From: F4WOnline.com
Dark match – Shanna beat Alpha Female via a la Magistral in the ropes
Episode 1 – to air February 20
Opened with a contract signing for the Lockdown main event with mvp. Joe vs Magnus – can only be won by submission or? Segment ended with Joe going after Magnus as refs and agents pulled them apart.
Bro mans beat bad influence and the Wolves in a three way when Robbie E stole the pin on Kazarian after a top rope double stomp by Davey Richards.
EC3 beat a returning Douglas Williams with the headlock driver. Short match that Williams dominated. EC3 applied a leglock to Williams post match.
Promo with James Storm (newly heel) and gunner…
Samoa Joe squashed Bad Bones (introduced as Magnus’ hired muscle). Jobber match.
Kurt Angle Hall of Fame induction ceremony – went off as planned. Ec3 interrupted at the end with a wrestlecrap worthy segment spoofing wrestling websites. Ended with Angle laying out Ec3 and announcing the two of them in a cage match at Lockdown. Dear God. Angle was obviously limping throughout.
Jeremy Borash plugged the new TV deal with challenge. Took a cheap shot at the wwe/Sky deal “all our PPVs are free”
Bobby Roode beat MVP in a match with Austin Aries as special referee. No reason was given, but Aries played into the finish, hitting mvp with the roaring elbow before a Roode bomb got the win.
I guess these are for the February 27 episode… No definite break in the tapings to indicate this… But given the 6 woman tag later, this next match could be on either show.
Alpha Female (w/ Chris Sabin) & Lei’d Tapa (w/ Gail Kim) beat Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne. Missed the finish because of stupid kids standing on their seats – ODB ran in post match to save Rayne and Sky from a heel beat down.
Samuel Shaw out for a promo… Ken Anderson interrupted, Shaw threatened Christy, and shoved her into Anderson as he ran in for the save. Huge chants of “creepy bastard” after Shaw chokes out Anderson with the standing arm choke. A forgettable segment…
Match taped for Xplosion – Christopher Daniels (w/ Kazarian – dressed as the British Bulldogs) beat Bad Bones after a running powerslam and the bme.
Promo with Bobby Roode, and the Bro Mans – seems that lethal Lockdown is for a ten per cent stake in TNA. Austin Aries comes out… Says he wants some of that ten per cent. I guess the Roode vs mvp match was with Aries “making his mind up” over what team to join. Out comes mvp and the Wolves. Mvp was about to name his fourth team member but is interrupted by Dixie Carter. Mvp eventually names Jeff Hardy as the fourth man. Shame about not being able to come to the UK – he was the most over person in this segment!
This somehow turned into an unannounced elimination six man tag – mvp and the Wolves vs Roode, Aries and Robbie E. Crowd was confused and tiring at this point, with no reaction when MVP eliminated Robbie E. Aries eliminated Edwards with a brain buster, before helping Roode eliminate MVP. Richards had Roode in a single crab when Aries ran in with a chair to eliminate himself by dq, as Edwards ran back out to save his partner. No final decision was announced after a really confusing mess of a match made the live crowd.
Ec3 promo to build up the Lockdown match – Kurt Angle limped out to the ring as Carter bailed. As Angle went to the back, Carter returned, attacked Angle, then threw him into the ring and applied the leg lock. Little heat for this.
They then played the Fratelli’s Chelsea Dagger for the live crowd (sounds a lot like Antonio Cesaro’s first theme) to wake up the crowd…
Ken Anderson came out introduce Sam Shaw’s opponent for the next match – Eric Young. Lots of “creepy bastard” chants for Shaw, who seemed to pattern his offence on Nailz. Couldn’t tell the finish but Shaw attacked Anderson after the match.
Six woman tag – Gail Kim, Lei’d Tapa and the Alpha Female vs Madison Rayne, Velvet Sky and ODB. Kim and Tapa went to the back as Sky and Sabin had another confrontation. Sky slapped Sabin, who then charged at (and missed) Sky. Alpha Female came in to attack Sky, but it backfired as Sky won with the pedigree.
Gunner promo – it was what it was. James Storm came out and low blowed him.
Borash announced that they would finish off the Six man from earlier – looks like they’ll be doing a backstage segment to say that Richards had to finish the match. (Borash also gave UK air dates for these two shows)
Roode returned and asked referee Brian Hebner to count Richards out. Winner of this gets the Lockdown advantage. At 8, the Wolves music started and the count stopped (they would have been at 30 by the time Richards entered the ring…). Roode spent most of the match targeting the left shoulder in front of a beyond exhausted crowd, some of which left during this match (bottom line – have an intermission between the two tapings!)
Roode picked up the win with a Roode bomb and cross face after Richards missed a shoulder charge into the corner. The heels have the advantage for War Games – so we know that Vince Russo isn’t booking this! Edwards and MVP helped Richards to the back.
Final segment – Joe and Magnus out to talk to build up the Lockdown main event. I left midway, after Joe threatened to “eat (Magnus’) pain and shit (his) blood”. The Lockdown main event can only end by submission or knockout – so ufc rules?
These shows should be half decent on TV, but without the segments to build up matches (and knowing prior results) these tapings were extremely confusing to sit through at times!
Ian Hamilton – @theianhamilton
