By Nicholas Jason Lopez

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 2/23/16)

Lockdown 2016

– Greetings, readers… if you’ve stumbled upon this charming piece of literature, then allow us to tell you all about TNA’s annual “every match in a steel cage” event called Lockdown, a former Pay-Per-View now forever destined for straight-to-TV goodness. Normally, TNA’s the butt of wrestling jokes (at times still is) but ever since the TNA World Title Series transitioned into the show’s move to Pop TV, the show has picked up in quality, led by TNA World Heavyweight Champion “Big Money” Matt Hardy and his “brand” of his wife Reby, his baby son Maxel and Tyrus. This year’s show heavily focused on the main event for the World Title that’d pit Hardy against Ethan Carter III, as we saw dominate the opening video.

– So we don’t have to draw it out every time we discuss a match… EVERY MATCH IS SIX SIDES OF STEEL. Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to the fun, eh? The opening contest between Beer Money and TNA King Of The Mountain Champion Eric Young/Bram went like their other contests – four guys who all like to brawl endlessly until they… stop? We needed a winner here, so there was that. BM now has a “Boozer Cruiser Cam” during their entrance that gives us their point of view as they roll down the ramp, because the world needed that, we guess? Decent match overall with BM working their signature spots in while the heels shined at one point by playing the cold game of isolation. Back and forth right to the end when BM hit the DWI to emerge victorious.

– Madison Rayne, who was to team with TNA Knockouts Champion Gail Kim and Velvet Sky in Lethal Lockdown against The Dollhouse later, was found hurt backstage favoring her knee. Oh, that Dollhouse.

– The in-ring segment with EC3, Rockstar Spud, Hardy, Reby and Tyrus was strong main event hype. EC3 got his moment with the people and cut a promo sitting on the ring steps with the crowd hot for him. He put over how important revenge was for him ever since he cheaply lost the Title. It also made sense for him to call out Spud to thank him for the previous week when he helped him out and commended him for having the biggest heart on the roster, referencing a moment after they tore the house down last year. Spud donned his classic “loud” rainbow blazer and shook hands with EC3, telling us he wasn’t scared of Matt or Tyrus and did “what was right.” Matt’s part of the segment was his usual heel bragging about being the greatest and warned Spud not to get involved later. EC3 got the last laugh here when he told Hardy that he was fighting him, not the people or Spud and it’d be hell on earth. This was a good way to smooth things out between EC3 and Spud as well, which made the main event shocker even more jaw-dropping.

– Jimmy Havoc’s (dark, deranged individual fitting the Decay look) backstage promo was him still obsessed over Rosemary for being dark and crazy and all his before Abyss and Crazzy Steve walked into the picture, warning they didn’t know what she was capable of and was dangerous, taking credit for bringing that side out of her. There was more to this…

– So after losing his X-Division Championship to Trevor Lee and the rematch for it thanks to his manager Gregory Shane Helms, Tigre Uno is granted another Title shot? Why? How did he earn it? They’re really breezing through this program, huh? Anyways, this match was more of the same, as the two have good in-ring chemistry and Lee’s a workhorse the way he moves around. The highlight was obviously Tigre’s crossbody off the top of the cage, which led to a logical finish, with him hoping to put Lee away before Lee could escape by the door and it not being enough to do it, leading to Lee’s fisherman buster to seal the deal.

– Kim and Maria Kanellis-Bennett continued their little feud with the backstage segment where she sarcastically felt sorry for Kim and pleaded for her to take a leader with a vision while Kim wanted her to team with them and fight The Dollhouse and back her big words up. This did make us look forward a bit more to Lethal Lockdown.

– The Rosemary-Havoc segment furthered the Decay saga as he gave her a gift to remind her of what they once had and begged her to get back with him. After he left, Steve came to her and they… embraced romantically? A little strange, creepy and we kind of like it.

– The Lethal Lockdown match between The Dollhouse and Kim/Sky had the intrigue of Maria headed in and the action was pretty good throughout, never growing stale. Props to Kim and Jade for all that. Of course, Maria actually came out and teased wrestling with Kim/Sky until she backed away and shut the door to make it official. After that, we saw some cool cage spots, ending with Jade pinning Kim with her package piledriver on a steel chair. Good move, since this likely sets Jade up to be Kim’s next Title defense opponent while this feud with Maria continues.

