Live from St. Louis - hopefully TNA is able to show this town what they’re REALLY about, rather than what they’ve been doing lately. This crowd will most definitely let them know if not…

Pre-show starts with a match between VKM and Raven’s Seratonin, who are supposedly helping Christy Hemme get her revenge on VKM. If you’ve been watching TNA at all, you know who loses this one. Otherwise, you don’t really care anyway….

TNA PRESENTS LOCKDOWN!!!

MATCH 1: XSCAPE MATCH FOR THE X-DIVISION TITLE: CHRIS SABIN, ALEX SHELLEY, “BLACK MACHISMO” JAY LETHAL, SHARK BOY, AND SONJAY DUTT

ORDER OF ELIMINATION:

SHARK BOY pinned by Shelley after a combination top rope legdrop/splash from Shelley and Sabin

SONJAY DUTT pinned by Sabin after having a hurrincanrana countered into a Cradle Shock

ALEX SHELLEY pinned by Jay Lethal after the top rope Macho Man elbowdrop

JAY LETHAL eliminated when his leg got stuck in the side of the redesigned cage (think big-ass chicken wire rather than chain link - probably to pretend it looks electrified).

WINNER (AND STILL X-DIVISION CHAMPION): CHRIS SABIN

EL GRINGO’S THOUGHTS: I was SO happy to see a very high-quality X-Division match from TNA. I’ve said it a ton - if this whole “X-Division” thing is supposedly your bread & butter, then TREAT it like that, for fuck’s sake! Great spots throughout, with some AWESOME team-up action from Sabin and Shelley (which finally removed some of my hatred from Sabin’s heel character.). This was the match of the night. By the way, I’m wondering how long before Lethal’s “Macho Man” gimmick becomes just a tired joke. Based on this crowd, however, not anytime soon…

SYSTEM CRASH’S THOUGHTS: Awesome match, great spots in this match. Definitely showcases the X-Division.

23LOG’S RANKING: Best match of the night. Shelley rules.

MATCH 2: ROBERT ROODE (w/ ERIC YOUNG & MS. BROOKS) vs. PETEY WILLIAMS (w/o DESTROYER)

WINNER: ROBERT ROODE takes this one after reversing the Canadian Destroyer into the “Payoff”, which is the Perfect-Plex.

EL GRINGO’S THOUGHTS: Nothing special about this match, but it wasn’t rotten. These guys worked very well together. My only real beef with this whole EY/Roode angle is that SOMETHING needs to come out of it. Right now, all it’s doing is killing both Young’s face heat and Roode’s heel heat. At least they had Roode win this match; he’d have looked robo-weak had he lost it. Side note: Petey needs to go back to wrestling X-Division guys. He’s one of the smallest guys on the roster, and yet he’s throwing down with guys like James Storm and now Robert Roode. Let’s just put him back where he belongs.

SYSTEM CRASH’S THOUGHTS: Good PPV match. I’m really getting tired of them teasing the Canadian Destroyer. Roode needs to keep watching Mr. Perfect and Arn Anderson tapes; he is learning well.

23LOG’S RANKING: At least they’re both Canadian - ok match.

MATCH 3: GAIL KIM vs. MS. JACKIE MOORE

WINNER: GAIL KIM wins it with a cross-body off the top of the cage (which ended up being more of a cross top-of-forehead).

EL GRINGO’S THOUGHTS: Much better than I expected; Gail Kim has never really made me cringe as far as watching women wrestling is concerned. Points for the big spot - despite the fact that she almost totally missed it. I’m OK with this, as long as TNA doesn’t form a full-on women’s division - they simply don’t have the TV time to dedicate to that, nor would it give them ANY payoff.

SYSTEM CRASH’S THOUGHS: Probably better than it should have been because I’m never high on women’s wrestling but this was certainly better than what Vince puts on with women’s wrestling.

23LOG’S RANKING: There would have been three, but no nipples, and there would have been one, but the cage spot was pretty cool.

MATCH 4: AUSTIN STARR vs. SENSHI (SPECIAL REFEREE MR. BACKLUND)

WINNER: SENSHI takes this one with a video-game looking roll-up after Starr got in Backlund’s face, resulting in Backlund shoving Starr into above mentioned roll-up.

