Lockdown was actually good this year? That's surprising.
Tonight's Impact special was the best Lockdown since 2013. Doesn't seem like that's saying much since Lockdown 2014 & 2015 were both crap, but this show was actually really good and fit for television. Unlike the shitty 2015 Lockdown, the matches weren't rushed and all delivered well.
I took a few notes on my phone while watching and looking back at them now, they're all about Josh & The Pope on commentary; I wrote like 3 things.
Three things written by Charlie Groenewegen
I took a few notes on my phone while watching and looking back at them now, they're all about Josh & The Pope on commentary; I wrote like 3 things.
Three things written by Charlie Groenewegen
1.) At some point during or after Beer Money vs. EY & Bram, Josh Mathews referred to Beer Money as 4-time TNA World Tag Team Champions: False. They are 5-time TNA World Tag Team Champions.
Josh also fucked up by falsely calling The Wolves 4-time champions (forgetting they regained their titles from Trevor Lee and Brian Myers last year making it 5-times). So, what could've been this big "Oh my god, they tied the record set by Beer Money" was instead botched until a week later when Josh made the correction. He claimed he was too caught up in the excitement or whatever horse shit excuse.
2.) During Trevor Lee vs. Tigre Uno, Josh tried putting over the X Division Championship as a prestigious prize. You'd think that's a good thing; he should do that.
He said something like Trevor Lee wants to add his name to the list of elite X Division Champions, I believe. The first - and only, at that - former X Division Champion Josh decided to mention was Kurt Angle; ya know, the guy who is not an actual X Division wrestler but held the title for maybe a month at most.
Never mind actual X Division greats like AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Daniels, Jerry Lynn, Low Ki, Chris Sabin, Kazarian, Jay Lethal (he beat Kurt Angle for that very title, Josh! Wow!), Austin Aries, and so on - first person Josh Mathews thinks of when 'elite X Division wrestlers' comes up is Kurt Angle.
Yeah, Kurt's one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time but he's not an X Division wrestler. By Josh's logic then Kurt would be the greatest tag team wrestler as well just because he's Kurt Angle and he's the greatest of all-time.
3.) ALSO during the X Division title match....know how Josh Mathews has always been so quick to call Gregory Shane Helms the "greatest cruiserweight ever" or something along those lines? Well tonight he said, "Shane Helms considers himself one of the greatest cruiserweights ever!" or something along those lines.
Josh doesn't think he is, Helms thinks he is. So he changed his story on that one, but he's still sticking by his "longest reigning cruiserweight champion" statement.
Editor's note: Gregory Helms is the greatest cruiserweight champion ever, in my book. Don't you dare criticize Sugar Shane or I will have you Vertebreaker'ed.
4.) Knockouts Lethal Lockdown: Maria left Gail and Velvet high and dry. Why take Madison out of the match though? If anyone had to be pulled due to storyline injury, why not the weakest of the team in Velvet?
Josh just casually mentions, like, yeah, we've seen Gail Kim beat all 3 of these Knockouts (The Dollhouse) before so it's not a fight they (her & Velvet) can't win....
I'm not sure if he put over Gail as super strong or buried The Dollhouse as super weak...
5.) Time to turn my attention to The Pope D'Angelo Dinero...
Odarg the Great was in the ring and Pope said, "He's got two straps [under his mask] for both his chins!" and that was fucking funny. I enjoy The Pope on commentary.
Also: Rockstar Spud's heel turn was well done and his justification - see: Rockstar Spud's tweets; the photo recap of Spud/EC3 in particular - is amazing too. Especially the photo from Lockdown '15 where EC3 slammed a cage door into Spud's head but everyone forgot because how terribly uneventful that show was compared to a photo of Spud slamming the cage door into EC3's head from tonight.
Josh also fucked up by falsely calling The Wolves 4-time champions (forgetting they regained their titles from Trevor Lee and Brian Myers last year making it 5-times). So, what could've been this big "Oh my god, they tied the record set by Beer Money" was instead botched until a week later when Josh made the correction. He claimed he was too caught up in the excitement or whatever horse shit excuse.
2.) During Trevor Lee vs. Tigre Uno, Josh tried putting over the X Division Championship as a prestigious prize. You'd think that's a good thing; he should do that.
He said something like Trevor Lee wants to add his name to the list of elite X Division Champions, I believe. The first - and only, at that - former X Division Champion Josh decided to mention was Kurt Angle; ya know, the guy who is not an actual X Division wrestler but held the title for maybe a month at most.
Never mind actual X Division greats like AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Daniels, Jerry Lynn, Low Ki, Chris Sabin, Kazarian, Jay Lethal (he beat Kurt Angle for that very title, Josh! Wow!), Austin Aries, and so on - first person Josh Mathews thinks of when 'elite X Division wrestlers' comes up is Kurt Angle.
Yeah, Kurt's one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time but he's not an X Division wrestler. By Josh's logic then Kurt would be the greatest tag team wrestler as well just because he's Kurt Angle and he's the greatest of all-time.
3.) ALSO during the X Division title match....know how Josh Mathews has always been so quick to call Gregory Shane Helms the "greatest cruiserweight ever" or something along those lines? Well tonight he said, "Shane Helms considers himself one of the greatest cruiserweights ever!" or something along those lines.
Josh doesn't think he is, Helms thinks he is. So he changed his story on that one, but he's still sticking by his "longest reigning cruiserweight champion" statement.
Editor's note: Gregory Helms is the greatest cruiserweight champion ever, in my book. Don't you dare criticize Sugar Shane or I will have you Vertebreaker'ed.
4.) Knockouts Lethal Lockdown: Maria left Gail and Velvet high and dry. Why take Madison out of the match though? If anyone had to be pulled due to storyline injury, why not the weakest of the team in Velvet?
Josh just casually mentions, like, yeah, we've seen Gail Kim beat all 3 of these Knockouts (The Dollhouse) before so it's not a fight they (her & Velvet) can't win....
I'm not sure if he put over Gail as super strong or buried The Dollhouse as super weak...
5.) Time to turn my attention to The Pope D'Angelo Dinero...
Odarg the Great was in the ring and Pope said, "He's got two straps [under his mask] for both his chins!" and that was fucking funny. I enjoy The Pope on commentary.
Also: Rockstar Spud's heel turn was well done and his justification - see: Rockstar Spud's tweets; the photo recap of Spud/EC3 in particular - is amazing too. Especially the photo from Lockdown '15 where EC3 slammed a cage door into Spud's head but everyone forgot because how terribly uneventful that show was compared to a photo of Spud slamming the cage door into EC3's head from tonight.