About wrestling

After seeing all these other sites about the beautiful sport of professional wrestling, Mysterious A has decided to make a site and share his opinions about it.
Even though I started to watch wrestling in the late 2003, I guess I hold some qualifications because my collection of wrestling videos is getting bigger and bigger with every passing week. And maybe this isn't the best reason to call my self the expert but in almost every case passion for something surpasses the knowledge and this applies to wrestling also, in my opinion.


This site will be used by yours truly- Mysterious A to talk about current happenings in the WWE and TNA and big backstage news. And from time to time I will look back at the past with such topics as 'This Day in Wrestling History' or simply look back at some older shows in professional wrestling history.



So after this short introduction let me just say that I am a frequent watcher of WWE and TNA wrestling (started to watch TNA in September 0f 2006), and whenever I can I watch other smaller promotions such as ROH, AJPW etc.

So now my first post will be about the latest TNA PPV - Lockdown where all the matches were contested inside a steel cage. The show took place in St. Louis, MO and I must say that it was really good.





What is probably the most important thing on the show to keep the fans pumped is the opening match and let me just say that it was one hell of a match - an X-Division Championship Xscape match - Chris Sabin (c) vs Jay Lethal vs Alex Shelley vs Sonjay Dutt vs Shark Boy. It was non stop action from the start to finish. And the way Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley worked together was incredible. Also Jay Lethal under his new gimmick of 'Black Machismo' has been the crowd favorite from the beginning of this match.



Some of the highlights of the match included Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin simultaneously jumping of the top rope and splashing Shark Boy (thus making him the first wrestler eliminated).Another extremely impressive double team spot by Shelley and Sabin on Lethal with Shelley flipping over Lethal, holding his head back and allowing Sabin to hit a dropkick to the face. Dutt hit a beautiful springboard moonsault on Shelley from the top rope, but didn't get a three count and soon after, he fell victim to Chris Sabin's finisher Cradle Shot and was the second man eliminated. Jay Lethal eliminated Alex Shelley with a Flying elbow, and now with only Sabin and Lethal left, the only way to win was to escape the cage. Sabin then kicked Lethal's leg into an opening in the cage so that Lethal lost time pulling his leg out and Sabin jumped down to get the win and retain the X Division Title.

I give this match- ***3/4


Match #2: Robert Roode vs Petey Williams

Although I am not the biggest Robert Roode fan, he showed that he had some skills and this storyline between Roode/Williams/Eric Young is decent. Robert Roode dominated the most of the match even though Eric Young tried to help his friend Petey Williams by handing him the hockey stick. But before Petey could inflict some damage, the referee Earl Hebner took it away from him, and Robert Roode used to opening to hit Petey Williams with his finisher bridge suplex called Payoff.

Quality match - ***

Match #3 : Gail Kim vs Jackie Moore

For the first time ever two women wrestled inside a steel cage. Really good match that surprised me. Gail Kim has given everything she's got in this match and she picked up the victory after jumping off the top of the cage and taking Jackie out with a huge splash!

Average brawl saved by incredible Gail Kim's leap from the top-**1/4

Match #4: Senshi vs Austin Starr (sp. ref. Bob Backlund)

A good match, and I loved Backlund's reactions during the course of this match. Right before the end Austin Starr has hit a beautiful 450 splash but Senshi miraculously kicked out. Starr thought that Backlund made a slow count so while he was arguing with him, Senshi came back to his senses and rolled up Starr to get the victory.
After the match Starr was furious.

Decent match, but a bit of a step back from their previous encounter at Destination X PPV- **3/4


Match #5: Chris Harris vs James Storm (blindfold match)

What a bad match and what a huge contrast to the previous matches. No action at all. And it's not the wrestlers' fault. Who ever decided to put these two into a blindfold match must have been out of his mind. For those who don't know Harris/Storm were a part of America's Most Wanted - the most decorated tag team in TNA history. And they broke up in December after Storm hit Harris in the eye with a beer bottle. And since that day I was saying to myself (not many wrestling fans where I live) that this feud need to be big. And what do the writers do - they put them in a comedy match - because that's what a blindfold match is. Of course the crowd was sick of it, too. Loud chants of 'Boring', 'We want action' and 'Fire Russo' chants erupted. I couldn't agree more with the incredible St. Louis crowd.

This match gets a negative **** from me.


Match #6: Jerry Lynn vs Christopher Daniels

After what happened previously this match looked like the match of the year candidate. In reality it's wasn't that great, but it certainly wasn't bad. It got really exciting at the end with a series of near falls, and especially when Daniels tried to (unsuccessfully) hit his Wings of Angle finisher, as well as Lynn trying to (also unsuccessfully) hit his Cradle Piledriver - both from the top rope. In the end Daniels hits the Last Rites and pins Lynn.

Decent match- ***


Match #7 : LAX (c) vs Team 3D for the Tag Team championship in an Electric Cage match.





This match was really hardcore. When Konnan on the outside tried to help Homicide and Hernandez Hector Guerrero came down to the ring leaving his Spanish announce table and stopped Konnan's intentions instead helping out Team 3D by handing the table to Brother Ray. Homicide and Hernandez started to take control soon after and they put Team 3D on the table and Hernandez climbed on top of the cage and tried to splash Team3D but they moved away, so Hernandez crashed through the table himself. Team 3D takes control. They ram Homicide into the cage and he gets electricuted. They set him up for their 3D finisher but the move gets botched, so they re-do it - this time sending Homicide into the ropes and hit the 3D to pick up the win. Team 3D are the new tag team champions!!!

Match rating: **1/2 - too slow for this type of a match and a lot of botched moves


Match #8: Team Cage (Christian Cage, AJ Styles, Scott Steiner, Tomko, Abyss) vs Team Angle (Kurt Angle, Sting, Samoa Joe, Rhino, Jeff Jarrett)





This match is similar to the War Games match in the good ol' WCW. Except when all team mebers enter the cage, the roof is lowered so that it looks more like a Hell in a Cell match. A lot of good moments in this match such as the big Tower of Doom spot involving Rhino, Tomko, Styles, Sting and Abyss. In case some of you don't know what that means let's just say that the wrestlers climbed on top of eachother and then they fell down like a chopped tree.
The other good moment happened when AJ Styles and Kurt Angle climbed on top of the cage and Angle threw Styles off the top. Styles fell on the wrestlers who were battling on the outside.
It was also great to see Scott Steiner perform his Frankensteiner move - I haven't seen it in years.
In the end Jeff Jarrett whacked Abyss with his guitar filled with Thumbthacks and he let Sting cover him to become the new #1 contender for Christian Cage's contract at next TNA PPV Sacrifice.

Match rating - ****1/4

A 30 minute match that really kept me interested from the start. A great choice to start the match with AJ Styles and Kurt Angle. Styles plays a brilliant heel role - the only better heel then him is the TNA World champion himself - Christian Cage. It was great to see Jarrett in the face role and shaking hands with Joe, Sting and Rhino in the end. Angle seemed very mad - probably for not taking the winning pin. I presume Angle will turn heel now.

In conclusion - it was a good PPV and it made me interested to see what's gonna happen next. I loved the crowd in St. Louis, MO - they were great from start to finish and made this show even better.

In my next post I will talk about the latest happennings on WWE RAW, ECW, Smackdown! and TNA iMPACT!

Thank you and see you!