TNA Lockdown 2007
This past Sunday I attended a wrestling Pay Per View in St. Charles Missouri, at it was very awesome. This was the second ever wrestling event that I have attended, The Other being WWE Backlash 2002, and this one was far superior. The PPV was all cage matches which is the only federation I know of that has an event like that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tna_lockdown
look at "2007" for the card etc...
The Day started with My friends Dave, Mike, Marco and I hauling up and driving the 3 and 1/2 hours to the PPV. We ended up there a tad bit early (around 2 o'clock) so we had some time to kill. We attempted to go to Bass Pro shop, not because any of us are outdoorsmen, but we didn't want to drive too far away from the Family Arena. The only thing we successfully did was scare the shit out of ourselves by walking past this abomination of a statue that was on display. I really wish we would have taken a picture of this thing, because it was like the Burger king and a deformed cigar Indian statue had a kid. This thing was so terrifying, that it had a smile that would send chills down Chuck Norris's Spine. We all joked that it would be in the car when we got back to it, and tons of other hypothetical horror movie starters that we could think of. realizing that none of us really needed any bear mace or razor tipped hunting arrows, we all drove back to the arena.
we decided to go ahead and get in line because a line was beginning to start. Once, in the line we struck up conversation with some guys from Houston TX, that were pretty cool, and generally just talked about what we felt was going to happen at the event. Thats when we saw him: the finest specimen of redneck-dom if I have ever seen one. This guy was a scrawny man with very few teeth wearing a TNA shirt for a tag team called "team 3-D", which ironically used to have the gimmick of being inbred rednecks. I know what most of you are saying "That doesn't sound that out of the ordinary..." Well on top of that this guy and his friend were both sporting bright ass red Luchadore (Mexican wrestler) Masks. I'm not sure why one, that isn't a luchadore, would have a luchadore mask, or wear one for that matter, but all it did was accentuate how stupid the guy was. To top it off, he also had a mullet under the mask. After this realization, what we all had to endure was 2 hours of the most innane drunken cat calling and sheer insanity that we could handle. I didn't want to make fun of this guy, but he was so bad that it was hard not to. He was either insanely drunk, or on the low end of the gene pool, and since he had no alcohol on him, i'd unfortuanely say the second.
At one point they began taping the crowd for the pre-show that airs just prior to the Pay-per view. We felt that we all had a good chance of being on TV, because we were at the front of the line, but Lucha-Redneck was so annoying and vulgar that the camera stayed well away from our area. As wrestlers began to walk in he got really bad. At one point a female wrestler by the name of Gail Kim came walking out to cut a promo.
(picture capture from the TV airing I downloaded)
This was a set up for a match that was essentially the first all-female steel cage match that the promotion has ever had. All of the sudden Lucha-Redneck starts shouting:
the "you tell'er daddy" part was that this guy happened to have what I would assume was a wife and 2 kids, and he was always being encouraged by them to say more and more idiotic things.
Once we got inside were were all worried that this guy would be right beside us in the seats, thankfully he wasn't but we did see that he brought some signs with him to the event, with hopes of being on TV. One that said "We Want Rats" (WTF?), and another that simply said "who wants a rimjob?" (classy!) So yeah if you look up the word "redneck" in the dictionary, I bet this guys face is on there. I have family from Arkansas and I have NEVER EVER seen somebody as bas as this guy.
Mike took a picture of him, so I'll post that when He sends it to me so you guys can bask in the glory.
The one thing that I've noticed is that there are two types of wrestling fans:
1) The Smart wrestling fan - this fan (like myself) is essentially a wrestling nerd. We watch matches for the athleticism more than anything. this type of fan has some knowledge of how the business of booking works, and will sometimes keep up with indy organizations.
2) The Norms - These are the fans that to some degree think wrestling is real, they watch what is on TV and usually like trashy stuff like lingerie matches. This is the stereotypical fan that most think of when they imagine a wrestling fan.
Lucha-redneck was definitely a 2, he might be annoying, but I guess he is necessary to the company, because he can spread word-to-mouth.
The camera zoomed over us a few times, but since the house lights were lowered we seldomly appeared on TV. The best I could find was this:
when the DVD comes out I should be able to see us better. also note Lucha-redneck, thank god his sign didn't show up.
The one thing that struck me about this PPV was the amount of fan interactivity that they offered to us. Right from the start the wrestlers were walking around in the audience signing autographs before the show. Even the owner of the company Dixie Carter, was talking to people, a few of us shook her hand and told her that we really appreciated them coming to St. Louis (they normally tape in Orlando). The experience that I've had with a WWE show was that it was really distanced from the fans, and it seemed like we were all named "franklin"," Washington", and "Lincoln" rather than fans.
The Matches themselves were awesome, aside from one match that was too gimicky (a blindfold match) and a match that could have been handled better for realism (an electrified cage match). The problem with the electrified cage match was that for something that everyone knows is fake, they could have done a better job to help us suspend disbelief. The wrestling istelf in the match more than made up for it though. I'd say that the PPV as a whole was great. TNA is different than the WWE in that they take more risks with their matches which means more awesome moments. Very seldomly do they deliver a boring match. The show had TONS of energy, was very exciting and if it comes back through anytime soon, I'll definitely attend.
also my friend dave had stuff to say about it here:
Dave's Blog Entry
and here is the website run by the guys we met From Texas:
youtube podcast - they talk about Lockdown
-Steve
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tna_lockdown
look at "2007" for the card etc...
