TNA Lockdown 2008: Did they cross the line?

Oh hell yeah!

The objective of this blog isn’t to critique the matches of TNA Lockdown. It is rather to appreciate the salient features that stood out .I will start with the first one, most obviously that Joe became the champ …….finally.

The first time I saw this guy was in TNA, I knew that Joe had indeed worked some fantastic matches in ROH but I had not heard of ROH at that time. The reason I started watching ROH was because of Samoa Joe and since then I’ve been hooked on to both Joe and ROH. For a guy who is 280 pounds Joe is extremely agile. That is perhaps a feature of all Samoan wrestlers. What stands out about him is that he has the stamina of an Elephant-the guy can just go on and on and if you give him a long match with the right guy then he will deliver.

That brings to question his opponent for Lockdown on Sunday-Did Kurt Angle look good in the match? Yes he did and he made Joe look good. Kurt Angle is easily the best technical wrestler in the world and I don’t care what anyone says. Technical wrestlers understand the hard basics of wrestling. How joints work, their movements, the distribution of weight, etc. Physical principles like Weight and Center of Gravity matter. That’s why Joe doing the match with Kurt Angle made sense even if it was for the billionth time. Even if the match was heavily worked to suit MMA, trying to hold a 200 pound + man and jamming your elbow into him without hurting him is difficult.

The highlight of the show was easily the Lethal Lockdown match.TNA does matches with more than 4 guys wrestling better than any other company .They find a way to make the match work with all the participants involved. If one guy is jumping from the top the others usually stand below to catch him. The result is a breathtaking few seconds of great television. Spots look damn good.

The Lethal Lockdown this year saw the evolution of a good wrestler into someone who can be great: Christian Cage. No longer can I remember him as the cocky, funny, long haired douche bag but a serious competitor and a main eventer.He was easily the MVP of Lethal Lockdown for me. His stamina over the years has greatly improved, he’s added more moves to his repertoire and he’s learnt to sell dangerous moves without hurting his opponents. His spot on top of the cage with the ladder, the table and 2 other guys was the best Lethal Lockdown spot of all time bettering AJ’s jump on Rhino from the ladder last year.

That said TNA better make sure that such dangerous spots do not occur again. They could end up being disastrous as hell.

Jimmy Rave has become adept to looking like someone who can sell the coolest moves. His lightweight is an added advantage. He’s also a damn good mat wrestler. He balanced himself beautifully while Crazy KAZ did the Flux Capacitor from the top of the cage!!!!!. I want to see Rave feud with Alex Shelley. That would be awesome. Let’s also not forget the number of times Jimmy Rave has sold Hernandez’s Border Toss. If Hernandez had his way he’d have chucked Rave all the way to Puerto Rico!

The last thing of note from this PPV is easily the evolution of Gail Kim. Back in the WWE she was pushed as a second rung jealous heel.TNA has brought out the greatness in her and I am astonished at what she has become. Kim has proven herself to be an extremely good worker and a competent wrestler. Anyone that can sell Kong in a street fight the way she did deserves kudos. She is easily today’s best female wrestler and I rate her higher than Mickie James, Beth Phoenix and many of the Shimmer wrestlers.

TNA Lockdown delivered, maybe the undercard wasn’t that great but the main events compensated for all that. Joe’s era began and for 2 and a half hours out of 3 ,I was highly entertained. My advice: Buy the replay if you haven’t already seen the show.

You won’t be disappointed. This was easily TNA’s best PPV since Bound for Glory last year.

Tags: AJ Styles, Christian Cage is insane, Curry Man, Gail Kim, Jimmy Rave, KAZ, Samoa Joe, Storm, TNA, TNA Lockdown