Lockdown 2007 begins with a video about how man can be locked in both physical and mental prisons. Its the kind of super serious pre-show hype that I love in my wrestling, even knowing that - based on the past couple of TNA pay-per-views I've seen - there's almost no way that this will be a great show (I'm hoping for at least "good").
Our first contest is an X-Division Xscape Match for Chris Sabin's X-Division Championship. I wasn't expecting much out of this match only because I wasn't a big fan of Sabin's series with Jerry Lynn and I'm generally not a huge supporter of overly-gimmicky/comedy wrestlers like Shark Boy and Black Machismo (Jay Lethal doing a Macho Man impression), who are two-of-the-four challengers for the title in this match along with Sonjay Dutt and Alex Shelley. But the wrestling is great from beginning to end and I love the way that Shelley and Sabin work together, signaling their eventual TNA debut as the Motor City Machine Guns over the next few weeks/months (they were already a team internationally). Their work made this closer to an action-packed tag match rather than a battle for the prize of the X-Division Championship and while I would totally understand the criticism that this de-valued the title - as everyone should've been gunning for everyone else in the match, not forming alliances - its not like we haven't seen this sort of thing in the past. The difference here is that the alliances didn't disappear at the slightest sign of conflict or just because someone momentarily saw their "partner" in a vulnerable position. In that sense, could this match have veered so far into illogical territory that it actually became more logical by the end? That's for others to decide. I enjoyed this, though the cage itself was a bit of a non-factor and the ending was super abrupt and anti-climactic. (3/5)
Robert Roode took on Petey Williams in the next cage match - remember, every match on this card is being fought in the Six Sides of Steel. Poor Petey botches a springboard move early, but even if he had nailed it, I'm not sure this match would've really clicked with me. Williams and Roode bust out some good, intricate sequences, but it was the simple stuff that wowed me - an uranage from Roode and, later, an awesome spinebuster, Williams getting huge height on a pop-up towards the cage - rather than more intricate pinfall counters and the involvement of Eric Young and Traci Brooks on the outside. To be fair, the crowd was into this and seemingly into the storyline even though it all reads as very "mid 90s" to me, like something you'd expect to see involving the York Foundation or the BodyDonnas stables. Just not my thing, but the effort was there and the action was good enough. (2.5/5)
A match billed as a "Catfight In A Cage" followed as Gail Kim took on Jacqueline. This feud was an off-shoot of the Chris Harris/James Storm rivalry (that Petey Williams was also involved in) and has been going on for months. I loved Gail Kim's energy at the start, going after Jackie before she even gets in the ring. Honestly, the first few minutes of this match are fought brilliantly and exactly how a personal, bitter "blood feud" match should be fought as Kim looks to seriously hurt her opponent and Jacqueline has to resort to heel tactics and keeping her distance to gain the upper hand. Unfortunately, things peter out a bit once they get into the cage and the psychology that Kim established early on gets muddied (it struck me as not very courageous or heroic for Kim to try to win the match by exiting the cage so early). Gail Kim eventually wins with a huge crossbody splash off the top of the cage, which gets a great reaction (and deservedly so). The psychology was a bit inconsistent as Kim would, occasionally, look to win the match by exiting through the cage door, but then also was fighting like she wanted to punish Jackie as much as possible. Regardless, the good outweighed the bad. Jackie was known for her toughness but not necessarily her wrestling prowess, but Gail Kim brought the goods. I'm not sure I'd call this a "carry job," but Gail Kim got a ton of mileage out of Jackie's somewhat limited athleticism and basic skills because the effort and energy was there. (2.5/5)
In yet another rematch from a previous show, Senshi took on Austin Starr in a match that saw Bob Backlund serving as Special Guest Referee. I've written about it before, but this storyline did no favors to Senshi, who was originally a super-serious X-Division killer but saw much of his credibility get trampled by having to share the screen with the ever-cartoonish Bob Backlund and Austin Starr (Austin Aries), who seems like he was still figuring out what exactly he wanted to do with his character. The action was good - at one point, I even think I heard a faint "This is Awesome" chant - because both Senshi and Starr are very talented performers who have some excellent offensive maneuvers they can dish out, but this didn't wow me overall as a presentation and the finish felt a bit bullshitty as Backlund got involved again. After the match, Starr shouted into the camera about Backlund screwing him. Again, it's no wonder why Senshi left for the WWE not too long after this as even in a storyline with a 58-year old who hadn't been relevant in over a decade and a guy that was still only then figuring out his gimmick, Senshi was the third wheel and couldn't get a clean W. (2/5)
