Lockdown (2008)

Lockdown (2008)
Promotion	Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
Date	April 13, 2008
City	Lowell, Massachusetts
Venue	Tsongas Arena
Attendance	5,500

Lockdown (2008) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), which took place on April 13, 2008 at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, Massachusetts. It was the fourth annual Lockdown event. Eight professional wrestling matches, performances with pre-determined outcomes between wrestlers with fictional personalities that are portrayed as real, were featured on the event's card. The buildup to the matches and the scenarios that took place before, during, and after the event were planned by TNA's script writers. As per tradition of Lockdown events, every match took place inside Six Sides of Steel, a sixteen foot high steel cage with six sides.

The event featured a supercard, a scheduling of more than one main event. The first was a standard wrestling match between Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe (Joe Seanoa) for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. The challenger, Joe, won by pinfall after performing a Muscle Buster, a move whereby the wrestler lifts their opponent into a position that has their head resting on their shoulder, and then jumps up and down onto the mat, implanting the opponent's neck into the attacking wrestler's shoulders. The other main event took place inside Lethal Lockdown, a steel cage with a flat roof, where Team Cage (Christian Cage [Jason Reso], Kevin Nash, Rhino [Terry Gerin], Sting [Steve Borden], and Matt Morgan) defeated Team Tomko (Tomko [Travis Tomko], A.J. Styles [Allen Lloyd Jones], Team 3D [Brother Ray [Mark LoMonaco] and Brother Devon [Devon Hughes]], and James Storm [James Allan Black]). Two featured bouts were scheduled on the undercard. In a Tag Team match between two teams of two, Booker T (Booker Huffman) and Sharmell (Sharmell Sullivan) defeated Robert Roode and Payton Banks (Bonnie Maxon). The other bout was an Xscape match involving six wrestlers. TNA X Division Champion Jay Lethal (Jamar Shipman) defeated Consequences Creed (Austin Watson), Johnny Devine (John Preston Parsonage), Shark Boy (Dean Roll), Curry Man (Daniel Christopher Covell), and Sonjay Dutt (Retesh Bhalla).

When the event was released on DVD, it reached a peak position of fifth on Billboard's DVD Sales Chart. The professional wrestling section of the Canadian Online Explorer website rated the entire event a 6.5 out of 10 stars, one star higher than the 2007 event.

Background

Kurt Angle, who defended the TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Samoa Joe at Lockdown

The main event at Lockdown featured a standard wrestling match between Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe (Joe Seanoa), with the two having a storyline rivalry over the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. On the March 13 edition of Impact!, Management Director Jim Cornette (James Cornette), a on-screen authority figure portrayed as a match maker and rules enforcer, announced that at Lockdown, Angle would defend the TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Joe. Later in the show, Joe made his own announcement, in which he stated that if he did not win the title at Lockdown, he would quit TNA forever (kayfabe); his statement was later changed to quitting professional wrestling forever. Following his announcement, Joe did not appear on Impact! for several weeks. In the storyline, he was training for his TNA World Heavyweight Championship match at Lockdown against Angle. On the same edition of Impact!, following Angle's scripted successful defense of the TNA Championship against Kaz (Frankie Kazarian), Angle announced that at Lockdown he would defeat Joe to prove that he was currently the best in the professional wrestling business. While Joe did not appear on television due to his training, Angle's training included him facing new opponents each week on Impact! in Mixed Martial Arts fights.

