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Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 26,803
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Re: Official TNA DVD Help/Discussion/Review Thread
Just rewatched Lockdown 2008. A pretty good PPV despite some of the matches being cluttered. I think if you take Xscape, Lethal Lockdown, Queen of the Cage, & Cuffed in the Cage all together, you have 35 Participants in 4 Matches. Yikes! But despite that, the show ended up being pretty entertaining with a strong double main event.
ALL MATCHES CONTESTED IN SIX SIDES OF STEEL
Match 1 - "Black Machismo" Jay Lethal (c) vs. "Guru" Sonjay Dutt vs. Curry Man vs. Shark Boy vs. Consequences Creed vs. Johnny Devine: X Division Championship Xscape Match
Xscape has become a fun annual tradition for Lockdown, right along with Lethal Lockdown. The best one was in 2007 IMO, but this one was pretty good as well. Curry Man got to shine a bit which he doesn't usually get to do given the comedy gimmick. There were some pretty cool high flying spots and they had a nice dynamic with Sonjay trying to help his friend Jay, even after he was elminated. Its not the Best Xscape, but its about on par with most of the previous ones.
Match 2 - "The Voodoo Queen" Roxxi Lavaeux vs. Angelina Love vs. Velvet Sky vs. Traci Brooks vs. Rhaka Khan vs. "The Pride of Tennessee" Jacqueline vs. Christy Hemme vs. Salinas: Queen of the Cage Match
Basically the rules here are similar to the dreaded Reverse Battle Royal, only this one came off way better because they have to climb up and over into the cage. That part was over with fairly quick and it came down to Roxxi & Angelina in the cage, and they had a pretty decent singles match to conclude the bout. Overall this was pretty quick and fairly entertaining.
Match 3 - BG James vs. Kip James
Every Lockdown has at least one bomb. In 2005 it was Lethal Lockdown. In 2006 it was the Arm Wrestling Match, & in 2007 we had the Blindfold Match AND The Electrified Cage. This was 2008's Bomb. The match isn't that bad, and this is coming from somebody that can't stand BG or Kip. They tried to put on a good match, but the crowd just crapped on them. I guess they just wanted to hate it or something. Oh well. Worst match on the show.
Match 4 - Super Eric & Kaz vs. The Latin American Xchange vs. The Motor City Machine Guns vs. Rellik & Black Reign vs. The Rock & Rave Infection vs. "Big Poppa Pump" Scott Steiner & "Maple Leaf Muscle" Petey Williams: Cuffed in the Cage
OK, I remember looking over the final card for Lockdown 2008 and I saw this match was like "Huh?!?!" That was one of the most ridiculous matches I've ever heard of. I noticed that every Division had their own Battle Royal kind of match (X had Xscape, Knockouts had QOC, & Heavyweights had LL) so I guess this is the tag team battle royal of the show. The rules were that there are 11 Sets of Handcuffs attached to thec age, and if a wrestler gets handcuffed to the cage, he's elminated, and it would go till only one team remained.
But in all honesty, the match was actually very enjoyable. LAX & The Guns provided some action when they were in it, and Kaz practacally killed himself to make the match good. Super Eric got involved and took on Black Reign, Rellik, & Rock & Rave by himself, which was actually well done. There were some cool spots and it was action packed and fun, so it turned out well, much to my surprise.
Match 5 - Gail Kim & ODB vs. Awesome Kong & Raisha Saeed
The Knockouts get to shine again as for the second year in a row, Gail Kim had one of the best matches on the Lockdown card. This was a really good mixed tag with some great action by all four girls. My sister saw me watching this match and said "They put the girls in the cage!" and she was really impressed with the Knockouts putting on such a good match inside a cage. It was really cool.
Match 6 - Booker T & Sharmell vs. Robert Roode & Payton Banks
The thing I'll always remember about this one is that it should have been Booker vs. Roode 1 on 1. The angle was calling for a big singles match at the PPV, but they opted for a Mixed Tag instead. The match was good and fun, but a singles match would have been better, and I think most will agree.
1st Main Event - Team Cage (Christian Cage, Rhino, Sting, Kevin Nash, Matt Morgan) vs. Team Tomko (Tomko, AJ Styles, Team 3D, James Storm): Lethal Lockdown
I look forward to Lethal Lockdown every year. Except for the 1st one, LL has delivered a really strong match at every Lockdown, and this one was great too. It was great to see young talents like Storm & Morgan interact with vets like Sting & Nash. The begginning was great to with them teasing Tomko vs. Cage to start, but we got a swerve as AJ sneaked in and attacked Cage, starting the match. We got a really big spot off the top of the cage, which was really scary at first because it looked like the set up wasn't safe at all.
This was a really fun, violent, and hardcore match, as Lethal Lockdown usually is. Once again it delivers strong at Lockdown.
2nd Main Event - Kurt Angle (c) vs. "The Samoan Submission Machine" Samoa Joe: TNA World Championship
If Samoa Joe lost this match he would retire from Professional Wrestling. Now this is one very unique match as they opted to go for a more shoot style exchange in the early going. The crowd didn't really buy into it at first but once the match turned into a more classical submission style match, it was great. There were some great counters to the holds, and there was one part where it seemed like Joe was really going to tap, so it had drama too. The match might not be for everybody, but I highly enjoyed it, and I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it, but the ending made the PPV all worth it.
So overall Lockdown 2008 was a fun show. TNA should avoid having so many Battle Royal type matches on their PPVs in the future, but alot of the matches turned out better than expected, so I won't complain. The real strength in the show comes from the Double Main Event which delivered big time.
Match Rankings:
1) Joe vs. Angle
2) Lethal Lockdown
3) Xscape
4) Gail/ODB vs. Kong/Saeed
5) Cuffed in the Cage
6) Booker/Sharmell vs. Roode/Payton
7) Queen of the Cage
8) BG vs. Kip
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Official TNA DVD Help/Discussion/Review Thread
) another watch.