– In the midst of EC3’s face turn, it never hurts to get backstage endorsement from Kurt Angle, like we saw here. Angle’s words had an element of truth to them, as EC3 is much “the guy” now and  EC3 put Angle over as the model of excellence and he taught him how to take care of business, which he’d use in the main event against Hardy.

– The Angle-Lashley in-ring segment was strong hype for their encounter in two weeks as Angle’s Farewell Tour draws to a close and he wrestles his final bout with Lashley, taking on Bobby Roode next week. Lashley’s reverting back to his monster heel character that carried the product in 2014 and that never hurts to see either. The intensity here was unmatched and made us want to see this match now, but Lashley got great heat by teasing to throw down only to smile and leave the ring. It’s transitioning from a battle of respect to one of great personal fire.

– The Eli Drake-Odarg The Great match was more tolerable this time since it leaned back to Drake being hellbent to reveal Odarg to be Grado and rid him from TNA for good. The goofy storyline hindered any good the match could offer, since Mahabali Shera got involved and made Drake wrestle a quarter of the match with his ass out. Anyways, Odarg won when he fell off the side of the cage, but Drake yanked the mask off while it happened, revealing it to be Grado, who covered his face a minute too late, to the shock of Josh Mathews and Jeremy Borash, the planet’s most naive human beings. The moment of Grado finally realizing his cover was blown and hiding his face with a t-shirt on the way up the ramp was sort of funny, but again, why is this a thing?

– The Decay-Havoc backstage segment revolved around Abyss/Steve beating down Havoc once he claimed that Rosemary made him great, and Abyss argued that she made them what they were. So are we supposed to feel sorry for the deranged lovelorn guy who got beat down? Not sure, but this is all fun. Also, props for that music video-esque hype video for Decay with the Marilyn Manson theme, “The Nobodies,” in the background. We also had Rosemary drop Havoc’s gift on the floor where he was laid out, so maybe sympathy was the goal.

– The backstage segment with Grado, Billy Corgan and Drake followed the continuity of them finally realizing that it was Grado and he needed to go because he was fired. Grado continued to scream that he had “proof” and it’ll likely be that Drake switched the cases once he peeked at his own and saw he’d be fired. Hopefully, Drake doesn’t end up fired because he’s truly finding himself with the “E-Li-Drake” character.

– We got subtle progression on the Miracle-Drew Galloway feud with a Miracle hype video that was shot with cool, heavenly effects as he put himself over as the wrestling savior and was offended that Galloway looked at himself on the same league. He reminisced about hitting him in the head with the briefcase and throwing him into the wall.

– The TNA World Heavyweight Championship main event between Hardy and EC3 received the proper “big match” feel with no commercial breaks, 15 minutes of action and full entrances for each wrestler starting from them leaving their locker rooms. This was everything you’d expect consistent with their last few matches – Hardy using every trick in the book to win, whether it was Tyrus outside, steel chairs, a low blow and nearly a hammer again, while EC3 valiantly fought back using his smarts, getting physical with Tyrus and tying him to the rope, taking two Twists Of Fates (one with his head in a steel chair) and kicking out of them, having an answer for everything Hardy had coming and then Spud came out to intervene when Reby headed to the ring with the hammer, setting up the brilliant turn of him closing the door in EC3’s face before he could escape and helping Matt escape. In this moment, we felt anger towards Spud as he revealed himself as the newest member of the Matt Hardy Brand and the feud with EC3 was renewed with the roles reversed. It’s a throwback to the old Spud, which is always fun. He did say payback would happen in the cage and foreshadowed it earlier in the show by saying he always did the right thing. Great irony here, but this was the perfect time to do this, as Spud ended the show by smashing a steel chair on EC3 as he laid on the steel steps, screwed yet again.

Quick Results

• Six Sides Of Steel – Beer Money def. Eric Young/Bram via pinfall
• Six Sides Of Steel – X-Division Championship – Trevor Lee (Champion) (w/Gregory Shane Helms) def. Tigre Uno via pinfall to retain
• Six Sides Of Steel – Lethal Lockdown – 3-On-2 Handicap – The Dollhouse def. Gail Kim/Velvet Sky via pinfall
• Six Sides Of Steel – Odarg The Great def. Eli Drake (w/Jessie Godderz) via escape 
• Six Sides Of Steel – TNA World Heavyweight Championship – Matt Hardy (Champion) (w/Tyrus) def. Ethan Carter III via escape to retain