Lockdown 2010

Greetings and welcome to sixth entry chronicling the TNA/Impact Wrestling Lockdown PPVs, with this one covering the 2010 edition emanating from St. Charles, MO. For past Lockdown recaps, click or press here to peruse away! As I alluded to in last year’s entry, the 2010 Lockdown is first of four that are operated under the Hulk Hogan/Eric Bischoff regime. This is a few months into Hulk and Eric’s run in the company, and already big changes are amidst. The first noticeable change is them going back to a traditional, four-sided ring. TNA fans infamously jeered Bischoff and Hogan when they opened up the previous month’s PPV, Genesis defending the ring switch. I was indifferent on the switch. I thought the six-sided ring helped define TNA after nearly six years with it, but after hearing numerous wrestlers not being too happy with it in interviews I can understand why they changed it up.

Another change from last year is replacing Don West at the announce desk with Taz (WWE kept the extra Z in his name). I liked Don West at the desk, but I also am a fan of Taz (and continue to be with his current AEW work, especially on Dark), and I was all for freshening up the announce desk by this point. The final major change in TNA is that at this point when Lockdown transpired, Impact was halfway into their brief, 10-week run on Monday nights against RAW in what ended up as a footnote of version 2.0 of the ‘Monday Night Wars.’ Hogan and Bischoff threw a lot on the first head-to-head Impact against RAW on March 8, 2010 with Hogan wrestling in the main event, and a plethora of returns and debuts of former WWE stars in TNA like Ric Flair, Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy, Sting, Jeff Jarrett, Nasty Boys, Scott Hall, Sean Waltman and Sean Morley. Despite this, TNA could not get that bump up in ratings from commercial break channel flippers they were hoping for, and after 10 weeks and rapidly declining ratings, Spike TV moved them back to Thursday nights.

Even though Sean Walman debuted a month earlier on that March 8th Impact, he no showed Lockdown as Tenay and Taz opened the show stating that his partner Scott Hall had to find a last minute replacement for his match against Team 3D or go it alone. Tenay & Taz also said that X Division champion, Doug Williams, was stuck in Europe due to a recent volcanic eruption in Iceland causing un-navigable air and TNA officials stripped Williams of the title and will declare a new champion in a triple threat match on this show. The PPV then kicked off proper with two wrestlers who would be competing in opposing teams in the Lethal Lockdown match in the main event with Rob Van Dam squaring off against James Storm to see which team would have an entrance advantage. It was a solid back and forth opener with RVD getting the win after his vintage Five Star Frog Splash.

Next up was the annual X-Scape match with Homicide, Brian Kendrick, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin competing. They removed the rule where there had to be pin/submission eliminations until the final two wrestlers had to escape to win, and it was now whoever escaped the cage first would win. After several minutes of typical X-Division agility, Homicide snuck out and over the cage, with Brian Kendrick right on his tail to be declared winner. A nice video recapped Eric Young’s rivalry with Kevin Nash to set up their match aired, and despite an early flurry of offense from Young, Nash was able to shift momentum with a low blow and shortly thereafter land his Jack Knife powerbomb for the win. Nash declared after the match he would be teaming with Hall later on in the evening. It was a kind gesture of Nash to be pulling double duty considering in hindsight this would be his final Lockdown and he would be returning to WWE at the beginning of 2011.

All of the Knockout titles were on the line next, with Knockout champ Angelina Love defending her Knockouts Title by teaming with Tara and facing off against the Beautiful People’s Madison Rayne & Velvet Skye for their Knockout Tag Titles. It was sadly a mess of a match with the uneasy alliance of Tara and Love causing a lot of clunky teamwork, before an assist from Lacey Von Erich caused Tara to get pinned by Rayne to become the new Knockout champ. Jeremy Borash interviewed Team Flair for their upcoming Lockdown match, and this was when AJ Styles was endorsed by Ric Flair to be the next Nature Boy and we got to see AJ come out in Ric Flair-esque robes and attempt to style and profile like the Nature Boy. It……kind of worked, but never really got AJ Styles seriously over as a villain in TNA like they hoped it would.

A triple threat match for the vacant X-Division title was next which saw Homicide earn in a spot in the match for winning the X-Scape match earlier. Homicide went up against Kazarian and Shannon Moore. I cracked a huge grin when Moore entered to the ring carrying his book of DILLIGAF prop which I completely removed from my mind this past decade. This was another solid X-Division spotfest, with Kazarian locking in the win and the title after connecting with a sick looking inverted piledriver. Christy Hemme interviewed a wound up “Pope” D’Angelo Dinero next, who preached so hard during his promo that he needed a water break. Pope was a fun reinvented Elijah Burke from WWE, and he had an entertaining brief run in TNA that saw him reach new heights here as he would be vying for the World Title later on this night.

Up next was the match with Nash subbing himself in for the no-show Sean Waltman, and it was not until all four guys were out there that I had a mild taken aback moment and realized I was witnessing a degree of a dream match between The Dudleyz/Team 3D against The Outsiders. Granted, Kevin Nash was in his final year of wrestling on a semi-regular basis, and Scott Hall was barely hanging on here a few years prior to entering rehab with DDP, and this would be the final Lockdown we would see Brother Ray as we knew him since he would drastically transform and evolve his persona by next year’s Lockdown. This match was better than any right it had to be. The teams busted out the bag of tricks with some crowd brawling to start off that the audience ate up. Brother Ray gets locked out of the cage while D-Von gets a 2-on-1 beat down until Ray barrels through the cage door for a crowd-pleasing comeback and The Outsiders surprisingly sell their asses off for Team 3D’s vintage Wassup Headbutt and Hall on the receiving end of a 3D through a table for the feel good Team 3D victory in the surprisingly solid match of the night.

