Lockdown (2013)
| Lockdown (2013) | |||
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| Promotion | Total Nonstop Action Wrestling | ||
| Date | March 10, 2013 | ||
| City | San Antonio, Texas | ||
| Venue | Alamodome | ||
| Pay-per-view chronology | |||
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| Lockdown chronology | |||
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Lockdown (2013) is an upcoming professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion, which will take place on March 10, 2013 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.[1] It will be the ninth under the Lockdown chronology and second event in the 2013 TNA PPV schedule. Lockdown will also be moved to March for the first time since its inception in 2005.
From 2005-2012, the tradition of Lockdown events featured every match taking place inside a Steel Cage. Beginning in 2013, this was modified to having standard matches on the card along with cage matches.
Background
Lockdown will feature professional wrestling matches that involve different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers will portray villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.
During the November 29, 2012 Impact Wrestling episode, the location for the ninth annual Lockdown event was announced to take place at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas on March 10, 2013. In the press release published, 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 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 during the 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 the month of March, leaving from this point forward Genesis, Lockdown, Slammiversary and Bound for Glory as the remains on their regular PPV schedule.[2] Like every year, TNA will also be arranging their annual Lockdown VIP Weekend featuring their fan-friendly Lockdown Fan InterAction, 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.
The main event headlining Lockdown will be 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 meet TNA General Manager Hulk Hogan's impression and allow him to personally select a contender. Out of the four matches scheduled, two resulted in a no-contest which were Kurt Angle versus Samoa Joe and Bobby Roode versus Austin Aries; however, Magnus defeated Christopher Daniels and James Storm beat Rob Van Dam. Meanwhile, Brooke politicized with her father, Hulk, about her husband Bully Ray wanting in on the championship hunt, to which Hulk claimed he would take under advisement. Before a decision regarding the title contender could be made that same night, the Aces & Eights gang halted the announcement by surrounding Hogan for an attack, but retreated from a belligerent Bully Ray and Sting, who came to Hogan's aid with weapons. The next week, in an act of nepotism, Hogan chose his son-in-law Bully Ray (who did not partake in the tournament) as the contender to the World Title, disregarding the actual competitors in the tournament.
The ninth annual Lethal Lockdown match will be featured at Lockdown to showcase the main feud in TNA. During this match, there will be five members of two teams and one wrestler from each team starts off. After five minutes, another wrestler from one team may enter followed two minutes later by a wrestler on another team. From then on, every two minutes a new wrestler enters until all ten wrestlers have entered. After this point, a ceiling of weapons descend upon the cage making weapons, pinfalls, and submissions allowed. For over 9 months, the Aces & Eights, beginning with their attacks on Sting and Hulk Hogan, have waged war against TNA and the company's roster with a mix of all-out brawls and calculated attacks. After holding Sting and Hogan for ransom, Aces & Eights received their chance to win contracts 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 reasons for joining. On the February 7 edition of Impact Wrestling, Aces & Eights challenged the TNA roster to "a war to end all wars" at Lockdown. In the following weeks, Aces & Eights selected their team captained by Devon as DOC, Mr. Anderson, Mike Knox and Garett Bischoff to go against Team TNA captained by Sting which was revealed as James Storm, Samoa Joe, Magnus, and a returning Eric Young, who was injured months ago by the group.
Another feud entering the event is between Kurt Angle and Wes Brisco. After having befriended Kurt Angle into helping him get an opportunity to make it on the roster, Brisco helped fend off members of the Aces & Eights with a lead pipe to save Kurt Angle and Garett Bischoff from getting beat down. Brisco received a chance on Gut Check, winning his tryout match against Bischoff and the judges vote to become a member of the TNA roster. Under the wing of Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe, Brisco and Bischoff aligned with them in their fight against the rebel group, winning their match against the Aces & Eights on December 9 at Final Resolution. Early January, however, Angle and Joe's egos began declining 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. Moreover, just before the match, Joe is 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 as Garett Bischoff. Wes Brisco then proceeded to assist Bischoff in assaulting Angle to reveal his alliance with the Aces & Eights and that two of them were in on the attacks on Angle and Joe. The next week, Bischoff stated that Aces & Eights was his new family and Brisco expressed his spite for Hogan and having to "start at the bottom" as a Brisco (son of Gerald Brisco). On the February 21 edition of Impact Wrestling, in response, Angle told Brisco that he was glad to have gotten him a contract because the pain he would inflict would be legal, and in the process, challenged Brisco to a steel cage match at Lockdown.