The other main rivalry heading into Lockdown was between Team Cage (Christian Cage [Jason Reso], Kevin Nash, Rhino [Terry Gerin], Sting [Steve Borden], and Matt Morgan) and Team Tomko (Tomko [Travis Tomko], A.J. Styles [Allen Lloyd Jones], Team 3D [Brother Ray [Mark LoMonaco] and Brother Devon [Devon Hughes]], and James Storm [James Allan Black]) in the annual Lethal Lockdown match, taking place in a steel cage enclosed by a flat roof filled with weapons. On the March 13 edition of Impact!, Cornette announced that Cage and Tomko were the team captains for the match. Their scripted rivalry started when Tomko turned on Cage at Against All Odds in Cage's World Heavyweight Championship match against Angle, betraying him as a friend and partner. Tomko announced that his teammates would be Styles and Team 3D, after Team 3D helped Tomko and Styles stage an attack on Cage during Impact!. Cage's storyline saw him choose Rhino and Nash as his teammates, after saving Rhino from a scripted attack by Team Tomko, and being befriended by Nash. On the March 20 edition of Impact!, while Team Cage were in a staged brawl with Team Tomko, a promo was shown on the TitanTron, advertising the scripted return of Sting. Sting returned the next week on Impact! during another staged brawl between Team Cage and Team Tomko. During the brawl, Team Tomko gained the kayfabe advantage and proceeded to assault each member of Team Cage, until Team 3D brought their signature tables into the ring. Before they could use the tables, however, the lights went off. When they came back on, Sting had appeared in the ring, wielding a baseball bat. He then attacked each member of Team Tomko with the bat until they had all left the ring. Afterwards, a match was made for later that night with Sting, Cage, Rhino, and Nash versus Styles, Tomko, and Team 3D, which Team Cage won. After the match, Team Cage were celebrating their staged victory, until Storm, in storyline, attacked Sting, and hit him in the back of the head with a beer bottle. On the April 3 edition of Impact!, Cornette's storyline replacement for the night, Morgan, allowed Team Tomko to place Storm on their team. This in turn allowed Team Cage to add another member to its team (kayfabe), who turned out to be Morgan.

One of the featured matches on the undercard was a Tag Team match between the teams of Booker T (Booker Huffman) and Sharmell (Sharmell Sullivan), and Robert Roode and Payton Banks (Bonnie Maxon). Their staged rivalry began after Booker T made his debut in TNA at TNA's November pay-per-view Genesis in 2007. Roode was, in storyline, unhappy that outsiders were coming to TNA, and taking his chance of becoming a main star. Later, at Final Resolution, Roode accidentally punched Booker T's wife (Sharmell), and fractured her jaw, in storyline. Sharmell subsequently did not appear on Impact! for several weeks as she kayfabe healed. Booker T and Roode then competed in a match at both Against All Odds and Destination X. After their match at Destination X, Sharmell made her pre-determined return and hit everyone around the ring, including security, Roode, Banks, and Jim Cornette, with a leather strap. On the March 20 edition of Impact!, Cornette placed Booker T and Sharmell in a match at Lockdown against Roode and Banks.

The other main match on the undercard was the annual X Division Xscape match, which formed part of the TNA X Division Championship. Jay Lethal (Jamar Shipman) defended the title against Consequences Creed (Austin Watson), Johnny Devine (John Preston Parsonage), Shark Boy (Dean Roll), Curry Man (Daniel Christopher Covell), and Sonjay Dutt (Retesh Bhalla). Each man (besides Lethal) fought in qualification matches (standard wrestling matches) on Impact! to determine who would participate. The first qualification match was between Curry Man and Petey Williams (Peter Williams) on the March 13 edition of Impact!, which was won by Curry Man after he pinned Williams following the performance of the Spice Rack, in which the opponent is held face-up across both the shoulders of the wrestler, from here the wrestler falls sideways (towards the side where the opponent's head is held) while still holding the opponent's head with one arm and flipping the opponent's legs over with the other, driving them down to the mat face-first. The second was between Dutt and Homicide (Nelson Erazo), on the March 20 edition of Impact!, which Dutt won via a roll-up, a move in which the attacking wrestler rolls their opponent over onto their back so that the opponent's legs are above their head, before wrapping his/her arms around the legs and pressing down to pin the shoulders. The third was on the March 27 edition of Impact!, between Devine and Alex Shelley (Patrick Martin), which Devine won by pinfall after he hit Shelley in the head with a camera. The fourth match occurred on the April 3 edition of Impact! between Shark Boy and Elix Skipper. Shark Boy won after a Chummer, a move in which an attacking wrestler applies a three-quarter facelock (reaching back and grabbing the head of an opponent, thus pulling the opponent's jaw above the wrestler's shoulder) before falling to a seated position and forcing the opponent's jaw to drop down on the shoulder of the attacking wrestler. On the April 10 edition of Impact!, Creed, who was making his Impact! debut, fought Jimmy Rave (James Guffey), in a match which Creed won after a Creed-DT. The Creed-DT is a move in which the wrestler applies a front facelock and then performs a type of legsweep to essentially take out the legs from under the opponent before falling backwards to drive the opponent face first down to the mat.

