From 2005 to 2012, the tradition of Lockdown events featured every match taking place inside a Steel Cage. Beginning with this year's event, Lockdown was modified to featuring standard matches, and cage matches were reserved only for the high profile bouts. Lockdown was also moved to March for the first time since its inception in 2005.
Eight matches were featured on the card. The main event match had Bully Ray defeating defending champion Jeff Hardy in a Steel Cage match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. In the other high profile bouts Team TNA (Sting, James Storm, Samoa Joe, Magnus, and Eric Young) defeated Aces & Eights (Devon, D.O.C., Mr. Anderson, Knux, and Garett Bischoff) in a Lethal Lockdown match, and Wes Brisco upset Kurt Angle in a Steel Cage match.
In October 2017, with the launch of the Global Wrestling Network, the event became available to stream on demand.
During the November 29, 2012 Impact Wrestling episode, the location and date for the ninth annual Lockdown event were announced as the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas on March 10, 2013. In a press release, TNA President Dixie Carter stated, "We have been waiting to play San Antonio until we could bring this great city a big televised event." Tickets for the event went on sale on December 7, 2012
From January to March 2013, the Road to Lockdown Tour, which TNA holds every year, toured many different cities across the United States and United Kingdom for live events and TV tapings to build up to the Lockdown event. As part of TNA's business initiative to reduce the number of pay-per-views produced per year, Lockdown was moved to March, leaving Genesis, Lockdown, Slammiversary and Bound for Glory as the remaining live PPVs on their schedule.
Like every year, TNA arranged their Lockdown VIP Weekend featuring their fan-friendly Lockdown Fanfest, giving the opportunity to fans to get close with their favorite wrestlers for autographs, photographs and conversations on March 9, 2013, a day before the event.
Lockdown garnered a company record-breaking crowd with over 7,200 fans in attendance, pulling in TNA's largest domestic audience than the record set at Slammiversary 2012