a video package and quick interview for the upcoming tag match-

Eli Drake & Chris Adonis vs. Moose & DeAngelo Williams I'm loving this entrance with full cheerleaders. Austin Dillon, race car driver, is also with Team Moose. Match is a little boring. Eli Drake botches pretty badly. DeAngelo Williams does pretty okay with the hot tag, but then botches/misses a frog splash onto a table, going past it and almost spiking his own neck. The good guys still win. The table gets it post match with a powerbomb. **1/2 (Team Moose in 10:50)

Strap Match- Cowboy James Storm vs Ethan Carter III This is fun, and old school, and I really like how the build ties into the 15 years stuff. They're going with the pinfall or submission. Reversing the handcuff trick was kind of goofy, but EC3 casually taking the strap off to pull a heel trick was kind of stupid. Even worse was the lifeless ending, RIP James Storm. *1/2 (EC3 in 10:40)

Joseph Park & Jeremy Borash vs. Scott Steiner & Josh Matthews The Pope (announcer) joins on commentary for this one. Josh Matthews is introduced as "Vice President of Social Media" and has a video consisting of twitter logos and emojis. Joseph Park is introduced as "esquire", and is not in Abyss attire by any stretch of the imagination. Oh god, they're going to a pre-taped segment. Steiner keeps screaming "fatasses!!!" JB and Matthews brawl into a pool, and I'm pretty sure they try to drown and murder each other.

SHARK BOY SHARK BOY SHARK BOY SHARK BOY SHARK BOY SHARK BOY SHARK BOY Holy shit the Sinister Minister FATHER JAMES MITCHELL with the Abyss mask. This is officially great.

A celebrity chef in the front row shoves Josh Matthews and he goes flying over the entrance ramp. The pre-taped part ends and they get back in the ring. Shark Boy LIVES and runs in to save JB from the Steiner Recliner. Steiner hits a couple of actually impressive belly to belly suplexes to dispatch him though. The old school Abyss music hits and James Mitchell is live and in person. TACKS!!!!! Black Hole Slam and splash on the tacks and that was fun. JB has the stigmata after giving up his body to land on Matthews. *** (Team Borash in 10:52)

Alberto El Patron gives a short interview and says he's going to win even if Donald Trump is in Lashley's corner. Then a video for the upcoming Wolves tag war.

Full Metal Mayhem - Davey & Angelina vs Eddie & Alisha The entrance attack sells this both for being personal, and a little more hardcore than normal. Sick tacks in mouth spot + superkick. I liked the tandem kendo stick + trash can spot too. Goes pretty fast though and ends with a pretty vicious sunset flip ladder + table powerbomb winner. ***1/4 (Team Edwards in 7:44)

X Division Title - 2 out of 3 falls - Low Ki vs Sonjay Dutt [c] This was really intense and furious. Low Ki is really great and dominates the action rightfully so. Normally stomp type finishers are crappy and never look good, but the Warrior's Way move is good, including how he seemed to get obsessed to go for it. Ending was really crisp and pretty perfect. ****1/4 (Sonjay in 18:00)

GFW and Knockouts Title - Rosemary vs. Sienna Rosemary with the dope entrance. Laurel Van Ness is out to screech and distract for some reason. Solid match going through the two trading finishers, then a Laurel Van Ness + Allie run in, then Rosemary kicking out of Sienna's finisher and belt shot. A little weird muddled mist work at the end there, and Rosemary tapped out? I guess they're selling it burning her hand and eyes. ** (Sienna in 10:00)

J E double F comes out to speak. Nothing really interesting, but hearing his old theme music gives me a flashback to all his NWA Title wins.

GFW and Impact Title - Lashley vs. Alberto El Patron The whole entourage crap and pregame dragged on a bit. Only King Mo and Dos Caras remain at ringside. This pretty much settled into a standard "Main Event" type match, with some restrained involvement from the corners, and a few finishers traded/stolen. The crowd didn't seem too much into it either. **3/4 (Alberto in 18:00)

[reviewfix]

Global Force Wrestling Impact Power Rankings

Global Force Wrestling Impact Power Rankings

Check out this week’s GFW Impact Power Rankings to see who starred in an X-Division-heavy episode.

Honorable Mention: Trevor Lee: He’s pissing off Sonjay Dutt, fueling the heat for their eventual rematch.

5: Sienna: She’s incredibly dominant right now and has put every woman on the roster on notice.

4: Drago:This dude is amazing and even if he doesn’t win the Super X Cup, he’s helped add a ton of…

[earpeeler]

Pro Wrestling Torch Livecast – TNA Impact Post-Show with McMahon & Soucek PWTorch.com’s Mike McMahon and Andrew Soucek talk about Thursday’s Impact Wrestling with callers. They break down Sonjay Dutt winning the X-Division Title, the build to Slammiversary being too positive, as well as giving a top-3 list of the most under-pushed wrestlers in TNA history.

