At long last, ProSouth Wrestling returned to action in Piedmont, AL with Uprising: Infinity Gauntlet, their first show since Mad City Mayhem some 11 weeks ago.
Key takeaways:
Najasism won the 12 man Infinity Gauntlet to earn a title match with Champion Tyler Cullprett at Wicked Havoc.
Wicked Havoc on October 29 will also feature the annual Battle Rumble match with Dameon Ceretone voluntarily entering at number one.
Southern Strong Style put another notch in their belts by scoring a huge win over Undeniable to retain the ProSouth tag titles in a quality main event.
Commissioner Amy Haven addressed the reasons behind the company's long hiatus. Cullprett presented alternative facts, making no bones about the fact he shot promoter/booker Ace Haven and ProSouth was in dire straits financially as a result. Ace did not appear on the show.
Conspicuous by their absences were YouTube Champion Victor Cortez and former All-Out Champion Reynolds.
With a running time of 2:20 not counting intermission, Uprising was a long show by ProSouth standards.
Production -- videographer Mitch Murillo did his best work with the roving camera to date. The camera switching was spot on. The audio was problematic. They were having all kinds of trouble with the ring mic and the volume of the broadcast team often overpowered the crowd noise
Noah Howell and Shane Noles were back in the saddle as the announce team. James Hardy was the ring announcer. The referee was Lewis Santiago.
Opening with a blistering promo by Matt Hankins, who had an absolute field day insulting the good people of Piedmont Hankins alleged their was only one person in the crowd that was vaccinated and that was because "and she just got it because she thought it was going to give her 5G". Hankins called the ProSouth Arena as "the COVID Coliseum" and said Undeniable was their to collect the titles from SSS and teach them respect.
For the umpteenth time, Hankins demonstrated why he's one of the best promo guys around.
(1) Najasism won the Infinity Gauntlet match over Chris Mason, Austin Towers, Roma Miller, Brother Azriel, All-Out Champion Eric Silva, Tony Midas, Alister Crowe, Scott Spade, Skrilla the Great, Najasism, Deadcrowe and Cameron Keast in a total time of 1:24:11.
(a) Austin Towers eliminated Chris Mason in 10:15. Mason attempted to neutralize the Kobeya kick by working over Towers' knee. Despite a damaged knee, Towers hit the Kobeya to move one. (b) Towers eliminated Brother Azriel via submission in 9:32. Azriel targeted Towers' gimpy knee and was on offense almost the entire way. Towers collapsed in agony as he went for the Kobeya. Unable to use the Kobeya, Towers locked in a gogogplata and Azriel passed out. (c) Eric Silva eliminated Austin Towers in 4:22. Towers took a long time stretching out and trying to get feeling back in his knee. Towers fended off Collateral Damage. Silva escaped from a chokeslam. Towers missed with the Kobeya and Silva rolled him up. (d) All-Out Champion Eric Silva eliminated Roma Miller in 5:42. The story here was Miller's trickery. Miller took a wonderful bump onto his face after taking a nice gomengiri from Silva. Miller threw the belt to Silva and went down like he'd been shot. Santiago wasn't buying it and Silva got him with Collateral Damage. (e) Tony Midas eliminated Eric Silva in 5:30. Midas feigned a knee injury, blinded Silva with hairspray and pinned him with a snapmare driver. (f) Tony Midas eliminated Alister Crowe in 4:54. Midas was no match for Crowe's technical acumen so he resorted to the hairspray again. Santiago caught Midas red-handed but Midas used a second can of hairspray to blind Crowe and roll him up. (g) Scott Spade eliminated Tony Midas in 6:28. Midas was getting thrashed. He went for the hairspray but Spade stepped on his hand. Santiago got sprayed. Midas tried to spray Spade but was out of bullets and Spade pinned him with a stunner. (h) Skrilla the Great eliminated Scott Spade in 4:24 with the Skrilla Ride. (i) Najasism eliminated Skrilla in 5:32. Stiff strikes, innovative exchange, good stuff. Naja caught Skrilla with a jumping knee strike to the back as he tried the Skrilla Ride. Naja pinned Skrilla with a double jump springboard elbow drop but Santiago didn't see it that way. Confusion reigned. Naja then used a spinning double knees to the chest. (j) Najasism elimininated Deadcrowe via DQ in 5:15. Naja hit a flying reverse DDT but Deadcrowe managed to roll to the floor where he whacked Naja with one of his batons for the DQ and added a double knee face breaker after the match. (k) Najasism eliminated Cameron Keast in 3:24 to win the gauntlet. Keast entered with a sly smile and took his sweet time. 3930
Postmatch - Keast laid Naja out with his Gold Rush briefcase.