In the Women's division, Gail Kim and O.D.B. (Jessica Kresa) were involved in a on-screen feud, a staged rivalry, with Awesome Kong (Kia Stevens) and Raisha Saeed (Melissa Anderson). At Destination X, Kim, O.D.B., and Kong were involved in a 3-Way Dance, a match in which the first person to gain a pinfall or submission wins the match and any added stipulation, for the TNA Women's Knockout Championship. Kong prevailed, pinning O.D.B. after performing an Awesome Bomb; the opponent is placed in a standing neck scissors, and then lifted up on the wrestler's shoulders, at this point, the wrestler slams the opponent down, and at the same time falls to a sitting position; which was followed by Saeed grabbing O.D.B.'s leg from the outside. This caused O.D.B. and Kim to become kayfabe frustrated with Saeed, because she repeatedly cost them their chances at the championship. A tag team match was then made between the team of Kim and O.D.B. and the team of Kong and Saeed.

A minor storyline rivalry heading into Lockdown was the encounter between former Voodoo Kin Mafia partners B.G. James (Brian Gerard James) and Kip James (Monty Sopp). Kip was displeased that B.G. had teamed with his father, Bob Armstrong (Joseph James), when he used his Feast or Fired World Tag Team Championship title match, instead of choosing Kip as his partner. At Against All Odds, B.G. and Armstrong failed in their attempt to win the World Tag Team Championship in a match against A.J. Styles and Tomko, after a Tornado-Plex on B.G. allowed Styles and Tomko to gain the pinfall. The Tornado-Plex is a move in which one wrestler has the opponent's legs on his or her shoulders and is facing the first wrestler, while the second wrestler performs a neckbreaker on their opponent. A rematch took place on Impact!, however, B.G. was injured so Kip took his place in the match. During the match, Kip attacked B.G. and Armstrong, in storyline. Later, a match was made between Kip and B.G. for Lockdown. In the weeks leading up to the event, TNA aired special video packages entitled "Rough Cut", which were about Kip and B.G.'s friendship and history together as a tag team.

Event

Other on-screen talent
Commentator	Mike Tenay
	Don West
	Frank Trigg (For the TNA World Heavyweight Championship match)
	Hector Guerrero (Spanish)
	Willie Urbina (Spanish)
Ring announcer	Jeremy Borash (For the TNA World Heavyweight Championship match)
	David Penzer
Referee	Earl Hebner
	Rudy Charles
	Mark "Slick" Johnson
	Andrew Thomas
Interviewers	Jeremy Borash
	Lauren Thompson

Preliminary matches

The Xscape match for the TNA X Division Championship was the first match to air live on pay-per-view. In the Xscape match, six competitors fight until four are eliminated (either by pinfall or submission) then the two left fight to escape the cage. The first to do so is declared the winner. The participants were Jay Lethal, Curry Man, Shark Boy, Johnny Devine, Sonjay Dutt, and Consequences Creed. The beginning was dominated by Lethal and Dutt, as they worked together to try to eliminate all of the other competitors. Dutt, however, was eliminated first in the match by Devine with a roll-up. The match continued with Shark Boy dominating until Creed performed the Creed-DT on him to gain the pinfall. Later, Curry Man performed a senton from the top of the cage on Creed, followed by the Spice Rack to gain the three count. A senton is a front flip in which the wrestler performing the move lands his back against his opponent's chest or other part of their anatomy. With Creed's elimination, the match was then down to Curry Man, Devine, and Lethal. Curry Man began a fight with Lethal, during which he performed the Spice Rack and went for the cover, but it was broken up by Devine. Devine immediately performed the Devine-Intervention on Curry Man to eliminate him from the match. The Devine Intervention involves a wrestler bending their opponent forward, placing the opponent's head between their own legs and hooking each of the opponent's arms behind the opponent's back. The wrestler pulls back on the opponent's arms, lifting them up so that the opponent is held upside down facing the same direction as the wrestler, who then falls to a sitting position, dropping the opponent's head into the mat in the process. Devine and Lethal, as the only two participants left, now attempted to leave the cage first. Devine removed the tape on his wrist and tied Lethal to the top rope, before trying to escape from the cage. He was stopped by Dutt, who had not left ringside, holding the cage door shut. Devine then attempted to climb out of the cage. While he did so, Dutt grabbed a planted knife from underneath the ring, and gave it to Lethal, so that he could free himself from the ropes. After Lethal was freed, he ran and jumped through the open door, held open by his on-screen girlfriend, SoCal Val (Valerie Elizabeth Wyndham), and Dutt to win the match. By doing so he retained the TNA X Division Championship.