[daleisgreat]

Lockdown 2007

Welcome to the third installment of my march through all of TNA/GFW/Impact Wrestling’s Lockdown PPVs that ran from 2005-2016. As I like to start these off, let’s see how Impact has evolved over the previous year. Going into April 2007, they now have WWE Hall of Famer and current RAW GM, Kurt Angle on its roster. Vince Russo is back on the TNA booking team for the first of many Lockdowns to come. We were in the midst of the ‘PCS’ Paparazzi Championship Series where Kevin Nash took several X-Division guys and put them through early-NXT-type challenges and made buddies with them all in the end in a fun set of sketches to look back on and see how they helped add some depth to previously vanilla X-Division stars. Some major teams have now split up with Team Canada and America’s Most Wanted no longer together. This is the final Lockdown during the ‘one-hour adrenaline rush’ era of Impact, as Spike made the show a two hour program in the proceeding fall. With that added hour they immediately debuted its ‘Knockouts’ division, and the seeds for that are seen here with more women on the roster compared to a year prior, and 2007 seeing the first women’s match in Lockdown history. This is one of the first TNA/Impact PPV’s to leave the Impact Zone in Orlando, and started a new trend for the promotion where they would try and have at least a few of their ‘marquee’ PPVs in bigger markets. This change in venue is immediately noticeable as Lockdown 2007 emanates from a much bigger venue in St. Louis, Missouri. The Impact Zone is a nice studio setting for the weekly TV show that TNA has made tremendous strides in making it look bigger than it actually is, but them bringing their PPVs to a legit arena gives them a more big time feel.

The pre-show match is included in the extras and features Vodoo Kin Mafia (AKA James Gang, AKA New Age Outlaws) taking on Christy Hemme’s mysterious team called Serontonin. I completely forgot about Serontonin until now, and looking back at them they remind me an awful lot of Sanity in NXT. Hemme’s first foray into managing did not go well as Serontonin were not long for the company, and Hemme would find a modicum of success managing the Rock ‘n Rave Infection, who I kid you not came down to the ring jamming out on Guitar Hero guitars! Voodoo Kin Mafia was Russo’s 4th-wall breaking makeover of the James Gang, whose only purpose seemed to intentionally point out the absurd booking of DX concurrently taking place in WWE. The match was a forgettable quick little bout on the preshow with Kip pinning Havik with The One and Only. Other extras on the DVD are a photo gallery that I took pics with my phone of for the blog here, thus the lack of quality (sorry….kind of) and a nice 12-minute montage of footage of TNA stars signing autographs at its Fan Fest the day before. I loved the longtime TNA PPV voiceover guy, Barry Scott! His voice brings an intangible grandeur to every event he introduces and he does it once again here promising this Lockdown will bring blood and terror! There was no blood in the 5-Man Xscape match opener for the X-Division title. Like past years, eliminations happen by pins and submissions until it is down to the last two where escape from cage determines the winner. This year’s contestants were Sonjay Dutt, Alex Shelley, Shark Boy, ‘Black Machismo’ Jay Lethal and defending champ, Chris Sabin. Kevin Nash and the PCS was responsible for Jay Lethal doing a Macho Man impression he kept up for a few years in TNA because it was damn good Macho Man impression and was responsible for the only good Ric Flair moment in his TNA run. The X-Division delivered in this match with a ton of killer spots that all connected. Shelley and Sabin teamed up for a hearty part of the match and gelled well together and I could see this match being the catalyst for them starting to team up shortly after this PPV and form the Motor City Machine Guns. Eventually it came down to Lethal and Sabin, and Sabin successfully defended the belt after Lethal got his foot stuck in the cage in a heck of an opener.

Former Team Canada members collide next when Robert Roode took on Petey Williams. This had the storyline of Williams trying to help out another former Team Canada member, Eric Young, who was tricked into signing paperwork to become Robert Roode’s property. Young tries to help Petey out, but it backfires and Roode lands the Payoff/Perfect Plex for the win. The first women’s Lockdown bout transpired next with Gail Kim taking on Jacquelyn/Miss Jackie Moore. Jackie is teaming with James Storm and both have an awesome theme that has not crossed my mind in awhile and was a hoot to relive. The two stepped up and had a killer match that started off with an outside brawl before slugging it out in the six sides of steel. Kim got the pin after a splash from the top of the cage. Good ‘ol Mr. Bob Backlund had a fun cup of coffee in TNA at this time. He would usually be seen in the background coming out of commercial behind the announcers doing the Harvard Step Test all show long for no apparent rhyme or reason. TNA! TNA! This regrettably stopped when he became involved in Senshi and Austin Starr’s feud and was the guest referee. In case you forgot, Austin Starr was TNA’s reimagining of Austin Aries as a modern day Jesse Ventura. Senshi got a sneaky roll-up win after he took advantage of Starr arguing with Backlund.

When I was eight I must have watched the Wrestlemania VII blindfold match on Colisseum Videotape between Rick Martel and Jake Roberts countless times. 8-year-old Dale absolutely ate it up! That is how you do a blindfold match! How you do not do a blindfold match is how TNA executed it here between former America’s Most Wanted teammates Chris Harris and James Storm. The ref loosely tied the masks on both men, and both masks repeatedly fell off several times throughout. ‘Someone Stop This’ was an audible chant throughout the bout. It mercifully concluded when Storm cheated and peaked from under the mask to see Harris’s position and superkicked him for the pin. I made it clear on this blog before my love for WWE’s OMG video series, and when WWE ultimately buys out TNA/Impact and gets their video library, this blindfold match is easily a top tier contender for TNA’s OMG/Worst of moments. It is worth noting Harris and Storm would rebound from this in a match of the year contender a few months later at Sacrifice 2007. The next match saw Christopher Daniels taking on Jerry Lynn. Daniels is trying some new gimmickry with his persona at this time by having spooky face paint around one of his eyes…..I do not believe this lasted long and I eagerly anticipate filling you all full of delicious, spicy, great tasting curry soon when Daniels debuts Curry Man in a year or two! The match was nothing too special, and eventually had a couple nice spots in the final moments before Daniels won with his Last Rites finisher. LAX and a wheelchaired-bounded Konnan cut a promo on Team 3D next. Konnan is essentially retired at this point as a lifetime of leg injuries caught up with him and he is now only managing LAX.

