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

Lockdown 2009

Greetings all and welcome to my fifth installment of marching through every TNA/Impact Lockdown PPV. Catch up on the previous entries right here! As I watched this PPV it reminded me of where I was with enjoying Impact in this era of April of 2009 when Lockdown emanated from Philly. Even though this was about a third of the way into infamous head booker Vince Russo’s eight year run with TNA, I think I was near the peak of my TNA/Impact fandom. They maintained a solid X-Division lineup and former X-Division stars were becoming mainstays in the World Title picture like Samoa Joe and AJ Styles. TNA was getting a lot of momentum with its Main Event Mafia faction consisting of former ‘Monday Night Wars’ stars like Nash, Sting, Booker T, Scott Steiner and Kurt Angle. TNA’s ‘Knockouts Division’ they established when Impact went two hours in 2007 put WWE’s then ‘Diva-Search era’ to shame and I feel it was the predecessor to the ‘Women’s Evolution’ era in the WWE for the past few years. This came to a halt when Eric Bishoff and Hulk Hogan arrived in TNA by the end of 2009 and within a year Impact went from must-see programming to becoming a chore and largely ignoring it by the end of 2010. There will be more on that to look forward to in future Lockdown entries.

Here are some key takeaways I had from the 2009 Lockdown before I breakdown the matches….

-I think this is the final Lockdown with Don West announcing because Tazz at this time is in the midst of his no-compete clause after finishing up with WWE after nine years. Don West did an entertaining short run as a heel announcer a couple months prior although he largely played it straight on this PPV. Sure enough, Tazz debuted in TNA a couple months later and West was gone from the announce desk. West was an affable and authentic voice for TNA in these early years for the promotion and while Tazz was always a solid announcer, I could not help but feel the announce desk permanently took a dip with the removal of West.

-This was year two or three of TNA leaving the safety nest of the Impact-Zone Arena at Universal Studios a few times a year for a bigger arena gate on the road for a live PPV. Lockdown was one of just a handful of PPVs that TNA took on the road per year and it paid off with a big-time atmosphere, especially with this 2009 card taking place in a city known for its passionate fan-base in Philly.

-Yearly props again go out to TNA promo-package voiceover guy, Barry Scott for delivering powerful narrations for all the storyline recaps before most matches yet again. His poignant voice makes any rivalry and PPV no matter how weak or strong at that moment seem must-see. WWE or AEW needs to hire this guy!!!

-The 2009 DVD has a decent smattering of just over a half hour of extras. Aside from the pre-show match, there is a recap of the TNA Interaction fan fest, post-match interviews with Sting, Kevin Nash, Team 3D and a in-progress-of-being-stitched-up Mick Foley. Sting has some pleasant reflections after his match, Nash is a riot enjoying a post-match brewski, and they get so up close to the medical staff working on Foley that they have to issue a graphic content warning. A Smashing Pumpkins music video and a photo gallery I once again borrowed a few pics from for this entry round off the decent amount of extras.

-TNA head honcho Dixie Carter made one of her first on-screen appearances for the company giving a quick interview to Jeremy Borash in the pre-show thanking the fans for their support. She started to make some PR appearances around this time to help promote the recently released Impact game on PS3 and 360 and I believe this was her TNA on-air programming debut. Regrettably, Dixie would go on to make more regular appearances in the years to come as an on-air authority figure much to the displeasure of viewers.

-I liked the frequent quick backstage interviews with talent before their matches and them combined with the aforementioned Barry Scott recaps served as a nice refresher on the rivalries going into this, and none overstayed their welcomes unlike a lot of modern WWE rivalry recap packages. I think Lauren was probably the fourth or fifth backstage interviewer for TNA at this point, and she did a fine good job with her reactions and adding in a quick take relative to the storyline’s after most of the interviews wrapped which added a nice ‘fan’s perspective’ view on the feuds.

-Also worth noting is future TNA president and current top brass of NWA, Billy Corgan made an early TNA appearance in the music video hype package for the PPV, which is also a DVD extra, with him lending TNA Bullet with Butterfly Wings for use. Speaking of Corgan, you guys should really watch NWA Powerrr!! It and NXT are my current top two shows of the overcrowded 2019 wrestling bubble in America.

-Before we begin (I know…sorry), I have to touch on the Suicide character making his Lockdown debut. He was a masked wrestler that debuted in the previously touted Impact videogame. The Impact game was ridiculously over-promoted on TV each week, eventually culminating in the videogame character becoming an actual wrestler. As of this writing, six different individuals have donned the Suicide gear for various stints for the character in TNA up until earlier this year when his most recent run ended. Worth noting is Suicide’s trademark fingers-to-the-temple pose. That same pose would coincidentally become the well-known cover art of the far better performing game, Borderlands when that game first released the following year. Naturally, having fans chant ‘Suicide’ and having him face off against opponents named ‘Homicide’ stirred controversy and TNA answered the criticism and would change his name to Manik…..before ultimately changing it back to Suicide due to presumably fan demand/creative resentment? TNA! TNA!

-Last year I noted how Lockdown 2008 had a shockingly low blade-job count with Brother D-Von being the sole wrestler who bled throughout the card. 2009 exponentially upped that number with six wrestlers donning the crimson mask with Abyss, Matt Morgan, Bully Ray, Mick Foley, Sting and Kevin Nash all doing the honors. Unlike WWE today, TNA did not change the mat canvas after a match if a wrestler bled so gradually throughout the night the mat transformed into a blood-soaked mess as you can see by the cell-phone photo I took with an overhead camera shot of the main event near the end of the PPV.