Jay Lethal retained the TNA X Division Championship at Lockdown in the Xscape match

The next match was the Queen of the Cage for the number one contendership to the TNA Women's Knockout Championship. In this match the participants fight to climb up the cage and into the ring. The first two to do so then have a standard wrestling match. The participants were Roxxi Laveaux (Nicole Raczynski), Angelina Love (Angel Williams), Velvet Sky (Jamie Szantyr), Salinas (Shelly Lenore Martinez), Rhaka Khan (Trenesha Biggers), Traci Brooks (Tracy Brookshaw), Christy Hemme (Christina Lee Hemme), and Jacqueline (Jacqueline DeLois Moore). The two women to enter the cage were Love and Laveaux, respectively. Halfway through the match, Love performed the Lights Out, in which the wrestler lifts their opponent off the ground then falls backwards to slam their face into the mat, to get a near fall on Laveaux. Next she rolled Laveaux up in a straddle, a pin attempt in which a wrestler rolls their opponent down to their back but instead sits on their legs and stands up while their opponent is laying flat against the mat. However, Laveaux kicked out of it and slammed Love into the wall of the steel cage. With Love dazed and confused, Laveaux picked her up and performed the Voodoo Drop, in which the opponent is held in the air before the wrestler applying the move places their arm behind their opponent's head and falls to a sitting position, to gain the pinfall and win.

The third match was between B.G. James and Kip James in a standard wrestling match. The match was mostly dominated by Kip, who took control before the bell sounded when he punched B.G. in the face. B.G. won the match when Kip went for a Stinger Splash, a aerial maneuver in which a wrestler runs from one side of the ring to the other and does a jumping splash to their opponent (who is usually laying against the turnbuckle), but B.G. jumped out of the way. After Kip bounced off the top turnbuckle, B.G. pulled Kip down into a roll-up to get the three count. Following the match, B.G. helped Kip up off the ground. In return, Kip raised B.G.'s hand in victory, as a sign of friendship, however, he tricked B.G. and pulled him into a short-arm clothesline, an attack in which a wrestler pulls his opponent into a high impact lariat.