The next match will feature the first of several Lockdown appearances from one Ken Anderson, AKA, WWE’s Ken Kennedy. Anderson’s gimmick in TNA is that he self-proclaims himself an ‘Asshole’ and acts like a dick to everyone as a convincing video package for his upcoming match with Kurt Angle demonstrated. Their bout was spectacular, with Angle sacrificing his well-being for ridiculous spots like a moonsault from the top of the cage that was dangerous-yet-undeniably-awesome. Anderson goaded Angle back into the ring before his escape with some more convincing near-escape spots before Angle ultimately choked out Anderson and departed the cage for victory. Angle announced to the crowd he needs to take care of himself and would be taking a hiatus after the match.

The TNA World Title was on the line next with AJ Styles defending against The Pope. I got a kick out of Hebner being his trademark over-animated self by ejecting Flair before the match even started. Pope was crazy over for this brief time and the crowd was absolutely into him and his near falls. The fan support was not enough though before Dinero succumbed to AJ stabbing him with a pen to set up the Styles Clash for a successful title defense. The main event was the Lethal Lockdown with Team Hogan’s Abyss, Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy and Jeff Jarrett versus Team Flair’s James Storm, Robert Roode, Sting and Desmond Wolfe. Abyss and Roode started off the initial five minute period before the remaining team members entered every two minutes. The roof of the cage with weapons hanging from it and on top of its roof lowered down after Sting entered last. Jeff Hardy did an eye-popping ladder spot onto Beer Money on the roof of the cage, but what was more memorable was Abyss finally landing a move onto thumbtacks he brought to the ring when he chokeslammed Sting on the tacks….it felt like Patrick Ewing finally hitting his jump shot in the animated Clerks series. Eventually Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair get involved, with the Hulkster getting the best of Flair that of course saw him do a Flair Flop….onto the tacks! The chaos concluded with Abyss pinning Wolfe after a Black Hole Slam.

The 2010 Lockdown DVD has a standard array of bonuses seen in previous releases, which is a half hour of interviews from fans and wrestlers from the floor of the previous day’s Fan Fest. This interview montage is highlighted by a fan showing Sting his custom made fan car to his disbelief, and RVD playing to the crowd’s delight. There are also a deluge of pre- and post-match interviews, with noteworthy ones being Angle elaborating on why he needs a little R&R and Jeremy Borash getting a little too mischievous and getting called out for it during his interview with the Beautiful People. Wrapping up the extras is a music video and photo gallery, from which I included a couple screenshots from in this recap!

Keeping up with tradition, I believe we set a new record for the amount of wrestlers busting open into a bloody mess with this Lockdown having seven bloodbaths occurring….from six wrestlers because RVD bled in two separate matches. Other stars doing the bloody honors this night were Brian Kendrick, Eric Young, Ken Anderson, Ric Flair and Kurt Angle. Overall, this is one of the better Lockdown shows with almost all of the matches delivering during an era of uncertainty for TNA. I recall becoming extremely frustrated with TNA throughout 2010, and by the end of the year after six years I went from becoming a weekly Impact viewer to watching it maybe once a month. It will only get worse as cover the remaining Lockdown PPVs.

This Lockdown entry, hell all TNA/Impact Wrestling associated entries here are dedicated to the man who I have consistently attributed as one of THE voices of TNA, one Mr. Barry Scott who sadly passed away in September of this year. As almost always mentioned in all previous Lockdown posts, I have always been a huge fan of the TNA video packages he narrated and usually introduced most of their PPVs and always gave me goosebumps narrating like only he can. He narrating packages for TNA all the way until a few months before his death - click or press here to see his final voiced video package he did for Moose in May of 2020.

Impact Wrestling did a nice series of tweets highlighting his most prominent video packages I highly recommend checking out by click or pressing here so you can see his gift at getting you amped up for big shows like only he can!

Past Wrestling Blogs

Best of WCW Clash of Champions
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3
Biggest Knuckleheads
Bobby The Brain Heenan
Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes
DDP: Positively Living
Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials
ECW Unreleased: Vol 1
ECW Unreleased: Vol 2
ECW Unreleased: Vol 3
Eric Bishoff: Wrestlings Most Controversial Figure
Fight Owens Fight: The Kevin Owens Story
For All Mankind
Getting Rowdy: The Unreleased Matches of Roddy Piper
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Hulk Hogans Unreleased Collectors Series
Impact Wresting Presents: Best of Hulk Hogan
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
The Kliq Rules
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
NXT: From Secret to Sensation
NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History
Owen: Hart of Gold
Randy Savage Unreleased: The Unseen Matches of the Macho Man
RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Scott Hall: Living on a Razors Edge
Shawn Michaels: My Journey
Sting: Into the Light
Straight Outta Dudley-ville: Legacy of the Dudley Boyz
Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
Then Now Forever – The Evolution of WWEs Womens Division
TLC 2017
TNA Lockdown 2005-2016
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season
True Giants
Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns
Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe
War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches
Warrior Week on WWE Network
Wrestlemania III: Championship Edition
Wrestlemania 28-Present
The Wrestler (2008)
Wrestling Road Diaries Too
Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money
Wrestlings Greatest Factions
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017