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| Photos by Gina Jones |
I'm tired. I'm old. And I don't need this shit.
This was the go home for Valentine's Day Massacre.
The closing segment explained the episode's title in graphic visual fashion. After saying he would not be rage-baited into accepeting the Buried Alive match with ProSouth Champion Joe Black, the sight of protege Justin McKenzie being hung like a slab of meat changed Ace Haven's mind.
A classic wrestling angle was used to set up gimmick match #5 at Valentine's Day Massacre: Christian Pierce will square off with Julian Balderas in a Tex Mex Streetfight.
Tragick threw a fireball into the face of Brother Azriel. Az has a Valentine's date with The Mongrel in the KIll Field, while Tragick hooks up with his sweetheart McKenzie in a sexy Lights Out match.
More seeds of doubt were sown about Bubba Cagle and DRP's ability to hold their shit together as a unit during DRP's I Quit Match with Christian Garrett.
It is remarkable how little ProSouth's titles figure into the current narratives.
Promos were a significant component of this show. Unfortunately, the echo in the ring mic during the first half of the episode was brutal.
Wicked Nemesis and Mathias Darkthorne on commentary, Mathias doubled as the ring announcing, the referees were Joseph Void and the debuting Becca. Jessie was the ringside videographer.
Ace opened the show by responding to Joe Black's challenge. Ace said Joe's former running mates like Chip Day, Cedric Alexander, William Huckaby, and Murder One all had one thing in common -- they left him. He did not have a friend like Cameron Keast. Ace had reached out to him. "The hearbeat of Alabama wrestling" thought he might be the one person that could get through to the Killerweight. Ace said he never had what Joe had. He had to earn everything. Joe had destroyed what he had built in his personal life and put him through professional hell. Cam held Ace in his arms when he was a lifeless corpse in the hospital and now Joe had dragged him to place he could not come back from. Ace refused to rage baited into the Buried Alive match. He'd been in the business for 18 years and did not want the blood on his hands.
This was a phenomenal promo in the vein of Ace's best mic work: part work, part shoot, and containing a wealth of explanatory power.
(1) Caeden Ooten & All-Out Champion Christian Garrett (with Harley Haven) defeated Bubba Cagle & DRP in 10:06. The commentary noted the presumably one-night-only Kids of Keast reunion. Cagle went after Harley to set up heat on Bubba. DRP took the tag and flew through the ropes with the greatest of ease onto C. Cagle had Garrett up for the TKO. DRP got in the way and took a blow to the head. Cagle saw his a partner down and got rolled up by Garrett.
DRP was expressed his displeasure to Cagle as they headed to the back.
Shorter would have been better here. The alliance between DRP and Bubba is looking awfully shaky. Is that a swerve or will it go south in the I Quit match? The Caeden & Harley act is distinctly their own creation. Becca has good instincts about maintaining the right distance between a referee and the wrestlers for TV.
Adams was breaking the fourth wall Adams had important things to get off his chest. Genius material or the meanderings of a madman I cannot say because the audio sucked.
This was a match. I'm guessing it wiIl lead to some type of tag match involving Blood Born and Whatley.
(3) Julian Balderas squashed "American Firecracker" Nick Cicero in 5:22. After having his offense no sold and getting his ass kicked for five minutes, Cicero fizzled as he tried to fly off the top rope. Bladeras caught Cicero, boosted him into a vertical suplex and speared what was left of him.
The Balderas squash match I've been wating for. Wicked was having the time of his life on commentary.
(4) KJ Valentine defeated Justin McKenzie in 7:30. Pretty much a 50/50 match. McKenzie went for Sliced Bread 69 and Valentine countered with a rolling reverse and did not pull the tights.
Quite the workrate. The surprise was not so much that Valentine won but that he beat McKenzie clean. McKenzie's double leapfrog looked great. Valentine is getting better about laying in his strikes but too much of his offense still looks sloppy.
Money Power and Respect (Steven Calozzi & Trey Jordan & KJ Valentine) were backstage with Calozzi' mouth running overtime. As MPR headed to the ring for Calozzi's match with Vougan, McKenzie picked Valentine off and Oliver Green (with his face covered) whacked Jordan with a chair shot as they came onstage.
