Lockdown 2009: The Cage Concept Finally Feels Big Enough for the Card

Eric Young and radio personality Danny Bonaduce wrestled a brief steel-cage pre-show match before the main Lockdown 2009 pay-per-view began in Philadelphia. Bonaduce entered with nunchucks, using his celebrity presence and taunts to draw attention before Young established the faster wrestling rhythm. Bonaduce attempted a rolling senton off the ropes for a two-count, but Young fought back with a powerbomb and survived an awkward aerial exchange that exposed the limits of the guest competitor’s in-ring experience. The cage was more a theatrical setting than a carefully developed stipulation for either participant.

Bonaduce tried to use his nunchucks again, but Young avoided the strike and rolled him up for the pin after roughly three minutes and twenty-four seconds. Bonaduce then attacked Young with the weapon after the bell, prompting Rhino to come out and deliver the Gore. That post-match spear belongs to a separate angle, not the result of the cage match. A D (4.5) recognizes a legitimate pin and a crowd-pleasing appearance while judging how little substantive wrestling the segment delivered. This is a skip except for its historical celebrity-wrestling context.

Suicide defended the TNA X Division Championship inside the cage against Jay Lethal, Consequences Creed, Sheik Abdul Bashir and Kiyoshi under Xscape elimination rules. The first stage required pins or submissions until only two remained. Lethal and Creed worked together to eliminate Kiyoshi, then Bashir pinned Creed, and Bashir later eliminated Lethal after Suicide had landed a finishing move on him. Those intermediate results mattered because they left only Suicide and Bashir to contest the escape portion of the match, rather than making it a five-man race to the cage door from the opening bell.

Bashir climbed as Suicide fought free of further attacks. Suicide scaled the cage and launched himself outside onto Kiyoshi and the security personnel gathered at ringside, landing on the arena floor first and retaining his championship at about eleven minutes and thirty-seven seconds. The final fall was not a pin; the Xscape rule made the escape decisive. B+ (8.4) reflects a dynamic opening main-card title defense with a logical switch from eliminations to an inventive aerial escape. The distinct sequence is also essential for participant and Match Finder accuracy: Suicide is the winner, but not every other entrant suffered a pin directly from him.

ODB entered the Queen of the Cage match with Cody Deaner in her corner and three rivals—Daffney, Madison Rayne and Sojournor Bolt—who briefly found a shared reason to attack her. The special cage format did not create a long exhibition: the bout lasted a little more than six minutes and leaned into ODB’s rough comic character. Cody poured liquor into her mouth from a flask when the three-on-one attack threatened to overwhelm her, triggering a familiar comeback. Daffney’s presentation was menacing, but she was not the wrestler who ultimately took the pin.

ODB recovered with strikes, spat the liquor into Sojournor Bolt’s face and followed with a powerslam to pin Bolt. The result made ODB the Queen of the Cage winner; it was not an elimination sequence in which every opponent was pinned. The D+ (5.2) recognizes the quick turnaround and a finish tied to her established character, but the crowded configuration and short runtime gave the other three women little chance to develop a competitive story. This is a skip except for fans tracing the Knockouts division through Lockdown 2009.

The Motor City Machine Guns defended the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against two challengers in a three-way tornado-cage match: LAX, represented by Hernandez and Homicide, and No Limit, represented by Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro. With six wrestlers legal at once, there were no standard prolonged tag-isolation sequences. Instead the bout revolved around coordinated double-team maneuvers, rapid saves and competitors being driven against the cage walls. Hernandez supplied the power advantage, while the Guns and No Limit regularly answered with flying counters. The Japanese championship was the stake, not the TNA World Tag Team titles defended later on the card.

The finish came when Alex Shelley pinned Naito after a Motor City Machine Guns combination, preserving the team’s IWGP junior belts. The key official distinction is that the Guns defeated both challenging teams but did not separately pin each individual challenger; Naito took the deciding fall. A B+ (8.1) reflects an energetic multi-team title defense that worked within the cage despite its fast, crowded structure. The actual title involved and the pinned wrestler are worth preserving for rankings and Match Finder accuracy.

Matt Morgan and Abyss fought inside the Doomsday Chamber of Blood, whose critical rule was that a competitor had to be bleeding before he could legally be pinned. Abyss pledged not to resort to weapons, but Morgan cut his forehead early and proceeded to target the wound. A broken glass shard became a threat when Morgan attempted to slash Abyss, only for the larger wrestler to block the attempt. Morgan then collided with the referee on an attempted airborne attack, interrupting the normal count. Abyss broke his promise by taking the glass and opening a cut on Morgan’s head, allowing the two men to continue toward a legal finish.

