What better place to start a preview than with the match that starts before the actual show?I’m still not entirely sure what these guys are fighting over.  I’d assume it was the movies they were in, but it’s not like that’s been mentioned for two weeks or so.  Barrett has been champion for months now and at times I forget he even has the belt since he loses so many non-title matches, including one to Miz a few weeks ago on Raw.  The idea is supposed to be that Miz is some kind of Figure Four master or whatever, even though he’s used the move for like three months and has only been decent at it for about two of those, so look for a lot of Figure Four attempts.

There’s a reason this match is going to be on the pre-show.  Not many people are interested in seeing it, it’s not going to be much in terms of quality, the title means next to nothing, we saw this match two weeks ago, and Barrett is a lame champion.  I’ll go with Miz to win here to give the fans something to “care” about, even though not many people care about him at all.

It’s arguably the second biggest show of the year and I can’t say I’m thrilled for it.  The show is at the Alamodome which had over 60,000 people in it for the 1997 Royal Rumble, but I don’t think they’re going to get that many this time.  Let’s get to it.To begin with, we’ll look at the world title match, which has one major problem:

Why are they fighting? It’s been made clear that the only reason Ray has gotten this shot is because he’s Hulk’s son in law. Ray didn’t win a big match, he hasn’t beaten anyone in a singles match lately (his last televised one on one win was against Jesse Godderz. Before then, his last singles win on TV was in SEPTEMBER when he beat Aries, as in the guy he lost to on PPV in December), he and Hardy have no personal issue, and Ray has barely been around him due to feuding with Aces and 8’s. Hardy was gone for a month and is just now back in action but he hasn’t had much interaction with Ray either.

At the end of the day, Ray hasn’t earned this shot and hasn’t won anything of note lately, Hardy hasn’t done anything to Ray, and they don’t hate each other.  What is the interest in seeing them fight?

For a prediction I’ll take Hardy to retain, as all signs point to Bully winning and turning heel.  Since that would make sense, we’ll say it won’t happen.  Also it would make Hogan look stupid and we can’t have that.

Next up is Lethal Lockdown which brings us to Aces and 8’s.  Let me try to get through this as fast as I can so I don’t have to think about them.  Aces and 8’s is probably the worst major stable in company history.  From taking FOREVER to reveal a member to having D-Von and Anderson as their top names to having D’Lo Freaking Brown revealed as their second in command, they have nothing going for them and they haven’t in the NINE MONTHS they’ve been around.   At the end of the day, we have no idea why they’re doing what they’re doing and there’s no sign that such information is coming anytime soon.  The whole story is a disaster.

The ONLY chance they have at salvaging it is to win Lethal Lockdown while revealing a big name as their boss.  The problem with that is all signs point to either Jeff Jarrett or Eric Bischoff being the boss, which doesn’t do much good.  The problem is we’ve seen them both lead massive stables before so it would be the same warmed over stuff we’ve seen before with lower level names and far more damage coming in.

As for the match, I’ll take the bikers but given how things have been going, I’ll expect them to lose.

Kurt Angle beats Wes Brisco despite a ton of help from Aces and 8’s.  If that happens, the bikers win Lethal Lockdown.

I’ll take Roode and Aries to keep the belts.  It’s way too early for them to lose.  Either way, for the love of all things good and holy, PLEASE don’t put them back on Chavo and Hernandez.  I can’t take that again.

Velvet keeps her title.  I can’t take more Gail Kim on top either.

Robbie T destroys Robbie E of course.

I’ll take Kenny King to retain and Joseph Park to beat Joey Ryan.  You haven’t heard of these matches?  Most people haven’t either, but that’s because TNA is awful at setting up a PPV card and they added these matches in at the last second to fill in some time.

Overall Lockdown is a very uninspiring show.  Between the lackluster world title match and Aces and 8’s dragging things down,   This isn’t a show that I’m thrilled with watching but TNA has surprised me before.  Grnated they’ve also had some of the worst shows I’ve ever seen but hopefully that won’t be the case here.

Thoughts/Predictions?

How nice it is to only have one Chamber match at this show.  Let’s get to it.Starting with the preshow, I’ll go with Brodus/Tensai to beat the Rhodes Scholars.  Wait, didn’t they split up already?  Oh wait that was about two weeks ago so there’s no reason to remember it.  This is basically just a way to put the dancers over which is fine, but the Scholars shouldn’t have split already.  This should be the reason they break up, but that would make too much sense I guess.

I’ll go with Rock to retain the title, but I’m not 100% sold on it anymore.  The promos don’t have me wanting to see the match as much as I wanted to see them last month, but it should be better now that Rock isn’t coming in seven months cold.  I think they’re heading for Rock vs. Cena II at Wrestlemania and I can’ t say I’d argue over that idea.  Rock retains.

For the other title match…..I’ll go with Del Rio winning.  The bigger question seems to be will Ziggler cash in.  He hasn’t been seen much lately at all, which may be an attempt to make us forget about him before he cashes in on Sunday.  That being said, I’ve been thinking he’ll cash in for six months now, but I don’t think he’ll do it here.  Either that or he cashes in and loses.  Del Rio walks out with the title.

