The Best Of The Rest 4.09.08: Volume 39 - TNA Lockdown, The Age of Orton and More

Posted by Alex Mattis on 04.09.2008

Will Joe finally win it? ROH's weekend ahead. And the Age Of Orton brings... CENA & Triple H!!!!

Hello everyone and welcome back. What's going on in the wrestling world? Well Samoa Joe may finally win the TNA title, ROH brings more great wrestling our way, and guess what? Cena and Triple H are STILL the focus of the E. Ugh. Let's get down to business.

TNA goes on LockDown this Sunday... Cheesy enough for ya?
One of TNA's trademark PPV's will take place Sunday and could prove to be a landmark for TNA because the man who should have had their title for the past year or so may finally win it. But I've said that a million times. That's right, Samoa Joe is once again going for the gold. This man should have been carrying TNA, and the company may be in a different place if he had won the title back in the King Of The Mountain match instead of Kurt, but I guess we'll never know. All signs would point to the notion that Joe is getting the belt. And I suppose you can say better late than never, but I just don't know how much it means now. I'm sure we'll get a great match and a cool moment with Joe winning the belt. And who knows this may help the company get over the huge hump they are facing. Cause let's face it, TNA is in a fucked state and needs some change to get it rolling in a better direction. Joe needs to be the face of TNA and while it should have started long ago, if it starts this Sunday then wonderful. Often times now-a-day's I'm asking myself what is TNA doing right these days? Well not alot, but the women's division is definitely one thing. And it shows that they have alot of faith in it giving it three places to shine on the Lockdown card. The mixed tag match should be fun, the "Knockouts" tag match should be something (I'll watch damn near anything that involves Amazing Kong wrestling), and the "Queen of the Cage" should be an entertaining women's spot fest. I assume the winner of that will get a shot at the title, some great prize huh? As at every LockDown we have the Xscape match. A little spin on it putting the X Division title on the line, it should be a fun spot fest as it has come to be known for. I see this coming down to Lethal and Dutt going from the on-going tension they have going on TV. Possibly even with a heel turn from Dutt leading to him winning the title. I can make all the predictions I want, but knowing TNA's booking anything can happen. Another LockDown tradition in the "Lethal LockDown" match. And this year we have Team Tomko against Team Cage. Should be the usual shenanigans that this match has shown the past three years. Expect AJ to do something crazy. Christian will more than likely win this match for his team. As I have said for the past several TNA PPV's, this could be a good show let's just see how the booking pans out.

ROH's Weekend Ahead
After their huge weekend in Orlando, ROH returns to the North East this weekend with two huge cards featuring the ROH debut of the highly acclaimed Kota Ibushi. While I have not personally seen his work yet, I look forward to it. Add on the fact that he is wrestling two of the all around most solid wrestler on the ROH roster in Davey Richards and Claudio (HEEYYY) Castagnoli, this could be a very good weekend for the Japanese star and could expose him to an all new fan base. Another weekend this could be huge for is Kevin Steen. He'll be battling the Necro Butcher in a Boston Massacre match this Friday. It should be BRUTAL. And this Saturday Steen gets a shot at the ROH title in a match against the champ Nigel McGuinness. Can Mr. Wrestling win the big one? I doubt it, but shit let's watch him try. Speaking of Necro, he'll be going to war with Roderick Strong in a No DQ match on the 12th. This is not going to be the easiest weekend for the Butcher. In what should be a fun match up, the always entertaining Jack Evans will wrestle the one and only El Generico. In tag action Jack will team up with Ruckus to face off with the Briscoes, this should be an interesting mesh of styles and could be the best match of the weekend. In other tag action Sweet & Sour Inc. (Hero, Sweeney, and Albright) will face the team of Castagnoli, Delirious, and Pelle Primeau in what promises to be some fun tag team wrestling. ROH has started this year off big and if they continue to produce shows like these, this will be a huge year for the company. This weekend should be some great wrestling, but it may just be a sign of what is to come.