Compared to the previous two Lockdowns, it is a achievement and a half that the 2007 edition did not see bloodshed until the eight match on the card when Team 3D faced LAX in a electrified cage match. You read that right, whenever wrestlers would touch the cage, they would get shocked, complete with zany PA sound effects and flashing arena lights and gratuitous overselling from D-Von who got Border Tossed by Hernandez into the cage and bled buckets all over the mat. The crowd did not respond well to this gimmicked warfare and appropriately chanted ‘bullshit’ and ‘fire Russo’ in response. Poor Hernandez got around the electricity by climbing up the cage with special leather gloves and boots he conjured from out of nowhere, but his attempt at putting Team 3D away with a splash through a table backfired when D-Von rolled out of the way, and then Homicide stumbling into the 3D move spelled victory for Team 3D in another match worthy of making the elusive ‘Top 50 OMG TNA Moments’ list. Throughout this PPV between matches there were regular backstage updates from the members on both sides of the Lethal Lockdown main event. It was the usual bru-ha-ha of whether certain team members could be trusted. Jeff Jarrett was making his TNA return after a several month sabbatical and joined up on Kurt Angle’s side of heroes consisting of Rhino, Samoa Joe and Sting and they all were unsure of Jarrett’s loyalty. Christian Cage was on top of his game at this point in his TNA run as NWA World Champ and leader of his faction with Tomko and AJ Styles who was now rocking a full-out southern hick character. Joining them in Lethal Lockdown were Abyss, and TNA newcomer, ‘Big Poppa Pump’ Scott Steiner. If you though Steiner was unpredictable on the mic before, then checkout this montage past the 14 minute mark to see his best TNA lines where Scott truly was unfiltered.

I always liked the Lethal Lockdown matches, which had nearly the exact same rules as War Games, except the roof lowered after the 10th and final competitor entered and they left a gap at the top encouraging wrestlers to crawl on top of the roof which was filled with weapons. It kind of got congested with just one ring when more stars entered the fray, but eventually almost all made it to the outside once Rhino speared Tomko out of the cage in an impressive moment. Seeing Scotty Steiner bust out a Frankensteiner for the first time in ages also had me popping big. There was the requisite Pyramid Suplex spot towards the end of the match, and the most eye-opening spot featured Angle punching AJ off the top of the cage onto a bunch of awaiting wrestlers to catch him. Rhino is the second and surprisingly last combatant to bleed for the night, which is shockingly low compared to past years. The ending saw Jarrett truly being a good guy and helping out his team when he ka-bonged Abyss with a guitar filled with, what else, but tacks so Sting could get the pin. Minus a couple lulls in the middle where it seemed the guys were killing time waiting for the next person to come out, this was a crazy, yet fun match complete with the good kind of overbooking nonsense that I can sink my teeth into. Ambitious stunts, tack-filled weapon spots, and a good dose of creativity made this a great closer to the show. As stated in previous entries, the one hour Impact era of TNA is probably my favorite period in the promotion’s history because they managed to make use of a huge roster in an hour. Even when Vince Russo returned and started up his notorious booking decisions again, it was still a fun show to watch and TNA had to keep the show moving so no segment overstayed its welcome. There is some cringe-worthy booking from Russo in the forms of Storm/Harris and 3D/LAX matches that should be skipped over by all means. However, Lockdown 2007 still captures that great feeling of this era of TNA I dug at the time with several great feuds and matches that stepped up and delivered. Definitely go out of your way to check out the Xscape, Miss Jackie/Gail Kim and Lethal Lockdown matches that made this show. It will be interesting to see where TNA is at in 2008’s Lockdown with Russo fully invested into the booking and a Knockouts Division in place. Past Wrestling Blogs Best of WCW Clash of Champions Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2 Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3 Biggest Knuckleheads Bobby The Brain Heenan Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes DDP: Positively Living Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials ECW Unreleased: Vol 1 ECW Unreleased: Vol 2 ECW Unreleased: Vol 3 For All Mankind Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story The Kliq Rules Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman Legends of Mid South Wrestling Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story Memphis Heat NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1 OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History Owen: Hart of Gold RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Sting: Into the Light Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder TNA Lockdown 2005-2016 Top 50 Superstars of All Time Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season True Giants Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches Warrior Week on WWE Network Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition Wrestlemania 28-Present The Wrestler (2008) Wrestling Road Diaries Too Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money Wrestlings Greatest Factions WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017

[daleisgreat]

