From 2005 to 2012, the theme of Lockdown events featured every match taking place inside a Steel Cage. Beginning with this year's event, Lockdown was modified to featuring standard matches, and cage matches were reserved only for the high profile bouts. Lockdown was also moved to March for the first time since its inception in 2005. Eight matches were featured on the card. In the main event, Bully Ray defeated Jeff Hardy in a Steel Cage match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
In October 2017, with the launch of the Global Wrestling Network, the event became available to stream on demand.[3] It would later be available on Impact Plus in May 2019.[4]
During the November 29, 2012 Impact Wrestling episode, the location and date for the ninth annual Lockdown event were announced as the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas on March 10, 2013. In a press release, TNA President Dixie Carter stated, "We have been waiting to play San Antonio until we could bring this great city a big televised event." Tickets for the event went on sale on December 7, 2012.[1]
From January to March 2013, the Road to Lockdown Tour, which TNA holds every year, toured many different cities across the United States and United Kingdom for live events and TV tapings to build up to the Lockdown event. As part of TNA's business initiative to reduce the number of pay-per-views produced per year, Lockdown was moved to March, leaving Genesis, Lockdown, Slammiversary and Bound for Glory as the remaining live PPVs on their schedule.[5] Like every year, TNA arranged their Lockdown VIP Weekend featuring their fan-friendly Lockdown Fanfest, giving the opportunity to fans to get close with their favorite wrestlers for autographs, photographs and conversations on March 9, 2013, a day before the event.[6]
The main event headlining Lockdown was Bully Ray facing defending champion Jeff Hardy in a Steel Cage match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. On the February 14, 2013 edition of Impact Wrestling, the number one contender to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at Lockdown was determined through a tournament designed to allow the competitors to impress TNA General ManagerHulk Hogan, enabling him to personally select the number one contender.[8] Out of the four matches scheduled, two resulted in a no-contest (Kurt Angle versus Samoa Joe and Bobby Roode versus Austin Aries). In the other matches, Magnus defeated Christopher Daniels and James Storm beat Rob Van Dam. Meanwhile, Brooke Hogan spoke with her father, Hulk Hogan, about her husband Bully Ray wanting to compete for the championship, which Hulk said he would take under advisement. On the same night, before a decision regarding the title contender could be made, the Aces & Eights gang halted the announcement by surrounding Hogan for an attack, but retreated when Bully Ray and Sting came to Hogan's aid with weapons.[9] The next week, in a decision seen as an act of nepotism, Hogan chose his son-in-law Bully Ray, who did not partake in the tournament, as the number one contender to the World Title, disregarding the actual competitors in the tournament.[10]
Aces & Eights brawl with the TNA roster.
The ninth annual Lethal Lockdown match took place at Lockdown to showcase the main feud in TNA. This year, for the first time, instead of the cage ceiling (with weapons attached) lowering to indicate the start of the final phase of the Lethal Lockdown match, weapons were brought to the match, where pinfalls and submissions were legal ways to win once all participants had entered. For over 9 months, the masked gang Aces & Eights, beginning with their attacks on Sting and Hulk Hogan,[11][12] had waged war against TNA and the company's roster through a mixture of all-out brawls and calculated attacks.[13][14][15][16] After holding Sting and Hogan for ransom (in a deal to free attorney Joseph Park, who worked for Hogan to investigate the mysterious gang),[17][18] Aces & Eights received their chance to win "full access" to the promotion after defeating Sting and Bully Ray on October 14 at Bound for Glory, where a major member of the biker gang was revealed to be Devon, who later cited his groupies, a contract dispute, the anonymous leader of the group who patched him in, and Bully Ray mistreating him and his children in the past as his reasons for joining.