Lockdown Preview & Predictions

Lockdown, where all of the matches take place inside of the Six Sides of Steel, will come to us live this Sunday from the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, MA. The event is being announced as a double main event, with Kurt Angle defending the TNA World Championship against Samoa Joe and a traditional Lethal Lockdown match with Christian Cage and Tomko being the captains of their five-man teams. In addition, there are six more matches on the card that feature nearly every single active wrestler on the roster.

Here is the current lineup:
- Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe (TNA World Championship)
- Team Cage vs. Team Tomko (Lethal Lockdown)
- Jay Lethal vs. Curry Man vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Johnny Devine vs. Shark Boy vs. Consequences Creed (Xscape Match for the X Division Title)
- Booker T & Sharmell vs. Robert Roode & Payton Banks
- BG James vs. Kip James
- Awesome Kong & Raisha Saeed vs. Gail Kim & ODB
- LAX vs. Motorcity Machine Guns vs. Rock n’ Rave Infection vs. Scott Steiner & Petey Williams vs. Eric Young & Kaz vs. Black Reign & Rellik (Cuffed in the Cage)
- Angelina Love vs. Velvet Sky vs. Salinas vs. Rhaka Khan vs. Traci Brooks vs. Christy Hemme vs. Jacqueline vs. Roxxi Laveaux (Queen of the Cage)

Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe (TNA World Championship)
Samoa Joe was given this opportunity to face the TNA World Champion a few months ago when he was the special enforcer in a match between Kurt Angle and Christian Cage. Joe has finally cashed in on the title shot and has promised to take the title home with him or he will walk away from not only TNA, but from wrestling forever.

The build up for this match has been a little bit different than the ones in the past. Instead of focusing on whose side everyone else is on or any other outside factors that tend to overshadow the actual match, we are just getting two great wrestlers putting it all on the line in what could be one of the best matches of the year. TNA has a tendency to try to swerve its fans and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Angle come out on top, but I do think it is Joe’s time to shine and he should walk away from Lockdown as the new World Champion.

Starman’s Prediction: Samoa Joe to finally win the TNA World Championship.

Team Cage vs. Team Tomko (Lethal Lockdown)
The week following Destination X, Jim Cornette announced that former allies, Christian Cage and Tomko, would be heading up four man teams to compete in a Lethal Lockdown match. Tomko chose his tag team partner AJ Styles along with Team 3D to be on his team and Cage reconciled with Rhino and also got Kevin Nash and Sting to come along. After the teams had been set, James Storm got himself involved by smashing a beer bottle over Sting’s head. Matt Morgan, acting on the behalf of TNA management, allowed Team Tomko to let Storm join their team and Morgan did the same and joined Team Cage.

This is the second year in a row that Christian Cage has had a team participate in the Lethal Lockdown match. Over the past few weeks Team Cage has always been able to one up their opponents and has the momentum going into Lethal Lockdown. However, I have a feeling that their luck is going to change once the get into the Six Sides of Steel and, much like last year, history will repeat itself and Team Cage will be on the losing end.

Starman’s Prediction: Team Tomko to upset Team Cage.

Jay Lethal vs. Curry Man vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Johnny Devine vs. Shark Boy vs. Consequences Creed (Xscape Match for the X Division Title)
Much like the Lethal Lockdown match, the X Division Xscape match is another Lockdown staple. Aside from the X Division Champion, Jay Lethal, all of the participants took part in qualifying matches on Impact to earn a spot in this match. As I stated in an Impact review, this match is almost as close as you can get to a gimmick nightmare.

The rules of the match are simple – all six competitors start out in the ring and are eliminated by pin fall or submission. Once it is down to the final two, the first participant that is able to escape the cage is declared the winner. Johnny Devine hasn’t done much since trying to disband the X Division and I can’t see Curry Man, Shark Boy or Creed holding the X Division title at this time, so that leaves it down to Lethal and Dutt as the final two. From there, Dutt will take away the X Division title from Lethal and also steal his girl in the process.

Starman’s Prediction: Sonjay Dutt to start his first X Division title reign.

Booker T & Sharmell vs. Robert Roode & Payton Banks
Booker T’s wife, Sharmell, made her return to TNA at last month’s Destination X pay-per-view after suffering a broken jaw at the hands of Robert Roode at the beginning of the year. Since Sharmell likes to get involved in her husband’s affairs, Jim Cornette booked a mixed tag team match with Booker & Sharmell facing Roode and his valet, Payton Banks.