This brings us to the Chamber itself.  I’m pulling for Henry to win and set up the 6’4 Mexican David vs. the guy that Goliath checks under the bed for every night.  That being said, I have a bad feeling they’ll go with Swagger for the evil xenophobia angle at Wrestlemania, which makes my head hurt.  Bryan and Kane will likely continue to self destruct which is probably the best thing for them.  Orton and Jericho are just there and might have a match at Mania out of it.  Hopefully Henry wins but Swagger is the dark horse candidate.

I’ll take the three man machine to beat Shield.  Why would you have Cena win the Rumble one month and then lose in a six man the next?  Shield goes down here.

Kaitlyn over Tamina and Cesaro over Miz in matches that make no difference whatsoever.

Elimination Chamber looks like it could fit into the category of “good because it has no expectations coming in.”  Things could change a bit at this show and odds are we’ll finally get some answers about the rest of the card at Wrestlemania.  There are a lot of options open still which is nice as opposed to the card being pretty obvious eight weeks out.  The show should be good an interesting, which is a good sign.

It’s the first PPV of the year and we’ve got four matches confirmed so far.  That’s not unprecedented so I’m not really shocked.  Let’s get to it.Starting with the preshow, I think they’ll hold off on Miz taking the title just yet.  They’ll likely save that for Wrestlemania so Flair can have a BIG tribute.  After all it’s been a few weeks since anyone sucked up to him and told him he’s the best ever so we can’t wait much longer.

I think the Scholars finally get the belts.  They’ve been losing every time they fight lately so they have to get them soon.  Interesting note: if they do win, they’ll only be the second team ever to win the belts at the Rumble.

Del Rio retains and as usual I’ll predict a cash in and expect to be wrong.

Rock wins the title.  You know he’s getting it before Wrestlemania so it’s either here or in the Chamber.

I’ll take Cena to win the Rumble.  I can’t imagine they would give it to Ziggler and the only other option is Sheamus.  I don’t think they’ll do that twice in a row though.

If Kaitlyn (I had to think to remember who the champion was) defends the title, she’ll keep it.

Overall the show looks pretty solid with only one potentially uninteresting match in the tag titles.  Other than that though, everything looks to be a solid option.  Punk vs. Rock finally got me hooked with their segment on Smackdown last night and I need to see this match.  I’m fired up for the Rumble but then again it’s one of my favorite shows of the year.

Thoughts/predictions?

This is the last regular PPV for TNA until March and I’m not wild on the card in the first place.  Let’s get to it.We’ll start with the title matches.

Hardy will keep the title.  It looks like we’re heading for Aries vs. Hardy at Lockdown so Hardy would need to keep the belt here.  There’s a chance Aries wins here but I don’t see it happening.

We’ll say the tag titles change and leave it at that.  Thinking of these teams more than that makes my head hurt.

As for the X Title, I can picture King winning the belt but not York.  Therefore, the question is who wins the match between the two of them to qualify for the title match?  I’ll go with King but I don’t have much confidence in it.

Doc is in Aces and 8’s so he loses.

I’ll go with Storm to win my hopeful pick of the month.  Storm needs a big win as his push continues to stall and Daniels can bounce back with ease because of his comedy.

D-Von has to beat Park.  I mean…..he HAS TO.

As for the Knockouts gauntlet……Velvet.  Makes as much sense as anyone else.

Overall Genesis looks like most other TNA B shows: not much interesting other than on top of the show while the next episode of Impact seems more important.  The show might surprise us and absolutely will be better than Final Resolution.  It’s impossible to be less interesting than that nonsense was.  There isn’t much else to say about this and then we’ll get a few months of build to Lockdown.

Thoughts/predictions?

The show is tomorrow and the Rumble I’m watching is really boring so let’s get to it.Let’s get the obvious ones out of the way:

Cesaro retains and the Scholars get the title shot.  Those are about as obvious as you can get.

As for the other four matches, all of them could really go either way.

I’ll take Barrett to win the title, as Kofi really has nothing left to do with it.  He’s the king of the transitional champions, so losing to Barrett is what he’s designed for here.

The TLC match is a very tricky one as you can’t imagine the Shield can hang with these three guys in a match with no advantage, but at the same time you don’t want the Shield to go down in their first match.  I’ll go with Shield to add more members and win.

Now the next two matches are connected, as it’s going to depend on which order they go in and who wins which one.  I’ll go with Sheamus to win the title, but for Big Show to lay him out afterwards, allowing Ziggler, the winner of the ladder match, to cash in and win.  That’s a BIG stretch and if I’m wrong I won’t be surprised in the slightest.

Overall this show is usually pretty fun and this one should be as well, but the booking is very hard to predict.  Also as usual, everything is capped off by Rock next month anyway, making this show really just a pit stop on the way.

Thoughts/predictions?

I forgot this show existed until I saw someone talking about it on the forums.Roode has no chance of winning the title.  Hardy wins a good match with something likely being set up for next month as well.

