ProSouth Strength In Number -- September 26

Photos by Gina Jones From Larry Goodman: With Battle Rumble in the rear view, ProSouth has a long runway into Wicked Havoc on October 31.  T...

Photos by Gina Jones

From Larry Goodman:

With Battle Rumble in the rear view, ProSouth has a long runway into Wicked Havoc on October 31. 

They did a deal in conjunction with New Era Wrestling to to set up up a Chosen Ones tag team title match at the Birmingham Fiesta show on Saturday afternoon.

Two match for Wicked Havoc were put in place. Joe Black will square off with Brother Azriel in  a steel cage. Ace Haven cut a wicked promo on Alexander Lev to set up their match at Wicked Havoc.

In addition, Joe Black will defend the Southern Honor Wrestling Championship against  All-Out Champion Justin McKenzie on October 10.

There were a couple of segments on this show I didn't care for at all but the main event trios was excellent and there's no doubt the overall quality of the product has improved over the last few months. The flow of new talent into Piedmont continues.

A hyberbolic Wicked Nemesis and the truly colorful Scott Spade were the broadcast team for the evening. Jeremy Blackstone aka Ethan Black and T-Bird officiated. Mathias Darkthorne was the ring announcer. Jessie was the ringside videographer.

ProSouth and YouTube Champion Scott Spade, entered the ring wearing his best big overalls to say he was taking the night off to  join Wicked in the commentary booth.

(1) Julius Pryor & Eric Silva (with Mathias Darkthorne) defeated AJ Black & Caeden Ooten (with Harley Haven) in 6:01. Darkthorne admitted their new approach didn't work, so tonight their opponents would get The Ghost they knew. Harley too if she stuck her nose in. AJ said Pryor had to beat them if he wanted a match with AJ.

Pryor's koppu kick off the top connected on AJ as did the Shaolin Fists but Ooten (illegally) speared him. Silva went for Collateral Damage. Ooten blocked it. Being this is ProSouth, the third time was the charm.

Silva delivered on Darkthorne's promise. Pryor was in top form, the most comfortable and nimble he has looked in the ring since he suffered a broken toe in a match 4+ months ago. AJ was well protected and since Pryor didn't score the pinfall, AJ does not have to grant him a match. 

(2) Christian Garrett defeated Trey Jordan in 6:10. Jordan was using Garrett's face as a punching bag. Garrett's surgical knee wasn't faring too well either. Joe Wood hobbled down the ramp using a cane. Jordan was mesmerized by the  presence of Wood, alleged to be out of action for eons with a broken leg, and Garrett rolled him up. 

Garrett was giving Jordan so much offense, it would have been a crime if he didn't go over.

Alexander Lincoln appeared in the ring behind Jordan. Wood threw the cane down showing he wasn't hurt. The Blood Born brothers laid Jordan out with timber headbutt/Lincoln log combo.

(3) Blood Born (Alexander Lincoln & Joe Wood) defeated The Golden Girls I Mean Boys (RJ Jonesie & Jimmy James) in 8:22. The Boys were pissed about Darkthorne's intentional slip up on the intro.  James said there real brothers  from the great state of Hawaii, here to destroy these fools. Spade called James Captain Caveman. Wood was the immovable object and bounced James around. As Wood was about to lower the boom on James, Jonesie interfered. Golden Boys double up against Wood. Spade said he was doing the VIP during intermission and they were going to have to go up on the prices. Lincoln had to use Jonesie as a weapon to break up the pin after Golden Boys DVD/double stomp on Wood. Lincoln destroyed Golden Boys after taking the hot tag. Wood pinned Thomas with an assisted cutter.

Thomas sold the finish like he was out cold.

Fun match. Golden Boys get it and they're an effective tag team. They fully exploited every moment on camera. The shine segment between Wood and Thomas was tremendous.  I don't think they got quite what they wanted with that  finisher.

Chosen Ones promo. Ace and Cam were proudly displaying their New Era Tag Team belts. Ace talked about the special guest entrants missing from the Battle Rumble last week. Bull Buchanan ended up in the hospital. Alexander Lev said he was hurt but made a miraculous recovery and won the Premier All-Star title 24 hours later.  Ace said he hoped Lev could clear his NWA schedule and accept his challenge to a match at Halloween Havoc on October 31. He was going to prove Lev was nothing but a Georgia flavor of the month who had everything handed to him on a silver platter. Lev would either show up or do the same thing his father should have done before he was created and pull out. Lev was going to be his bitch. He was going to do to Lev like what Cam did to Ravanna Xin. Cam skinned her alive and scattered her ashes.

Ace then confronted Cam about throwing him out of the Rumble. Cam took responsibility for eliminating Ace but said it was just a shove. Cam started babbling and pandering and putting Ace over. Ace said Cam was being weird. Cam said this was the most normal he's ever been. 

Great promo. Ace went in hard on Lev with his signature shoot/work style. The way they went addressed the elephant in the room was entertaining tongue-in-cheek  and as usual, resolved nothing. They had to riff because of a screw up with the music for Defarge and Crummels which was unintentionally hilarious. Wicked said the problem was their Tylenol had been cut off. 

The lights went off for a long, long time. Defarge and Mr. Crummels came to the ring in silence. Cam mumbled something about the barge crumbles. Crummels  said he had known Ace and Cam for almost 10 years and they were both weird. Defarge said he wanted to watch them work out their issues. Ace and Cam acted like they were going to fight each other and attacked Defarge and Crummels.  Spade said Defarge and Crummels once beat his eyes black in the trios tournament. Defarge planted Ace on the ring apron. The invaders killed Cam dead with an assisted lariat and left with the Chosen One's tag team belts.