-Ok, enough babbling, onto the matches of this 2009 Lockdown! The pre-show match is included as a DVD extra and has Eric Young squaring off against local Philly radio personality, Danny Bonaduce. Danny tries some slimy antagonist antics against fan favorite EY, and even sneaks in a little offense before Young surprised him with a roll-up for the win. Danny tried to avenge his loss by beating down Young afterwards, but Rhino came in for the save and gore’d the smithereens out of Bonaduce! The first official match on the PPV card was the annual X-Title, X-Scape contest. This saw champ, Suicide defending against ‘Black Machismo’ Jay Lethal, Sheik Abdul Bashir (formerly WWE’s Daivari), Kiyoshi and Consequences Creed (a pre-WWE Xavier Woods).

I will give Vince Russo credit for accidentally stumbling into a legit thrilling finish for this X-Scape match! It is probably one of my favorites of them so far. After a lot of trademark X-Division high-flying and a few pinfall eliminations, it came down to Suicide and Bashir to escape in order to win. Kiyoshi tried to climb the top of the cage to prevent Suicide from climbing over, but security intervened and pulled him down while Bashir attempted to sneak through the door during the distraction. Before Bashir could sneak out however, Suicide surveyed the surroundings and did a dive from the top onto the security and Kiyoshi outside the ring for the instant victory! It played out very convincingly and I was popping just as big for it as the crowd!

-The second annual queen of the cage bout took place next between Sojourner Bolt, ODB, Daffney and then-Beautiful People intern Madison Rayne. Rayne would become a big player for the Knockouts division so it was interesting seeing her quite early in her TNA run. Unfortunately the Knockouts could not gel in this match and after several minutes of unremarkable action ODB hit a powerslam for the victory. The IWGP JR. Tag Titles match faired much better though with Motor City Machine Guns defending against LAX and No Limit. It was a bit on the spot-fest side of things, but a good one at that with the Guns successfully defending after hitting their Made in Detroit signature finish for the pin.

-Abyss and Matt Morgan squared off next in the uniquely titled ‘Doomsday Chamber of Blood’ that saw its stipulation being a wrestler cannot score a fall unto they make their adversary bleed. With that, we saw the use of tacks, glass shards and chairs resulting in the expected bloodbath. This Lockdown also took place while Abyss was a little ways into his ‘escaped mental facility’ version of his character and he referenced in a pre-match interview seeking therapy to stop weapon violence from one ‘Dr. Stevie.’ That Stevie turned out to be a TNA-debuting Stevie Richards fresh off his WWECW run who distracted Abyss by taking away a chair from him that caused Morgan to hit his finish for the win. This match gets the dubious honors of being my annual induction for being a solid lock for the eventual WWE home video release of ‘Top 50 OMG Moments of TNA/Impact.’

-The Knockouts Title was on the line next in a triple threat with Awesome Kong defending against Angelina Love and Taylor Wilde. Unfortunately a freak concussion happened to Angelina Love a couple minutes in after she took a cross-body from Wilde. She looked on auto-pilot while Wilde tried to bide time with a hold, but eventually they got the call to go home and Wilde took a weak kick from a handcuffed Kong for the awkward sudden victory. Hate to see it whenever this happens, but this was still a few years before the concussion controversies gained steam in the NFL and before WWE and TNA banned head chair-shots, so part of me was surprised TNA did the right thing and quickly ended the match when they realized something was not right, so good on them for that.

-Both the TNA Tag Titles and IWGP Tag Titles were simultaneously up for grabs next between Team 3D and Beer Money. The announcers and promo package did a tremendous job hyping up this match for who would be the king of the tag teams and making this match have the vibe of a homecoming for Team 3D due to their ECW roots. All wrestlers left the cage within seconds of starting the match (they would be among many to do so throughout the night) and did a ECW-esque brawl throughout the crowd for old time’s sake! Eventually the action came back inside and saw a few good highspots that got the crowd and me rolling and finishing with Team 3D getting the feel good win after hitting Roode with a 3D through a table.

-TNA’s version of War Games, Lethal Lockdown, happened next. It saw AJ Styles, Jeff Jarrett, Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe team up against Kurt Angle, Scott Steiner, Booker T and Kevin Nash. Seeing how worn down Kurt Angle looked in his farewell match earlier this year it is remarkable how much better he looked ten years prior. He looks about 30 years younger! Highlights of this Lethal Lockdown see Steiner hitting impressive top rope suplexes and Franken-steiners to a big crowd pop and Scotty responded by doing an aggressive flurry of bird flipping motions to the Philly crowd before they could conjure up a ‘You Still Got It’ chant. After Jarrett entered last and the roof of the cage locked down with weapons on top, AJ and Angle quickly ascended on top of the cage roof with a big spot coming from AJ doing a splash through the roof of the cage onto a few Main Event Mafia members to a big reaction. The finish occurred when AJ got the pin on Booker T when Jarrett hit him with a guitar after Jarrett teased turning on AJ. TNA had another former WWE-debut immediately after the match though with Bobby Lashley having an odd motorcycle-themed tron and theme-song package as he posed to the crowd and did…..nothing else of note. This would be the first of two runs for Lashley in TNA where he eventually evolved into a pretty decent act before he went back to WWE last year.

-The main event saw Sting defend his world title against Mick Foley. I recall not being into Foley’s ‘executive shareholder’ authority figure character here where he was squabbling with Sting for calling him out for being inactive and being portrayed as losing his marbles. He continues that characterization by pounding his forehead to bust himself open at the very beginning of the match. Foley looks like he got himself in decent shape in time for this match, but he could not go like he use to by this point in 2009 as this was mostly a kick and punch affair until in a baffling booking decision, Foley attacks a cameraman for being in his way, only moments later to demand that same cameraman to hand him an out of reach barbed-wire bat from outside the ring, to which the cameraman who just got pummeled by Foley quickly acquiesces to. After beating down on Sting with the bat for a while the two engage in a anticlimactic climbing-over-the-cage affair that Foley gets the best of to become the new TNA World champion in an underwhelming headlining bout. The two put on a good effort, and I hate to slight Foley, but he and the odd booking dragged things down a couple notches to the ‘alright’ quality level.

