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| Photos by Gina Jones |
Once in a blue moon, the stars align for ProSouth Wrestling,
What comes to mind are the set of conditions that produced GWH's 2020 Show of the Year, ProSouth's ever so brief alignment with New South in the Summer of 2023 which brought an influx of talent and brought forth astonishing work by Amy Haven and Donnie Primetime, and the run this company is on right now.
At this stage of the game, there are few pro wrestling shows I feel driven to see live. Uprising was one of them.
ProSouth Wrestling is a place unto itself, as is Piedmont Al. The geography, meager local population and the harsh economic conditions that prevail make Piedmont a tough town for promoting pro wrestling. It's a miracle the Havens have persevered for 16 years.
Down the rabbit hole we go. Weirdest factoid - the first attempt to livestream indy pro wrestling took place in Piedmont and was not done by ProSouth. Ron West's United Wrestling League streamed live from the Piedmont Civic Center on March 8, 2008. It was not a successful venture.
If you build it they will come. Eventually.
Scott Spade is the new ProSouth Champion. Spade defeated Ace Haven in the fourth stage of an ultra high stakes Three Stages of Hell.
In what will go down as one of the greatest finishes in ProSouth history, Amy Haven, with tears in her eyes, counted her husband out to make Spade the ProSouth Champion for the second time in his career. Spade's second reign is already longer than his first. Spade also retained the YouTube Championship to extend his record setting reign to 296 days.
(1) Brother Azriel defeated Joe Black via DQ in 2:20. They pounded the hell out of each other. Az went down first. Joe tossed referee Jeremy Blackson out of his way for the DQ. But this was all about the postmatch.
Three refs ran out and couldn't do shit to stop them. Joe did a number on Az with a steel chair. Joe took a seat and told Az he was easy work. Az wanted more. He gave Joe a Woodgrain on the floor. Joe got up laughing like a crazy man but he and Az were both struggling to stay upright.
This was great. They sold the damage of the encounter, let the impact sink in and allowed the drama build.
(2) Karmageddon (Ayden Andrews & Ricky Cagle with DRP & Scott Adams) defeated Joe Wood in a handicap match to retain the ProSouth Tag Team Championship (2:25). Before the match, Wood's Bloodborn partner and brother, Alexander Lincoln appeared by video preparing to leave his gym and was suddenly disappeared from the screen.
At the opening bell, Wood gave Andrews the Woodchipper. Andrews rolled out and Cagle attacked from behind and unleashed a stream of flying elbows. Wood took advantage of a Karmageddon collision to launch a comeback but was victimized by Andrews' Nail In The Coffin. Andrews told Cagle to pin him but Ricky wanted his icing on the cake with Fear Street 85 (hammerlock DDT).
Andrews expressed his displeasure by walking out ahead of Cagle with DRP trailing behind.
They've done a stellar job of keeping the tag titles story interesting considering Lincoln hasn't been there for over a month as the Karmegeddon intrigue continued to simmer. Cagle was fun to see live.
(3) Christian Pierce defeated LGV in 5:38 with "Sleazy C" Caeden Ooten as the special referee. Ooten objected to the stipulation revealed by ring announcer Salem Alexander - if Pierce won, C would be reinstated as a wrestler. Per Pierce, Commissioner Amy agreed (finally!) that something needed to be done about all the screwing over C had been getting away with and he was going to take Ooten to a special place.
No Steven Calozzi as Pierce's opponent. Pierce said I guess you'll have to count him out. Ooten's count got stuck on nine. LGV came out as Calozzi's replacement. Ooten did as much crooked stuff as humanly possible but Pierce was not be denied. He gave LGV a pair of cannonballs and threw him out of the ring. Ooten's again could not get past nine with his count. Pierce hit Once Bitten on Ooten and LGV and used Ooten's hand to make the three count.
Well-played. Nice timing on the finish. Going any further with Ooten as a referee would have been ridiculous. Calozzi's absence was disappointing, at least for me. LGV did well as a sub and his in-ring was stronger in person than on the livestream.
The story advancements to this point on the show was well done across the board. It needed to be because payoffs had been teased and none was forthcoming. That was about to change.
(4) Cameron Keast (with Harley Haven) defeated Ravanna Xin in the Straight Jacket Match (17:27). Xin gave Keast's hand a conchairto. Harley and Xin sat down in chairs and traded blows, a spot I first saw done by Dusty Rhodes and Dick Murdoch, This was not that. Xin gave Harley a free shot. Instead, Keast superkicked out of the chair. Xin took a chair to Harley. They did some spots with the straight jacket. The action moved to the floor. Xin got the straight jacket halfway onto Keast and ran at him with the screwdriver (the one she used on Harley's nose). Keast got away and used the straight jacket to tie Xin to the ringpost. He couldn't bring himself to use the screwdriver on her and stabbed it into the mat. Xin gave Keast a gutwrench onto a chair.
Back inside, they did a double clothesline bump into a bed of glass bead that Keast had earlier poured onto the mat. Xin snapped all the fingers on Cam's left hand. Keast offered Xin his right hand. She snapped those fingers too.
Cam hugged Xin. She resisted before returning Cam's embrace. Cam turned Xin around so Harley could throw a vial of clear liquid into her eyes. Xin reacted like skin was being seared off her face. Keast gave Xin the running knee. Keast and Harley put the straight jacket on Xin. Keast snapped Xin's neck. Looked like she might have expired right on the spot.