It took an eternity to get there, but the last part of the match told a compelling story of Najasism overcoming adversity heaped upon him by LOT. Najasism was the start of the match and is a great get for ProSouth. Skrilla also stood out. His work with Naja was the best part of the match and he was the only guy in it with a physique. I'm not a fan of the gauntlet format especially with 12 competitors. It's so rigged in favor of the last few positions. A 5 minute time limit on each gauntlet would have provided a great sense of urgency and allows for draws as an out (for things like beating the All-Out Champion). Santiago was called on do a in this match and handled to all well. I really like the way he handles the count when both men are down. The early part of the match was the saga of Towers' knee and selling of the inury was pretty awesome. Why is Deadcrowe still wearing the cartoonish disguise after he was unmasked as Dorian Crowe? Does it give some sort of superpowers? Tony Midas got a lot of play. The multiplicity of hairspray finishes was creative silliness.
Dameon Ceretone promo. Ceretone said the last time the fans saw him, he was left unconscious in the ring by by Joe Black. Black could not pin him or submit him so he made it so he could not stand up, and won on a technicality. Ceretone challenged Black to one more match. Ceretone then announced he was entering the Battle Rumble in the first position (for the 3rd year in row) and when he got his title match with Cullprett, he was willing to do terrible things.
A killer promo by Ceretone that served dual purposes. The thought of Ceretone going start to finish in the Rumble to get his shot at Cullprett is the stuff of a great babyface.
Ringside Chat hosted by Shane Noles with guest Commissioner Amy Haven. Amy congratulated ProSouth alumnus Ben Buchanan on his success at NXT and explained the for ProSouth's long hiatus was a serious medical situation with a family member that required all of her attention.
Out came LOT (Cullprett & Harley Haven & Keast & Deadcrowe). Keast and Deadcrowe jumped Noles and kicked him out of the ring. Culprett said enough with the excuses, everyone knew the real reason ProSouth stopped running was because she had a hole in her wallet because he put a hole in her husband. "Who would have thought putting Ace on life support would do the same to this company?"
After seeing how easily ProSouth crumbled due to the power he held, Cullprett loved the idea of killing it. Cullprett grabbed Amy with evil intent. Najasism to the rescue. clearing LOT of the ring like a superman. Cullprett back-jumped Naja but Naja laid Cullprett out with a spinkick.
This segment was ruined by mic problems that made for extremely annoying listening. Viewers were left to accept the preposterous idea Cullprett committed assault with a deadly weapon and went on his merry way. Najasism's house cleaning on LOT looked tremendous.
(2) Southern Strong Style (Proc Johnston & Jay 2Strong) defeated Undeniable (Shane Marx & Brian Blaze with Matt Hankins) to retain the ProSouth tag titles in 18:57. The early part of the match was a bull of the woods contest between Proc and Marx won by Proc. Marx was having no success at all. 2Strong gave him the gator roll and SSS followed a double suplex. Blaze dropped Johnston and 2Strong with wicked forearm shots to change the complexion of the match. "Fashion plate" Hankins whacked 2Strong in the head with his slide as Undeniable isolated 2Strong and put him in their torture chamber. Marx hit that great vertical suplex where he leaves his feet in the process. Hankins delighted in mixing it up with the announce team. A flying knee strike by 2Strong led to the tag. Johnston got near fall on Marx with belly to belly suplex and ascended to to the top rope. Blaze crotched Proc on the top turnbuckle. A trifecta of spinebusters and a nasty clothesline by Blaze left all four in rough shape. Marx had Johnston pinned with sick kick. 2Strong broke up the pin and shitcanned Blaze. SSS served up Southern Domination (3D) for Marx and it was over. Hankins could do nothing but fume.
Good match. Wouldn't have hurt if they had shortened it a few minutes on a show that was running long. Blaze was the offensive force for Undeniable and looked really good here. 2Strong takes an agonizing beating as babyface and had ample opportunity to display that ability.
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