[19][20] Over the next few months, the unmasking and revelations of Aces & Eights members occurred leading to Aces & Eights challenging the TNA roster to "a war to end all wars" at Lockdown.[8] In the following weeks, Aces & Eights assembled their team, captained by Devon. Along with Devon, this team included D.O.C., Mr. Anderson, Knux and Garett Bischoff, and they were to fight against Team TNA captained by Sting which was revealed to include James Storm, Samoa Joe, Magnus, and a returning Eric Young, who was injured months ago by the Aces & Eights.[21][22]
Another feud was between Kurt Angle and Wes Brisco. After befriending Kurt Angle, Angle helped Brisco to get an opportunity to make it on the TNA roster.[23] Brisco later helped fend off members of the Aces & Eights with a lead pipe to save Angle and Garett Bischoff from getting beat down.[24][25] Brisco received a chance on talent evaluation segment, TNA Gut Check, winning his try-out match against Bischoff and gaining the majority vote from the judges to become a member of the TNA roster. Under the wing of Angle and Samoa Joe, Brisco and Bischoff aligned with them in their fight against Aces & Eights, winning their match against them on December 9 at Final Resolution.[26] In early January, however, Angle and Joe began to decline the help of Brisco and Bischoff. Weeks later on the January 31 edition of Impact Wrestling, Angle turned down their help again prior to his Lockdown 2010 cage rematch with Mr. Anderson. Just before the match, Joe was shown to have been mysteriously attacked. After Angle's cage match victory over Anderson, a masked member of Aces & Eights scaled the cage to pursue Angle while Brisco emerged to unlock the cage and apparently help Angle. Within the cage, the person unmasked to reveal himself to be Garett Bischoff. Brisco then proceeded to assist Bischoff in assaulting Angle to reveal his alliance with the Aces & Eights and that the two of them were in on the attacks on Angle and Joe.[27] The next week, Bischoff stated that Aces & Eights was his new family and Brisco expressed his spite towards Hogan and having to "start at the bottom" despite being a member of the Brisco wrestling family (he is the son of Gerald Brisco).[28] On the February 21 edition of Impact Wrestling, Angle told Brisco that he was glad to have gotten him a contract because the pain he would inflict would be legal because of it, and in the process, challenged Brisco to a steel cage match at Lockdown.[10]
A tag team rivalry entering Lockdown involved defending champions Bobby Roode and Austin Aries, Hernandez and Chavo Guerrero Jr., and Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels and Kazarian), competing for the TNA World Tag Team Championship. On the January 31 edition of Impact Wrestling, on-and-off rivals Roode and Aries confirmed their alliance as a team and their goal to pursue all the TNA championships, declaring that they would start with the World Tag Team Titles. From there, Roode and Aries began a feud with then-TNA World Tag Team Champions Guerrero and Hernandez, earning themselves a title shot a week later after Roode (who had already beaten Hernandez a week ago) and Aries agreed to a match that would grant them title shots if Aries could beat Guerrero, which he then did.[27] On the February 7 edition of Impact Wrestling, Roode and Aries defeated Guerrero and Hernandez to win the tag titles.[28] After Bad Influence came into contact with Roode and Aries over the next few weeks,[10] on the February 28 edition of Impact Wrestling, Aries mentioned to Roode over the phone that there would be a Three-Way match, where he and Roode would defend their titles against Guerrero and Hernandez and Bad Influence at Lockdown.[21]
In the X Division, Kenny King chased after the X Division Championship which eluded him until the February 28 edition of Impact Wrestling, where he finally defeated the champion Rob Van Dam in a title match.[21] King was later scheduled to defend his newly won championship in a Three-Way match with Zema Ion and Christian York at Lockdown.
