TNA Lockdown preview

There's a PPV tonight, which means I have some ideas for how I'd book it. Read on for my take on TNA's latest offering.

Normally, this is one of TNA's top PPVs. I can't be the only one thinking that it's falling somewhat short this year. Any way you slice it, this looks like a "rebuilding" PPV more than one filled with big showdowns. But, TNA definitely could use some help rebuilding, so maybe this is a step in the right direction.

But enough rambling, here are my ideas for the show:

Brother Devon vs. Anarquia is on the pre-show, but I'm counting it here as something I'll book. Anarquia is very new to the company, in a heel faction that just started. Devon's been wrestling for well over a decade. Not hard to tell who would benefit more from a win. We get some nice action here to get fans excited for the actual event, and to show us a bit of what Anarquia can do. Anarquia uses some kind of weapon to get the upper hand (brass knuckles or something else he could easily have in his tights or something). I'd actually prefer something a little more "violent" than knuckles. A fork or shiv would do nicely. Anarquia starts laying into Devon with it (obviously they need to be smart about how they actually do it), and busts him open. The rest of Mexican America comes down and steals the key from the referee at ringside, roughing him up if need be. They put the first stages of a serious beatdown on Devon before Matt Morgan runs in and tries to even up the odds. He wants to go straight to his match with Hernandez, but Devon begs him that he's ok for a tag match. The pre-show ends when everything's set up for the tag match (the ladies are taken from ringside, no weapons, etc).

Devon tries to fight in this match when gets the tag from Morgan, but Mexican America takes care of him to win. Note that I used the established guy to help the newer ones get heat. MA gets to brag that they won, while Morgan can say it was only because of their brutal tactics.

The X-Division Xscape match can go in one of two ways. Either you're eliminated by pinfall and win by being the first out of the cage (when 6 of your 7 opponents have been pinned), or you try to escape the cage and the last one to do so loses something. Assuming they go with the former (they've only done the latter once to my knowledge), I say that Chris Sabin gets the win. That might seem like an odd choice, but I'd do it to continue the break-up with Shelley. He didn't need his partner to win. The Young Bucks continue to implode in the match, costing each other the chance to win. Sabin becomes #1 Contender to the X-Division Championship.

On the Impacts after this show, Eric Bischoff will be peeved and want revenge for what happens in Lethal Lockdown. In setting his sights on Kazarian, he has him face Sabin for the X Title, and eventually he'll take on all the men who were in the match, on separate weeks in separate matches. These matches should be viewed as trials for who should stay in TNA and who shouldn't. They either need to do something with these guys and treat them as somewhat important or repackage/release them. Their performances in the matches with Kazarian will be looked at (as will their previous work in the company) to see who stays and who goes.

Mickie James gets the win (finally) over Madison Rayne. Madison will be upset about this and try to shave her head anyway, grabbing the clippers from through the cage and trying to shave her. The referees get in the ring to try to stop her, and eventually Tara's the one who breaks it up. This leads to either a 3-way feud or oe between them while Mickie's shoulder heals.

Scott Steiner and Crimson win the tag team match. Bischoff will then play them against Beer Money, having four enemies of Immortal fight it out for the tag team titles. Ink, Inc. continues to have issues, which the British Invasion tries to capitalize on as they try to stake THEIR claims in the tag division.

Samoa Joe gets the win over D'Angelo Dinero. This one needs to end already. Okato gets some revenge on Dinero in the process (and preferably loses that gimmick) when he slips a handheld camera into the ring for Joe to win with (not that Joe needs it; it's adding insult to injury). They move on from this feud.

Angle vs. Jarrett is 3 falls: Jarrett pulls out all the stops to get the pinfall, which sends Angle in a rage. He catches Jarrett in the Ankle Lock and gets him tapping pretty good. As he goes to exit the front door, he goes back to put even more punishment on Jarrett. This is his downfall, as Karen Jarrett uses the open door to whack Angle with a chair. Angle protects his head, or she hits him in the back a few times so we don't get a bunch of columns calling for the bookers' heads on sticks. Karen then helps Jarrett escape. The action leading up to this should be good enough that the fans aren't TOO upset over the ending. As Karen helps Jarrett walk off, Angle comes to. He drops Jeff then kidnaps Karen to get a measure of revenge. This angle plays out in the weeks to come on Impact.

Fortune beats Immortal. The older Immortal guys put them over pretty well here because Fortune could certainly use it. It's not a squash in favor of Fortune, but they dig down deep and pull one out. The two sides are then considered more equal on TV, and TNA continues to have them be over.

Finally, Mr. Anderson regains the TNA Championship. I don't even particularly like Anderson, but TNA needs to freshen up and elevating Anderson would be a plus for the company. He pins RVD, which Sting complains about leading to Anderson vs. Sting (where Anderson gets put over again) next month.

So, that's a step on how to improve TNA's booking as I see it. Obviously it will take longer than one night to turn business around, but it's a nice start. I'll be back later tonight with coverage of the show.