The Big News: Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle will be the captains at Lockdown in the Wargame games, which was called the Lethal Lockdown match for copyright reasons. Jenna Morasca apparently turned heel sometime over the past two weeks, though the audience was never clued in about it.

Jim Cornette was in the ring with many of the wrestlers watching on the ramp. He announced Sting vs. Mick Foley as the main event for Lockdown, and the Wargames match between two four-man teams. He announced a 20-man gauntlet match in a cage for tonight would determine the two captains, with the final two men in the ring serving as captains. Eliminations would come via pinfall or submission. The Main Event Mafia came out looking down on the wrestlers on the way to the ring.

Kurt Angle said that the mafia had already designated him as the captain, and he would announce his teammates as Kevin Nash, Booker T and Scott Steiner. Angle said the mafia has been dominating TNA since October, and would do so throughout 2010. If Angle sings a contract extension. Jeff Jarrett came out and announced himself as being in the gauntlet match. Jarrett brought back the “Choke on that, slapnuts” catchphrase from the dying days of WCW. Not exactly something that brings back memories of the golden days of wrestling. It wound up with Jarrett and Angle in a pull apart.

In the mafia dressing room, suddenly Jenna Morasca just showed up hanging out with Kevin Nash. Keep in mind, this was her second appearance in the company, and was just introduced as a friend of Mick Foley’s two weeks ago in a cameo. I must have missed points B, C, D, E and F in this angle. On top of that, she’s already teasing dissension with Sharmell and Booker because they ordered her out. Angle grabbed Steiner’s lead pipe and said he was going to attack Jarrett in his dressing room.

1. Suicide defeated Kiyoshi to retain the X Division title in 4:01. Crowd was much more behind Suicide this week. Virtually everyone at ringside was wearing these black t-shirts with a skull face on the front. I’m not sure if that’s a Suicide t-shirt or just a group of fans going into business for themselves. Almost everyone within camera area was wearing them, so it appeared to be something for Suicide.

Yujiro and Tetsuya Naito were at ringside and interfered. Kiyoshi got all the early offense with the final cut and an overhead belly to belly suplex for near falls. Kiyoshi missed a splash. Suicide hit several flying kicks and an implant DDT for a two count. Kiyoushi hit his lightning flash (reverse thrown death valley driver) for a two count. Suicide caught Kiyoshi going for a moonsault and wound up ramming him into Naito. Suicide got the pin with the suicide solution. **1/4

Angle was shown walking toward Jarrett’s office with a lead pipe. Half the wrestlers were in Jarrett’s office to separate the two.

Mi Pi Sexy was in the back. The Beautiful People will face Awesome Kong and Raisha Saeed tonight. Eight months ago, they teased Kong would be the Beautiful People’s hit woman. Now they’re facing each other for no reason. Madison Rayne, still doing the plebe gimmick, was ordered to take some braids out of Kong’s hair, just like she did to the Governor last week.

Rough Cut Team 3-D profiled Brother Ray. He spoke of always loving wrestling, but finding a good wrestling school was difficult. Ray openly spoke of a former WWE enhancement talent who started to refer Ray to Johnny Rodz for training, but instead the unnamed talent wanted to train Ray himself. Ray talked about how he wasn’t trained the right way, and was still resentful for it.

Beer Money and Team 3-D had a sit-down interview with Mike Tenay playing up their title vs. title match at Lockdown. Good segment to make this more important than your average tag PPV match. James Storm said if they beat Team 3-D in their own hometowns, it would make them bigger than the Road Warriors. Ray ripped off the “Beat us if you can, survive if the fans let you” from Taz.

Sting did a promo saying he was unsure what he would say to Mick Foley later tonight. He threatened that if Foley came to the ring armed with a chair, he would come armed himself.

A much more clear headed Foley followed with a backstage interview saying he would apologize to Sting tonight.

Angelina Love and Velvet Sky defeated Raisha Saeed and Awesome Kong in 3:40. Weird to see Kong and Saeed work as faces, especially when the crowd was chanting for Sky. Kong did a bunch of power spots on Sky, including giving her a choke slam. Finish came when Kong was beating up Sky on the floor, Love hit Saeed with the lights out. As Saeed was still selling, Rayne jumped on Kong’s back and they tried to cut off a piece of Kong’s hair. Rayne had to hesitate with the scissors in her hand forever before Kong finally fought them all off unscathed. *1/4

Sting came out and called Mick Foley to the ring. Foley, looking jolly, played the tape of him hitting Sting with the chair last week. He tried to play it up like he was knocked silly after Angle gave him the Olympic slam last week. When he saw Sting holding the guitar, he thought he was about to hit Jarrett, but said it in a very insincere way. So insincere, the fans booed him. Sting said he was trying to protect Foley last week, but he was starting to lose his respect for him. Foley responded with this week’s money promo. He said he resented Sting feeling sorry for him, and when he faced Sting at Lockdown, they wouldn’t be talking about past history, they would be making history. He even teased another cage dive. Foley was so great on the mic, midway through the segment the fans started a spontaneous TNA chant.