A feud in the Knockouts Division resulted in Gail Kim going up against defending champion Velvet Sky for the Knockouts Championship. Ever since January's Genesis, when Gail Kim attempted to win with underhanded tactics, Kim felt that Knockouts referee Taryn Terrell had cost her a series of matches, including the Gauntlet match for contention to the Knockouts title, which was won by Sky. In that match, Kim was the last Knockout eliminated when Terrell did not detect Kim's foot under the ropes to call for the rope break.[29] On the February 21 edition of Impact Wrestling, in a Four-Way Elimination Knockouts match that also included defending Knockout Champion Tara and Miss Tessmacher, and also involved Kim and Terrell arguing over Kim's actions in the match. Sky again last eliminated Kim and won the Knockouts Championship.[10]
In another feud which began in December, Robbie E hosted a "Bro Off" segment, where he contended with his ally Robbie T and Jessie Godderz in a dance-off, which, to much surprise, was won by Robbie T after he upstaged everyone else.[30] Several weeks later during TNA's tour of the United Kingdom, Robbie E labeled the people of the UK as "hamsters" in the presence of the UK-born Robbie T. Robbie E then back-tracked and said he did not include Robbie T in his criticism.[27] After Robbie E criticized new UK hire Rockstar Spud and was bossy to the bigger Robbie T, a situation occurred where Robbie T bent down to retrieve his "dropped clipboard", allowing Spud to attack Robbie E on the spot. Robbie T also celebrated with Spud after the altercation.[28] This set up a match that saw Spud upset Robbie E for a win in his first match in TNA. In the aftermath, Robbie E then crossed the line with Robbie T by slapping him across the face which only infuriated Robbie T.[10] Robbie E would soon apologize and propose having another "Bro Off", where during Robbie T's routine, Robbie E took the chance to smash Robbie T with a large portrait, effectively ending their friendship.[21]
Lockdown garnered a company record-breaking crowd with over 7,200 fans in attendance, pulling in TNA's largest domestic audience than the record set at Slammiversary 2012.[2] The event itself was met with mixed to positive reviews. Matt Bishop of the SLAM! Sports pro wrestling section on Canadian Online Explorer rated the entire event a 7 out of 10, which was higher than the previous year's 4 out of 10 rating. The lowest rated match on the card was given to the Velvet Sky-Gail Kim Knockouts Title match and the Robbie E-Robbie T encounter, both of which were rated 4 out of 10, while the highest rated matches were the World Tag Team Title match receiving a 9 out of 10, the Kurt Angle-Wes Brisco match warranting a 6 out of 10, the Lethal Lockdown match getting a 7 out of 10, and the Bully Ray-Jeff Hardy World Title main event match receiving a 7 out of 10.[31]
Feedback from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter gave the event a score of somewhere between a thumbs in the middle to a thumbs up. Praise was given to the Lethal Lockdown match which was thought of as the best match of the night. The Robbie E-Robbie T match which was chosen as the worst match. The overall show reaction was that the first half of the event was "poor" and the second half was "very good" and, of that the angle around the main event, that they "thought the ending of the main event was the right way to book and the fans reaction brought me back to the days of WCW I miss so much."[32]
Aftermath
Bully Ray as TNA World Heavyweight Champion.
After turning villainous and revealing himself as the President of the Aces & Eights following his inaugural TNA World Heavyweight Championship victory over defending champion Jeff Hardy, Bully Ray touted his acts of deception which he revealed to be a trick the whole time and a way to earn the trust of Sting, Brooke Hogan and Hulk Hogan in order to get in line for a chance to capture the world title. A series of videos were later aired featuring Bully Ray explaining the nine month con. Aces & Eights also heightened their domination, prompting TNA General Manager Hulk Hogan, to rally TNA roster members to fight for the company.
TNA World Tag Team Champions Bobby Roode and Austin Aries continued their feud with Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez for the titles. Guerrero and Hernandez unrelentingly pursued the belts, winning them back in a two out of three falls match on the April 11 edition of Impact Wrestling.[33] When Gunner and James Storm won the titles in a three-way elimination tag team match at Slammiversary, the feud effectively ended.[34]
Following Lockdown, The now-named Rob Terry won a second singles match against Robbie E.[35] On the May 2 edition of Impact Wrestling, Robbie E later sought help from Jessie Godderz and Joey Ryan, and all three went on to lose a Handicap match to Terry.[36]
Due to violating her probation as Knockouts referee, TNA Knockouts Executive Brooke Hogan, fired Terrell as a referee and reinstated her as an active wrestler, allowing her to feud with Kim. The feud proceeded to brew and at Slammiversary, Terrell defeated Kim in a highly acclaimed Last Knockout Standing match.[37]
Velvet Sky's next challenger for the Knockouts Championship was Mickie James, who became #1 Contender by defeating Brooke Tessmacher on April 18.[38] Sky defeated James on the following week's edition of Impact Wrestling to retain the title; despite James targeting Velvet's injured knee.[39] Sky lost the Knockouts title to James on the May 23 edition of Impact Wrestling after James delivered a chopblock to Velvet's bad knee followed by a DDT.[40] On the June 13 edition of Impact Wrestling, James turned villainous by attacking Velvet after she requested a rematch. On the June 27 edition of Impact Wrestling, the evil James defeated Sky in a title rematch to end their feud.[41]
New rules were implemented for the X Division, where every match from that point on, would be a three-way match and all participants in the X Division matches were then required to be 230 pounds or under. In addition, the losing opponent in the three-way matches meant that they would be pushed to the back of the line of the X Division ranking.[42]
Mark LoMonaco is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to TNA Wrestling, where he performs under the ring name Bully Ray. He also makes sporadic appearances for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). He is best known for being one-half of the Dudley Boyz tag team, where he competed under the ring name Bubba Ray Dudley during his tenures in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the latter of which they are also signed to under "Legends" contracts.