A tag team rivalry entering Lockdown involves defending champions Bobby Roode and Austin Aries, Hernandez and Chavo Guerrero, Jr., and Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels and Kazarian), competing over the TNA World Tag Team Championship. On the January 31 edition of Impact Wrestling, on-and-off rivals Bobby Roode and Austin Aries enunciated their alliance as a team and their goal to pursue all the championships, declaring that they would start with the TNA World Tag Team Titles. From there, Bobby Roode and Austin Aries began a feud with then-TNA World Tag Team Champions Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez, earning themselves title shots 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, in which he succeeded. On the February 7 edition of Impact Wrestling, Roode and Aries defeated Guerrero and Hernandez to win the tag titles. After Bad Influence acquainted with Roode and Aries over the next few weeks, on the February 28 edition of Impact Wrestling, Aries announced there would be a Three-Way match, where him and Roode would defend their titles facing Guerrero and Hernandez and Bad Influence at Lockdown.
For months, Kenny King chased the TNA X Division Championship which eluded him until the February 28 edition of Impact Wrestling, where he finally defeated the champion Rob Van Dam for the title. King was later scheduled to defend his championship in a Three-Way match with Zema Ion and Christian York at Lockdown.
A feud in the Knockouts Division has Gail Kim going up against defending champion Velvet Sky for the TNA Women's Knockout Championship. Ever since January's Genesis, when Gail Kim attempted to sneakily capitalize with underhanded tactics, Kim felt that Knockouts referee Taryn Terrell had cost her the Gauntlet match for contention to the TNA Knockout Championship, which was won by Sky last eliminating Kim as Terrell did not detect Kim's foot under the ropes to call for the rope break. On the February 21 edition of Impact Wrestling, in a Four-Way Elimination Knockouts match that included Knockout Champion Tara and Miss Tessmacher, and had Kim and Tarrell arguing over Kim's actions in the match, Sky last eliminated Kim to win the TNA Women's Knockout Championship.
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 upstaging all performances. Several weeks later during TNA's tour of the UK, Robbie E labeled the people of the UK as "hamsters" among the presence of Robbie T, who was made exception for but is from the continent. After Robbie E criticized new UK hire Rockstar Spud and appeared bossy to the bigger Robbie T in his defense, a situation was created where Robbie T bent down to retrieve his "dropped clipboard", allowing Spud to attack Robbie E on the spot, and shortly celebrated with him after. This later set up a match that saw Spud upset Robbie E for a win in his first match in TNA. Robbie E then crossed the line with Robbie T by slapping him across the face which only infuriated Robbie T. 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.
Another match added on the card is Joey Ryan versus Joseph Park.
Matches
| No. | Matches[3] | Stipulations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeff Hardy (c) vs. Bully Ray | Steel Cage match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship |
| 2 | Team TNA (Sting, Magnus, Samoa Joe, James Storm and Eric Young) vs. Aces & Eights (Devon, Mr. Anderson, Mike Knox, DOC and Garett Bischoff) | Lethal Lockdown match |
| 3 | Kurt Angle vs. Wes Brisco | Steel Cage match |
| 4 | Velvet Sky (c) vs. Gail Kim | Singles match for the TNA Women's Knockout Championship |
| 5 | Austin Aries and Bobby Roode (c) vs. Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels and Kazarian) vs. Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez | Three-Way Tag Team match for the TNA World Tag Team Championship |
| 6 | Rob Terry vs. Robbie E | Singles match |
| 7 | Kenny King (c) vs. Christian York vs. Zema Ion | Three-Way match for the TNA X-Division Championship |
| 8 | Joseph Park vs. Joey Ryan | Singles match |
References
- ^ a b Caldwell, James (2012-11-29). "TNA NEWS: Lockdown 2013 announced - location, new month, two matches, top star with expiring contract advertised". PWTorch. Retrieved 2012-11-29.
- ^ Csonka, Larry (2012-11-29). "TNA News: More on PPV Change, Hogan Working With Matt Morgan, Positive Vibes From Last Night's Tapings". 411Mania. Retrieved 2012-11-30.
- ^ "Lockdown 2013 is coming to the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas on March 10". Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. 2012-11-29. Retrieved 2012-11-30.