Lockdown 2006

Welcome to my second installment of reviewing every TNA Lockdown DVD! If you missed my recap of the first PPV in 2005 you can click here to catch up. That recap also contains a bonus intro that serves as a handy primer for the nuts-o promotion that somehow-someway keeps limping along that is TNA/GFW/Impact Wrestling. My plan is to review a Lockdown DVD every several months. Lockdown is the one event a year for the company where every match happens in a cage! Impact Wrestling has released DVDs of Lockdown PPVs through 2014. The 2015 & 2016 incarnations were shortened TV specials, but since the last blog Impact Wrestling finally launched its own Network/App, The Global Wrestling Network which features the entire Impact TV/TNA PPV archives so if/when I do get that far along with these blogs I will bite the bullet and subscribe to it and bestow the lowdown on Lockdown to you dear readers! Also if you came here fresh from reading the 2005 Lockdown recap you will notice I am no longer referring to the promotion as Global Force Wrestling. That is because Anthem, the company that owns the promotion, had a major falling out with partner Jeff Jarrett before they fully completed the acquisition of his GFW promotion and they backed out of the GFW branding and went back to calling the promotion Impact Wrestling. For those keeping tabs that is the fourth, yes fourth name change for the promotion THIS YEAR because it started off 2017 as TNA, then went to Impact for a few months before changing to GFW for a few months and eventually back to Impact Wrestling. This is all great material for the eventual WWE buyout of Impact and they unleash their OMG 50 Incidents of Impact home video, which should really be a 5-disc 150 OMG Incidents because 50 is nowhere near enough!

So let us shift back to then-TNA in 2006. What has happened in the year preceding the previous Lockdown? Not too long after the premiere Lockdown PPV, TNA’s FSN TV contract ended, and after waiting a few months for WWE’s TV contract to end with Spike, TNA found their way on Spike the week after WWE left the network in October 2006. It was the beginning of a long partnership that would last over nine years with TNA staying on the network through 2014. The move to a major cable network was the catalyst for more former WCW/WWE talent coming over to TNA. Christian was the first WWE star to not re-sign with WWE and opted to bring his talents to Orlando and TNA got behind him big and within months he became the NWA World Champ and continued to hold it going into this show. Sting was perhaps the biggest acquisition for TNA and he debuted a few months prior teaming with Christian in the first TNA PPV of 2006. Mr. “Big Poppa Pump” Scotty Steiner is two years past his failed WWE run and made his TNA debut shortly before this show and will have his first TNA match at this Lockdown. The Dudley Boyz are fresh off a successful six year run in WWE, and arrived in TNA towards the end of 2015 as the newly branded Team 3D and rocking flannel instead of camo. Finally, TNA acquired the hottest indy star in the summer of 2005 in the form of Samoa Joe and going into this PPV he is the X Division champion and undefeated at nearly a year into his run in the promotion. All these acts will have pretty solid runs in TNA and will have lengthy stays in the promotion. Also, this edition of Lockdown will be the final one for about a decade to not be booked by Vince Russo, and it shows with most of the matches here having solid, traditional rivalries and storytelling, and being surprisingly competent by TNA standards. I am greatly anticipating the nonsensical chaos to come in the future Lockdowns. OK, that primer setting up the 2006 Lockdown went on far too long but TNA/Impact is a…unique…company and a lot can occur in a year for them. On to the show!

TNA does a round robin league/tournament every year or two known as the X-Cup/Super X. It features a few teams consisting of cruiserweights from around the world. It usually lasts several weeks as the teams rack up points for their wins and losses. The opening match was a six man tag that served as a preview for the 2006 X-Cup with Team Japan’s Hirooki Goto, Black Tiger & Minoru defeating Team USA’s Alex Shelley, Sonjay Dutt, & Jay Lethal. Announcers Mike Tenay & Don West highlight that Lethal is at this point TNA’s youngest star on their roster at 23 years old! He has come a long way. The bout is a excellent opener with a good dose of the flips and dives expected from this division with a tremendous sequence of near falls in the final minutes that sees Black Tiger getting the pin on Jay Lethal with his Tiger Suplex. There is a nice flow to this PPV with a quick backstage interview between every match with the wrestlers giving a quick traditional verbal beating of their rival shortly before their match. The former Bubba Ray, now known as Brother Ray gives a super rah-rah-USA promo with a 3D twist to the Pledge of Allegiance before their match later with Team Canada. However next up is Christopher Daniels against a mystery opponent that wound up being his former Triple X partner, the returning Low-Ki, who is now going by Senshi. Some of you may recall Low-Ki/Senshi from his brief 2010 run in WWE as the season two winner of NXT, Kaval. The two obviously know each other well and go move-for-move and counter-for-counter in another excellent highspot match-up where Senshi gets the victory with a reverse-Suplex-leverage pin.