Post WrestleMania... Nothing changes:
Ah, last Monday. I was so excited... Randy Orton was still champ. JBL came out and challenged him. Matt Hardy appeared and looked to be gunning for the champ. The champ looked to have new programs in his future. Cena looked to be put in a different place. Triple H wasn't all over my TV. The Age Of Orton looked to truly be something different. WRONG! It's been a while since I've turned off Raw half way through the show in anger, but I had to Monday when Triple H won his match making the Backlash main event a triple threat. Imagine my rage when I read that Cena won a match turning the triple threat into a fatal four way. I should have known better than to think the E was going to do something fresh, but it still pisses me off. Cena can still be the biggest star in the company, but does he have to constantly be in the main event and constantly dominate every aspect of the show? The same goes for Triple H, but that guy can't get enough of himself and he'll be on top as long as he wants to be. Trips and Cena having a feud on the mid-card would work wonders. I loved the idea of JBL-Orton heel vs. heel with Orton just beating who ever comes after his title. But now we're just going to get more of Orton losing on Raw to Trips or Cena. It'll be interesting to see how the E works Cena and HHH back into the main event no matter the result of Backlash. I pray that Orton pulls out of Backlash with the title and truly begins a fresh title reign of dominance because he is the only one in the company who can do it, and do it well. I want to believe that the Age Of Orton is upon us and that he will be a true champion of our time, but it feels like we're stuck in this Trips '02-'03 reign of terror mixed with the Cena era.

The Stoppage:
-Well this past week's highly anticipated Ultimate Fight night is in the books, and to me pretty much lived up to all the expectations. With the exception of the flash KO of Houston Alexander by James Irvin, I thought all of the fights were great. Nate Diaz proved his worth in the UFC after weathering quite a storm from Kurt Pellegrino in the first round, Diaz was able to get the win via triangle choke in the 2nd. A very entertaining triangle choke, the shot of him flexing for the camera before the tapout was phenomenal. Matt Hamill had an impressive win over Tim Boetsch. Had Stephan Bonnar not gotten injured I think it may have been a different night for Hamill. How happy was I to see Karo Parisyan get knocked out? Very. It was a good fight, and I don't really see any controversy in the stoppage. Karo wasn't defending himself and it was a justified stoppage. Going from happy to disappointed when Frankie Edgar fought Gray Maynard. I grossly underestimated Maynard. He showed alot in this fight and shut down a very highly touted lightweight. On to the main event and possibly the fight of the night, Kenny Florian was able to finish Joe Lauzon but not before Joe gave a great effort and almost had Kenny in a heel hook. While Lauzon is a solid fight I think he was thrown to the lions, so to speak, here as Florian has much more experience in the octagon than Joe. But he still looked strong and for sure will be back to shake things up in the lightweight division. Some notes from the prelims: it would good to see Clay Guida rack up another win, I hope he sticks with the UFC for a while as I'll watch any fight that has him in it. I still can't stand Manny Gamburyan and can't wait for someone to KO him. Marcus Aurelio looked amazing, as it only took him 16 seconds to secure an armbar and get a win. And finally if you haven't seen the KO of Anthony Johnson to Tommy Speer find that right away, Jesus was a beat down.

-Well last week I discussed Tim Sylvia's exit from the UFC and how now he had potential fights against Ben Rothwell and Josh Barnett, well neither of those are happening right now but ol' Timmy is fighting some dude named Fedor Emelianenko. Tim has stated for quite some time that he has wanted to fight Fedor... well now you've got it. I'm happy this is happening because Fedor needs to cement his spot at the top of the heavyweight ladder and shut all the haters up. Fedor is one of the pound for pound best in the world and I expect him to come out with the W in this one.

Well that is all for me this week. Enjoy LockDown and I'll catch you right back here next week.

Feedback, as always, is welcome at [e-mail] or directly below with that o' so nifty comment box.

*This Week's YouTube Sendoff*

Don't worry, I was also speechless after I watched it...

Take Care.
-Alex