EL GRINGO’S THOUGHTS: I’ve seen much better from these two, but it was still a good match. I’m tiring of this Backlund angle, but at least they kept the inevitable referee involvement to a minimum and it didn’t take over the whole match. Ultimately, I feel that this feud did not need more than just two guys who don’t like each other throwing down in a great series, but no one asked me. Either way, I love watching these two and very little can kill that - even forcing them to win with a fucking crossface chicken wing. Starr nailed a picture-perfect 450 splash in this match, by the way, and Senshi KICKED OUT of it, and I’m STILL supposed to buy the F-U…

SYSTEM CRASH’S THOUGHTS: The match ending was a little weak for those two but still a decent match over all. How about letting these two have a match without a stipulation and Backlund is involved?

23LOG’S RANKING: Fuck Bob Backlund - he took a skull away just by being there.

MATCH 5: CHRIS HARRIS vs. JAMES STORM - BLINDFOLD MATCH

WINNER: JAMES STORM scores the win after taking the hood off (while the referee wasn’t looking) and hitting Harris with a superkick. He was the only winner - no one watching won anything, that’s for sure…

EL GRINGO’S THOUGHTS: This match turned out WORSE than I could have ever imagined. The crowd was completely shitting on it (chanting “BORING!” and “WE WANT WRESTLING”), not to mention the fucking hoods they were using kept coming off on accident, totally ruining the idea of “complete blindness”. Just an abortion of an idea proving itself to be a terrible one. Storm and Harris are both much better than this, and the only thing I can say good about this one was that if they ARE going to build a big-time feud with Storm and Harris, a good way to start it is have a match where absolutely nothing is settled.

SYSTEM CRASH’S THOUGHTS: The crowd shit all over this match We Want Wrestling, Boring, and Fire Russo. Gotta love the crowd in St. Louis, it’s the same crowd that shit over McMahon on RAW. Damn this match sucked ass. It went too long and killed the crowd.

23LOG’S RANKING: It would be a half-skull, but I’m not going through the effort of making a half-skull image…

MATCH 6: CHRISTOPHER DANIELS vs. JERRY LYNN - WRATH OF X MATCH (WHICH APPARENTLY MEANS NOTHING AT ALL)

WINNER: CHRISTOPHER DANIELS pins Lynn after hitting him with the Last Rites.

EL GRINGO’S THOUGHTS: It’s GREAT to see Daniels back, but I really don’t understand why they changed his gimmick. Maybe it’s too early to judge, but it seemed to me that the old “Fallen Angel” character was so flexible that you literally could have him go from babyface to mega-heel virtually overnight and they really didn’t need to overhaul it in any way. The match itself was good, but something just didn’t seem right about it - I don’t know if it was Daniel’s ring rust, or his discomfort with the new character, but there was just an element missing. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see, but the match gets a thumbs up - if only for the fact that Daniels is back.

SYSTEM CRASH’S THOUGHTS: Good match but why did Jerry Lynn own Daniels?

23LOG’S RANKING: I just didn’t like this one for some reason. Daniels seems way too rusty - wasn’t nearly what I had my hopes up for.

MATCH 7: LAX vs. TEAM 3D - ELECTRIFIED STEEL CAGE MATCH FOR THE NWA TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS

WINNERS: TEAM 3D, after Hernandez tabled himself from the TOP of the cage (one of the spots of the night), and Homicide got tossed on and “electrocuted” by the cage, leading to the 3D.

EL GRINGO’S THOUGHTS: Fucking gimmicky bullshit hurt this match. LAX is the best team in wrestling; they’re able to make anyone and everyone look good, as well as convincingly beat any team in TNA. Then they get stuck in an obviously NOT electrified cage (a fake humming sound and light-flickering effects were used to simulate the big “shock spots”, but was pretty much ignored if someone accidentally made contact with the cage. Fucking CORNY) with a past-their-prime team of lugs that can only really brawl, and they STILL make it passable. I love these guys. What I don’t love, however, is unnecessary gimmick matches that actually HURT the guys trying to make it work because they can’t just focus on wrestling. The crowd hated it, and I think it totally downplayed the fact that 3D won because no one really cared when it was over, even though it’s actually a pretty big deal. Fucking stupid idea…

SYSTEM CRASH’S THOUGHTS: FIRE RUSSO!! Decent match that didn’t need a gimmick and Bubba with the move of the night get the fuckin table! About time Team 3d won the NWA titles.