The greatest worst faction in TNA history, Three Live Kru, disbanded since the last Lockdown with Kip James arrival in TNA and joining the group, but Konnan did not trust him and turned on his buddies. He went on to form the Hispanic-gang themed faction LAX with Hernandes & Homicide which I was a big fan of for their lengthy run in TNA. Kip and BG then teamed up as The James Gang and brought along BG’s dad, WWE Hall of Famer, Bullet Bob along for the ride. There is a fun montage highlighting this rivalry where Bullet Bob proves his true grit here by taking on Konnan in an arm wrestling match…in a cage! This looks like it could be a trainwreck going into it, but Konnan and Bullet Bob do a hell of a job with their facials in their tribute to Over the Top and it makes for a dandy little encounter. There is a bonus stipulation where the losing team has to get whipped and BG drags it out with his trash talk between lashings while the crowd chants “boring.” So the post-match hoopla is a wash, but the actual arm wrestling duel was surprisingly fun. Speaking of crowd chants, there are a few ‘This is awesome’ chants I noticed this show. I am not positive but thinking back on it this chant may have originated in TNA. WWE was still pre-PG at this time and most of their crowds then chanted ‘Holy Shit’ or ‘ECW’ for highspots if I recall correctly. Now their crowds regularly chant ‘This is awesome.’ I could be wrong, but maybe TNA/Impact’s long-lasting legacy will be it being the origin of that popular chant. That chant was also predominant in the second annual Xscap match that sees six X-Division stars start off in an elimination match until it is down to two competitors where the bout then becomes an escape-the-cage-to-win match.

This year sees Elix Skipper, Petey Williams, Puma, Chase Stevens, Shark Boy and Chris Sabin in the Xscape match. Highlight of the bout is Stevens going up to the cage for a splash unto his opponents who were waiting to break his fall in a telegraphed spot, but then something happens and it looks like the X-Division stars get cold feet on wanting to take the spot or their timing is off and they whiff catching Stevens who air balls directly onto the mat in the nastiest spot of the night. The announcers try to improvise and cover for the spot by saying the wrestlers smartly moved out of the way and I guess it works, but what is more bizarre is Stevens barely selling the miss and continues to wrestle like he hit the move and is on a roll in the match….’bowling-shoe ugly’ as good ‘ol JR would say. Anywho, the match boils down to Williams and Sabin, and backfired interference from Petey’s manager Coach D’amore leads to Sabin escaping the cage in an entertaining final sequence. Next we have the Lockdown debut of Samoa Joe defends his X-Title as he takes on Sabu. First thought here, is damn does Joe look like a kid here in 2005 compared to how we see him now in 2017. I believe this is also Sabu’s final TNA match for awhile because he went off to WWE for their ECW relaunch for a year. That did not stop Sabu from bouncing around like crazy and being the first combatant to get busted open this night. He tried to stab Joe with his trademark railroad spike, but fails to do so as he falls victim to Joe’s musclebuster and Joe walks out of this still undefeated.

Bubba had a pro-USA promo earlier, but Team Canada manage to top him with their pro-Canada speech as they intentionally bomb singing the opening lines to the Canadian anthem. Bobby Roode and Eric Young have come a long ways since these TNA early years. Bubba Ray, D-Von & Spike Dudley are known in TNA as Brother Ray, Brother D-Von & Brother Runt, respectively. They are taking on Team Canada’s Eric Young, A1 & Bobby Roode in an ‘Anthem Match.’ Hmm….I wonder if this should be the new marquee match type of the company today considering Impact Wrestling’s new parent owner is Anthem Entertainment, who is based out of Canada no less! What is an Anthem Match, you ask? In TNA, it is a Flag Match, but since this is Lockdown the wrestlers have to grab their county’s flag from the top of the cage to claim victory and the losers must then be shamed as they have to listen to their rivals’ national anthem in disgrace! Team 3D has a fairly decent entrance theme knockoff to their killer Powerman 5000 track in WWE. There are a few fun spots in here such as a Bubba-Bomb from the top rope and a terrific false finish where Team 3D’s initial flag grab was not recognized because the ref was knocked out. This will probably be the first and only time where we have a flag match in a cage with a ref bump false finish….only in TNA! What is more amusing is Runt then grabbing the flag for the official victory and the TV crew cutting to the announcers to hype the rest of the card while the crowd chants along to the national anthem in its entirety well after they stop playing the instrumental version on the PA. Tenay & West hilariously fail to talk over them before giving in and recognizing the crowd’s rightful patriotism!

New mother of triplets and the first-ever WWE Diva Search winner, Christy Hemme makes her TNA debut next to deliver an envelope for West & Tenay to announce. A year prior, Dusty Rhodes was the on-screen authority figure of TNA, but since then Larry Zybysko went on to procure the role, but has been up to shady corruptions on the side and Tenay & West announce that the ‘TNA Executive Committee’ is reviewing Zybysko’s actions and working on finding a new replacement. That replacement in the coming weeks was revealed to be none other than Jim Cornette. In that same announcement, TNA reinstates Zybysko’s rival he previously fired, Raven. Zybysko comes out to protest, but Raven promptly comes out and chases him out of the ring. Christian Cage (he had to add the last name to his billing in TNA to avoid legal troubles with WWE, oh yeah he too has a solid knockoff of his WWE theme for his TNA music) defends his NWA World Title next against Abyss. The montage that played before this match highlighting their feud showed Abyss stalking Christian’s wife so Christian is none-too-happy about that and interrupts Abyss’s entrance for a surprise attack and the two brawl outside the ring and into the stands before officially starting the match in the cage several minutes later. Abyss then proceeds to have several minutes of methodical, lulling dominance in the match before a ref bump and Christian liven up the crowd with a believable near fall after a splash from the top of the cage. When that did not work, a sunset flip from the top of the cage into a powerbomb onto thumb-tacks was still not enough to put away Abyss. Abyss’s manager James Mitchell then busts out a second bag of tacks to the announcers’ delight and in vintage Abyss fashion, his attempt to win with them backfires as Christian hits an Unprettier on the tacks for the pin. The first half really dragged, but the surreal near falls and stunts in the second half saved this match. Not all was well for Christian however as Abyss got his revenge by choking out Christian with a chain after the match.