-This was a 50/50 night for the eight PPV matches. On one hand we had the off night for the women and the mediocre Doomsday and world title matches, but on the other we had two standout tag title matches, easily the best X-Scape match yet and better-than-usual Lethal Lockdown bout. Overall I would have to say the good outweighs the bad and will give 2009 Lockdown a solid thumbs-up. Join me next time as we enter the first of four Lockdowns that transpired during the not-so-highly-regarded Hogan/Bishoff run!

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
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
RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Scott Hall: Living on a Razors Edge
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 3: 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

Lockdown 2008

Greetings and welcome to the fourth installment covering every year of the all cage-format PPV from TNA/Impact Wrestling, Lockdown. Catch up with past editions by clicking here. Since the previous Lockdown, the following major changes have transpired for TNA: In May 2007, TNA came to an agreement with the NWA to end their partnership. This saw TNA putting NWA World and Tag Team titles in a state of abeyance by relinquishing them back to the NWA. The other big change was when Impact expanded to two hours on Spike in October 2007. There is a part of me that loved the ‘one-hour adrenaline rush’ era of Impact because somehow TNA found a way to cram in their entire roster and I barely had a chance to breathe by the time it was over, and even though I detested the name, that one-hour show delivered…..Total…Nontstop…Action.

I welcomed the change to two hours though because it was the catalyst for TNA launching its Knockouts division on the first two-hour episode of Impact. It could not have debuted at a better time because a year prior both Lita and Trish Stratus retired from WWE and for several years WWE’s women’s roster got watered down with mostly untrained Diva Search contestants that dominated WWE’s women’s division until around 2014. Since its 2007 debut, TNA has had a strong Knockouts division, and there were even a couple periods in TNA history where rating proved and fans stated TNA’s Knockouts were outperforming the men. For all the self-congratulating WWE has been doing themselves for their ‘Women’s Evolution’ in recent years TNA/Impact beat them to the punch years earlier by featuring their women in a plethora of standout rivalries and top-billed matches and having several all-women PPVs before WWE will have their first in several weeks from this writing.

Lockdown 2008 is emanating from Lowell, MA. Once again it is refreshing to see a TNA event not in the Impact Zone and in a bigger arena. They had a great opening too with cameras going to shots of Jeremy Borash and Don West in the stands with a red-hot crowd that kept up their enthusiasm for most of the night. The opener was the annual ‘X-Scape’ match for the X-Division Title. Jay Lethal’s Black Machismo persona was still running wild as he walked in and walked out champion. This marked the first Lockdown with one of my favorite TNA characters, Curry Man and also the first Lockdown to see Shark Boy with the addition of his Steve Austin impression to his act--I do not kid--click here to see proof with a Curry Man and Shark Boy interview. Also competing in the X-Scape match were Sonjay Dutt, Johnny Devine and a pre-WWE Xavier Woods then known as Consequences Creed. The match got the crowd lit up with tons of solid action and high-flying. Johnny Devine played the heel heat perfectly by teasing a win by slowly going up the cage while taunting during his escape attempt, but taking too much time to allow Lethal to recover and leap through the cage door to victory.

The ‘Queen of the Cage’ bout was next and saw Christy Hemme, Salinas, Jacquelyn, Traci Brooks, Velvet Sky, Angelina Love, Rha-ka Kahn and Roxxi Laveau compete in the women’s answer to the infamous ‘Reverse Battle Royal’ match. Yes, all six started off outside of the cage and the goal was to have the first two women who climbed up and enter the cage then square off in a match. Needless to say, it was an ugly start, with Roxxi and Love getting into the cage in order to have an ok three-to-four minute match with nothing too special that saw Roxxi emerge victorious after her VooDoo Drop finisher. Speaking of VooDoo, the tag team known as the VooDoo Kin Mafia split up shortly before this PPV just in time so Kip & BG James could face each other at Lockdown. Kip dominated the contest with his trademark slow, plodding offense to ‘you can’t wrestle’ chants before BG won over the crowd with his comeback that lead to a roll-up for the pin. The only gratifying part of this bout was the post-match when BG wanted to hug it out with Kip, only to see Kip reel the sucker in and repeatedly clothesline BG.

The next match is a debacle and easy inclusion for my dream ‘Top 50 OMG Incidents in TNA/Impact History’ DVD. It is a six team, handcuff elimination match. The goal is to handcuff all opponents to the cage. That may work in a smaller match, but with 12 guys it looks awkward to see so many stationary bodies all around the cage. Fun fact, I saw this match before on a best of Motor City Machine Guns DVD. I found it to be an awkward inclusion on the compilation, because the Guns did nothing special and were in fact the first team eliminated after a minute or two into the match. Speaking of the Guns, the announcers mentioned how it was the team’s one-year anniversary after aligning up at the X-Scape match the previous year. Joining the Guns in this match were the Rock ‘n Rave Infection (wrestlers capitalizing on the hot Guitar Hero-craze….seriously), LAX, Kaz & Eric Young, Rellik & Black Reign (Dustin Rhodes in a B&W themed version of Goldust) and Scotty Steiner & Petey Williams. Petey Williams is awesome here as he is Steiner’s Little-Poppa-Pump-In-Training protégé and came to the ring in the same attire as Scott. This match had a dumb theme with Young getting attacked before the match, only to see him make a late entrance in his superhero themed, ‘Super-Eric’ persona that saw Young doing a heroic leap off the cage and hand-cuffing everyone to earn a victory for him and Kaz…..what a mess.

