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| Photos by Gina Jones |
From Larry Goodman:
Anniversary Supershow has twice won the Georgia Wrestling History show of the year award, the first time (2021) deservedly so, the second time (2023) was highly debatable. We will see what Anniversary Supershow XVII brings to the table next Friday night but I can't say this episode was ProSouth's shining hour as a go home show.
That's not to say this show lacked for interesting Anniversary-related developments. Things at ProSouth tend to come in threes.
-- ProSouth's top rising stars, AJ Black, Justin McKenzie and DRP will hook up in a triple threat that has show-stealer potentinal.
-- Brother Azriel made it official that his first ProSouth title will be a triple threat against Ayden Andrews and The Mongrel.
-- The TLC match for the ProSouth Tag Team Championship will also be a triple threat: Blood Born (c) vs. Trey Jordan & Steven Calozzi and Tony Midas & Vougan.
To suit his weirdly violent sensibilities, Cameron Keast introduced a first blood stipulation to his chain match with Christian Garrett for the All-Out Championship.
We also learned that the family affair singles match between Leon Ruffin and Ravana Xin will be All Sins Legal.
Wicked Nemesis and Brandon Whatley did commentary for the first half. Mathias Darkthorne was the ring announcer and replaced Whatley in the booth for the second half. Joseph Void and T-Bird were the officials. Katie Lindsey was the ringside videographer.
Before the intro video rolled, Scott Adams was knocking on Commissoner Amy Haven's door when he was snatched by the hair and pulled into the room across the hall by an unseen individual.
This cold open was a nice piece of business.
(1) Christian Garrett defeated KJ Valentine to retain the All-Out Championship in 6:29. How the hell did KJ Valentine get a title match you may ask. He extorted it from Garrett by telling him he would reveal the wherabouts of Scott Adams in exchange. Valentine was lying.
Crowd did the Pavlovian "new champ" chant. Wicked mentioned the ominous large black structure at ringside. Garrett dominated. KJ got in some good kicks to the face near the finish. Garrett won with the pumphandle fisherman suplex that is now called the Glycerene.
A decent enough match for this spot. Garrett's finisher is unique enough that it needed to have a name. Valentine was wrestling with confidence and showing more personality and crowd connection than in his previous ProSouth appearances.
Brother Azriel promo. Az wasn't shying away from the target on his back one bit. He welcomed taking on both Andrews and The Mongrel for the ProSouth Championship.
I'm not a fan of an overabundance of the triple threat matches because it usually the result of lazy booking. This match is the exception that proves the rule. Az has no ready-made feud or number one contender. Proving his mettle against two opponents fit his persona and situation like a glove.
(2) Steven Calozzi & Trey Jordan defeated Seyden Twins (Brock & Brady) in 9:16. Wicked brought up Young Lion's Cup in two week. Joe Wood was on commmentary and said he was the oldest Young Lion ever. Calozzi immmediately knocked T-Bird out with the Power of the Punch as payback the humiliation he suffered last week and Seydens got a double visual before Void took over the officiating. There was no water in the pool for Jordan's giant top rope splash. Seydens used a foot tag to set up their big double team move which was not enough to get the job done. Calozzi and Jordan gave Brady The Treatment ( a meeting in the middle hidden blade, reads better than it looked on TV).
Calozzi and Jordan wanted to do more damage after the match. Wood hit the ring with the human torpedo for Jordan and picked Calozzi up for the Woodchipper. Jordan rescued Calozzi's ass. Calozzi knocked Wood loopy and Jordan left him laying with Air Jordan.
The match felt off. Everyone in it has looked much better in other matches. Jordan was way off. He had no clue how to sell for Seydens. It was all Indians and no chief. I liked Wood on color commentary.
Caeden Ooten was in the backstage studio doing a little Pillow Talkin'. Ace Haven entered from stage right. Ace said didn't have a partner for the tag match against C and Scott Spade later in the evening but it wasn't the first or last time he would have to go it alone.
(3) Justin McKenzie vs. AJ Black was ruled a no contest when both competitors were attacked by DRP at 10:11. A see saw battle between babyface rivals, they wrestled a conservatively and did not fire any major big artillery until the last couple of minutes. Strike exchange. Jumping flatliner by AJ for a big near fall. McKenzie did a Spanish Fly and with both men devastated, DRP picked his spot, laying both competitors out.
The Panama City Prick said he was the top prospect in ProSouth Wrestling and he was calling his shot - triple threat at Anniversary.