The Cuffed in the Cage match for a future TNA World Tag Team Championship was next, where six teams were locked inside the Six Sides of Steel. The match involved eleven of the twelve competeitors being cuffed, while the last one left won his team the future championship match. The participating teams were Kaz and Eric Young (Jeremy Fritz), The Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin [Joshua Harter] and Alex Shelley), Rellik (John Hugger) and Black Reign (Dustin Patrick Runnels), The Latin American X-Change (Homicide and Hernandez [Shawn Hernandez]), Scott Steiner (Scott Rechsteiner) and Petey Williams, and The Rock 'N Rave Infection (Lance Hoyt and Jimmy Rave) (RNRI). While the RNRI were making their way to the ring, a staged attack took place backstage between Rellik and Reign, Kaz's partner, Young. Because of this, Kaz had to compete in the match alone until Young recovered from his kayfabe injuries. The beginning was dominated by Steiner, as he suplexed, a maneuver is which a wrestler grabs their opponent in many different ways and throws them either over head or other different ways, almost everyone in sight. Reign, Rellik, Hoyt, and Kaz, however, all ganged up on him to cuff him to the cage. Immediately following Steiner's elimination, Young entered the arena and walked to the ring, where he tried to open the door, however, it was locked. He then started to climb up the side of the cage, but became intimidated by Rellik and Reign, in storyline. Because of this, he climbed down and returned to the backstage area. A few moments later, the second to be cuffed was Shelley by Williams. Less than a minute later, his partner, Sabin, was also cuffed by Kaz. Homicide was cuffed by Rellik, and Williams was cuffed by Reign. The next to be cuffed was Hernandez, by Reign. A little over a minute after Hernandez was cuffed, Hoyt performed a chokeslam, a throw in which a person is grabbed by the throat, then lifted off the ground and slammed down to the mat below where he lands on his back, from the top rope on Kaz. Afterwards, Kaz was cuffed. The match was then down to Rellik and Reign, and RNRI. That changed, however, as Super Eric's (Young's alter ego) music played, he entered the arena and ran to the ring. He climbed up the side of the cage and performed a splash from the top of the cage onto Rellik, Reign, Hoyt, and Rave, as they were standing in a group in the middle of the ring. Afterwards, he stood up and cuffed Rave and Hoyt, after a back body drop on Hoyt into the cage door. Later, Rellik and Reign gained the upper hand, until Rellik and Reign, together, tried to cuff Super Eric to the cage. Super Eric, however, tricked Rellik and cuffed him instead, in storyline. A few moments later, Super Eric cuffed Reign after performing a Death Valley Driver, A wrestlers places his opponent on his shoulders in a fireman's carry and falls to the side towards his opponents and lands slams it to the mat below.

The main match from the Women's division was next, a tag team match between the teams of Awesome Kong and Raisha Saeed, and Gail Kim and O.D.B.. The match began with O.D.B. and Kong, but less than a minute later they both tagged out. Kong and Saeed dominated most of the match, with Kong manhandling Kim and O.D.B. with her strength and size advantage. The match came to a close when Kong performed a spinning back fist, aimed for O.D.B., but ducked the move, which causing Kong to accidentally hit her partner Saeed, in storyline. Kim subsequently performed a missile dropkick, a dropkick from the top rope, on Kong, which enabled O.D.B. to climb to the center of the top rope, using the cage to stabilize herself, and executed a splash on Saeed to gain the pinfall.

Booker T ended his feud with Robert Roode at Lockdown

One of the featured matches on the undercard was next, which featured the teams of Booker T and his wife, Sharmell, against Robert Roode and his manager, Payton Banks. The match began with Booker T and Roode preparing to square off, however, Booker T became distracted by his wife trying to enter the ring instead of staying on the ring apron, in storyline. While he was preoccupied, Roode jumped Booker T and took control of the match with chops, high impact strikes to the chest of an opponent, to the chest. Because of this, Booker T became enraged and fought back with chops of his own. Towards the end of the match, Sharmell was being held by Roode, for Banks to slap her, however, the plan backfired as Sharmell hit Roode with a low blow, a kick or punch to the goring area of a male wrestler, and jumped out of the way as Banks slapped him by mistake. Sharmell then pulled Banks down into a roll up to get the three count. Booker T and Sharmell then celebrated their victory and returned to the backstage area. Afterwards, Roode and Banks had a staged confrontation, with Roode blaming Banks for their loss. Followed by him leaving the ring and returning to the locker room, while leaving a visibly crying Banks in the ring alone.

