Magnus talks with Dixie to open the show. She asks him to break the news. Magnus tells Dixie he isn’t going down with her if she goes down. He checks with Spud and EC III to make sure they’re cooperating.
Dixie and Magnus come to the ring. Magnus calls out MVP. Magnus promises MVP that nine years in jail would be nothing compared to nine minutes in the ring with him. He tells MVP he’ll make an example of him if he steps in the ring with him. MVP says Magnus is constantly reminding everyone he’s the champion even when they don’t want to hear him. Magnus accepts their challenge for Lockdown on behalf of Dixie Carter. Magnus and MVP brawl after Magnus says he’ll make MVP his bitch and EC III helps Magnus with the beatdown. The Wolves are shown fighting security backstage as they try to get by Spud to the ring. Gunner runs down for the save and knocks Magnus out of the ring as EC III runs off. MVP begs Magnus to come back in the ring as the Wolves come up behind EC III as Magnus runs away. Davey kicks EC III in the stomach as he goes down and the Wolves join MVP and Gunner in the ring.
^That was lengthy with Magnus talking. Hard to listen to. I like the action, but damn is that World Champion beyond boring.
We see a history of Dixie and Bobby Roode with their problems leading up to Roode losing to Joe and not getting a title shot and then seeing Roode being escorted from the building last week by Dixie’s security.
Roode is shown arriving at the arena and he says he will say what he has to say in front of the world.
^Teasing a retirement angle is overdone and silly. Nice of TNA to try something original.
EC III is shown confronting Magnus backstage for throwing him to the Wolves. Ha. Magnus says it’s in the best interest of him and his Aunt Dee. EC III says he’s got Magnus’ back and he sees his true colors now.
^Can’t wait for EC III to rise to the top and show what he can do in the ring.
Samoa Joe is in the ring. He cuts a promo about facing the winner of Magnus and Gunner tonight at the Lockdown show. Joe says he came to Manchester to get into a fight, and he wants a match with any resident of Dixie land right now. The BroMans with DJ Zema come out. Joe wants all three of them and destroys the group. They get the upper hand for a bit but Joe comes back and wins the match with the rear naked choke on Zema.
^Nice of TNA to make their tag champs look like chumps who can’t wrestle. I suppose it’s fitting for the lack of talent in the trio. That may have been the worst non-connecting dropkick I’ve ever seen by Godderz. Joe doing the suicide dive was nice to see as I think back to his ROH glory days. Joe’s push to be the top guy going after the ROH World Title is great, but I legitimately hope he gets the title so we can get back to quality wrestling in the World TItle scene.
Christy Hemme is shown backstage with a crew worker. She leaves and Samuel Shaw drags the guy off before beating him down.
^I still don’t see this angle going anywhere special. It’s just too over the top.
Bobby Roode is shown having a heart to heart with James Storm backstage. Roode reminisces on his glory days of Beer Money with Storm as he was the only guy he could trust. Storm tells Roode not to do what he thinks he is going to do. They hug.
^I’d love to see a Beer Money reunion down the road.
Austin Aries talks with MVP in his “half an office” and they talk. MVP wants Aries on his team with the Wolves for Lockdown. Aries wants some positives from being on the team, but MVP can’t give him any specific guarantees. Aries says he’ll give it some serious thought.
^Could you imagine Aries and Joe feuding over the TNA World Title? That could really help the company.
I’ve now watched one-third of the show. Yes, you read that correctly. We are ONLY a third of the way through this thing.
Madison Rayne is out for a street fight with Gail Kim. Lei D’Tapa is with Gail. The “fight” goes just a hair under five minutes when Gail pins Rayne after hitting her with the title belt.
^What a messy five minutes. It definitely had street fight quality, but they tried to do an awful lot in just five minutes. I guess it’s better than not enough action in five minutes.
Christy Hemme is shown looking at Mr. Anderson’s twins with him and Samuel Shaw is shown watching.
^Stalker angle will get old fast.
We have a video package highlighting Gunner’s life story.
^I like his charisma when he talks, but his in ring ability leaves a lot to be desired.
EC III answer his locker room door and takes a question about ending Kurt Angle’s career. EC III says Angle is one of, if not the greatest wrestler of all time. He says he’ll let Angle break the news at his Hall of Fame ceremony next week.
^I’d love to see EC III go head to head with Kurt Angle in a lengthy match.
James Storm is talking with Gunner. He tells Gunner this is his time and his hard work pays off tonight. Gunner gives James Storm the tag title briefcase and tells him that is his but that they’ll cash it in together.
^How did these two go from kicking each other’s asses after being partners to being friends again? It’s terribly confusing and illogical booking. Almost as bad as the Miz’s lost character in WWE(is he good, bad, or gone?). I’d say there was definite foreshadowing of Storm taking that briefcase.
Bobby Roode comes to the ring. He talks. Dixie comes out and convinces him to become the captain of her team for Lockdown by offering him 10% ownership of TNA if her team wins. She says he can draw up a contract and she signs it with no questions asked.
^That went exactly how I expected it to. Nobody comes to the ring to retire after a tease of it. If they’re legitimately retiring, you would already know beforehand. Also, I could see Roode changing that contract to give him much more than 10% ownership.
Jeremy Borash interviews Bad Bones(European Wrestler) and welcomes him to Impact Wrestling. Samuel Shaw is shown in the background carrying Christy Hemme away after she’s knocked down when Shaw bumps into Anderson.
^I can see this ending prematurely with some weird non-ending.
Kaz and Daniels offer Roode to be on their team. He tells them to go prove themselves first tonight.
^Doesn’t surprise me any. I love those three as wrestlers; they’re probably one of the few reasons I continue to have hope for TNA.
The Wolves(Eddie Edwards and Davey Richards) take on Bad Influence. The Wolves double stomp Daniels one at a time and get the win.
^The match went just over five minutes and was loaded with quality wrestling. You have to LOVE this kind of tag team action! The Wolves looked awesome here and I really hope WWE is checking themselves for not signing these two. Excellent match for being so short.
Samuel Shaw is shown putting Christy Hemme down on a bed backstage. He goes to kiss her and she wakes up confused. Shaw sees the camera and gets mad.
We have a short video package aired for Magnus. Paper champion is the nicest way to describe him.
Gunner takes on Magnus in the main event. James Storm comes to the ring during the match as Spud is there in Magnus’ corner. Spud gets in the ring to stop Gunner from nailing the diving headbutt. Storm gets in the ring and clears out Spud but then kicks Gunner in the head when he comes down for the diving headbutt. Magnus pins Gunner for the win to retain the title.
^And the Storm heel turn is complete. Works for me. I’d LOVE to see Storm and Roode get back together. That match was very average for a twelve minute World Title main event. I’m not impressed with the overall boring wrestling there.
Two (five minute) matches on this card delivered nicely and it was the Wolves/Bad Influence action and the knockouts. Roode and Storm’s tease of a reunion and the Storm heel turn has me intrigued, but this show was just very bland overall. We spent the evening watching Samuel Shaw stalk the ring announcer and we got a handful of short matches with a dud main event. Very mixed feelings for me right now as I love a lot of this talent on the roster in the ring as well as their characters, but the overall program just didn’t do anything for me. Call it 4 out of 10 for effort I guess, but that feels very generous.
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