Mike Reviews TNA Lockdown 2008

Happy Friday Everyone!

We’ve got some more TNA for you today with Lockdown 2008, which was at the time TNA’s biggest pay per view achieving an estimated 50,000 to 55,000 buys. This was mostly down to the fact that they booked Kurt Angle against Samoa Joe in the Main Event and then promoted it as a match between two top stars that you could actually take seriously. This was a break from the usual TNA booking at the time, as Vince Russo was writing the show and didn’t normally go for that serious Pro Wrestling stuff.

Russo’s influence can be felt across the rest of the Lockdown card, and the matches where that’s the case will likely be obvious. Still, once Angle and Joe get in the ring then it’s unlikely that even a promotion as inept as TNA could even screw that up, so let’s settle down and enjoy TNA’s yearly cage match filled spectacular.

You can view the full card for Lockdown by clicking the link below;

TNA Lockdown 2008 Card

Thanks as always to F&C for making this show available.

TNA Lockdown is emanating from the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, Massachusetts on the 13th of April 2008. As is normally the case with Lockdown, every match will be inside a cage tonight

Calling the action are Mike Tenay and Don West, with MMA fighter Frank Trigg also popping up at points

Mike Tenay does the big dramatic intro in the ring before the show starts and it’s well done on his part. We then get the opening video package we a guy doing “serious video package voice” throughout it

Don West is in the crowd asking the fans who they think will win the Main Event tonight, with most picking Samoa Joe. Jeremy Borash is also in the crowd, as the fans seem fired up by tonight

Opening Match
Xscape Steel Cage for the TNA X-Division Title
Champion: “Black Machismo” Jay Lethal Vs Shark Boy Vs Curry Man Vs “The Guru” Sonjay Dutt Vs Johnny Devine Vs Consequences Creed

What a collection of whacky characters we have here. Lethal is doing a Randy Savage cosplay, Shark Boy is dressing up like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Curry Man is a masked faux Japanese man who loves curry, Dutt is a stereotypical Indian guru, Devine is a violent Heel with a Singapore cane and Creed (the future Xavier Woods) is doing a young boxer styled gimmick. I’m all for giving undercard guys some flavour so they’re not just generic folks doing moves, but when most of the people in a division are a joke it kind of makes the division itself feel like a joke as well. The stipulation here is that its elimination by pin or submission until two people are left, at which point it becomes escape the cage to win.

Lethal and Dutt were still friends at this point, although they’d feud later in the year, so they work as a team for parts of this. Everyone in the match hates Devine because he was helping anti X-Division guys Team 3D, so they all take turns attacking him, at which point it turns into a parade of MOVEZ. It does its job as a wild X-Division opener, with the fans enjoying it and the bout never getting dull. I still think these should just be straight elimination matches though, as the escape-the-cage finish adds an unnecessary complication.

Creed looks decent in there, showing some good charisma and fitting in with the hot moves you’d normally want to see in one of these matches. Curry Man could be the most popular wrestler in the match with the fans, as his mixture of wacky personality and slick wrestling stands him in good stead. Curry Man ends up climbing the cage and flipping off the top onto both Creed and Devine in the ring. That was a fun spot and it looked generally safe as Curry less jumped off the top rather than just falling onto two wrestlers who were ready to catch him, so they minimised some of the risk, which is good to see, and still got a big pop for it.

Our final two end up being Devine and Lethal, which makes sense seeing as they had been feuding prior to this show. It also allows one wrestler to be a straight Heel whilst the other can be a battling babyface, which makes sense. Devine tries to tie Lethal to the cage with some of his wrist tape, but Dutt refuses to let Devine exit through the door, which gives Lethal some time to get himself untied. Devine tries going over the top, but he stops to taunt Lethal, which allows Lethal to dive out of the door to get the last gasp escape victory.

11 Minutes

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: JAY LETHAL
RATING: ***

Thoughts: Good action there and I kind of liked the finish, as Lethal did get some help from Dutt but Devine had been a jerk prior to it, so it felt like a bad guy getting his just desserts against a good guy who actually had some friends who were willing to fight alongside him

Jeremy Borash interviews Frank Trigg, who thinks that Angle and Joe are both very impressive, but he thinks that Angle has the edge in their feud so Angle will pick up the win tonight. Trigg was really good here and talked about the match like it was a serious thing that we as viewers should care about.