Main event matches

Christian Cage, who was one of the captains in this year's Lethal Lockdown match and began the match with A.J. Styles

The predominant main event took place in the Lethal Lockdown match between Team Cage (Christian Cage, Kevin Nash, Rhino, Sting, and Matt Morgan) and Team Tomko (Tomko, A.J. Styles, Team 3D [Brother Ray and Brother Devon], and James Storm, who was accompanied by Jacqueline). The rules of the match state that it begins with two participants, one from each team, they stay locked inside the cage for five minutes, until another participant enters the match from either team. Members enter from each team every two minutes. In this particular match, first one from Team Tomko and then two minutes later one from Team Cage. No pinfalls or submissions can take place until all members from both teams are in the ring. Then, a ceiling lowers with weapons attached to the bottom and the top of it. It was supposed to begin with the captains from each team (Cage and Tomko), but while Cage was waiting in the ring, in the dark, for Tomko to enter, Styles climbed up the side of the cage, behind him, and performed a flying forearm strike, a forearm smash from the top rope to the head or chest of a opponent, from the top rope to the back of Cage's head, after the lights came back on. Styles and Cage fought back and forth for five minutes. Then, Ray entered from Team Tomko. Two minutes later, Rhino from Team Cage entered. Following another two minutes, Storm, accompanied Jacqueline, entered from Team Tomko. Before the next entrance, Cage and Styles were fighting on the top of the cage. Cage started to climb down the outside to keep himself from falling off, at which point Ray hit Cage's fingers from inside of the cage. Which caused Cage to fall nearly 10 feet (3.0 m) to the concrete floor below. Nash entered next, after Cage's fall. With this addition to Team Cage, they dominated the match for a brief moment, because of Nash's advantage in size, until the next entrant, which was Devon. With Devon added, Team Tomko regained the numbers advantage. Two minutes later, Morgan entered and dominated every Team Tomko member with his size and strength advantage. After another two minutes, the final member of Team Tomko entered: the team captain, Tomko. He entered the match with a steel chair, but it was taken away by referee Earl Hebner. As the final two minutes went by, the fans in attendance rose to their feet as Sting, who was the last member from Team Cage and the last to enter Lethal Lockdown, entered the match. With Sting's entrance, the landscape of the match changed, now pinfalls and submissions could take place, and the ceiling was lowered, which was covered with weapons including a ladder, table, trash cans, and kendo sticks. As soon as the ceiling was fully lowered, every participant grabbed as many weapons as possible and began to use them. While most of the participants were fighting, Storm and Cage climbed through a small hole in the ceiling to the roof of the cage, where they started to fight with the weapons that were up there. Meanwhile, Styles became the scripted dominate wrestler inside the cage, and attacked every member of Team Cage with a kendo stick. While everyone was down, he ascended to the roof of the cage, where he began to help Storm. After Cage was incapacitated, they placed him on a table, which Cage had set up earlier. Styles then set up a ladder and started to climb it as Storm encouraged him. Meanwhile, Cage stood up and made his way to Styles and Storm, where he knocked-out Storm. He then ascended to the top of the ladder to fight Styles. Storm later recovered and pushed the ladder over, which fell over the table, Styles and Cage both crashing through it. Afterwards, Storm climbed back down into the cage and hit Morgan in the head with a beer bottle. When Storm turned around, Rhino performed a Gore, a running shoulder block to the gut of a wrestler, to gain the pinfall and the victory for Team Cage.

File:SamoaJoe0407.jpg

Samoa Joe, who won the TNA World Heavyweight Championship for the first time at Lockdown

The main event was for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, between, the champion, Kurt Angle, and the challenger, Samoa Joe. Joe entered first, following Samoan fire dancers, professional dancers in traditional Samoan attire who swing flaming sticks of fire as they perform, performance, to show his pride in his Samoan heritage. Angle entered second, and the introductions were made, including those for Rudy Charles, the referee for the match, Jeremy Borash, interviewer and guest ring announcer for the match, and Marcus Davis, Joe's trainer and presented the victor with the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Joe and Angle's introductions were done in the style of Mixed Martial Arts and Professional Boxing introductions. Karen Angle, Kurt Angle's wife, was shown on-screen, enraging him as they were in a scripted separation at the time, because he did not want to be distracted from his defense of the TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Joe. He then had her removed from the building, as she screamed obscenities. During the match, each man tried to gain the advantage, as they countered the other's submission moves, holds that are used by professional athletes to make their opponent submit by taping the mat multiple times or saying "I Quit". Joe claimed victory after he slammed Angle against the cage wall and followed with a superkick to the throat, a kick to the head of a opponent from a standing position. He then placed Angle on the top rope and set him up for the Muscle Buster, a move which sees the wrestler lift the opponent into a position that has their head resting on their shoulder, and then jumps up and down onto the mat, implanting the opponent's neck into the attacking wrestler's shoulders. After Joe performed the move, he pinned Angle to win his first World Heavyweight Championship. His trainer, Davis, presented him with the TNA World Heavyweight Championship afterwards. Joe celebrated his victory as the event came to a close.