Robert "Bobby" Francis Roode Jr. is a Canadian retired professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he is a producer.
Jeremy Fritz, known by his ring name Eric Young, is a Canadian professional wrestler, currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). He is also known for his tenure in WWE, where he served as the leader of the Sanity stable and was a former NXT Tag Team Champion.
Daniel Healy Solwold Jr., better known by his ring name Austin Aries, is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time with Impact Wrestling, where he is a three-time Impact World Champion and a six-time Impact X Division Champion, and Ring of Honor (ROH) where he was the first multi-time ROH World Champion. He is also known for his time with WWE, where he competed in the cruiserweight division as well as doing color commentary. Between TNA/Impact and ROH, Aries has held 14 total championships and has also held numerous international and U.S. independent championships.
Brooke Nichole Adams is an American model and professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Brooke Tessmacher.
Jessie Godderz, also known as Mr. PEC-Tacular, is an American actor and professional wrestler. He currently competes for Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) where he is a two-time OVW National Heavyweight Champion, one-time OVW Television Champion and a seven-time OVW Southern Tag Team Champion.
Robert Strauss is an American professional wrestler and manager. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand as a manager and occasional wrestler under the ring name Mr. Stone. He is best known for his time in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling under the ring name Robbie E, where he is a former two-time TNA World Tag Team Champion as part of The BroMans with Jessie Godderz, while also being a former one-time TNA Television Champion and TNA X Division Champion.
Wesley Brisco is an American professional wrestler known for his time in Impact Wrestling (TNA), where he is a former member of Aces & Eights. He is a member of the Brisco wrestling family; the son of former Championship Wrestling from Florida mainstay Gerald Brisco and the nephew of former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jack Brisco.
Garett Bischoff is an American professional wrestler. He is known for his time in Impact Wrestling and is the son of pro-wrestling executive and personality Eric Bischoff.
The 2012 Lockdown was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion, which took place on April 15, 2012 at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. It was the eighth under the Lockdown chronology and fourth event in the 2012 TNA PPV schedule. In the concept of Lockdown events, every match took place inside a Steel Cage.
Slammiversary 10 was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion, which took place on June 10, 2012 at the College Park Center in Arlington, Texas on the University of Texas at Arlington campus. It was the eighth Pay-Per-View under the Slammiversary chronology, the sixth event in the 2012 TNA PPV schedule, and the company's largest domestically attended PPV at the time. TNA's Lockdown 2013 event drew a larger crowd since.
The 2012 Hardcore Justice was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion, which took place on August 12, 2012 at the Impact Wrestling Zone in Orlando, Florida. It was the eighth and final event under the Hardcore Justice chronology.
The 2012 Bound for Glory was the eighth annual Bound for Glory professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). It took place on October 14, 2012, at the Grand Canyon University Arena in Phoenix, Arizona. The event was the first TNA event in the state of Arizona, the first Bound for Glory PPV to be held in Southwestern United States, and was the premiere event of the 2012 for TNA.
Aces & Eights were a villainous stable in the American promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, initially consisting of a group of masked wrestlers before their identities were revealed. It had the gimmick of a Vigilante Posse motorcycle club; members of the stable rode motorcycles, wore kuttes, and were referred to as either "prospects" or "patched in". The name of the stable is a reference to the two pair poker hand known as the "dead man's hand".
SoCal Uncensored (SCU) was an American professional wrestling stable that consisted of Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky.
Slammiversary XI was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion, which took place on June 2, 2013 at the Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts. It was the 11th anniversary celebration for TNA, and the ninth PPV under the Slammiversary chronology. Slammiversary XI was also the third event in TNA's 2013 pay-per-view schedule, following TNA Genesis 2013, TNA Lockdown 2013.
The Dirty Heels was a professional wrestling tag team, consisting of Austin Aries and Bobby Roode.
1 2 TNA Entertainment LLC. "Official TNA Lockdown press release". Prowrestling.net. Retrieved January 25, 2014. Last year a record-breaking crowd of more than 7,200 fans from around the world attended Lockdown at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
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