3. Samoa Joe won the cage gauntlet battle royal. Abyss and A.J. Styles came in as the first two men. Reminded me of the main event of the first Lockdown show, which was one hell of a deal. Abyss worked totally as a heel as the crowd was staunchly behind Styles. Abyss gave Styles shock treatment. Alex Shelley was the third man in. Shelley kicked off of Abyss and gave Styles a tornado DDT, followed by an enzuigiri on Abyss. Styles came back with a flying forearm off the top rope on Abyss.

Black Machismo came out next and hit a handspring elbow on Shelley. Machismo’s offense seemed somewhat limited by the cage. Chris Sabin came in during a commercial, followed by Matt Morgan, who power bombed Machismo into the cage. Morgan had Styles set up for the choke slam, but Styles flipped out into a pele kick, followed by Abyss giving Morgan a black hole slam for the pin at 6:48. Next up was Homicide, who repeatedly rammed the back of Sabin’s head into the cage. Steiner was the first mafia member in. During another break, Sabin pinned Homicide with the cradle shock. Consequences Creed came in. Machismo laid out both machine guns with a moonsault press off the top rope. Rhino was next in. Jeff Jarrett followed him, but Angle jumped him on his way to the ring. Angle hit Jarrett with a chair shot on his arm. Jarrett never got in the ring. Keep this in mind for later.

Naito came in and went to work on Machismo with a powerslam for a two count. The guns and Naito did a triple baseball slide into Creed in the corner. Naito missed a rolling senton. Machismo hit the lethal combination on Shelley for the pin at 17:02. Angle was next in, but just put the boots to Jarrett at ringside some more. Then he went to town to be pictured as the top heel as the company. Angle immediately put Creed in the ankle lock for the tap out at 17:50, then pinned Sabin after an Olympic slam at 18:10, followed by another Olympic slam on Machismo at 18:18. During the commercial, Naito was pinned by Steiner after a downward spiral. Shane Sewell came in, but was eliminated in a heartbeat by Angle followed another Olympic slam at 22:30. Sheik Abdul Bashir was next up. Angle kept trying to pin Styles, who kicked out of a vertical suplex. Booker T was the final mafia member in, so Steiner, Angle and Booker were all in together.

West was talking about how it was a master plan by the mafia. Booker, with Styles already prone, pinned him after a book end at 25:03. As Booker talked trash to Styles, Rhino hit a gore on Booker and pinned him at 25:59. Styles and Booker brawled to the back. Abyss, Steiner, Angle, Bashir and Rhino were left in there, and Yujiro then joined them. Bashir started helping the mafia members and hi-fived Angle and Steiner. Of course, Angle turned on him and pinned him at 28:25 followed an Olympic slam. Steiner and Angle took Abyss down and stacked on top of him like it was an All Japan battle royal to pin him at 29:01. Eric Young came in, but Angle eliminated him as well following an Olympic slam at 29:50. Rhino pinned Yujiro at 30:02 after a gore. But Angle pinned Rhino at 30:10 after an Olympic slam. So Angle and Steiner were in alone, and Hernandez came in. At least they got the heel/face dynamic right. Hernandez clotheslined both heels, and gave Steiner the torture rack drop and the pounce period on Angle.

Hernandez went for the border toss on Steiner, but Angle grabbed him from behind and it another Olympic slam at 32:09. So again Angle and Steiner were left alone waiting for the last person. Jarrett came back out as the next man, with the story being Cornette allowed him a second chance since he never got in the ring the first time. Jarrett had his left shoulder taped up. Jarrett nearly pinned Angle after a schoolboy and did pin Steiner followed the stroke at 34:09. Jarrett got the stroke on Angle and had him pinned, but Steiner cut off Earl Hebner from making the pin. Steiner gave Jarrett the exploder suplex, allowing Angle to pin him at 35:14. The final man was Samoa Joe, who had Angle one-on-one. Angle hit the Olympic slam, but Joe no sold it, and pinned Angle following the muscle buster to win at 36:43. So Joe and Angle are the captains at Lockdown. **1/2

Cornette explained that Jarrett was allowed back in because he never got in the ring to begin with. Angle was distraught in the locker room afterwards vowing to end Jarrett and Joe’s career at Lockdown.

Joe said he was taking his knife with him to Lockdown.

SUMMARY: Good show with wrestling. I’m not sure Joe’s appearance will help him get over, but he has the persona down.

Jeff Hamlin
jhamlin@wchl1360.com