Aftermath

Further information: [[:Sacrifice (2008)]]

File:Scottsteiner.jpg

Scott Steiner went on to have a TNA World Heavyweight Championship match at Sacrifice against Samoa Joe and Kaz.

The rivalry between Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle continued on Impact!, where Angle, in storyline, claimed to have a rematch clause in his contract during a segment between Joe and Scott Steiner, who was set to have a match at Sacrifice for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Joe and Angle fought again on the April 24 edition of Impact! for the World Heavyweight Championship. Joe won after a staged assault on Angle with a lead pipe by Steiner, which allowed Joe to perform a Powerslam, whereby a wrestlers lifts their opponent off the ground and powers them down onto the mat below, to gain the pinfall. Due to the controversy stemming from Steiner costing Angle his rematch, Management Director Jim Cornette made the TNA World Heavyweight Championship match at Sacrifice a 3-Way Dance between Joe, Steiner, and Angle. The match, however, never took place because Angle was legitimately injured during a match in Korea. Cornette declared that the 3-Way Dance would still happen and the winner of the debuting match, The TerrorDome, would take Angle's place in the main event at Sacrifice. Kaz won the match and took Angle's place. He was unsuccessful, however, as Joe claimed victory after performing a Muscle Buster on Steiner to gain the pinfall.

The TNA X Division Champion Jay Lethal later lost the title to Petey Williams, because of Williams cashing in his Feast or Fired Briefcase, which gave him a X Division Championship match, against Lethal on the April 17 edition of Impact!.

On the April 17 edition of Impact!, World Tag Team Champions A.J. Styles and Tomko defended the titles against the teams of The Latin American X-Change (Homicide and Hernandez) (LAX) and Kaz and Eric Young. Kaz and Young won the match when Young left mid-way through but later made his scripted return in his alter ego Super Eric. Styles and Tomko then claimed that Young and Super Eric were two different people. As a result, Cornette vacated the World Tag Team Championship, after Young refused to announced that he was Super Eric, and set up a tournament to crown the new World Tag Team Champions titled The Deuces Wild Tag Team Tournament. The tournament had eight established tag teams fight against each other, with only four teams moving on to the tournament to fight eight singles wrestlers that were placed together to make four tag teams. The eight single wrestlers were called the "Egotistical Eight" and were Robert Roode, Booker T, Sting, Matt Morgan, James Storm, B.G. James, Kip James, and Awesome Kong. They made up four teams: Booker T and Roode, Sting and Storm, Kip and Morgan, and B.G. and Kong. The four established teams to move on were Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon), Christian Cage and Rhino, LAX, and A.J. Styles and Super Eric (Super Eric was a replacement for Tomko, who had sustained a storyline injury in Japan). LAX claimed victory in the tournament after defeating Team 3D in the Finals, when Homicide pinned Devon after a top rope splash.

The storyline feud between Team Cage and Team Tomko slowly died down afterwards. Cage and Rhino formed a tag team and went after the World Tag Team Championship in the Deuces Wild Tag Team Tournament. Meanwhile, Styles and Tomko broke up, a result of Styles losing their Tag Team Titles. Styles later turned face, in storyline a good guy to the fans, because of Tomko attacking him on episode of Impact!.

Reception

File:Lockdown 2008 DVD.jpg

The DVD boxart of Lockdown

Canadian Online Explorer writer Chris Sokol rated the entire event 6.5 out of 10 stars. The rating was higher than the Lockdown event in 2007, which given 5.5 out of 10 stars. The Lethal Lockdown match, one of the matches from the double main event, was rated 9 out of 10 stars. The main event, a standard wrestling match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, was rated an 8 out of 10 stars, a lesser reception than its counterpart.