You may now know her as ‘Welfare Queen’ on the hit Netflix series, Glow but back in 2008 Kia Stevens was kicking ass in TNA as Awesome Kong. Kong teamed up with her manager Rihisha Saeed against Gail Kim and the booze-loving ODB (think a more amped-up version of Sandman). ODB was always a wild card and I could not help but crack up as she swigged away from her flask during the match to get psyched up. ODB wound up getting the feel-good pin after a splash from halfway up the cage. Following that was a forgettable mixed tag match with Booker T & Sharmell against Robert Roode & Traci Brooks. I recall the Roode/Brooks tandem always being at odds, and sure enough that happened here when Brooks inadvertently struck Roode and Sharmell capitalized by rolling up Brooks for the win.

TNA’s rendition of War Games known as ‘Lethal Lockdown’ transpired next. 2008 saw Team 3D, AJ Styles, James Storm & Tomko against Christian Cage, Sting, Rhino, Kevin Nash & Matt Morgan. I completely forgot this was around the time when Tomko was surprisingly over for a short period of time in TNA as he was the captain of his team. I recall being disheartened to see TNA pull the plug on Tomko’s push shortly after this as he had some credible momentum at this time. AJ and Christian (in the last year of his TNA contract) opened the first five minutes. I was surprised to see Nash enter into the match earlier than anticipated and thought he would be somewhat prominently involved in this match. I should not have raised expectations because after a couple quick-fire clotheslines, someone started working over Nash’s leg and Nash went on to take a nap alongside the cage for the rest of the match. Also legit surprising to note is that Brother D-Von was the sole person of the night to bleed. This is jaw-dropping compared to the buckets of blood spilled in previous Lockdowns. Once all the wrestlers entered, the weapons-filled roof shut, and AJ and Christian proceeded to wage war on top of the cage which saw both men fall off the top of the ladder through a table that was on top of the cage for an impressive visual. This entertaining shmoz wrapped up when Rhino got the pin for his team after he gored James Storm.

Finally it was main event time with Samoa Joe fighting Kurt Angle for the TNA World Title. Props to TNA for building up this match throughout the night with interviews with Samoa Joe, Angle and several of their supporters between matches to stress the importance of this feud. TNA also had an excellent history montage of the two’s past matches with Angle being the most dominant of the two and there being an added stipulation that if Joe loses, he will retire. Angle mentioned earlier how he underwent a big MMA-training camp in preparation for the match and he came out in MMA attire and wrestled in a MMA style throughout the match. This lead to a lot of close striking and submission sequences interspersed with an occasional suplex to pop the crowd. This was a daring way to book the match, because it could have flopped big time, but Joe and Angle were total pros and made the MMA-style match work and surprisingly the crowd was red-hot throughout the submission-heavy bout. Samoa Joe won his first ever TNA World Title here after his muscle-buster for the pin. If memory serves right, Joe’s contract was coming up for renewal and TNA guaranteeing him this title nudge Joe to re-sign with TNA. If I also recall correctly, TNA did not appreciate Joe forcing their hand into make Joe the top champion and they went on to book him to have an ugly failure of a title reign that tarnished his overall act much like Mysterio’s 2006 WWE Title reign.

There are three extra features on the disc. Like last year, there is a quick photo gallery of all the matches that I will give credit to for snapping pics of with my cell of for use in this blog. Also like last year, there is a 14-minute compilation of Jeremy Borash interviews with TNA talent at a fan expo meet-up the weekend of Lockdown. I would say it is worth the quick watch to see how much the Knockouts love Jeremy and you can tell everyone was having a legit good time with the fans while staying in character for their promos. Finally there is bonus Impact match with a Kurt Angle/Samoa Joe re-match at the following Impact. It is a good bout, but is plagued with ref bumps and interference setting up Joe’s next rivalry. I will give the 2008 Lockdown a thumbs up, despite some bumps in the mid-card. I would recommend sticking with only the Lethal Lockdown, X-Title and World Title matches and skipping the rest. Also props to TNA for finding a way to seemingly work everyone onto the show, I did a tally on my notes and in the eight matches counted 48 different wrestlers! I will close the 2008 Lockdown entry by once again referencing my love for Curry Man and being bamboozled that Brother D-Von was the only person to bleed the entire night!

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
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
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 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
RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
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
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 3: 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

Lockdown 2007

Welcome to the third installment of my march through all of TNA/GFW/Impact Wrestling’s Lockdown PPVs that ran from 2005-2016. As I like to start these off, let’s see how Impact has evolved over the previous year. Going into April 2007, they now have WWE Hall of Famer and current RAW GM, Kurt Angle on its roster. Vince Russo is back on the TNA booking team for the first of many Lockdowns to come. We were in the midst of the ‘PCS’ Paparazzi Championship Series where Kevin Nash took several X-Division guys and put them through early-NXT-type challenges and made buddies with them all in the end in a fun set of sketches to look back on and see how they helped add some depth to previously vanilla X-Division stars. Some major teams have now split up with Team Canada and America’s Most Wanted no longer together. This is the final Lockdown during the ‘one-hour adrenaline rush’ era of Impact, as Spike made the show a two hour program in the proceeding fall. With that added hour they immediately debuted its ‘Knockouts’ division, and the seeds for that are seen here with more women on the roster compared to a year prior, and 2007 seeing the first women’s match in Lockdown history.