Things go from not-so-bad to way-way-worse as Chris Harris wrestles James Storm in a Blindfold Match. This is an absolutely awful match that had the crowd booing from nearly beginning to end. I'm not sure what they were really thinking here. I understand that Blindfold matches are something of a "throwback" gimmick, but why not do something fun here? This match should've been all about both Harris and Storm trying to cheat their way through things. It also should've been maybe 6 minutes max. Instead, they go close to 10 and while they do incorporate Storm trying to cheat repeatedly - which could've been interesting - they don't do enough with that concept to make it as fun as it could and should be. A match like this relies on a crowd that is really excited about the concept and workers that are really, really good at telling a story in the ring. Even true legends like Rick Martel and Jake Roberts couldn't quite cut it, so there was little hope for Harris and Storm. The crowd chanted "This is Boring," "We Want Wrestling," and booed every kickout and by the time they actually did start to incorporate some bigger moves, it was way too late. I'll give them a half-point because they did at least try to tell a story and build towards Storm cheating his way to victory, but this took too long to get to that finish and just went too long overall. (0.5/5)
After more backstage stuff involving tonight's main event - mostly whether or not Team Angle can trust Jeff Jarrett - its time for Jerry Lynn vs. Christopher Daniels. Daniels had recently turned heel and had changed up his gimmick a bit to be a darker figure. With these two, you knew the execution would be good, but would the character and drama be there? Like other matches on the card, it makes no sense that this is being fought in a cage because the feud hadn't warranted the need yet. With Daniels being a known commodity, I wasn't expecting him to come out and just dominate this match, but I was curious if we'd seen a different, more brutal side of him. To his credit, Daniels did try to show a more vicious side - shoving Lynn into the cage wall, doing eye rakes and straight-up fists to the face, using a cable cord to choke out his opponent - but its all a bit ho-hum and I would've liked to see him bust out the kind of legitimately nasty offense that we got from Danielson in his WWE run or what you might see Jon Moxley bust out in AEW (repeated elbows to the jaw, stomps to the face, bending and "breaking" fingers, fish-hooking a guy's cheek, rubbing your forearm in their nose on every pinfall, etc.). Lynn makes for a fine opponent - his offense is always crisp and energetic and his timing is never bad - but I kinda wish this match favored Daniels even more and the story revolved more around Daniels always being one-step-ahead of a wrestler like Lynn, known for his deep arsenal and endurance. It's 70/30 when it might've been more effective as a relaunch of Daniels' character if it was 80/20. Daniels missed a BME, which led to both guys ending up on the top rope. Daniels connected with an awesome face-drop type move (I'm not sure what to call it) but only got 2 from it. Lynn hit a big move of his own - kinda like a side Death Valley Driver - but only got 2 from that. The crowd was really into the action and chanted "This Is Awesome." Daniels went for the Angels Wings from the top rope, but Lynn blocked it and went for his Cradle Piledriver from the top only for that to get denied too. Back on the mat, Daniels hit the Last Rites to end what was a very good match, but not a great reintroduction. An extra half-point for the last few minutes, which featured some incredible offense out of both guys. (3/5)
Backstage, the NWA World Tag Team Champions, Team 3D, cut a promo about their title defense against LAX. As Bubba noted on commentary, this feud has been going on for 4 months. Before the match, both sides get to cut promos - Team 3D's being vaguely racist and LAX's being dominated by Konnan. In this match, the cage is "electrified," which is "Vintage Russo" in the words of Michael Cole, a stipulation that could in no way be delivered well by TNA but thrown out there anyway. The lights are dimmed for this match to give it an even eerier (and cornier) vibe. The St. Louis crowd is into this from the start, fully behind Team 3D and popping big for their early powerhouse offense. Tenay notes on commentary that there are up to 10,000 volts surging through the cage at various times - 5 times as much as the electric chair. A chain gets brought into the fight by the heels because why would an electrified cage match not also need other foreign objects? Despite being the smallest guy in the ring by at least 100 pounds - if not close to 200 - Homicide is the most captivating worker of the four, taking the biggest bumps but also looking the fiercest throughout. D-Von gets busted open but the dimmed lighting