Coming off of an exciting pay per view, TNA brought us a good edition of Impact tonight. I think it’s obvious that tonight’s major impact moment was the announcement by Jim Cornette that the next pay per view would be headlined by a Lethal Lockdown where Christian Cage would be the captain of one team and Kurt Angle would captain the opposing team. What? You don’t know what a Lethal Lockdown match is? Well, that’s why we have Wikipedia, people:
Two men, one from each team, enter the ring and fight for five minutes. After the time period is over, a member from one of the teams enters to give his team the handicap advantage. Two minutes after that, a member from the opposing team enters the match to even the odds. Every subsequent two minutes, an alternating member from the teams enters the match. Once all of the men are in the ring, the roof is lowered and a team is eligible to win via pinfall or submission. Hanging from the roof are weapons that may be used in the match.
Thank you, Wikipedia. In case you don’t recognize this match, it used to be called War Games in the old NWA/WCW. In fact, this is a match that had a huge following which only got better each year. That is, of course, until WWE purchased the entire WCW organization and put fun matches like this on the shelf. Oh well, at least TNA is putting it back out there for those of us who enjoyed it! Actually, I guess that’s the joy of being a small wrestling organization – that you can do things like this.
An honorable mention for the major impact of the night (for humor alone) goes to Jay Lethal’s new entrance music. I guess that they’re going to go with this Macho Man impersonator thing. That’s actually kinda funny – but I like it!
I just want to mention that I really like AJ Styles as a performer. Sure, his “It’s Over?” speech with Rhino was a little contrived and sort of leading, but it was still fun to watch. And I also enjoy the character that Chris Sabin seems to have developed. Sure, he’s the antagonist in the storylines, but you have to admit that a character like his (with his mannerisms especially) is something that you’re likely only going to find in TNA these days. It’s a sad commentary on the wrestling business, but that’s another column.
Oh, and while we’re on character development, I’ll just comment that I love the way Christian Cage has been able to expand his character while in TNA. If you guys are non-TNA watchers, trust me, you need to watch at least once just to see Christian in his full glory. Along with that comes AJ Styles and his development – he deserves to be congratulated for the way he embraced this heel role – not too many people thought he could do it the right way, but he’s excelling at it.
And it’s worth mentioning (dishonorably) that TNA continues to push Konnan and LAX as thugs and gangstas which, I have to believe, is a poor representation of the contemporary Hispanic culture. As I said dozens of times in Balrog Babbling columns and TNA Impact Wishes, I’d love for these wrestlers just to be the amazing performers that they are – not the gangsta caricatures that they’re asked to portray.
Before we leave this week…anyone know what the hell was going on with Raven and Seratonin?
Quotes of the Night:
“Christian. Do me a favor – shut up!” – Jim Cornette telling Christian how it is in TNA
– Joe
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