This is one of the first TNA/Impact PPV’s to leave the Impact Zone in Orlando, and started a new trend for the promotion where they would try and have at least a few of their ‘marquee’ PPVs in bigger markets. This change in venue is immediately noticeable as Lockdown 2007 emanates from a much bigger venue in St. Louis, Missouri. The Impact Zone is a nice studio setting for the weekly TV show that TNA has made tremendous strides in making it look bigger than it actually is, but them bringing their PPVs to a legit arena gives them a more big time feel.

The pre-show match is included in the extras and features Vodoo Kin Mafia (AKA James Gang, AKA New Age Outlaws) taking on Christy Hemme’s mysterious team called Serontonin. I completely forgot about Serontonin until now, and looking back at them they remind me an awful lot of Sanity in NXT. Hemme’s first foray into managing did not go well as Serontonin were not long for the company, and Hemme would find a modicum of success managing the Rock ‘n Rave Infection, who I kid you not came down to the ring jamming out on Guitar Hero guitars! Voodoo Kin Mafia was Russo’s 4th-wall breaking makeover of the James Gang, whose only purpose seemed to intentionally point out the absurd booking of DX concurrently taking place in WWE. The match was a forgettable quick little bout on the preshow with Kip pinning Havik with The One and Only. Other extras on the DVD are a photo gallery that I took pics with my phone of for the blog here, thus the lack of quality (sorry….kind of) and a nice 12-minute montage of footage of TNA stars signing autographs at its Fan Fest the day before.

I loved the longtime TNA PPV voiceover guy, Barry Scott! His voice brings an intangible grandeur to every event he introduces and he does it once again here promising this Lockdown will bring blood and terror! There was no blood in the 5-Man Xscape match opener for the X-Division title. Like past years, eliminations happen by pins and submissions until it is down to the last two where escape from cage determines the winner. This year’s contestants were Sonjay Dutt, Alex Shelley, Shark Boy, ‘Black Machismo’ Jay Lethal and defending champ, Chris Sabin. Kevin Nash and the PCS was responsible for Jay Lethal doing a Macho Man impression he kept up for a few years in TNA because it was damn good Macho Man impression and was responsible for the only good Ric Flair moment in his TNA run. The X-Division delivered in this match with a ton of killer spots that all connected. Shelley and Sabin teamed up for a hearty part of the match and gelled well together and I could see this match being the catalyst for them starting to team up shortly after this PPV and form the Motor City Machine Guns. Eventually it came down to Lethal and Sabin, and Sabin successfully defended the belt after Lethal got his foot stuck in the cage in a heck of an opener.

Former Team Canada members collide next when Robert Roode took on Petey Williams. This had the storyline of Williams trying to help out another former Team Canada member, Eric Young, who was tricked into signing paperwork to become Robert Roode’s property. Young tries to help Petey out, but it backfires and Roode lands the Payoff/Perfect Plex for the win. The first women’s Lockdown bout transpired next with Gail Kim taking on Jacquelyn/Miss Jackie Moore. Jackie is teaming with James Storm and both have an awesome theme that has not crossed my mind in awhile and was a hoot to relive. The two stepped up and had a killer match that started off with an outside brawl before slugging it out in the six sides of steel. Kim got the pin after a splash from the top of the cage.

Good ‘ol Mr. Bob Backlund had a fun cup of coffee in TNA at this time. He would usually be seen in the background coming out of commercial behind the announcers doing the Harvard Step Test all show long for no apparent rhyme or reason. TNA! TNA! This regrettably stopped when he became involved in Senshi and Austin Starr’s feud and was the guest referee. In case you forgot, Austin Starr was TNA’s reimagining of Austin Aries as a modern day Jesse Ventura. Senshi got a sneaky roll-up win after he took advantage of Starr arguing with Backlund.

When I was eight I must have watched the Wrestlemania VII blindfold match on Colisseum Videotape between Rick Martel and Jake Roberts countless times. 8-year-old Dale absolutely ate it up! That is how you do a blindfold match! How you do not do a blindfold match is how TNA executed it here between former America’s Most Wanted teammates Chris Harris and James Storm. The ref loosely tied the masks on both men, and both masks repeatedly fell off several times throughout. ‘Someone Stop This’ was an audible chant throughout the bout. It mercifully concluded when Storm cheated and peaked from under the mask to see Harris’s position and superkicked him for the pin. I made it clear on this blog before my love for WWE’s OMG video series, and when WWE ultimately buys out TNA/Impact and gets their video library, this blindfold match is easily a top tier contender for TNA’s OMG/Worst of moments. It is worth noting Harris and Storm would rebound from this in a match of the year contender a few months later at Sacrifice 2007.

The next match saw Christopher Daniels taking on Jerry Lynn. Daniels is trying some new gimmickry with his persona at this time by having spooky face paint around one of his eyes…..I do not believe this lasted long and I eagerly anticipate filling you all full of delicious, spicy, great tasting curry soon when Daniels debuts Curry Man in a year or two! The match was nothing too special, and eventually had a couple nice spots in the final moments before Daniels won with his Last Rites finisher. LAX and a wheelchaired-bounded Konnan cut a promo on Team 3D next. Konnan is essentially retired at this point as a lifetime of leg injuries caught up with him and he is now only managing LAX.

Compared to the previous two Lockdowns, it is a achievement and a half that the 2007 edition did not see bloodshed until the eight match on the card when Team 3D faced LAX in a electrified cage match. You read that right, whenever wrestlers would touch the cage, they would get shocked, complete with zany PA sound effects and flashing arena lights and gratuitous overselling from D-Von who got Border Tossed by Hernandez into the cage and bled buckets all over the mat. The crowd did not respond well to this gimmicked warfare and appropriately chanted ‘bullshit’ and ‘fire Russo’ in response. Poor Hernandez got around the electricity by climbing up the cage with special leather gloves and boots he conjured from out of nowhere, but his attempt at putting Team 3D away with a splash through a table backfired when D-Von rolled out of the way, and then Homicide stumbling into the 3D move spelled victory for Team 3D in another match worthy of making the elusive ‘Top 50 OMG TNA Moments’ list.