A short video flashback of the horrific things Xin had done to Harley played. Keast bit Xin's neck and drew back in horror. Cam got the vial of blood from Harley and placed it in Xin's limp hand.
The finish I absolutely loved. Xin looked like she died on the neck snap. The biting of Xin's neck, and Cam's horror at what his tragic soul was capable a doing was tremendous. I liked how they weaved in the callbacks and their ambivalence about hurting each other. Some of it sucked goat balls. Shorter would have been better and I suspect the theatricality played better on video. Live, nobody had a clue about the liquid Harley threw into Xin's eyes. Who knew it was holy water? Could have been battery acid from the way Xin reacted.
Great match for this spot on the show. These kids are gold, phenomenal for their level of experience. McKenzie is by far the most over babyface at the ProSouth Palace. The children love him and there's a lot more to it than the cool face paint. DRP has breathed a new energy into the equation at ProSouth.
McKenzie's five minutes with Scott Adams. Adams got a taser from DRP and tased McKenzie until the poor kid was vibrating. Wood ran in to help McKenzie and was beaten down by Karmageddon. DRP accidentally clocked Andrews. Adams low blowed McKenzie and laid him out with a sick kick. Andrews hit Nail In The Coffin on Adams. Andrews helped McKenzie to his feet and stormed to the back alone.
Although Andrews' turn has been brewing, it came as a shock when it actually happened and the Nail In the Coffin on Adams looked great.
(6) AJ Black defeated Eric Silva (with Mathias Darkthorne) to retain the All-Out Championship in 15:33. Darkthorne confronted AJ with the fact his victory over Silva last week handed to him by someone else.
Silva appeared to have AJ's number for the first half of the match. AJ was forced to use his only rope break three minutes in. Silva was methodically dismantling the champion. Silva carved AJ up with his boxing and brawling didn't work for AJ either. AJ seized on a small opening with baseball slide through the ropes and savagely attacked Silva with punches and chops, then zeroed in on Silva's arm. AJ used a double arm submission out Bryan Danielson's playbook and stayed aggressive. Silva rallied with an escalara belly-to-belly throw. He tried to follow up but AJ delivered codebreaker to Silva's arm. AJ sacrificed his own body to do more damage to Silva's arm. Referee Joseph Void stepped in and got shoved aside. AJ got Darkthorne's cane away from him and clocked Silva with it. Back inside, AJ pinned Silva with Less than Zero to retain.
They wrestled a more traditional style match, which was the perfect counterpoint to the rest of the show. The ref leaving the ring instead of starting a normal count was a wackadoo way to get to the finish. Otherwise, this was really good. In the end, the youngster outfoxed the veterans. AJ and Silva are batting 1000 so far. His work with Silva has done nothing but further elevate AJ. Silva, in turn, has demonstrated that he still has it. Side note, AJ's throwback sequin vest helps in the star quality department.
(7) Scott Spade defeated Ace Haven (with Amy Haven) in Three Stages of Hell (37:30). Wearing her commissioner hat, Amy replaced referee Blackson (Ethan Black) with the returning Bucky/Matthew Gibson/Adam Warski. A "we want Ethan" chant started up. Some of the crowd resented the idea that the Haven fix was in and started rooting for Spade.
The first stage was submissions anywhere in the building. They spent the entire fall on the mat going for submissions. The action spilled to the floor where Ace submitted Spade with an arm lock at 5:33.
The second stage was an Esom Hill streetfight. This was nuts. A shopping cart of plunder was dumped out at ringside. Ace took a sick bump off the apron onto the shopping cart, which had been turned on its side. He landed with a thud and bounced. Spade wore Ace with a kendo stick and took a baseball bat to him. The crowd broke out dueling "you suck" chants. Spade speared Ace through a table propped up in the corner. Bucky got taken out. Ace gave Spade a cutter for a visual fall before Blackson slid in to replace Bucky. Spade gave Blackson a piledriver on the floor and he got a visual fall with a stunner. Void was referee number three. They fought into the parking lot and back. On the way back to the ring, Spade took the brutal backdrop over the barricade seen below.
As Ace came off the ropes with a chair, Spade kicked the chair into his face to win the second stage at the 24 minute mark.
As excessive as it was ambitious, the match was 100% true to ProSouth. Ace and Spade went all out to make the match everything it could possibly be as a spectacle. What other promotion would add a fourth stage to a three stage match that was already over 30 minutes in length? The ref abuse in this match was insane. What other booker would take out four refs in the same match? Ace going over would have been totally wrong. This was Spade's time. It would have been a shame to ruin his epic heel run by losing here. Replacing the ref played right into Spade's narrative. I refuse to rule out a heel Ace Haven before this whole thing is over.
NOTES: The 2025 Battle Rumble show is set for September 19 with some very speical surprise entrants to be revealed...Jeremy Black and Alexandra Quinn were visiting backstage...Bucky/Matthew Gibson's brief appearance as referee will be more than a one off. He earned a GWH referee of the year nomination in 2020...Darkthone was pressed into service on color commentary during the first few matches as Brandon Whatley couldn't get there until after bell time.
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