ProSouth Season Premiere: What's Next? -- January 3

Photos by Gina Jones From Larry Goodman: To this writer, who has been bitching about the sameness of the ProSouth roster for months,  Season...

Photos by Gina Jones

From Larry Goodman:

To this writer, who has been bitching about the sameness of the ProSouth roster for months, Season Premiere was a deep gulp of fresh air,  populated by new people coming from a number of directions. 

What was next for new ProSouth Champion Chris Kamikaze was a successful title defense against three former champions. Unfortunately, Kamikaze suffered a serious shoulder injury during the match, just one week into his title reign.

The overarching focus was Caged Warfare on Valentine's Day. Chalk this week up in favor of the Commission. 

It appears Christian Pierce and Ayden Andrews will blow off their epic feud in a bullrope match next week.

Send out wishes to  Brother Azriel for a speedy recovery. Az was ill backstage and was taken to Regional Hospital in Anniston where he was hospitalized Friday night.

Wicked Nemesis and Mathias Darkthorne on commentary. Jeremy Blackson, Joseph Void and Kevin Tubbs officiated. Cory Shattles was the ring announcer. Katie Lindsey on the rover camera.

Young Lions Cup Winner Douglas Sanders made his victory speech.  Sanders was insufferable, ranting and raving at the crowd about how he returned from sickness faster than anyone could have imagined to win four matches in two days. "Douglas" said he deserved his own statue and had Gilbert commission one for him.  Sanders directed our attention to a draped figure in the corner. Sanders unveiled his prize only to discover Joe Wood.  Sanders freaked. Wood planted Sanders with the Woodchipper and Sanders was out of there.

Wood apologized for not keeping his promise last week. Sanders got one over on him and that would not happed again. Wood promised he would have a hand in ending the Commission's story.

The psychology of Wood/Sanders feud is ass backward. The babyface is much larger than the heel. Conventional wrestling wisdom says babyfaces shouldn't make promises they don't keep. Sanders is so over-the-top repulsive, non of that matters. The people want to see him get what's coming to him from Wood.

(1) Aaron Dallas & Alexander Lincoln (with Patrick Gilbert) defeated "Kid Icon" Ethan Dallas & Joe Wood in 5:28. Brother on brother violence in stereo. Wicked went biblical with the Cain and Abel reference. Gilbert grabbed Wood's leg to set up the Steel Toe from Dallas and the Lincoln Log.

I liked the concept of brother vs. brother X 2. Wood took another L but it weirdly feels like he's bullet proof with the ProSouth fans despite having only one singles win to his credit.

The debut of Taliaferro Aaron was making a move to apprehend his little brother  when the lights went out. The evil Taliaferro entered. Taliaferro told Aaron not yet, Ethan would come willingly soon enough. Wicked noted Mathias was sweating. 

Finding out what was behind Aaron's bizarre behavior didn't come a moment too soon. The satanic malevolence Taliaferro brings to the table fills the bill quite nicely. The commentary hinted at developing something between Taliaferro and Darkthorne.

Big Bad Wolf said things didn't come out the way he wanted them to last week due to Jones' cheating, or words to that effect. Joey Jones and LVHNDLZ joined Wolf in the ring. Jones wanted his picture taken with Wolf, just like he did with Wood last week. Wolf fell for it. Jones tried to leg sweep Wolf and failed miserably just like last week. Wolf stomped Jones and picked up LVHANDLZ. BK Bennett hit the ring and attacked Wolf. Wolf planted Jones with move called the Wolf's Arrow (a fireman's carry into a spinning vertical suplex that did not look as impressive as it reads) and howled. Crowd wanted one more and Wolf gave it to them.

This kind of thing was once a staple of ProSouth wrestling. It's been too long since ProSouth brought us classic perverse wrestling entertainment like Wolf, Jones and LVHNDLZ provided here. 

The return of Chris Crunk -- Crunk said there were some guys in the back he wanted to get in the ring with dropping the names of Ethan Dallas, Christian Pierce and Justin McKenzie. Crunk declared himself to be the number one contender for the All-Out Championship.

That comment brought Julius Pryor to the ring. Pryor said he didn't even know who Crunk was (prompting a stout "Chris Crunk" chant from the crowd). Pryor said the line for the All-Out title started behind him.

(2) Chris Crunk defeated Julius Pryor in 9:30. They traded holds until Crunk tied Pryor in a knot on the mat and flexed for the camera. Crunk gave Pryor a pair of Guerrero suplexes transitioned to a double arm abdominal stretch. An exchange of hiptoss attempts lead to Crunk hiptossing Pryor over the top rope. The action spilled to the floor where Pryor took over with his striking game. Back inside, Pryor continued to punish Crunk with a variety of strikes. Crunk created space enough to land strikes of his own. A back and forth struggle built to german suplex and a sitout powerbomb by Crunk, good for a long two count. Pryor escaped One Last Breath and dropped Crunk with a spinkick to the head. Pryor wanted to go up top for the Shaolin Fists. Crunk wasn't having it. A strike battle ensued. Pryor tried for a Lionsault. Crunk caught him with a superkick in midair. Pryor connected with a flying, spinning double chop. Time for the Shaolin Fists but Crunk countered with a forward rolling cradle for the three count.