Second Match
Reverse Steel Cage Match
Traci Brooks Vs “Pride of Tennessee” Jacqueline Moore Vs Christy Hemme Vs Angelina Love Vs Velvet Sky Vs Salinas Vs Rhaka Khan Vs Roxxi Laveaux

Vince Russo everybody!

So the stipulation here is that the women have to try and climb into the cage, at which point the two that make it in first will then have a standard match. Brooks had recently turned babyface after being a browbeaten manager for Robert Roode. Moore had previously worked in WCW and WWE before heading to TNA. Hemme was doing a rock music gimmick. Love and Sky were The Beautiful People, two mean bitchy women who thought they were the best looking people in the promotion. I know that basically covers most of the women characters that Vince Russo ever booked, but these two were especially known for it. Salinas was a vampire in WWE but now she’s part of the LAX faction in TNA. Khan is tall, and terrible. Laveaux is a voodoo woman.

This is another example of TNA seemingly complicating things for the sake of it, as the opening sections of this one see the wrestlers fighting outside of the ring and acting like they can’t make it into the cage when there isn’t someone around them who could easily stop them. Love and Laveaux end up making it into the cage, at which point we get a singles match between the two. The match between the two is okay, although it feels a bit rushed as they’re doing dramatic kick outs after less than 5 minutes. Love gets a Complete Shot styled move, but she takes too long to make the pin, which allows Laveaux to kick out without killing the move. Laveaux actually gets some chants from the crowd and kicks Love into the ring before getting some kind of sit out spine buster called the Voodoo Drop for the three count.

6 Minutes

WINNER: ROXXI LAVEAUX
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: Not much to this one. The stipulation didn’t really work and it led to the singles match at the end being rushed, but it wasn’t terrible or anything

New backstage interviewer Lauren interviews Samoa Joe, who believes he’s done enough to defeat Kurt Angle later on. This was a bit shouty, as Joe’s TNA promos often were, but besides that it was delivered well.

We get a video package for the next match, where Kip James compares himself to a tiger. Does that mean the next match will be grrreeeeaaattttttt?

………

I’ll get me coat.

Third Match
Kip James Vs BG James

Kip is Billy Gunn and BG is Road Dogg, the former New Age Outlaws. They had reformed their tag team in TNA in 2006, but there was a split when BG earned a Title shot and decided to tag with his father, Bullet Bob, instead of Kip, leading to Kip going Heel and this match being booked. Kip takes most of the match here, following a sucker punch at the opening bell, which leads to Kip working BG over whilst BG sells. BG sells well and Kip shows off some decent Heel mannerisms whilst beating him up, so it’s an okay lower card bout that never really kicks in to a higher gear. BG eventually dodges a second rope Rocker Dropper attempt from Kip and clobbers him right in the Sopp’s before making the comeback. It’s never stated by the commentary team, but I’m guessing the fact every match is in a cage tonight means that we don’t have DQ’s and that’s why the bout didn’t end when BG clobbered Kip in his meat and two veg? Kip fights back, but misses a Stinger Splash and BG gets a roll-up for the three count.

7 Minutes

WINNER: BG JAMES
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was fine. They told the story of Kip being the aggressive Heel whilst BG was the gutsy babyface fighting from underneath, and it mostly landed, with the work being straightforward but generally well executed

Kip pretends to turn babyface following the match, but it’s a SWERVE bro (no surprises on who booked that one), as Kip lays out BG and taunts him.

Jeremy Borash is interviewing TNA World Champ Kurt Angle, who is all focused and intense at Lockdown after previously doing more comedy during his TNA run. Angle says that Joe is the only person who is as intense as he is, but Joe is becoming too much of an obstacle for him so now Joe has to leave. This was a really good intense promo, and if we saw more of this Kurt Angle during his TNA run then he would have likely been a more effective character for them.