The story would suggest that Daniels wins, but would you bet against AJ when he’s fighting the Fallen Angel?  I’m certainly not going to do so.

If you can’t see that Garrett and Wes are joining Aces and 8’s soon, you fail as a wrestling fan.  The bikers win the match, but at worst they’ll win the post match stuff.

I’ll go with Ray to win the match against Aries, if nothing else to give his feud with Hogan more momentum.

Van Dam keeps the title.

Mickie wins as well, setting up a feud with Velvet.

Finally we’ve got the tag titles.  Flip a coin and it’s new champions.

Based on how short this is, you can tell how much I care about this show.  Of the seven matches on the card, three of them were finalized on Thursday, two of those being big matches (8 man tag and Aries vs. Ray) and the third being a title match.  There’s nothing on this show that interests me, which is why it sounds good to have some of these B shows eliminated.  It’s clear that this show is happening because you have to have one PPV a month.  The stories just aren’t there and there’s very little interest in the show from me.  The matches will likely wind up being good but it’s one of those shows I won’t remember in about two days.

Thoughts/predictions?

The show is tomorrow night and I haven’t seen Smackdown yet, so this isn’t a fully informed review.  There are only five matches announced anyway so let’s get to it.Starting with the world titles, we’ll go with Punk to retain because that’s how Raw works at the moment.  There’s a chance Cena gets it, but Ryback is flat out not getting it because we’ve got a character that they could get something out of so we have to have him lose in his first two times in the main event.

Show to beat Sheamus but I don’t think there’s a cash in yet.  Hopefully Ryback fights Show next.

Since the whole feuds makes NO sense, we’ll go with Team Ziggler to win because it makes as much sense as anything else.

Cesaro to retain.

Kaitlyn gets the title.

Seriously, that’s the card.  I’m sure another match or two will be added to fill in time (Hell No vs. Players maybe?), but on paper this is going to be one of the weakest PPVs in a long time.  The top feuds are completely mixed up and I have no idea what they’re planning on doing this Sunday.  I think I know where they’re going, but how they get there is another deal entirely.  I’m not looking forward to the show and I’m not really caring about WWE right now at all.

I know it’s almost show time but I can still get this up before the show.

For the world title, I’ll go with Hardy to retain in a pretty obvious result.  This is the definitive match for Hardy to prove he’s better than Aries and it should be awesome.

In the triple threat, I’m picturing Roode pinning AJ.  The worst possible thing they could go with is Storm losing the fall, as he’s already been labeled as a choker over and over again.  Taking him away from the title picture for another year is just a bad move.  If you have a face champion, a heel challenger is a good thing.  Storm needs the title again eventually and BFG 2013 is WAY too far away for that to happen.

The tag champions will likely retain, which they shouldn’t because they’re dull with the belts but why should that stop TNA from pushing Chavo I guess.

In my prediction based on a gut instinct that will go wrong, Joe loses to Magnus.

Angle over D-Von.  Seriously, it’s D-Von.

Joey Ryan should win the X Title if they want to push him and I think they do so he wins here.

Flip a coin on the mixed tag: Tara and Jesse win.  Please break up ODB and Eric after this.  Please.

Doc over Park due to interference.

On paper, Turning Point looks like a top heavy card.  Once you get past the big matches though, you’ve got some DUMB ideas going on.  At the end of the day, Aces and 8’s are represented by Luke Gallows and D-Von and they’re facing former world champions.  Why would I buy either of these matches as being interesting?  The show should be good, but they need to go somewhere with the bikers already, and that means a leader.  It’s been WAY too long without a boss or a purpose being revealed.

Thoughts/predictions?

It’s time to take feuds that don’t belong in a Cell and lock them in a box in an attempt to make them seem more important.  Let’s get to it.We”ll start with the big one: Punk vs. Ryback.  This is an interesting one and a match I want to see for one reason: there are multiple options to who could win the match and that makes the match incredibly interesting.  I could see Punk or Ryback walking out with the title.  From what I’ve heard the house show matches have actually been decent which doesn’t surprise me given the guys in there.  At the end of the day I’m expecting Punk to retain but seeing Ryback take the title would be a nice surprise and something I’ve been calling for for months now.

The other world title match got a nice boost Friday (imagine that: the TV show before the PPV pushing a match) and I’m really not sure what to expect there either.  I’ll go with Sheamus to retain in a match that’s more entertaining than it has any right to be.

HELL NO to retain in another good match but I think the Scholars have a chance of taking the belts.  They’ll probably get the belts one day, but I’d rather see Sandow get a singles push.

I have a gut instinct that says Del Rio and while those are usually wrong, I’ll go with it.

Kofi to retain.

Kaitlyn gets the Divas Title.

Overall this has the potential to be a pretty good B show, but it’s not something I’m looking forward to aside from the main event.  The real main event that people are looking towards is Punk vs. Rock at the Rumble which I can’t see not happening, hopefully setting up a triple threat with Rock vs. Cena vs. Punk, which is what the story would seem to be building towards.  The show should be entertaining though, and that’s a step up for WWE after the disaster that was Raw.

Thought/predictions?