They almost lost me with a lackadaisical opening lock up that screamed this was not a real fight but they went on to have really good wrestling match, more technical than the usual ProSouth fare, kicking into a higher gear in the closing minutes. Crunk back in on a regular basis can only be good for ProSouth and there's more coming with Pryor per the ending of the main event. 

(3) AJ Black defeated Cody Windham via DQ to win the New Era Openweight Championship in 5:38. 50/50 match. Black willing to cheat with some support from crowd support nevertheless. Windham accidentally elbowed referee Tubbs. As Tubbs slumped to the mat, Black kicked Windham in the groin, rolled him and made his own three count. Tubbs ruled Windham was disqualified for hitting him and gave him his title back.

Black demanded to talk to someone in authority. Gilbert came out and handed the belt to Black, kind of the polar opposite of what Ava did on NXT Tuesday night. Windham was hot. He tried to give Gilbert a piledriver but the SOB got away. 

An outrageous premise but if keeps Windham and Black in ProSouth I'm all for it. 

Pierce is still the "Southern Hangman" with a rope but the noose is no more.  Pierced said he had not been a perfect man. His father left him to learn to be a man on his own. He'd cheated, he'd stolen and beaten men nearly to death. What happened at Anniversary was not the end with Ayden Andrews. After Andrews attacked him at Young Lion's Cup, he went straight to Gilbert to get him one more match. Andrews declined. Now he, Pierce was doing the asking to prove that he, Pierce was the man in ProSouth.  

Andrews took his sweet time to emphatically say NO! He'd beaten Pierce every time. Pierce wasn't better than him. Nobody at ProSouth was better than him. He was the gatekeeper.

Pierce brought up the 431 Arena in Boaz, where they both started training almost 13 years ago. Pierce was the runt of the litter. Andrews always thought he was the better of the two. Fast forward to Atonement, Pierce had to play backseat while Andrews was kissing Dameon Ceretone's ass for a shot at the championship. He changed after Boaz. Andrews was still the same asshole he was then. Andrews laughed and tried to brush Pierce off. Pierce intensified. "I'm better than you...C'mon Ayden, prove that you're better than me." Andrews said he would give Pierce one more ass kicking and his daddy Wicked couldn't save him. Pierce said bullrope match next week. 

The way they went about adding the back story to make it credible for Andrews to accept the match was a nice piece of business. This feud has brought out the best in both men, in-ring and character work. I hate to see it end.

(4) Ace Haven & Cameron Keast & Donnie Primetime (with Ace Haven) defeated The Commission (All-Out/Small-Out Champion Jake Franklin & Tsunami & Douglas Sanders with Patrick Gilbert) in 13:48.  They entertained themselves with a bit about the whereabouts of the jacket Windham tore off Gilbert's back.

Donnie made Franklin pay a heavy price for his disrespect. Tsunami tagged in to save Franklin from a package piledriver. She squared off with Ace and got the wrong end of an STO. Donnie hit a tope. Ace followed with a flip dive. Tsunami waylaid Keast. The Commission isolated Keast  Franklin gave Keast a revolting swivel hips neckbreaker. Ace took the tag but soon found himself being double teamed by Sanders and Tsunami.  Ace took heat until his double missile dropkick set up the hot tag to Primetime. He hit a double frog splash on Franklin and Sanders. A train of big moves cycled back around to Primetime and Franklin.  Primetime nailed Franklin with a tornado kick and was about to finish him off. Lincoln ran out and drew the ref's attention, while Gilbert used the chloroform rag to put Donnie out. Franklin had the honor of pinning Donnie.

A solid trios match. Donnie was ball of fire. The intensity of it all  gave me hope for Caged Warfare on Valentine's Day. I have to give the Commission credit for commitment to their characters. This is the role of a wrestling life time for Franklin and he's relishing every moment.

(5) Chris Kamikaze defeated Brandon Whatley and Caeden Ooten (with Harley Haven) and Scott Spade in 9:21. The three heel challengers ganged up the babyface champion for several minutes before their alliance of thieves broke down. From the top rope, Kamikaze attempted to used Ooten's back as a springboard into a huracanrana on Whatley and appeared to injure his shoulder on the landing. Kamikaze was battling the three heels and the heels were going after each other.  Kamikaze got the worst of a tower of doom. 

Whatley tried to pin Kamikaze but the champion kicked out. Pryor came out to help Whatley but Crunk took care of him. Whatley got distracted and Kamikaze pinned him with the Danger Zone.

Kamikaze beating three former heel champions was a great idea to kick out his title reign. But the match was disappointingly average. Kamikaze was clearly limited by the shoulder injury and we got yet another distraction finish and with the champion injured, the question remains -- what's next?