makes it somewhat unclear just how busted open he is. Konnan and Hector Guerrero get inolved on the outside, with Guerrero leaving the Spanish Announce Table and opening up the cage door so he can slide a table in to Bubba Ray. Hector argues with Hernandez, slamming the cage door on SuperMex's head. In terms of action, this is probably the best overall bout these guys have had (that I've seen), but it is still overbooked to hell and there aren't nearly enough attempts by either team to utilize the electrified cage to their advantage. When Hernandez does finally sent Devon into the cage, all that happens is the lights in the arena flicker and the crowd completely shits on it with boos before chanting "Fire Russo!" soon after. Team 3D hit the Doomsday Device, but only get a 2 count. Hernandez hits a series of sidewalk slams and then sets up a table. Hernandez puts D-von on the table and then climbs the cage (he's wearing gloves to prevent himself from getting electrocuted), launching himself off the top and through the table below in a legitimately ridiculous bump that the crowd responds to with a deserved "Holy Shit" chant. Homicide gets tossed into the cage and we get another silly "electrocution" before Team 3D connects with the Dudley Death Drop to win their first NWA World Tag Team Championships. Overbooked nonsense plagued this match and the stipulation was executed very poorly. These teams clearly had the ability to deliver violent, physical matches, but whoever was in charge of this feud couldn't help themselves from saddling them with one awful gimmick after another. (2/5)
Main event time - TNA/Impact's version of War Games, the Lethal Lockdown match pitting Team Angle (Kurt Angle, Sting, Rhyno, Samoa Joe, and the untrustworthy Jeff Jarrett) against Team Christian (Christian, Scott Steiner, Abyss, Tyson Tomko, and AJ Styles) with whoever scores the pinfall getting a shot at Christian for his NWA World Heavyweight Championship...basically telegraphing a babyface victory. Styles and Angle kicked things off, the first of a few really wise booking decisions in this match. Unlike a WCW or WWE War Games match, they only had the single ring to work in, which made for a very cluttered match as more and more participants made their way into the cage. The first big spot of the match came when Scott Steiner hit a Frankensteiner on Rhyno off the top rope. The crowd went wild for it and deservedly so. After Sting came in at #4 for his team, Christian was the last man in the ring for the heel side - another booking decision that made a ton of sense considering his character. Jarrett came out last and immediately showed whose side he was on, handing out weapons to all his good guy teammates. Angle and AJ made their way to the top of the cage, which was a nice way for them to standout as Sting and Christian took the spotlight in the middle of the ring. Samoa Joe attempted one of his jumping heel kicks while standing on the top with Tomko and it looked nasty (not in a good way) as he landed hard on the mat and didn't seem to do much more than graze Tomko. Tomko did end up taking a helluva bump, though, getting gored through the cell door and sent crashing to the floor. It looked terrific. Steiner tossed Rhyno out of the cell too, which led to Joe diving through the open door, opening up plenty of space in the ring. Christian took a chokeslam onto a bed of tacks from Abyss, the monster semi-turning on the leader of his team after weeks of build. Again, I thought it was the right booking decision as there was no reason for Christian to take the fall. Speaking of falls, off the cage AJ went, taking a huge drop from the top of the cage onto all the guys that had been brawling on the outside. This was captured really well by the camera crew, not something that always happened back then. It was now time for the actual finish, which saw Abyss dump more tacks into Jarrett's trademark weapon, the guitar. Sting prevented him from smashing it over Double J's skull and allowed Jarrett to grab it. They teased Jarrett potentially bashing the Stinger with it, but he didn't turn, using it to put down Abyss. Instead of making the pin himself - and getting an NWA World Championship shot - Jarrett called Sting over to get the fall. Another smart booking decision there to cement Jarrett's babyface alignment. I wouldn't consider this a must-see match; the first 20 minutes are uneventful and the crowded ring doesn't allow for much craziness aside from the aforementioned Frankensteiner and a cool Tower of Doom spot. But the final stretch was wildly entertaining and was booked well. Above-average, but inessential viewing. (3/5)
With a Kwang Score of 2.31-out-of-5, Lockdown 2007 is a mixed bag that ends up settling in "average" territory. The opener, Lynn/Daniels, and main event matches are all good, though none are "must see." Unfortunately, the Blindfold Match is a disaster and both the Senshi/Starr and the Tag Team Titles match aren't great either. With nothing to truly recommend on this show, this one earns a...
FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver
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