Review of TNA: Lockdown 2007

Introduction

Though the Total Non-Stop Action (TNA) wrestling promotion has now been around, in some form, since 2002, the company is still very much in development as an alternative to WWE. In the last two years, some notable strides have been made, as company`s TV show, TNA Impact, has garnered a prime-time slot on American television, and will move into two hours in October 2007. Many well-known wrestlers have also joined the group, including Sting, Kurt Angle, Christian Cage, Scott Steiner, and the The Dudley Boyz. All of these acquisitions have given TNA a higher profile in the wrestling landscape.

The company has also begun to move out of its home territory of Florida. This event, TNA Lockdown, was the second event to be held outside of the state, this time taking place at the Family Arena in Saint Charles, Missouri. Held on 15th April 2007, the pay-per-view was main-evented by a Lethal Lockdown match-up, in which Kurt Angle, Rhino, Samoa Joe, Sting, and Jeff Jarrett faced AJ Styles, Christian Cage, Abyss, Tomko, and Scott Steiner.

Video

Video is presented in 4:3 fullscreen NTSC, and is good for a DVD of this genre. The event lacks the huge production values of WWE, but everything is very well lit, which is all that really matters on any wrestling release.

There are some mild compression artefacts throughout, which are not helped by the fact that every match on the card takes place in a steel cage. On the wide-angle camera shots, the transfer seems to struggle ever so slightly with the silver steel fence material.

Throughout the show, I noticed a few dropped frames, meaning that the video skips to black for the shortest of moments, before returning to normal. I would guess that this is not a transfer issue, but a master tape issue.

In any case, as regards both the dropped frames and the mild compression issues, you would have to be paying a lot of attention to pick these up. They are certainly not issues over which to fret.

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, and is also good for a DVD of this genre. Things are quite well mixed, so that in-the-ring sounds can be heard distinctly along-side the commentary.

The issue of the dropped frames occurs in the audio as well, as the sound blinks off for a split-second, before returning to normal.

Commentary is provided here by Mike Tenay and Don West. Tenay commentates in a different - which, in this case, is not to say better - manner to his 1990s work, but at least he isn`t as painful to listen to as West, who can be rather annoying with his incessant hyperbole.

For Spanish-speaking viewers, there is an alternative 2.0 track.

Features

There are thirty minutes worth of extras available here, which does make me wonder whether or not the video quality of the main feature, was compromised by trying to include so much. In recent times, WWE have scaled down the extras on their PPV DVDs, which has meant that the main feature is of noticeably higher quality.

In any case, the pre-PPV match of The James Gang vs Serotonin begins things, although I rather wish it hadn`t. This was a very forgettable match, unless you want to count how well Christy Hemme looked as manager of the latter.

From there, we got a look at the TNA FanFest, which would have been better had the DVD audience been able to see more of how the wrestlers interacted with the fans.

Finally, there is a music video featuring still camera shots from the Lockdown event.

Conclusion

The PPV itself began in intriguing fashion, as the X-Division title was on the line in an X-Scape elimination match, featuring Chris Sabin, Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt, Alex Shelley, and Shark Boy. This match featured some awesome aerial manoeuvres, that have become the X Division`s speciality. It`s also notable for the great tag-team work of Sabin and Shelley.

Robert Roode vs Petey Williams is a good under-card PPV match, and Jacqueline Moore vs Gail Kim is about as good as Women`s affair as it is possible to see in the United States.

Austin Starr vs Senshi looked like a tremendous match on paper, but their contest was hampered somewhat by the refereeing interaction of former WWF champion Bob Backlund, and the fact that the match did not have enough time to really take off.

The next bout was a Blindfold match (last done famously at Wrestlemania VII by Jake "The Snake" Roberts and Rick Martel), between former tag-team partners James Storm and Chris Harris. The rules of the match are that both men are blindfolded, yet still have to score a pinfall or submission win. Sadly, the contest nowhere near met the standards of Roberts vs Martel, and it was also a victim of poor pre-planning, as there were several occasions when the wrestlers` hoods fell off! This was a dreadful encounter, that the crowd hated.

Unfortunately for Christopher Daniels and Jerry Lynn, the crowd`s annoyance spilled over into their match, even though it was in good bout overall. But just when you thought that the show may have won the crowd back, LAX defended the World Tag Team Titles against The Dudley Boyz, in a match where the cage was purported to be electrified.

Such matches were popular in Japan in the early 1990s, but those bouts were often much more dangerous than what was offered up here. The crowd refused to believe that the cage was actually wired, and turned completely on the match. The bout was so poor that at one point, the crowd began a chant of "Fire Russo" - a reference to Vince Russo, who books the matches.

In many ways, it could be said that the Lethal Lockdown main event saved the show. This bout was patterned on the old WCW concept of War Games, in which a different member of a team enters the ring at two minute intervals. When all of the participants have entered, the first team to garner a pinfall or submission is the winner.

Here, the Lethal Lockdown was a very good match, which would have been even better had the ring been less crowded (War Games matches were always held across two rings), and had weapons been banned from use. Even still, however, there were strong performances here from Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe, and AJ Styles in particular, meaning that the event finished on a high note.

Overall, TNA Lockdown 2007 had its ups and its downs. Two of the night`s encounters (Storm vs Harris and LAX vs Team 3D) were absolutely appalling, the sort of bouts that put wrestling fans off the product, and give non-fans ammunition to say how stupid it is.

While there was nothing stand-out here, virtually everything aside from that, however, was worth watching. I was particularly taken with the opening 5-man contest, which was a lot of fun, and a great way to start the show.

TNA is currently trying to get a stronger foothold on the UK market, by releasing DVDs in PAL format, and by having their product on Bravo 2 television. If you are intrigued by TNA, Lockdown 2007 will give you an idea of what the company is all about. Just be prepared to use the SKIP function at the relevant chapter points.