Throughout this PPV between matches there were regular backstage updates from the members on both sides of the Lethal Lockdown main event. It was the usual bru-ha-ha of whether certain team members could be trusted. Jeff Jarrett was making his TNA return after a several month sabbatical and joined up on Kurt Angle’s side of heroes consisting of Rhino, Samoa Joe and Sting and they all were unsure of Jarrett’s loyalty. Christian Cage was on top of his game at this point in his TNA run as NWA World Champ and leader of his faction with Tomko and AJ Styles who was now rocking a full-out southern hick character. Joining them in Lethal Lockdown were Abyss, and TNA newcomer, ‘Big Poppa Pump’ Scott Steiner. If you though Steiner was unpredictable on the mic before, then checkout this montage past the 14 minute mark to see his best TNA lines where Scott truly was unfiltered.

I always liked the Lethal Lockdown matches, which had nearly the exact same rules as War Games, except the roof lowered after the 10th and final competitor entered and they left a gap at the top encouraging wrestlers to crawl on top of the roof which was filled with weapons. It kind of got congested with just one ring when more stars entered the fray, but eventually almost all made it to the outside once Rhino speared Tomko out of the cage in an impressive moment. Seeing Scotty Steiner bust out a Frankensteiner for the first time in ages also had me popping big. There was the requisite Pyramid Suplex spot towards the end of the match, and the most eye-opening spot featured Angle punching AJ off the top of the cage onto a bunch of awaiting wrestlers to catch him. Rhino is the second and surprisingly last combatant to bleed for the night, which is shockingly low compared to past years. The ending saw Jarrett truly being a good guy and helping out his team when he ka-bonged Abyss with a guitar filled with, what else, but tacks so Sting could get the pin. Minus a couple lulls in the middle where it seemed the guys were killing time waiting for the next person to come out, this was a crazy, yet fun match complete with the good kind of overbooking nonsense that I can sink my teeth into. Ambitious stunts, tack-filled weapon spots, and a good dose of creativity made this a great closer to the show.

As stated in previous entries, the one hour Impact era of TNA is probably my favorite period in the promotion’s history because they managed to make use of a huge roster in an hour. Even when Vince Russo returned and started up his notorious booking decisions again, it was still a fun show to watch and TNA had to keep the show moving so no segment overstayed its welcome. There is some cringe-worthy booking from Russo in the forms of Storm/Harris and 3D/LAX matches that should be skipped over by all means. However, Lockdown 2007 still captures that great feeling of this era of TNA I dug at the time with several great feuds and matches that stepped up and delivered. Definitely go out of your way to check out the Xscape, Miss Jackie/Gail Kim and Lethal Lockdown matches that made this show. It will be interesting to see where TNA is at in 2008’s Lockdown with Russo fully invested into the booking and a Knockouts Division in place.

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
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
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 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
RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Sting: Into the Light
Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
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 3: 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

Lockdown 2006

Welcome to my second installment of reviewing every TNA Lockdown DVD! If you missed my recap of the first PPV in 2005 you can click here to catch up. That recap also contains a bonus intro that serves as a handy primer for the nuts-o promotion that somehow-someway keeps limping along that is TNA/GFW/Impact Wrestling. My plan is to review a Lockdown DVD every several months. Lockdown is the one event a year for the company where every match happens in a cage! Impact Wrestling has released DVDs of Lockdown PPVs through 2014. The 2015 & 2016 incarnations were shortened TV specials, but since the last blog Impact Wrestling finally launched its own Network/App, The Global Wrestling Network which features the entire Impact TV/TNA PPV archives so if/when I do get that far along with these blogs I will bite the bullet and subscribe to it and bestow the lowdown on Lockdown to you dear readers!

Also if you came here fresh from reading the 2005 Lockdown recap you will notice I am no longer referring to the promotion as Global Force Wrestling. That is because Anthem, the company that owns the promotion, had a major falling out with partner Jeff Jarrett before they fully completed the acquisition of his GFW promotion and they backed out of the GFW branding and went back to calling the promotion Impact Wrestling. For those keeping tabs that is the fourth, yes fourth name change for the promotion THIS YEAR because it started off 2017 as TNA, then went to Impact for a few months before changing to GFW for a few months and eventually back to Impact Wrestling. This is all great material for the eventual WWE buyout of Impact and they unleash their OMG 50 Incidents of Impact home video, which should really be a 5-disc 150 OMG Incidents because 50 is nowhere near enough!

So let us shift back to then-TNA in 2006. What has happened in the year preceding the previous Lockdown? Not too long after the premiere Lockdown PPV, TNA’s FSN TV contract ended, and after waiting a few months for WWE’s TV contract to end with Spike, TNA found their way on Spike the week after WWE left the network in October 2006. It was the beginning of a long partnership that would last over nine years with TNA staying on the network through 2014. The move to a major cable network was the catalyst for more former WCW/WWE talent coming over to TNA. Christian was the first WWE star to not re-sign with WWE and opted to bring his talents to Orlando and TNA got behind him big and within months he became the NWA World Champ and continued to hold it going into this show.