This will mark the fifth pay-per-view in a row that featured Booker T against Robert Roode in some shape or form, and I honestly cannot say when this feud will end. I doubt it will be at Lockdown. Booker T & Sharmell came up victorious the last time they fought in a mixed tag team match against Roode, but since then Booker hasn’t had much luck against him and I have a feeling that the trend will continue.

Starman’s Prediction: Robert Roode & Payton Banks to win.

BG James vs. Kip James
These two former friends and partners have held tag team gold together on five different occasions. They had an opportunity to go for the gold again but BG James instead chose his father, “Bullet” Bob Armstrong, to team up with for a shot at the titles. This left a bad taste in Kip James’s mouth and after coming up short against AJ Styles & Tomko, Kip ended his friendship with BG James by breaking a crutch over Bob Armstrong’s head.

Since then these two have had a war with words in a weekly segment called TNA Rough Cut. BG James seems to want to eventually mend things between the two of them, but according to Kip James, their friendship will never be restored. Since BG James thinks that the two need to fight before they can talk again, I have a feeling that BG won’t put up much of a fight and allow Kip James to walk out of Lockdown as the winner of this match.

Starman’s Prediction: Kip James to win.

Awesome Kong & Raisha Saeed vs. Gail Kim & ODB
Both Gail Kim and ODB have come up short in their quest to dethrone Awesome Kong as the Women’s Champion. Raisha Saeed has been Kong’s mouthpiece for a while now and has even gotten involved by clocking Gail Kim in the head with the Women’s title. Aside from that moment, Saeed hasn’t spent any amount of time inside of a TNA ring, so she is a wildcard factor in this match.

Last month, Kong defeated both Gail Kim and ODB in a triple threat match, but now the two of them are working together as a team and it could be a different story. As the Women’s title is not on the line and given Saeed’s involvement in the match, I have to side with Gail Kim & ODB on this contest and predict them as the winners.

Starman’s Prediction: Gail Kim & ODB to pick up the victory.

LAX vs. Motorcity Machine Guns vs. Rock n’ Rave Infection vs. Scott Steiner & Petey Williams vs. Eric Young & Kaz vs. Black Reign & Rellik (Cuffed in the Cage)
This match was added to the card at the last minute and really has no build up whatsoever. The premise is that there are going to be 11 sets of handcuffs in the ring and the winner will be the last one of the 12 competitors to not be handcuffed. Hopefully, this will not be a returning staple to the Lockdown pay-per-view in the years to come.

The LAX are the current #1 contenders to the tag team titles, but with the tag team champs in the Lethal Lockdown match, they have to settle with this match instead. All of the teams have gotten some form of television exposure in the past few weeks, so it is hard to predict a winner. I have to just go with my gut on this one and predict Steiner & Williams to win this one so Steiner has at least a bit of momentum starting for him as he faces the World Champion next month at Sacrifice.

Starman’s Prediction: Scott Steiner & Petey Williams to win the match.

Angelina Love vs. Velvet Sky vs. Salinas vs. Rhaka Khan vs. Traci Brooks vs. Christy Hemme vs. Jacqueline vs. Roxxi Laveaux (Queen of the Cage)
This is another match that was added to the card that gives the rest of the Knockouts something to do. The match is much like the Fight for the Right system that TNA uses every so often where the participants start on the outside and fight their way to the ring. A match will take place between the first two who enter the ring and the winner of that will be declared the Queen of the Cage.

I’m not sure of anything will actually come from this match, but it could be a good way to elevate another woman into the title picture. With that said, I can see almost any one of these women walking out of this match as the winner, but only a few of them really stick out. Rhaka Khan is one of them as we haven’t had a chance to see what she is really capable of doing yet. Traci Brooks and Jacqueline are a couple of my other favorites but I have to pick Roxxi Laveaux as my overall favorite in this match.

Starman’s Prediction: Roxxi Laveaux to become the Queen of the Cage.

There you have it. Lockdown has been built up around the double main event, however, there are a couple of other matches on the card that should be fun to watch as well. James vs. James won’t be a wrestling classic, but these two know each other well enough to have a decent match and the Xscape Match should deliver like it does every year.

There are some filler matches on the card that may drag the pay-per-view along at times, but the Kurt Angle/Samoa Joe match should more than make up for that. Sure, this isn’t the first time the two have faced, but they always seem to deliver and I have a feeling that this Sunday will be no exception. Plus, who knows, the filler matches may not end up being that bad after all.

I will be watching this event and will offer my thoughts on about it on Monday. As always, live coverage of Lockdown will happen live on Gerweck.net starting at 8:00 EST.