Well that was an interesting way to make the match a fair fight. Calozzi must be deaf because he was oblivious to what was going on right behind him.
(5) Vougan defeated Steven Calozzi in 6:29. Vougan put Calozzi down with a series of kicks and went for the Pedigree. Calozzi backdropped Vougan to get out it. Calozzi picked up one of the tag title belts and told Becca to get out of his face. Vougan ducked the belt shot, kicked Calozzi in the head and pinned him with the Pedigree.
Calozzi entertains me. The match was a haphazard collection of spots that held my interest because there was no way to know what was going to happen next or when an unintentional live round would be fired. The moral of the story was Calozzi could not beat Vougan without the help of his cronies.
Christian Pierce promo. Pierce pulled up his shirt to expose his taped ribs and talked about being speared three time by Balderas last week. At first, he understood Balderas was an up and coming star trying to make waves and he respected that. If Balderas had not pulled that garbage after the match last week, he would have shaken his hand. But Balderas took it too far and it was time for him to atone. Pierce challenged Balderas to a match at Valentine Day's Massacre and he wanted an answer now.
Balderas said he could end Pierce's career in a regular match but that would bore him.. He wanted to make sure Pierce was gone for good in a Tex Mex Streetfight.
Pierce said Balderas wanted to push the diamondback into the corner to see if he would strike. Pierce assured Balderas he would. He congratulated Balderas at Young Lion's Cup and Balderas said he didn't need the 14 year veteran's help. The next week, Balderas told Pierce he didn't need his approval. Pierce begged to differ. Balderas needed his approval to show he was a man in ProSouth.. Pierce said he accepted the streetfight and would take Balderas to a special place known as Whip Ass Ranch.
Pierce started to leave. Balderas called Pierce back into the ring and speared him. Balderas was knocked out. Pierce wasn't moving either. Pierce finallly pulled up his shirt to show that he was wearig a metal plate. Pierce waited for Balderas to get up so he could drop him with Once Bitten.
Bret Hart and Bill Goldberg did the same metal plate angle in WCW 26 years ago. If Pierce had gotten speared again, he would have looked like an idiot instead of the smartest guy in the room. Pierce's use of the A word during his promo caught my attention.
(6) Brother Azriel defeated Tragick via DQ in 6:50. Tragick took a knee as his illuminated colllar started flickering as if he was being weakened. The collar went solid green and Tragick attacked. Tragick's was less effected by pain and more potent on offense than OG Cam but not to the same degree against Az. Azriel had Tragick set up for the Woodgrain when Amy Haven and ProSouth Champion Joe Black appeared on stage. The light on Tragick's collar went red. Tragick threw a fireball in Az's face for an immediate disqualification.
The powers of Amy and Joe's Dark Arts creation appeared to be muted against Az until that beauty of a fireball. Scorched eyeballs is all Az needed going into the match with Mongrel.
Joe taunted Az and stomped him a few times. Tragick gave Az the Iron Knee. The lights went out. McKenzie was in the ring when the lights came back on McKenzie was behind Tragick. McKenzie attacked but Joe cut him. Tragick put McKenzie in the bulldog choke. A pulley wire descended from the ceiling.
Joe said since Ace did not want blood on his hands, he was going to spare Ace of that and coat his hands with the blood of Ace's number one pupil.
Tragick attached McKenzie's feet to the pulley and hung him upside down. Ace ran in to save McKenzie. Joe fled the ring. Ace hit Joe with a suicide dive and took back his crown
"You want me in buried alive? All those flowers ___ just gave you, I'll bring them to your funeral and bury your bitch ass alive."
The visual of McKenzie's body being swung around like a piece of meat was surreal. The show made a strong closing argument for the Buried Alive match but I'm not sold on it. For me, a stipulation that far into fantasy land is a once a decade thing if ever. ProSouth did one a little over two years ago. On the other hand, ProSouth creative knows all the pitfalls and probably has multiple tricks up their sleeve. We will find next Friday night.
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