Fourth Match
Cuffed in the Cage Six Way Tag Team Match
Petey Williams and Scott Steiner Vs Kaz and Super Eric Vs Black Reign and Rellik Vs The Latin American Exchange (Hernandez & Homicide) Vs The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) Vs The Rock ‘n Rave Infection (Jimmy Rave & Lance Hoyt)

Williams is yet another cosplayer (what was with TNA doing that trope so much during this time?) as he dresses up as Little Petey Pump seeing as he’s tagging with Scott Steiner. Kaz is Frankie Kazarian, not Kaz Hayashi, whilst Super Eric is Eric Young dressed as a superhero. Black Reign is Dustin Rhodes doing a weird alternate universe version of Goldust, whilst Rellik is the former Johnny Stamboli from WCW/WWE, doing a masked maniac gimmick. The commentary team would love to remind folks that Rellik was “Killer” spelt backwards. LAX are bad ass Latin Americans. MCMG had a run in WWE pretty recently. Rave and Hoyt are faux rockstars, complete with Guitar Hero controller.

Young gets attacked by Reign and Rellik backstage before the match starts, which explains why he isn’t in the match but Super Eric will be. So the rules here seem to be that you have to handcuff the opposing teams to the cage in order to eliminate them, which seems like another case of TNA piling a stipulation on top of another stipulation almost for the sake of it. 12 people all fighting in a cage this size seems like an idea that’s doomed to fail, but TNA booking a wacky stip match within the confines of a ring that can’t really handle it efficiently is a very TNA thing to do. Steiner swears up a chuffing storm on his way to the ring, as he was wont to do.

Steiner runs wild on everyone to start, so they all gang up on him to cuff him to the cage, which means he’s eliminated. Eric Young tries to get into the cage, but runs away when confronted by Reign and Rellik. The commentary team has to apologise numerous times for losing track of what’s going on, which is usually a good signal that a match is overly complicated. Folks get cuffed to the cage and the commentary team misses it, as do the camera crew as well sometimes. Some of the action is okay, but there’s so much going on that it never really has a chance to properly land and just feels like folks doing stuff, even when you get stuff like double team moves and poor Rave getting FLUNG into the cage by Hernandez.

Kaz busts out a one man Spanish Fly onto Rave at one stage, which gets possibly the biggest pop of the match, and it was spectacular. At least one of the big moves in this had a chance to get over with the crowd, as some folks had been cuffed to the cage by that point so there was less to focus on. Kaz ends up getting choke slammed off the ropes by Hoyt though, which leaves us with Reign and Rellik and The Rock and Rave’s, which is finally Super Eric’s cue to show up and dive onto all of the Heels, which gets a big pop from the crowd. Super Eric runs wild and ends up cuffing the Heels to the cage for the victory.

11 Minutes

WINNERS: KAZ & SUPER ERIC
RATING: **

Thoughts: When it came down to Reign, Rellik, Rave, Hoyt and Eric it became a more focused match and the crowd got into it, but prior to that it was just a bunch of stuff in a cage that wasn’t big enough to hold it

Lauren interviews Samoa Joe’s father and brothers, who believe that Joe can win tonight. Joe’s dad, Pete, isn’t a great promo, but his comments feel heartfelt and it’s a nice segment as a result. Whether Joe wins or loses, his family will continue to love him.

Fifth Match
TNA Women’s Champion Awesome Kong and Raisha Saeed Vs Gail Kim and ODB

Kong and Kim had a big feud going on at the time, with Saeed being Cheerleader Melissa/Alissa Flash in mask whilst ODB is a alcohol slugging brawler who would actually get inducted into the TNA hall of fame in 2026. Kong is great as the unstoppable monster Heel here, with the babyfaces struggling to get anything going with her, whilst the match does a decent job of showing that Saeed is actually a competent wrestler as well and not just a manager, as she is able to take the fight to Kim without any cheating or illegal assistance.

ODB was I think the next challenger in line for Kong, so they build to the hot tag for her, whilst Kim gets worked over in the Heel side of the ring. Saeed actually works most of the match for the Heels here, either because they wanted to focus on her seeing as it was her in-ring debut, or because maybe Kong was carrying a knock of some kind and they wanted to keep her in-ring involvement to a minimum.