23LOG’S RANKING: I should give this one , but I’m changing it to because of Hernandez’ insane dive off the top. If it wasn’t for this stupid electric cage, I might have given it four.

MATCH 8: LETHAL LOCKDOWN - TEAM CAGE (ABYSS, AJ STYLES, CHRISTIAN CAGE, SCOTT STEINER, TOMKO) vs. TEAM ANGLE (KURT ANGLE, SAMOA JOE, RHINO, STING, JEFF JARRETT) - THE MAN WHO SCORES THE FINAL PINFALL GETS THE NEXT NWA TITLE SHOT AT CHRISTIAN CAGE

WINNERS: TEAM ANGLE, as STING made the final pin after Abyss loaded a guitar with tacks, which was taken by Jarrett and used on Abyss (he needs to learn never to do anything creative with the weapons, because they always end up being used against him). Jarrett actually LET Sting make the pinfall (basically giving up a title shot to give it to Sting), then offered to shake everyone’s hand after the match. Fucking weird, I know…who would have thought that a world would exist where both HHH and JJ were faces? Either way, STING is now the #1 contender to Christian Cage’s championship.

Here was the order that everyone came out:

TC: AJ Styles

TA: Kurt Angle

TC: Abyss

TA: Rhino

TC: Tomko

TA: Samoa Joe

TC: Scott Steiner

TA: Sting

TC: Christian Cage

TA: Jeff Jarrett

EL GRINGO’S THOUGHTS: I enjoyed this match. It was a bit clusterfucky, but it was going to be. There were some great spots, including Steiner actually breaking out the Frankensteiner (without breaking himself), AJ taking a dive off the TOP of the cage from Angle ON TO a group of guys, Tomko being Gored through the cage door, both Christian and Jarrett taking spots on Abyss’s thumbtacks, and pretty much everyone getting their spots in here and there. Obviously, the most interesting part was Jarrett, as he did the unthinkable and gave up a title shot (and to STING - the cancer-cutter himself) at the end. I think this one was a bit better than the last Lethal Lockdown, and it definitely did one thing I never thought I’d say - it made Jeff Jarrett the most interesting part about TNA right now. Props for that.

SYSTEM CRASH’S THOUGHTS: Great match with great spots, but nice to see Jarrett give Sting the win. Good way to make him a face.

23LOG’S RANKING: Just so-so for me; I think it needed something more, but I’m really not sure what. Maybe it was Jarrett….again, I really don’t know, but I’ve got to be honest here - It was just ok.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS:

EL GRINGO: I think this was the best overall TNA show of the year. Match of the year so far (on TNA PPV) still goes to Christian Cage/Samoa Joe from last month, but the Xscape Match from this show came pretty close. There’s still a lot wrong with TNA right now, but on this night, everything that’s made TNA what it is showed through the bullshit that’s clouding around it right now (at least where it could). The blindfold match and the electrified steel cage are two examples of this bullshit, but hopefully they listen to their fans and look at what they loved and what they shit on. Based on this show, I think I’ll keep ordering TNA pay-per-views. Things can change, however….let’s just hope they don’t. Thumbs up because I’m actually interested in seeing what goes down on Impact again! Holy F!

SYSTEM CRASH: Overall this was great show except for the blindfold match. Hot crowd - exactly what TNA needs. TNA needs to start going on the road more seems like they put on better shows when they are outside Orlando. Best TNA show since Bound For Glory, but Russo and these gimmick matches need to go. Now TNA needs to come up with new feuds now at least Sting won’t be facing Abyss next month.

23LOG: The PPV was better than the last few Impacts I’ve watched, which is a very good thing. They really needed to put on a strong show, and I think they did. No major gripes other than what I’d already mentioned. They need to keep this up.