The main event is the second annual Lethal Lockdown, AKA Wargames, headlining this card with Rhino, AJ Styles, Sting and Ron Killings teaming up to face America’s Most Wanted, Jeff Jarrett and Scott Steiner. Just like last year, two guys from each time start off for five minutes before other team members come out in two minute intervals. When all the entrants are in the cage, a roof seals everyone inside and only then are pinfalls and submissions official. AJ Styles and Chris Harris start off for initial five minutes and I forgot how awesome and quick AJ was back in these early TNA years. He can still go and deliver MOTY candidates with ease today, but there is a special flash and spring to his step back then. This match only sees three of its entrants get busted open this year with Harris, AJ & Rhino all doing the honors. Combine that with Sabu & Abyss from earlier in the night and that ups to the total to five wrestlers dawning the crimson mask overall. The roof eventually seals everyone in after Sting enters last, but for whatever reason the roof of the cage is filled with weapons to entice the wrestlers to leave the cage, and within a minute of being sealed in AJ and James Storm slip out to the top of the cage where AJ climbs on top of a ladder that is on top of a cage and splashes James Storm through a table on top of the six sides of steel in one of the more memorable spots of the night. In the ring however Sting recovers from a guitar joust that did not go in his favor against Jeff Jarrett and recuperates in time to reverse a Scorpion Deathlock onto Chris Harris for the tapout win! This was a bonkers main event and considering the gimmick and weaponry involved I got what I wanted out of it with the creative top of the cage spot from AJ and the craziness that unfolded inside the ring whenever new entrants entered the fray. I like how the tradition of the PPV two years in so far sees the X-Division have their marquee Xscape match and the heavyweights get the traditional War Games rules matchup for their gimmick headliner.

There are 14 minutes of bonus features on the DVD. There is photo shoot footage with Christy Hemme and alternative entrance camera shots and alternative match angles from several entrances and several excerpts of matches. Nothing too special, but a decent sprinkling of extras to quickly devour. This was actually a surprisingly good PPV with all the X-Division matches delivering and Christian/Abyss managing to salvage a great World Title bout after its initial stumbling. The ‘entertainment’ bouts that were the Anthem and Arm Wrestling bouts were convenient pallet cleansers that were wisely placed on the card to recharge the crowd and deliver some laughs. Most importantly, the main event delivered and after sleeping on it for a bit, gets my nod as the match of the night. I am getting warm fuzzies reliving this era of Impact Wrestling, but it is all about to get crushed because about a half year later Vince Russo returns to TNA as the primary booker for about a decade and it only goes downhill from there. Join me again here in several months for the 2007 Lockdown PPV, the first to come under the era of Vince Russo. Past Wrestling Blogs Best of WCW Clash of Champions Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2 Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3 Biggest Knuckleheads Bobby The Brain Heenan Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes DDP: Positively Living Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials ECW Unreleased: Vol 1 ECW Unreleased: Vol 2 ECW Unreleased: Vol 3 For All Mankind Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman Legends of Mid South Wrestling Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story Memphis Heat OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History Owen: Hart of Gold RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Sting: Into the Light Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder TNA Lockdown 2005-2014 Top 50 Superstars of All Time Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season True Giants Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches Warrior Week on WWE Network Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition Wrestlemania 28-Present The Wrestler (2008) Wrestling Road Diaries Too Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money Wrestlings Greatest Factions WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017

[daleisgreat]

TNA Lockdown 2005

To commemorate the recent news of the highly-desired, long-overdue, better-late-than never, name change of TNA to GFW, I finally have my first TNA/GFW DVD review of the inaugural Lockdown PPV back in 2005. For those not familiar with TNA/GFW (Global Force Wrestling) , it has been around since 2002 a year after WCW was bought out by WWE. Essentially all in-and-out of the ring WCW talent that was not picked up by WWE came together with a number of indy wrestlers to form Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. TNA since has went on to acquire a lot of star indy wrestlers and a good chunk of wrestlers who ran their course or who got lost in the shuffle in WWE. TNA’s first two years on the air were kind of hard to track down since their shows were only available as weekly PPVs for $10 each week. Lockdown took place in April 2005. TNA was just several weeks away from winding down their first year of their flagship TV show, iMpact! (I will now reference ‘iMpact!’ as ‘Impact’ for convenience sake) on FSN. I loved Impact in this era from 2004-07. It was then on at an oddball time of 4pm on Fridays on Fox Sports Net back then because TNA bit their teeth and took the only major cable deal they could get so they could get their foot in the door to more viewers and off weekly PPVs. Lockdown was TNA’s third or fourth traditional monthly PPV at this point. TNA had a roster size comparable to WWE at the time, but only an hour timeslot to work with for the first few years of iMpact so TNA branded the show ‘the one hour adrenaline rush.’ All matches had 10-minute time limits with a ‘Fox Box’ at the top of the screen to keep track of time and who was in the ring so that made it have a nice sports-like feel. Since TNA tried to cram so many wrestlers in each week, there were a lot of quick cuts during and immediately after matches to other backstage skirmishes or interviews so each piece of talent could get their camera time in each week. It was pure nonstop chaos each week, for better or worse.