The Day started with My friends Dave, Mike, Marco and I hauling up and driving the 3 and 1/2 hours to the PPV. We ended up there a tad bit early (around 2 o'clock) so we had some time to kill. We attempted to go to Bass Pro shop, not because any of us are outdoorsmen, but we didn't want to drive too far away from the Family Arena. The only thing we successfully did was scare the shit out of ourselves by walking past this abomination of a statue that was on display. I really wish we would have taken a picture of this thing, because it was like the Burger king and a deformed cigar Indian statue had a kid. This thing was so terrifying, that it had a smile that would send chills down Chuck Norris's Spine. We all joked that it would be in the car when we got back to it, and tons of other hypothetical horror movie starters that we could think of. realizing that none of us really needed any bear mace or razor tipped hunting arrows, we all drove back to the arena.
we decided to go ahead and get in line because a line was beginning to start. Once, in the line we struck up conversation with some guys from Houston TX, that were pretty cool, and generally just talked about what we felt was going to happen at the event. Thats when we saw him: the finest specimen of redneck-dom if I have ever seen one. This guy was a scrawny man with very few teeth wearing a TNA shirt for a tag team called "team 3-D", which ironically used to have the gimmick of being inbred rednecks. I know what most of you are saying "That doesn't sound that out of the ordinary..." Well on top of that this guy and his friend were both sporting bright ass red Luchadore (Mexican wrestler) Masks. I'm not sure why one, that isn't a luchadore, would have a luchadore mask, or wear one for that matter, but all it did was accentuate how stupid the guy was. To top it off, he also had a mullet under the mask. After this realization, what we all had to endure was 2 hours of the most innane drunken cat calling and sheer insanity that we could handle. I didn't want to make fun of this guy, but he was so bad that it was hard not to. He was either insanely drunk, or on the low end of the gene pool, and since he had no alcohol on him, i'd unfortuanely say the second.
At one point they began taping the crowd for the pre-show that airs just prior to the Pay-per view. We felt that we all had a good chance of being on TV, because we were at the front of the line, but Lucha-Redneck was so annoying and vulgar that the camera stayed well away from our area. As wrestlers began to walk in he got really bad. At one point a female wrestler by the name of Gail Kim came walking out to cut a promo.
(picture capture from the TV airing I downloaded)
This was a set up for a match that was essentially the first all-female steel cage match that the promotion has ever had. All of the sudden Lucha-Redneck starts shouting:
the "you tell'er daddy" part was that this guy happened to have what I would assume was a wife and 2 kids, and he was always being encouraged by them to say more and more idiotic things.
Once we got inside were were all worried that this guy would be right beside us in the seats, thankfully he wasn't but we did see that he brought some signs with him to the event, with hopes of being on TV. One that said "We Want Rats" (WTF?), and another that simply said "who wants a rimjob?" (classy!) So yeah if you look up the word "redneck" in the dictionary, I bet this guys face is on there. I have family from Arkansas and I have NEVER EVER seen somebody as bas as this guy.
Mike took a picture of him, so I'll post that when He sends it to me so you guys can bask in the glory.
The one thing that I've noticed is that there are two types of wrestling fans:
1) The Smart wrestling fan - this fan (like myself) is essentially a wrestling nerd. We watch matches for the athleticism more than anything. this type of fan has some knowledge of how the business of booking works, and will sometimes keep up with indy organizations.
2) The Norms - These are the fans that to some degree think wrestling is real, they watch what is on TV and usually like trashy stuff like lingerie matches. This is the stereotypical fan that most think of when they imagine a wrestling fan.
Lucha-redneck was definitely a 2, he might be annoying, but I guess he is necessary to the company, because he can spread word-to-mouth.
The camera zoomed over us a few times, but since the house lights were lowered we seldomly appeared on TV. The best I could find was this:
when the DVD comes out I should be able to see us better. also note Lucha-redneck, thank god his sign didn't show up.
The one thing that struck me about this PPV was the amount of fan interactivity that they offered to us. Right from the start the wrestlers were walking around in the audience signing autographs before the show. Even the owner of the company Dixie Carter, was talking to people, a few of us shook her hand and told her that we really appreciated them coming to St. Louis (they normally tape in Orlando). The experience that I've had with a WWE show was that it was really distanced from the fans, and it seemed like we were all named "franklin"," Washington", and "Lincoln" rather than fans.
The Matches themselves were awesome, aside from one match that was too gimicky (a blindfold match) and a match that could have been handled better for realism (an electrified cage match). The problem with the electrified cage match was that for something that everyone knows is fake, they could have done a better job to help us suspend disbelief. The wrestling istelf in the match more than made up for it though. I'd say that the PPV as a whole was great. TNA is different than the WWE in that they take more risks with their matches which means more awesome moments. Very seldomly do they deliver a boring match. The show had TONS of energy, was very exciting and if it comes back through anytime soon, I'll definitely attend.
also my friend dave had stuff to say about it here:
Dave's Blog Entry
and here is the website run by the guys we met From Texas:
youtube podcast - they talk about Lockdown
-Steve