ODB eventually gets the hot tag and does well with it, with Saeed feeding well for it and ODB timing everything well and not chasing the Heels around the ring to get them. Things breakdown following that, with all four wrestlers going at it. This leads to Kim giving Saeed a cool rana off the top rope back into the ring. That both looked good and got a great reception from the crowd. Sadly Saeed is up just a tad too quickly as she needs to be involved for the finish, which sees Kong accidentally clock Saeed so that ODB can splash Saeed off the top rope for the three count.

8 Minutes

WINNERS: KIM & ODB
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: In a nice touch, Kim and ODB flee the cage as soon as they win so as not to be trapped in there with a furious Kong. This was a decent match that did a good job of showcasing Saeed, protecting Kong and giving the babyfaces a battling win. It could have maybe used a bit more Kong involvement and a tad longer in running time, but it mostly ticked the boxes on what it needed to do and was an entertaining bout overall

Jeremy Borash interviews Karen Angle, who is here to support Kurt Angle even though they haven’t been getting along that much recently. Karen tones down the yelling here and actually delivers a decent interview that gets across the gravitas of the Main Event.

We get a video package for the next bout, as they’ve done a good job with these packages explaining why these folks all want to fight one another.

Sixth Match
Mixed Tag
Robert Roode and Payton Banks Vs Booker T and Sharmell Huffman

The story here is that Roode accidentally punched Huffman, but then didn’t show much in the way of remorse, leading to a heated feud where The Huffmans sought out revenge. Banks formerly wrestled as Rain on the independent scene, where she often tagged with Lacey as The Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew, which remains one of the best tag team names in Pro Wrestling history. Sharmell isn’t actually a wrestler, whilst the other three are, so Booker does most of the wrestling for Team Huffman, where he has a solid match with Roode who was already a smooth operator within the ropes.

The crowd gets into the action between Roode and Booker, and the match has some decent atmosphere. To be honest, the crowd here at Lockdown have been good all night and reacted for most things on the show. Sharmell ends up tagging herself in and is a decent overmatched babyface against the bigger Heel Roode as she slaps away at him. Roode tries to hold Sharmell so that Banks can clobber her, but Sharmell gets out of the way and Banks ends up slapping Roode, which allows Sharmell to roll Banks up for the three count.

8 Minutes

WINNERS: THE HUFFMANS
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This was essentially just a Roode Vs Booker T match with a bit of added hi-jinx at the end, and those two are both good enough that they could have a solid match in those circumstances. I felt the finish was executed okay, but it did kind of mirror the previous match with some Heel miscommunication leading directly to the final three count and it led to both matches feeling a bit samey in that regard, especially as both bouts were tag matches

Roode seemingly fires Banks after the match, and I don’t think she’d be in TNA after this match. I’m not sure why they decided to cut her loose around this time. It seemed like she could easily have been repackaged into a different character and used in some other role.

Lauren is interviewing Marcus Davis, who had been helping to train Samoa Joe for the Main Event. Davis says that Joe did really well in training and that if Joe implements the gameplan he’ll leave as Champion tonight. This was another good interview in a series of them as they continue to build up the Main Event really well.

Seventh Match
Lethal Lockdown
Team Tomko (AJ Styles, Brother Devon, Brother Ray, James Storm & Tomko) w/ Jacqueline Moore Vs Team Cage (Christian Cage, Kevin Nash, Matt Morgan, Rhino & Sting)

The story here is that Tomko and Styles used to be hired goons for Cage, but they turned on him and now Cage is looking for payback in TNA’s version of War Games. Tomko teases that he’ll start the match with Christian, but he’s actually distracting Cage so that Styles can jump his former boss from behind after climbing into the cage in order to start us out. The fact Tomko entered to AJ’s music should have been the give away for Cage really if we’re being honest. Styles and Christian do a good bit together, although Styles dominating it all kind of goes against the point of doing a War Games match, wherein the idea is that the babyfaces have the edge when it’s a fair fight but the Heels have control when it’s unfair.