In April 2005, good ‘ol Dusty Rhodes was the commissioner of TNA, and he was the mastermind behind the Lockdown concept where every match on the PPV would take place in a cage. It did not matter if it was the main event, a semi-main, the mid-card or opening acts, all matches would be in the ‘six sides of steel.’ For those unaware, TNA has primarily used a six-sided ring throughout its existence. I recall this lead to all kinds of crazy outcomes in matches to make them try and stand out from the rest of the cage matches on the card. Sometimes this lead to crazy spots and weaponry getting involved, or sometimes to outrageous gimmicks and interference that took away more from the bout than it added. It is because of the unique gimmick and unpredictable nature of a Lockdown PPV and the fact I never saw one before in its entirety I decided to kick off my venture to review every Lockdown PPV TNA/GFW has released on DVD from 2005-2014. The first ever Lockdown match had unforeseen dire consequences. In what was supposed to be a no-frills tag encounter between Chris Candido & Lance Hoyt against Apollo & Sonny Siaki a freak botched landing in the opening minute lead to Candido legit breaking his leg and getting stretchered out mid-match. The wrestlers improvised and Siaki pinned Hoyt minutes later with a top rope splash. Several days later, a post-surgery blood clot led to the untimely passing of Chris Candido. They did tape one more episode of Impact before his passing where Candido was a manager for his tag team buddies, the Naturals, and Candido assisted them in winning the tag titles from America’s Most Wanted in the closing moments of Candido’s last on-screen moment being him celebrating the title change, immediately followed with an ‘in memory’ image of his passing. I vividly recall watching that moment back then and just being in a different headspace upon learning the news. Props to TNA for including that tag title match along with a couple other Candido moments in his TNA run as bonus features on this DVD.

Back on track, I am a big fan of Mr. Glorious and current NXT champion, Bobby Roode. Well, he was a TNA mainstay for over a decade and you can see him here representing the villainous Team Canada faction against Dustin Rhodes in a ‘2-out-of 3 falls, Prince of Darkness Deathmatch.’ This was a No DQ match where if a third fall were to transpire, it would happen with both wrestlers being blindfolded. Sure enough, there was a third fall and both Roode and Rhodes did their best to top the Jake Roberts/Rick Martel Wrestlemania VII classic. We are still several years away from the CTE/Concussion controversies leading to safety changes in football and wrestling, and this is first of several matches that made rampant use of unprotected chairshots to the head, and is how Dustin Rhodes won the match in the final fall. I have to admit, it was kind of shocking to see that kind of chairshot several years after both TNA/GFW and WWE has banned them. The next match would be an annual Lockdown tradition, the ‘Xscape Match.’ It featured stars from the X-Division, which is essentially WCW’s cruiserweight division, but with no weight limit to make room for the occasional bigger competitor also capable of high-flying moves that most Cruiserweights are associated for. This match featured Matt Bentley, Sonjay Dutt, Chris Sabin and Shocker. It is a Fatal 4-Way Tag Elimination match, but when it comes down to the final two competitors, the rules change into a WWF-style ‘escape to win’ cage match. The finish here came down to Chris Sabin and Shocker in a photo-finish to escape, with Shocker’s feet barely touching the floor first in an entertaining high-flying affair start to finish. The next bout saw Jeff Hardy take on Raven in a tables match in a bout that would be my match of the night. That is kind of surprising to say since both Hardy and Raven washed out of WWE at this point in their careers, but both found new success in TNA. Raven gets busted open, and Hardy misses a Swanton through a table off the top of the cage in my pick for spot of the night because of how effortless Hardy made that daring move seem. Raven would later stack four tables together, only to see them used against him as Hardy would drive Raven through them with a leg drop from the top of the cage to the delight of a raucous crowd for the victory.

The tag titles were up for grabs next with the team of America’s Most Wanted (Chris Harris & James Storm) defending their gold against Team Canada’s Eric Young & Petey Williams. I am smiling right now realizing how far all four of these guys would evolve throughout their TNA runs, but we will get there in forthcoming Lockdown reviews. For now, Young & Williams are evil Canadians, and AMW are good ‘ol butt-kickin’ cowboys. Match has a nice story with Storm getting jumped outside early on and Harris having to fend for himself 2-on-1 for awhile. There is a nice finish here with a failed powder-toss spot that lead to Petey Williams getting pinned following AMW delivering their ‘Death Sentence’ finisher. The X Division title was at stake next with Christopher Daniels defending against his former tag partner, Elix Skipper. The video package preceding it was a nice refresher of their rivalry and was a good reason for the hot crowd and intensity between the two in this match. Skipper got a nice splash off the top of the cage, but ultimately it was Daniels who got the win with his Angel’s Wings finisher in another good X division match. The Lethal Lockdown followed, and it is essentially TNA’s version of War Games/Elimination Chamber with two teams of three squaring off. It starts one-on-one for five minutes, and then another competitor would enter every two minutes. After the final entrant is in, the team that scores the first fall is declared the winner. This match saw TNA champ, Jeff Jarrett teaming up with Monty Brown & Kip James (who was new to TNA at the time and fresh off renaming his character of ‘The Outlaw’ because of how close it resembled his old WWE Tag Team name) against Sean Waltman, Diamond Dallas Page and Kevin Nash. In a twisting shock, Nash was injured on match day, and got replaced last minute by BG James, aka The Road Dogg. I have no idea what was going through BG’s head, but on his way to the ring he brought a bedpan and clocked the cameraman with it for no apparent reason, and in the highlight of the night would proceed to clock the ref on the head with the bedpan. To top that, when most normal refs would be incapacitated indefinitely after a spot like that, this pudgy, scrawny TNA ref would get up and shake off the weapon attack within 60 seconds, just in time to make the surprise pinfall count when Sean Waltman would pull off a victory roll on Monty Brown that he botched mere seconds earlier. Brown would be the third person to bleed of the night so far. Like most War Games/Elimination Chamber style matches, this was another chaotic match that kept me on my toes to see who would come out next. Throw in the TNA-X-Factor of surprise weapon spots, and refs that no-sell and it made for a one-of-a-kind encounter TNA is only capable of delivering.