Sting was perhaps the biggest acquisition for TNA and he debuted a few months prior teaming with Christian in the first TNA PPV of 2006. Mr. “Big Poppa Pump” Scotty Steiner is two years past his failed WWE run and made his TNA debut shortly before this show and will have his first TNA match at this Lockdown. The Dudley Boyz are fresh off a successful six year run in WWE, and arrived in TNA towards the end of 2015 as the newly branded Team 3D and rocking flannel instead of camo. Finally, TNA acquired the hottest indy star in the summer of 2005 in the form of Samoa Joe and going into this PPV he is the X Division champion and undefeated at nearly a year into his run in the promotion. All these acts will have pretty solid runs in TNA and will have lengthy stays in the promotion. Also, this edition of Lockdown will be the final one for about a decade to not be booked by Vince Russo, and it shows with most of the matches here having solid, traditional rivalries and storytelling, and being surprisingly competent by TNA standards. I am greatly anticipating the nonsensical chaos to come in the future Lockdowns. OK, that primer setting up the 2006 Lockdown went on far too long but TNA/Impact is a…unique…company and a lot can occur in a year for them. On to the show!

TNA does a round robin league/tournament every year or two known as the X-Cup/Super X. It features a few teams consisting of cruiserweights from around the world. It usually lasts several weeks as the teams rack up points for their wins and losses. The opening match was a six man tag that served as a preview for the 2006 X-Cup with Team Japan’s Hirooki Goto, Black Tiger & Minoru defeating Team USA’s Alex Shelley, Sonjay Dutt, & Jay Lethal. Announcers Mike Tenay & Don West highlight that Lethal is at this point TNA’s youngest star on their roster at 23 years old! He has come a long way. The bout is a excellent opener with a good dose of the flips and dives expected from this division with a tremendous sequence of near falls in the final minutes that sees Black Tiger getting the pin on Jay Lethal with his Tiger Suplex.

There is a nice flow to this PPV with a quick backstage interview between every match with the wrestlers giving a quick traditional verbal beating of their rival shortly before their match. The former Bubba Ray, now known as Brother Ray gives a super rah-rah-USA promo with a 3D twist to the Pledge of Allegiance before their match later with Team Canada. However next up is Christopher Daniels against a mystery opponent that wound up being his former Triple X partner, the returning Low-Ki, who is now going by Senshi. Some of you may recall Low-Ki/Senshi from his brief 2010 run in WWE as the season two winner of NXT, Kaval. The two obviously know each other well and go move-for-move and counter-for-counter in another excellent highspot match-up where Senshi gets the victory with a reverse-Suplex-leverage pin.

The greatest worst faction in TNA history, Three Live Kru, disbanded since the last Lockdown with Kip James arrival in TNA and joining the group, but Konnan did not trust him and turned on his buddies. He went on to form the Hispanic-gang themed faction LAX with Hernandes & Homicide which I was a big fan of for their lengthy run in TNA. Kip and BG then teamed up as The James Gang and brought along BG’s dad, WWE Hall of Famer, Bullet Bob along for the ride. There is a fun montage highlighting this rivalry where Bullet Bob proves his true grit here by taking on Konnan in an arm wrestling match…in a cage! This looks like it could be a trainwreck going into it, but Konnan and Bullet Bob do a hell of a job with their facials in their tribute to Over the Top and it makes for a dandy little encounter. There is a bonus stipulation where the losing team has to get whipped and BG drags it out with his trash talk between lashings while the crowd chants “boring.” So the post-match hoopla is a wash, but the actual arm wrestling duel was surprisingly fun.

Speaking of crowd chants, there are a few ‘This is awesome’ chants I noticed this show. I am not positive but thinking back on it this chant may have originated in TNA. WWE was still pre-PG at this time and most of their crowds then chanted ‘Holy Shit’ or ‘ECW’ for highspots if I recall correctly. Now their crowds regularly chant ‘This is awesome.’ I could be wrong, but maybe TNA/Impact’s long-lasting legacy will be it being the origin of that popular chant. That chant was also predominant in the second annual Xscap match that sees six X-Division stars start off in an elimination match until it is down to two competitors where the bout then becomes an escape-the-cage-to-win match.

This year sees Elix Skipper, Petey Williams, Puma, Chase Stevens, Shark Boy and Chris Sabin in the Xscape match. Highlight of the bout is Stevens going up to the cage for a splash unto his opponents who were waiting to break his fall in a telegraphed spot, but then something happens and it looks like the X-Division stars get cold feet on wanting to take the spot or their timing is off and they whiff catching Stevens who air balls directly onto the mat in the nastiest spot of the night. The announcers try to improvise and cover for the spot by saying the wrestlers smartly moved out of the way and I guess it works, but what is more bizarre is Stevens barely selling the miss and continues to wrestle like he hit the move and is on a roll in the match….’bowling-shoe ugly’ as good ‘ol JR would say. Anywho, the match boils down to Williams and Sabin, and backfired interference from Petey’s manager Coach D’amore leads to Sabin escaping the cage in an entertaining final sequence.

Next we have the Lockdown debut of Samoa Joe defends his X-Title as he takes on Sabu. First thought here, is damn does Joe look like a kid here in 2005 compared to how we see him now in 2017. I believe this is also Sabu’s final TNA match for awhile because he went off to WWE for their ECW relaunch for a year. That did not stop Sabu from bouncing around like crazy and being the first combatant to get busted open this night. He tried to stab Joe with his trademark railroad spike, but fails to do so as he falls victim to Joe’s musclebuster and Joe walks out of this still undefeated.