By the numbers stuff to set up their match at the fiesta show. The device of heels  stealing the babyfaces belts is so played out. Didn't care for the segment from a ProSouth perspective. Ace and Cam had the element of surprise and still got laid out. .

(4) McKenzie defeated Lucha Locura to retain the All-Out Championship in 11:50. Nobody introduces the All-Out rules as well as Darkthorne. The commentators joked about making it a three way so Spade could complete his belt collection. Spade said his job now was to wake up every day and figure out how he was going to screw up the Havens' day. Spade likened McKenzie being brought into the Chosen Ones to what the Sirens did in the Odyssey. Wicked said the old timers that came into ProSouth wanted to wrestle Spade. Spade that was why his back hurt now.

Couple of minutes in, Locura caught McKenzie's rana off the apron, swung him violently into the barricade and power bombed him on edge of the ring frame. Locura brought McKenzie back into the ring. Wicked couldn't resist saying Locura should have taken the count out (a title change under All-Out rules). Locura worked over McKenzie's back. Locura used a fireman's carry into a sitout cutter. Locura kicked out of McKenzie's satellite DDT into a double stomp AT ONE. Strike battle...McKenzie on the comeback trail...Locura used up his ropes break on McKenzie's slingshot DDT. McKenzie used his ropes break on Locura's cradle cravate cutter. Locura kicked out a Whisper In the Wind. McKenzie kicked out of a wild Alabama face plant at 2 and 15/16. Locura stomped McKenzie's head and went for La Magistral and McKenzie reversed it for the win.

Locura refused to shake hands after the match.

I hated this match. Whoever laid it  out should be shot at sunrise. McKenzie showed incredible resiliency for sure and the the action was good but he took too much of a beating. Locura did a lot of cool moves at the expense of the championship. The saving grace was Wicked and Spade  on commentary.

Amy Haven vs. Joe Black never happened.  Neither of them was dressed for a fight. Amy said she had nothing to do with booking it. Joe said maybe it was a rib. Joe said he had two matches he wanted to run by Amy, because she was the booker after all. He wanted a match with Az at Wicked Havoc. A regular match would be passe. How about a cage match? "Wil you be my huckleberry and humor me?" The crowd gave the answer. Joe went into his backpack and fished out the Southern Honor Championship belt. Since SHW was on hiatus for the month October, Joe wanted to defend to the title in Piedmont on October 10. Out came  McKenzie. Joe asked McKenzie what made him the one he should defend against? McKenzie slapped Joe across the face. Joe no sold it and said McKenzie's request had been recorded and would be taken into consideration. Joe had a grin on his face as he walked to the back.

A nice piece of business. Amy and Joe have chemistry and were clearly enjoying themselves. McKenzie's challenge would have played better without the bad taste of the match with Locura immediately preceding it.

Mr. Crummels & Sonny Defarge defeated Chosen Ones (Ace Haven & Cameron Keasht with Amy Haven) to win the New Era Tag Team Championship in 6:47.  Ace came out alone and started  one against two. Cam sneaked into the ring as the heels were setting up for their finisher to save Ace.

Match officially underway with Chosen Ones firmly in control. Ace abuse ensued. Keast cleaned house on Defarge. Came kicked out of a huge slingshot splash/top rope elbow combo. Ace accidentally nailed Keast down with a spinwheel kick off the top. Defarge clothesline the hell out of Ace. Keast tackled Crummels into the pile to break up the pin. Cam caused a collison of heels. Ace slapped Keast to summon Psycho Cam. Crummels tried to hit Keast with a title belt. Keast ripped the belt out of Crummels' hand and accidentally tattooed Ace with it. Defarge pinned Keast with the assisted lariat. T-Bird correctly made the three count and for some unknown reason tried to take it back but was ignored.

Chosen Ones were in disarray after the match.

Polar opposite of match three, this was laid out for to maximum positive effect: Serious doubts raised as to Chosen Ones being on the same page going into their New Era title defense the next day. T Bird called for the opening bell with perfect timing (waiting until only one member of each team was in the ring) and totally screwed up on the finish. That Defarge has some big arms on him.

(6) Karmageddon (Bubba Cagle & DRP & Chris Gainz with Scott Adams) defeated Final Three (Brother Azriel & Ayden Andrews & Christian Pierce) in 13:41. Karmageddon powdered out of the opening six way. Gainz displayed his physique and Mass Bro Shops logo. Pierce took it to DRP. Cagle caused a distraction to set up isolation on Andrews. STO on Gainz and the hot tag was made.

Az ran wild on all of Karmgeddon and went for the Woodgrain on Cagle. Gainz and DRP broke it up. A round robin of finishers cycled to Pierce hitting Once Bitten on Gainz. Adams pulled Pierce out of the ring at the count of two. 

Referee Blackson ejected Adams from ringside. Whle that was happening, Spade left commentary and laid Pierce out with a stunner. Blackson saw nothing. Gainz draped an arm over Pierce and Blackson counted three.

This I really liked. The building was humming with energy. It had the rhythm of a good tag team wrestling match. Lots of moving parts in that finishing sequence and everyone had their timing down. You just knew Spade wasn't going be contained to the booth all night long.