The event was released on DVD on June 17, 2008. The DVD was distributed by TNA Home Video. The DVD reached a peak position of fifth on Billboard's DVD Sales Chart for recreational sports during the week of July 12, 2008. The DVD remained on the chart for two consecutive weeks, although it ranked lower after the week of July 12, 2008. During its final week on the chart, the week of July 19, it ranked twelfth. The DVD also received reviews from customers, and the average customer rating from Amazon.com was 3.3 out of 5 stars, while CD Universe had an average customer rating of 5 out of 5 stars.

Results

As a Lockdown tradition, every match was contested inside a cage known as Six Sides of Steel.

#	Results	Stipulations	Times
1	Jay Lethal (c) defeated Johnny Devine, Shark Boy, Sonjay Dutt, Curry Man, Consequences Creed1	Xscape match for the TNA X Division Championship	10:25
2	Roxxi Laveaux defeated Angelina Love, Velvet Sky, Salinas, Rhaka Khan, Traci Brooks, Christy Hemme, and Jacqueline	Queen of Cage Match for number One Contendership to the TNA Women's Knockout Championship	05:27
3	B.G. James defeated Kip James	Six Sides of Steel Cage match	06:45
4	Super Eric and Kaz defeated The Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley), The Latin American X-Change (Homicide and Hernandez), Scott Steiner and Petey Williams, The Rock 'n Rave Infection (Lance Hoyt and Jimmy Rave), and Black Reign and Rellik2	Cuffed in the Cage Match for a future TNA World Tag Team Championship match	10:41
5	Gail Kim and O.D.B. defeated Awesome Kong and Raisha Saeed	Tag Team match	08:26
6	Booker T and Sharmell defeated Robert Roode and Payton Banks	Mixed Tag Team match	07:35
7	Team Cage (Christian Cage, Kevin Nash, Rhino, Sting, and Matt Morgan) defeated Team Tomko (Tomko, A.J. Styles, Team 3D [Brother Ray and Brother Devon], and James Storm [with Jacqueline])3	Lethal Lockdown match	26:27
8	Samoa Joe defeated Kurt Angle (c)	Six Sides of Steel Cage match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship and if Joe had lost, he would had to retire from professional wrestling forever.	17:34

Xscape match eliminations

1. ^

Elimination #	Eliminated	Eliminator	Notes	Time
1	Sonjay Dutt	Johnny Devine	Pinfall by a roll-up	02:47
2	Shark Boy	Consequences Creed	Pinfall after a Creed-DT	04:30
3	Consequences Creed	Curry Man	Pinfall after a Spice Rack	07:12
4	Curry Man	Johnny Devine	Pinfall after a Devine Intervention.	08:32
5	Johnny Devine	n/a	n/a	10:40
WINNER	Jay Lethal	n/a	Lethal escaped the cage with help from Dutt and SoCal Val	10:40

Cuffed in the Cage eliminations

2. ^

Elimination #	Eliminated	Eliminator
1	Scott Steiner	Rellik, Black Reign, Lance Hoyt, and Kaz
2	Alex Shelly	Petey Williams
3	Chris Sabin	Kaz
4	Homicide	Rellik
5	Petey Williams	Reign
6	Hernandez	Reign
7	Kaz	Rellik
8	Jimmy Rave	Super Eric
9	Lance Hoyt	Super Eric
10	Rellik	Super Eric
11	Black Reign	Super Eric

Lethal Lockdown entrances

3. ^

Entrance	Wrestler	Team	Time
1	Christian Cage	Team Cage	00:00
2	A.J. Styles	Team Tomko	00:00
3	Brother Ray	Team Tomko	05:00
4	Rhino	Team Cage	07:00
5	James Storm	Team Tomko	09:00
6	Kevin Nash	Team Cage	11:00
7	Brother Devon	Team Tomko	13:00
8	Matt Morgan	Team Cage	15:00
9	Tomko	Team Tomko	17:00
10	Sting	Team Cage	19:00

External links

• TNA Wrestling.com