Abyss landed a Black Hole Slam, but a replacement referee managed only a two-count. After finding a chair outside the cage, Abyss was confronted by Dr. Stevie, who ordered him to stop using weapons. Abyss defied that instruction and poured thumbtacks across the mat. Dr. Stevie struck Abyss, and Morgan exploited the distraction with a low blow and slammed Abyss onto the tacks for the pin. The B- (7.1) acknowledges a violent, coherent rules-based finish while penalizing the outside interference that decided the contest.

Awesome Kong defended the Knockouts Championship against Angelina Love and Taylor Wilde in a three-way steel-cage contest. Kong imposed the most physical offense and even tried a somersault splash from the top rope, only to miss hard. Love and Velvet Sky attempted to neutralize her by tying Kong’s hair to the cage, temporarily leaving the champion unable to reach the other two challengers. Wilde responded with a top-rope crossbody that struck Love, visibly disrupting the intended finishing stretch. The match therefore became less a sustained athletic duel than an awkward scramble to get the title outcome recorded.

Wilde spent time checking on Kong after the collision. Kong then pushed Wilde toward the middle of the ring, where Love managed a pin on Wilde despite appearing dazed. Love won the Knockouts Championship without pinning Kong, a distinction needed when identifying the champion’s loss and Wilde’s actual fall. The C (6.3) credits a consequential title switch but not the short match’s physical execution, which was hampered by the apparent injury. The live footage deserves a selective rather than full-watch recommendation.

Team 3D entered as IWGP heavyweight tag champions against TNA World Tag Team Champions Beer Money in a Philadelphia Street Fight staged around the cage. Brother Ray and Brother Devon initially brawled with Robert Roode and James Storm through the crowd, giving the fight a deliberately ECW-flavored atmosphere. Storm spat beer into Ray’s eyes and struck his face with the cage door, opening a cut. Beer Money then delivered a double suplex to Devon from the ring steps through a table. Unlike a standard title-vs-title showcase, this was meant to feature violence and improvisation as much as ordinary tandem wrestling.

Late in the match, Ray directed Devon to bring a table into the cage. Beer Money recovered and prepared another attack with the cage door, but Devon countered Roode’s attempt and Storm inadvertently slammed the door into his own partner. Roode stumbled back into Team 3D’s 3D through the table, and Ray pinned him. The result made Team 3D holders of both the IWGP heavyweight tag championship they already possessed and the newly won TNA World Tag Team Championship. Its A- (8.7) reflects a carefully earned title change with a finish using the cage that had shaped the brawl.

Team Jarrett and Team Angle met in Lethal Lockdown, a WarGames-like staggered-entry fight whose roof descended after all eight wrestlers had joined the cage. Kurt Angle began opposite Christopher Daniels and immediately drew boos as Daniels applied the Koji Clutch. Booker T entered next because Angle’s faction had earned the temporary numbers advantage on Impact. A.J. Styles, Scott Steiner, Samoa Joe, Kevin Nash and finally Jeff Jarrett arrived in sequence, escalating the brawl from grappling to eight-man strikes against the steel. The lowered roof brought weapons into play and sent Angle and Styles climbing dangerously onto the top structure.

Angle left Styles lying on the cage roof, then descended to rejoin the match. Styles performed a spectacular dive through the roof toward the wrestlers below, turning the match’s full-cage setting into the centerpiece of the night. Jarrett later missed Booker with a chair and hit Styles by mistake, casting doubt on his loyalty. At the finish Jarrett teased hitting Styles with a guitar, then smashed it across Booker T’s head; Styles pinned Booker for Team Jarrett’s victory. The A (9.1) values the long factional construction and a decisive guitar-assisted pin, without treating the roof dive as the official finish.

Mick Foley challenged Sting for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in the final cage match of Lockdown 2009. Foley, leaning into his Cactus Jack personality, added an escape-the-cage winning option while ordering the cage door kept locked. That contradictory stipulation became part of the drama as he first tried to fight Sting with his usual rough strikes and then injured his leg. Both men threatened each other with the Scorpion Deathlock. Foley attacked a cameraman near the cage wall and briefly attempted to exploit the resulting hole as another exit, making the cage itself an active part of the match rather than only a backdrop.

Foley acquired a barbed-wire bat, and the fight became a bloody contest of weapon strikes. Sting punished Foley’s injured leg and also used the bat, while Foley countered with a barbed-wire-wrapped version of Mr. Socko. Finally both wrestlers climbed toward the top of the steel enclosure. Foley reached the arena floor first to win the championship by escape, not by pin or submission, in roughly sixteen minutes. The B (7.8) credits the surprising title change and strongly established stipulation while noting the slower wrestling rhythm relative to the preceding team spectacle.