Bubba had a pro-USA promo earlier, but Team Canada manage to top him with their pro-Canada speech as they intentionally bomb singing the opening lines to the Canadian anthem. Bobby Roode and Eric Young have come a long ways since these TNA early years. Bubba Ray, D-Von & Spike Dudley are known in TNA as Brother Ray, Brother D-Von & Brother Runt, respectively. They are taking on Team Canada’s Eric Young, A1 & Bobby Roode in an ‘Anthem Match.’ Hmm….I wonder if this should be the new marquee match type of the company today considering Impact Wrestling’s new parent owner is Anthem Entertainment, who is based out of Canada no less! What is an Anthem Match, you ask? In TNA, it is a Flag Match, but since this is Lockdown the wrestlers have to grab their county’s flag from the top of the cage to claim victory and the losers must then be shamed as they have to listen to their rivals’ national anthem in disgrace!

Team 3D has a fairly decent entrance theme knockoff to their killer Powerman 5000 track in WWE. There are a few fun spots in here such as a Bubba-Bomb from the top rope and a terrific false finish where Team 3D’s initial flag grab was not recognized because the ref was knocked out. This will probably be the first and only time where we have a flag match in a cage with a ref bump false finish….only in TNA! What is more amusing is Runt then grabbing the flag for the official victory and the TV crew cutting to the announcers to hype the rest of the card while the crowd chants along to the national anthem in its entirety well after they stop playing the instrumental version on the PA. Tenay & West hilariously fail to talk over them before giving in and recognizing the crowd’s rightful patriotism!

New mother of triplets and the first-ever WWE Diva Search winner, Christy Hemme makes her TNA debut next to deliver an envelope for West & Tenay to announce. A year prior, Dusty Rhodes was the on-screen authority figure of TNA, but since then Larry Zybysko went on to procure the role, but has been up to shady corruptions on the side and Tenay & West announce that the ‘TNA Executive Committee’ is reviewing Zybysko’s actions and working on finding a new replacement. That replacement in the coming weeks was revealed to be none other than Jim Cornette. In that same announcement, TNA reinstates Zybysko’s rival he previously fired, Raven. Zybysko comes out to protest, but Raven promptly comes out and chases him out of the ring.

Christian Cage (he had to add the last name to his billing in TNA to avoid legal troubles with WWE, oh yeah he too has a solid knockoff of his WWE theme for his TNA music) defends his NWA World Title next against Abyss. The montage that played before this match highlighting their feud showed Abyss stalking Christian’s wife so Christian is none-too-happy about that and interrupts Abyss’s entrance for a surprise attack and the two brawl outside the ring and into the stands before officially starting the match in the cage several minutes later. Abyss then proceeds to have several minutes of methodical, lulling dominance in the match before a ref bump and Christian liven up the crowd with a believable near fall after a splash from the top of the cage. When that did not work, a sunset flip from the top of the cage into a powerbomb onto thumb-tacks was still not enough to put away Abyss. Abyss’s manager James Mitchell then busts out a second bag of tacks to the announcers’ delight and in vintage Abyss fashion, his attempt to win with them backfires as Christian hits an Unprettier on the tacks for the pin. The first half really dragged, but the surreal near falls and stunts in the second half saved this match. Not all was well for Christian however as Abyss got his revenge by choking out Christian with a chain after the match.

The main event is the second annual Lethal Lockdown, AKA Wargames, headlining this card with Rhino, AJ Styles, Sting and Ron Killings teaming up to face America’s Most Wanted, Jeff Jarrett and Scott Steiner. Just like last year, two guys from each time start off for five minutes before other team members come out in two minute intervals. When all the entrants are in the cage, a roof seals everyone inside and only then are pinfalls and submissions official. AJ Styles and Chris Harris start off for initial five minutes and I forgot how awesome and quick AJ was back in these early TNA years. He can still go and deliver MOTY candidates with ease today, but there is a special flash and spring to his step back then. This match only sees three of its entrants get busted open this year with Harris, AJ & Rhino all doing the honors. Combine that with Sabu & Abyss from earlier in the night and that ups to the total to five wrestlers dawning the crimson mask overall.

The roof eventually seals everyone in after Sting enters last, but for whatever reason the roof of the cage is filled with weapons to entice the wrestlers to leave the cage, and within a minute of being sealed in AJ and James Storm slip out to the top of the cage where AJ climbs on top of a ladder that is on top of a cage and splashes James Storm through a table on top of the six sides of steel in one of the more memorable spots of the night. In the ring however Sting recovers from a guitar joust that did not go in his favor against Jeff Jarrett and recuperates in time to reverse a Scorpion Deathlock onto Chris Harris for the tapout win! This was a bonkers main event and considering the gimmick and weaponry involved I got what I wanted out of it with the creative top of the cage spot from AJ and the craziness that unfolded inside the ring whenever new entrants entered the fray. I like how the tradition of the PPV two years in so far sees the X-Division have their marquee Xscape match and the heavyweights get the traditional War Games rules matchup for their gimmick headliner.

There are 14 minutes of bonus features on the DVD. There is photo shoot footage with Christy Hemme and alternative entrance camera shots and alternative match angles from several entrances and several excerpts of matches. Nothing too special, but a decent sprinkling of extras to quickly devour. This was actually a surprisingly good PPV with all the X-Division matches delivering and Christian/Abyss managing to salvage a great World Title bout after its initial stumbling. The ‘entertainment’ bouts that were the Anthem and Arm Wrestling bouts were convenient pallet cleansers that were wisely placed on the card to recharge the crowd and deliver some laughs. Most importantly, the main event delivered and after sleeping on it for a bit, gets my nod as the match of the night. I am getting warm fuzzies reliving this era of Impact Wrestling, but it is all about to get crushed because about a half year later Vince Russo returns to TNA as the primary booker for about a decade and it only goes downhill from there. Join me again here in several months for the 2007 Lockdown PPV, the first to come under the era of Vince Russo.

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
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History
Owen: Hart of Gold
RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Sting: Into the Light
Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
TNA Lockdown 2005-2014
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 3: 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