The main event saw AJ Styles face off against Abyss. For those unaware, Abyss is another TNA veteran still with the promotion today that I look forward to covering his unique evolution throughout the years with. I always considered him a hybrid of Mankind and Kane, and he always had a unique lust for weapon spots that usually went against him. For fans of AJ Styles today unfamiliar with his 12 years of TNA work, if you thought he is killer in the ring today, you should have seen him back in 2005 where he moved with the grace of a young Rey Mysterio and it seemed like AJ was capable of damn near anything in the ring. After brawling all over the arena for awhile, the two eventually clash in the ring where Abyss busts out the thumb tacks, but only to see them used against him when AJ would deliver a Styles Clash on top of them(!). AJ would follow that up with a sunset-flip off the top of the cage onto the tacks (!!) for the awesome finish to end the first Lockdown PPV. Random final thoughts on the show: It was fun seeing Dusty with a couple of the TNA ‘Knockouts’ (TNA’s term for ‘Divas’) backstage as he drew names out of a hat to determine the order of the Lethal Lockdown entry. Shane Douglas was retired from wrestling at this point of his career and was the innocuous backstage interviewer which I did not mind him in. One constant in TNA’s history is there usually being a few botched camera angles on each show with them missing a key move/moment in a match, and sure enough that happened tonight.

I forgot to mention this took place at the Universal Studios lot in Orlando, FL where TNA has recorded a majority of their shows since 2004. It is the same arena where WCW use to tape their old syndicated Worldwide show for about a decade. I always thought TNA did an admirable job at getting the most out of that recording studio and making it come off with good production effects and clever camera angles to give it as close to a big-arena vibe as they could on their budget. Aside from a half hour of assorted Chris Candido extras, there is another half hour of extras on the DVD primarily consisting of quick preshow interviews and alternate camera angles of the primary spots of the night. Thanks for sticking with me on this debut Lockdown blog. Apologies for the length, but I felt obligated to include a little TNA/GFW history at the beginning for those who are not that familiar with the promotion. Like I said at the beginning, TNA released these on DVD through 2014, but Lockdown specials after that moved to premiering on cable as Impact specials and thus have not been released on video. I will try and knock one of these out every several months, so stay tuned for the next installment later! Past Wrestling Blogs Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2 Best of Monday Nitro Volume 3 Biggest Knuckleheads Bobby The Brain Heenan Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes DDP: Positively Living Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials ECW Unreleased: Vol 1 ECW Unreleased: Vol 2 ECW Unreleased: Vol 3 For All Mankind Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman Legends of Mid South Wrestling Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story Memphis Heat OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History Owen: Hart of Gold RoH Supercard of Honor V RoH Supercard of Honor VI RoH Supercard of Honor VII RoH Supercard of Honor VIII RoH Supercard of Honor IX RoH Supercard of Honor X ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Sting: Into the Light Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder Top 50 Superstars of All Time Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season True Giants Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe Warrior Week on WWE Network Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition Wrestlemania 28 Wrestlemania 29 Wrestlemania 30 Wrestlemania 31 Wrestlemania 32 The Wrestler (2008) Wrestling Road Diaries Too Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money Wrestlings Greatest Factions WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017

[reviewfix]

Global Force Wrestling Power Rankings: A New Era Begins

Global Force Wrestling Power Rankings: A New Era Begins

Check out this week’s Global Force Wrestling Power Rankings to see who starred in the promotion’s first episode following Slammiversary.

Honorable Mention: ACH: Although his appearance on Impact was a tiny one, expect great things from this ROH mainstay.

5: Matt Sydal: A victory over Braxton Sutter proves he’s ready to get in the X-Division title hunt.

4: Sonjay Dutt:His win over Caleb Conley was…

[twnpnewsdotcom]

News for Tonight's Impact Wrestling, Sonjay Dutt Teaser, Swoggle vs. Rockstar Spud

News for Tonight’s Impact Wrestling, Sonjay Dutt Teaser, Swoggle vs. Rockstar Spud

Above is a promo for tonight’s Impact Wrestling episode featuring new X Division Champion Sonjay Dutt celebrating his big win.

Other matches announced for tonight’s show from India include Laurel Van Ness and GFW Women’s Champion Sienna vs. Allie and Knockouts Champion Rosemary, World Heavyweight Champion Lashley and Ethan Carter III vs. James Storm and GFW Global Champion Alberto El Patron plus…