Brother Ray enters Lethal Lockdown

Christian did manage to get a bit of a comeback on Styles towards the end of the first section of the bout, but Styles took him down with a Pele Kick right at the end of their bit together, meaning that Christian was already on the backfoot even before Ray entered the cage. Ray makes sure to wear a Yankees top in order to anger the Boston crowd. Christian sells well whilst being worked over by the Heels.

Rhino enters Lethal Lockdown

Rhino runs wild on the Heels, but then HE gets taken out as well, as the folks putting this together seemingly have no idea how to book a War Games match. That flattened the crowd out so much that the commentary team even had to comment on it.

James Storm enters Lethal Lockdown

We get Styles and Christian fighting on top of the cage during this section, with Christian getting knocked off the top of cage down to the floor, meaning that the babyfaces are at even MORE of a disadvantage.

Kevin Nash enters Lethal Lockdown

Nash manages to catch Styles when AJ tries to fly at him at with something, whilst Cage leaps back into the cage onto Ray and Storm to pop the crowd.

Brother Devon enters Lethal Lockdown

The Heels focus on the legs of Nash here, which makes sense, as this section is mostly the babyfaces lying on the floor in pain whilst the Heels beat them up. Not thrilling stuff but the selling is good at least.

Matt Morgan enters Lethal Lockdown

Morgan was kind of Jim Cornette’s bodyguard at the time of this show, but he’s getting in the ring and fighting here. Morgan looks okay whilst getting to run wild, with the Heels taking good bumps for him.

Tomko enters Lethal Lockdown

Tomko tries bringing a chair with him but the referees take it away. Tomko and Christian scrap like two kids in the playground, and it’s well done actually as it feels like two people who hate one another going at it. Devon has started bleeding from something.

Sting enters Lethal Lockdown

Sting runs wild on the Heels in his usual manner, as the roof section carrying the weapons lowers into place so that the match beyond portion can start. We’ve got metal bins, chairs, canes and baseball bats for the wrestlers to use. There’s actually a gap that allows you to fight up onto the roof of the cage, with Storm and Christian heading up there right away for a very careful fight. Hey, I’m not complaining, safety comes first. The cage is basically giving way under them, which is utterly terrifying. Thankfully both of them have a clue and decide to focus on safety and move away from that section of the cage.

AJ Styles is of course utterly nuts, so he heads up there with Storm and Christian, and even sets up a ladder on the top. Thankfully they put the ladder in a more secure part of the cage, but then Styles and Christian do an insane spot where they both get shoved off the ladder onto a table that has been set up on the roof. Thankfully the roof part was strong enough to take their weight, but I would have given that spot a BIG nope if it was pitched to me. Rhino gives Storm a GORE back in the ring though and that’s enough for the three count.

27 Minutes

WINNERS: TEAM CAGE
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: Though I respect both AJ Styles and Christian Cage risking their health on multiple occasions in efforts of entertaining the crowd, the roof of that cage was so shaky and untrustworthy that I couldn’t really enjoy it and just felt worried for their safety. The match was a pretty terrible version of War Games though, with the Heels being on top for most of it, even during points where they should have been on the backfoot, and it just led to long periods of the babyfaces lying around selling, which ended up being a bit dull. The weapons stuff at the end didn’t really mean much either, as Storm and Christian headed to the top almost immediately, which meant that no one was paying any attention to what was happening down in the ring. Not a very good War Games

Main Event
Lucas de Apuestas
Title Vs Career
TNA World Champion: Kurt Angle Vs Samoa Joe

These two had met quite a few times in TNA up to this point, with some of those matches having pretty wacky builds, such as when Karen Angle supposedly turned on her husband, only for it to be a SWERVE bro when she helped Angle go on to win the match. In this one though they toned down the gaga and went for a serious sports build, with each wrestler being shown training really hard like the match itself mattered. Shockingly, this led to Lockdown doing a good buy rate, because seriously promoted wrestling can draw money when you do it correctly. Fancy that huh? Joe put his career on the line here just to add even more to this one, leading to one of the most hotly anticipated matches in TNA history up to this point.

