20 Years Ago: Lockdown 2005: A Show of Firsts

TNA Lockdown 2005 was the first ever all cage match pay-per-view, and introduced the Xscape Match and Lethal Lockdown match

***This event featured the final match of Chris Candido, who was injured at TNA Lockdown 2005 and passed away a few days after the event. Our condolences go to the friends, family, and loved ones of Chris Candido****

On April 24th, 2005, Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling presented the first edition of their Lockdown pay-per-view. Live from the IMPACT Zone at Soundstage 21 from Universal Studios Orlando, every match on the card was contested inside a steel cage.

The show marked a few firsts for TNA. It was the first time that a TNA pay-per-view contested every match inside the Six Sides of Steel Cage. It also marked the debut of the Xscape and Lethal Lockdown matches. Let’s rundown the show and the legacies left behind by these matches.

TNA Lockdown 2005: 20 Years Ago

Six Sides of Steel

TNA was no stranger to trying different match types or putting spins on existing match types. The Ultimate-X match, which became synonymous with the brand is a prime example of this. Through match types such as the Elevation-X, Monster’s Ball, and the variations they put on the traditional cage match, the promotion found a way to be unique from early on in its existence.

A key trademark of the early phases of TNA’s residency in the Orlando IMPACT Zone was the six-sided ring. Although Lockdown didn’t feature the first-ever six sides of steel cage match, the match became synonymous with the event.

The event was first announced in January, and two cage matches were originally advertised to headline the event. That was changed on the February 18th edition of TNA IMPACT by on-screen authority figure Dusty Rhodes who made every match on the card a cage match.

The Six Sides of Steel structure had already seen some memorable moments, including Elix Skipper walking the top of the cage and delivering a hurricanrana to Chris Harris of America’s Most Wanted who was sitting on top of the cage. Many memorable matches would come from future Lockdown events including Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle, Sting vs. Mick Foley, and plenty of Lethal Lockdown matches such as Team Jarrett vs. Team Dixie, Team Angle vs. Team Cage, and more.

The final Lockdown event took place in February of 2016 and was headlined by Matt Hardy taking on EC3 in a Six Sides of Steel match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. This concluded the decade-plus run of a TNA show hosting every match inside of steel cage.

Having every match contested inside a steel cage became the tradition for the pay-per-view. This concept made its way to WWE where pay-per-views began to have themes behind them such as Extreme Rules, Hell in a Cell, Elimination Chamber, and more where the main events or the entire card had variations of the titular match for the show.

Xscape Match

Although the Lethal Lockdown match became the primary match associated with the Lockdown pay-per-view, there was another match that was featured at the event. The match started with all the wrestlers inside the cage. Eliminations occurred via pinfall or submission until two wrestlers remained. Once it was down to two wrestlers, the goal of the match became to be the first wrestler to escape the cage by climbing the top of the cage or escaping through the front door.

The initial match from the 2005 edition of Lockdown saw Shocker defeat Sonjay Dutt and Matt Bentley before beating Chris Sabin to escape the cage to become victorious in the match. The final edition of the match took place at the 2011 edition of the pay-per-view where Max Buck (Matt Jackson of the Young Bucks) defeated Amazing Red, Brian Kendrick, Chris Sabin, Jay Lethal, Jeremy Buck (Nick Jackson of the Young Bucks), Robbie E, and Suicide

A similar match type came in 2008 when TNA introduced the Asylum match. The dome cage structure had a tiny opening at the top of the cage. The goal of the match was to be the first wrestler to escape the opening and was declared the winner of the match. Although the pinfall/submission elimination element was not part of the match the escape element was very much in place.

Lethal Lockdown

The marquee match of Lockdown, the Lethal Lockdown match. The match takes inspiration from the WarGames match of a team-based cage match. Participants from each team enter at certain intervals until both teams have completely entered the cage. From there the first team to score a pinfall or submission is declared the winner.

A new stipulation was added for the 2006 edition of the match. Once all members from both teams had entered the cage, a roof was lowered over the cage. The roof of the cage was lined with weapons for the competitors to use.

The first match was won by Team Nash (BG James, Sean Waltman, and Diamond Dallas Page), but the first team to win the updated version was Sting’s Warriors (Sting, AJ Styles, Ron Killings, and Rhino). The match was part of every edition of the pay-per-view.

The match took elements of the WarGames match but took away the element of the second ring. Once the roof and weapons were added to the match it added a new feel to the match that encouraged more violence inside of the cage. The roof also became a landing spot for memorable high spots from wrestlers such as AJ Styles. The most memorable was AJ Styles jumping from a ladder that was on the roof of the cage onto Chris Harris who was lying on a table.

Although we have not seen a Lethal Lockdown or Lockdown show since 2016, the matches the show created provided some memorable moments for the promotion. Through matches such as the Xscape and Lethal Lockdown Matches, TNA gave wrestling fans an event to look forward to every year from 2005 to 2016 through the Lockdown pay-per-view.

Did you watch the Lockdown 2005 pay-per-view? Did you enjoy the Xscape and Lethal Lockdown matches? What did you think of the cards throughout the years? Sound off in the comments below.

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