From Larry Goodman:
Redemption has sometimes been a major show for ProSouth. Redemption 2022 headlined by Rhyno vs. Dameon Ceretone in an ECW Rules match was arguably their best show of the year.
The build for this year's Redemption got a late start. The company has had other fish to fry. Beware the Ides of March was a disappointing go home show, one of the weakest ProSouth episodes of the year. It had more holes than aged Swiss cheese.
The title of the show was a reference to Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and the warning Caesar received about an assassination plot, perhaps, a foreshadowing of that which lies ahead for The Process, led by Commissioner Amy Haven and ProSouth Champion Joe Black.
Black was pinned by a green as grass rookie. The co-number one contenders for the All-Out Championship, Caeden Ooten and Julian Balderas got pinned in a handicap match as a lead in to their triple threat title match at Redemption. One half of the babyface tag team champions also lost by pinfall.
The massive winner of the night was Brother Azriel. He came out of the evening smelling like a rose heading into his title match with Black at Redemption.
The storyline where wins and losses are vital produced the best segment of the night. The Christians (Pierce and Garrett) got into it verbally and physically to set up a two out of three falls match at Redemption.
Breaking news about the status of Ace Haven was lost to on Iivestream viewers due to technical difficulties.
There is good reason to believe the best wrestling of the night was the Member Only -- Justin McKenzie vs. All-Out Champion DRP in a non-title match.
The show got zero help from the crowd at the ProSouth Palace. Parts of it had crowd reactions like a Pandemic era episode.
Wicked Nemesis and Mathias Darkthorne on commentary with Harley Haven sitting in on color for the main event, such as it was. Darkthorne did triple duty -- ring announcer, manager and commentator. Becca has joined Joseph Void as the week in, week out officials and landed in the middle of a storyline.
Cold open -- Harley Haven found Tragick slumped in the corner of a dark room. . He appeared to be sapped of energy. The light on his collar was flickering like he needed to recharge his battery. Harley removed his mask. Tragick had a message but his words were mostly unintelligible.
A fascinating scene, visually engaging, Harley and Keast interacting for the first time in a long time was intrigiuing, but the verbiage was almost impossible to decipher due to the audio. Tragick revealed that Ace was not burnt to crisp in the Buried Alive match last month. Ace crawled out of the grave before Tragick lit it on fire and it was almost time for Ace to return.
The opening montage rolled....Aaron and Ethan Dallas, Donnie Primetime and Douglas Sanders are still in it. Interesting.
(1) Dark Passion Assassins (Neji Ichiban & Dante Darko with Stella Randy) defeated The Process (Brandon Whatley & Joe Wood with Tragick) in 8:04. Darko broke up Wood's choke slam on Ichiban and landed an assisted punch on Joe. Darko then pinned Joe with a sick kick with an assist from Ichiban.
The Process assaulted DPA after the match. McKenzie tried to make the save and got choke slammed by Wood. Oliver Green attacked Wood with his kendo stick to clear the ring.
No mat classic here. By winning, DPA kinda, sorta avenged what Process did to Ichiban and Randy last week and then got beat up again in the postmatch.
The babyface started to exit and stopped when they saw Tragick defiantly standing on the stage. McKenzie said all the cheap shots were outrageous. If Process wanted to fight then fight them for real. McKenzie made three matches for Redemption -- Wood vs. Green, Ichiban vs. Whatley and he would take Tragick on.
Clumsy staging. The babyfaces let one heel get in their way. I thought matchmaking was the Commissioner's job.
A short video promo from Eric "The Ghost" Silva was next. There was no audio.
Julian Balderas came to the ring as Brother Azriel's opponent in what was billed as a tune up match for Az's title match with Joe Black at redemption. "Sleazy C" Caeden Ooten inserted himself into the mix and said it would be a handicap match.
So Ooten also gets to make matches now. Seems like the co-number one contenders for the All-Out Championship would be above tune up match status.
(2) Brother Azriel pinned Julian Balderas and Caeden Ooten (with Harley Haven) in a handicap match at 8:01. Balderas and Ooten were not getting along but they did work as a team. The spot of the match was Balderas muscling Az up for a body slam. While Harley had the ref distracted, DRP ran in and messed with Balderas, then ducked under the ring. Balderas thought Ooten was the culprit. They started fighting. Az hit a double spear and splashed them off the middle rope to score a double pin.
DRP definitely looks like the smartest guy any time he's in a room Balderas and Ooten.