Frank Trigg joins the commentary team for this one. Joe gets a special Samoan fire dance from his brothers here, and gets a star reaction from the crowd. Angle has eschewed his regular wrestling attire here and has gone for a more MMA look, with shorts and taped ankles. Kurt demands that Karen be removed from ringside, which leads to her doing her usual array of yelling. Can they actually kick her out when she’s seemingly bought a ticket and was sitting in the front row not doing anything? It gets her out of the way at least and allows them to focus on the match I suppose, but it was just a weird thing to throw in when everything else has been handled so seriously.

They work this one like a match you’d see in a promotion like UWFi, BattlArts or Bloodsport, where the focus is on simulating a real fight rather than just doing a standard Pro Wrestling match. Understandably this will mean that some won’t like it, because they won’t want faux MMA in their Pro Wrestling. That’s a perfectly justifiable stance to have, especially as you can just stick in a PRIDE tape if you want real fighting with all the associated Pro Wrestling glitz and glamour. However, if simulated shoot style wrestling is something you can get on board with, then this will likely be right up your street as it’s worked well.

Some traditional Pro Wrestling spots do work their way into things, with Angle doing his signature overhead belly to belly suplexes and also even using a Figure Four Leg Lock at one stage, which isn’t something you’d tend to see in a real MMA fight. The live crowd gets into the action, with Angle actually having some fans in the audience, which makes sense seeing as TNA was on the road here as opposed to being at the Impact Zone and that possibly brought in some more casual fans who might know Angle from WWE and would want him to win because of that rather than what the established Face/Heel alignment of each wrestler was supposed to be.

Each wrestler shows good intensity here and the work on display is well executed and matches the tone of what they’re going for. Joe’s selling of the aforementioned Figure Four is excellent, with it being a good dramatic submission tease. Joe’s bum wheel is a recurring theme throughout the rest of the match, with it slowing Joe down and remaining a target for Angle, including when Angle tries his signature ankle lock after slipping out of a Muscle Buster that Joe couldn’t quite deliver with his usual style due to the leg injury slowing him down and forcing him to base more before going for it.

Joe fights out of the ankle lock though and even locks Angle in the old school Liontamer, before transitioning to a Step-over Toe-hold Face-lock, but Angle manages to hold on and go back to the ankle after a really well done dramatic submission tease. Each wrestler continues trading submission attempts with the other, as this has gradually turned into more of a traditional Pro Wrestling match the longer it has gone on for, but it’s retained that MMA flavour and it’s made it feel special and different. The finish sees Angle grabbing onto the ref to drag himself towards the ropes, leading to Trigg teasing his eventual Heel turn by saying it’s a good technique. Joe responds by flinging Angle into the cage however and he finally gets the Muscle Buster for the three count.

18 Minutes

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: SAMOA JOE
RATING: ****1/2

Thoughts: I remember really enjoying this one back in 2008 and I’m happy to say that it still held up for me. I remembered them sticking to the MMA presentation a bit more rigidly than they actually did here, with it being that way for the first half and them transitioning into more of a standard Pro Wrestling bout in the second half. That might make it more palatable for folks who don’t like the faux MMA stuff, as it’s really only something they do in the early going to play into the training montages. As a match I think this is one is fantastic, as the work looks snug and believable and they build to a dramatic crescendo really well, with the crowd being into it all the way and having a lot of fun with it. I liked how Joe used the cage as a weapon only once, and that was after Angle had been nefarious by grabbing onto the referee, so it felt less like Joe taking a shortcut and more like Angle getting his just desserts for being a jerk. This one is definitely worth watching if you’ve never seen it before as it’s stood the test of time and serious top matches like this is what TNA’s product should have been built around at the time, as the good buy rate for this event showed

In Conclusion

Lockdown 2008 has one standout attraction, with the Main Event being the only really exceptional bout on display. The undercard isn’t terrible by any means, although some of the stipulation matches overdo things a bit and make some of the bouts overly complicated, especially as TNA’s roster was good enough at the time that less was usually more. I didn’t personally care for Lethal Lockdown, but I enjoyed the X-Division bout at the start and I thought the women’s tag match was executed well, so there’s enough decent stuff on the Lockdown undercard that I’d be happy to give the show a thumbs up overall.

You can keep yourself up to date on TNA’s current product courtesy of the fine work done by Scott Herrin