Stylistically, this was a refreshingly different kind of match. Great to see McKenzie round out his game with more wrestling. AJ did really well in a position he's not usually in as the larger wrestler. I love DRP's attiitude. He interfered at the perfect moment. I only wish had been more aggressive.
Garrett returned with a mic in his hand. He was tired of Cameron Keast's games and demanded to know where Adams was. Keast appeared on screen from an undisclosed location and directed Garrett's attention to a chain around one of the ringposts, the same chain Karmegeddon used to tie Cam to the ringpost last week so they could waterboard him.
Keast seated himself on the stage. He had tried not to resort to Psycho Cam. He didn't like what Psycho Cam was capable of but he had come to peace with what he may do as long as he did it to Adams. Keast said Adams had made his entire year awful and was stil a hemorroid on his ass. But nothing Adams had done came close to his corruption of someone who was once close to him.
As I sit under this warm spotlight with it being a long time since I hugged the sun...
Keast said Garrett was one of his Kids of Keast, an ally, someone he could trust, a friend.
A father can only show a son so much mercy, but a friend can show him even less, and a monster will show you none.
Garrett would get his chain match at Anniversary but that wasn't weird enough for Keast. Cam wanted something more violent. He was going to make Garrett bleed. This would the first ever first blood chain match and when it was over, Garrett was going to wish Cam had left him in the cage forever.
I'm a mark for Cameron Keast's character work and ProSouth's use of lighting. There was no way for me to resist the theatricality of it all. .But it had holes like good Swiss cheese. The logistics of Garrett and Adams getting locked inside the cage made them look like complete morons. How did nobody hear Adams under the ring? Adams must have been bound and gagged or drugged out of his mind.
The Serpent's Lair with Tony Midas and Vougan hosted by Brandon Whatley Whatley introduced Midas as the "dopest man alive" and "one of ProSouth's hottest prospects of 2025" Vougan. Midas was pissed because Vougan was always in his hair. Vougan said he was just living his cute life. Midas said the heavens should have opened up when he returned to ProSouth but Vougan got a title match and not him. He wanted a match with Vougan at Anniversary. Whatley said the Anniversary card was full. Midas was livid. Whatley said team up and enter the TLC tag match. Midas said no way. Vougan was willing because he wanted the gold. Whatley enticed Midas with the opportunity to wrestle at Anniversary for the first time. Midas was still not on board. Whatley said the choice was Tony's: stay home or go for the gold. Midas said OK as long Vougan did as he was told.
Enter Calozzi and Jordan. Calozzi said he'd never seen a more undeserving team than these two fools compete for a tag team championship and they were about get their asses whupped. Whatley said he was now a journalist and bowed out.
Midas threw Vougan to the wolves and bailed. Vougan got his ass beat and was about to get his wig split with the knucks. Midas jumped in and rescued Jordan with his spray can. Or was he aiming for Vougan? Vougan pump kicked Calozzi or was he aiming for Midas?
This unhinged abomination of a segment clocked in at 18 minutes in length, and made less interested in the seeing any of these people in the TLC tag team title match at Anniversary.
(4) Ace Haven & Joe Black (with Amy Haven) defeated YouTube Champion Scott Spade & Caeden Ootein (with Harley Haven) in 9:29. The chaos started as the handicap match previewed backstage with Spade and C showing no mercy, Ace nevertheless mustered up a crazy dive off the top the cage imprisoning Adams and Garrett. Joe interjected himself into the match. His intentions were unclear. Joe teased going with Ooten and Spade but went the opposite direction. Joe accepted Ace's offer to bump fists and they went to work. The battle spilled into the crowd and stay there for the body of the match. Joe hit the ropes walk cutter on Spade. .Ooten speared Joe. Ace pulled Joe out. Ace and Ooten went back and forth countering big moves until C gave Ace Loaded Gun Complex. Ace kicked out. C then saw Grim (the masked version of Christian Pierce) abduct Harley. Moments later, Ace sent Ooten crashing to the mat with an avalanche Ace cutter.
Postmatch, Ace ducked a belt shot from Spade and tried for a cutter. Spade slipped out of it and they were eye-to-eye with Spade lording the belt over Ace as the livestream came to a close.
An unadvertised appearance by Joe Black is never a bad thing. Teaming Joe up with Ace as the next phase of their story was the right call. And they slipped in something to move Pierce and Ooten forward. ProSouth loves a good abduction. All that brawling outside the barricade with a small crowd destroys the illusion of the ProSouth Palace.
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