Christian Garrett and Christian Pierce, face-to-face. Pierce told referee Becca to stick around. Garrett said Becca screwed him out of a win. He'd have beaten Pierce by count had Becca not gotten distracted by Pierce throwing a bottle (of that shitty Busch beer he drinks) against the wall. Pierce said what he was hearing was that Garrett couldn't beat him. Garrett said he beat Pierce the week before. Pierce said Garrett did beat him when he got screwed over (by Becca's botched pin count).
Pierce said regardless of the circumstances, they were basically even and proposed a two out of three falls match to determine who was the better wrestler. Just one problem: Becca could not be the referee. Maybe something would need to happen so Becca would not make it to Redemption. Pierce started to move towards Becca. Garrett said Pierce wouldn't do anything because he was not the same Pierce since he stopped riding Dameon Ceretone's coattails. (two mentions in one report for a guy that hasn't been with the company for a year and half).
Pierce said sorry Becca and hit Once Bitten on Garrett. Pierce was not satisfied. He was fixing to give Garrett a draping DDT on a steel chair but the refs stopped him. While Pierce was arguing with the refs, Garrett bashed him with the chair and laid him out with Glycerine on the chair. Garrett said he accepted the match.
Loved it, very Memphis Wrestling -- based on a personal issue and incorporated a real life event into the story, the only thing missing was Lance Russell at the desk.
A pretaped conversation between Alexandra Quinn and KJ Valentine streamed in edited form. Quinn wanted the truth about what happened with Vougan and the baseball bat last week and didn't get an answer. Valentine said he and Quinn should be holding the tag team championship. Instead, Quinn took what was his. Quinn said Valentine was manipulative and walked out before she lost her cool.
They were friends at the WWA4 school before they got to ProSouth, so there was a foundation for them to be team. In the edited form, that context was lacking.
Darkthorne said Quinn had been sent home and the following match (advertised as triple threat) would now be a singles match.
(3) KJ Valentine defeated Vougan in 5:09. Valentine wrestled wearing a toga. Vougan slapped Valentine across the face and brought him off the top rope with a handstand headscissors in slow motion. Vougan's cover was delayed because Valentine had stomped his knee earlier in the match. When Valentine kicked out, Vougan grabbed Valentine's bat in frustration. Referee Void took the bat away. Vougan screamed at Void. Valentine capitalized with the Blackout followed by a top rope double stomp to Vougan's back.
Vougan again outfoxed by Valentine. Match was what it was.
Whatley came on stage and said Vougan had been getting a lot of favors from Amy Haven and she obviously wanted him to be part of The Process. Vougan could join on one condition - bring them Quinn's tag team title belt next week.
I must have missed a chapter. What favors did Amy do for Vougan? Vougan must have low frustration tolerance if the headaches Valentine caused are enough to prompt a turn to the dark side.
(4) Tragick defeated Eric Silva (with Mathias Darkthorne) via submission to retain the YouTube Championship in 7:35. Darkthorne said Tragick/Keast was not the man Silva knew before either one of them got into the wrestling business and had been in ProSouth 10 years today. He was a weakling who could not even take off his own mask. Whoever was in there would be dragged kicking and screaming down the Left Hand Path.
Tragick was unfazed by Silva's offense so long as the light on his collar glowed green. The collar got squirrely. Tragick went through an identity crisis. Tragick took the mask off and choked Silva out with the Captain's Hook.
The key thing here was Tragick was able to win without the mask. What was the meaing of this? Silva put him over huge.
Darkthorne said one battle is not the war and introduced the main event.
(5) Oliver Green defeated ProSouth Champion Joe Black in a non-title tune up match (7:07). On color, Harley agreed with Wicked: Green would last about two minutes. He lasted a whole lot longer. Green kicked out of Joe's brainbuster. The sound of a hearbeat distracted Joe. Referee Void got knocked down. Black gave Green a Catatonic and was about to finish him when Az came on stage holding Amy Haven by the hair. Joe brawled with Az. Az gave Joe a Woodgrain on the floor, threw him back in the ring and woke up the referee. Green covered for a three count.
The Process attacked Az. He was holding his own against three men. Scott Adams tried to climb over the barricade. Process was putting the boots to Adams as the livestream concluded.
Great for Az to go into the title match looking smart and possessing the physical prowess of a Superman and the champion showing vulnerablility. Green pinning Black was taking it too far. It will be interesting to see what role Adams plays in all this going forward.
.JPG)
