Photos by Gina Jones I've died a few times and death spat me right back out. Every time it did, I was the better of it. I've been da...
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| Photos by Gina Jones |
I've died a few times and death spat me right back out. Every time it did, I was the better of it. I've been dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight for 20 years, and I never stepped on her feet, and you best believe when we do that endless walk, I ain't got two left feet.
-- Joe Black
From Larry Goodman:
We're two weeks away from the annual Redemption event, and this episode was the first time it was mentioned on air. The card TBD.
Things change.
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| Willam H. Macy and Joe Montegna |
Nothing got settled in the number one contenders match for the All-Out Championship. Caeden Ooten vs. Julian Balderas with champion DRP as the special referee sent them hurtling into a triple threat for the All-Out title at Redemption.
Controversy translates to more viewers. That's just the way it is. Christian Pierce leaned into the screwy finish of his match with Christian Garrett last week and incorporated referee Becca into the act. Again they wrestled and again a questionable refereeing decision.
ProSouth's Axis of Evil had a busy night. ProSouth Champion Joe Black, Brandon Whatley and Tragick wreaked havoc. Amy Haven cut the promo ProSouth marks have been waiting for.
Black and Brother Azriel went at it on the mic. Did Az goad Joe into a title defense at Redemption? I sure hope so or he's got sore gonads for nothing.
The tag team championship picture is amorphous. Both halves of the tag team champions (Alexandra Quinn & Vougan) lost in singles competition.
Booked rather brilliantly from the grave, this show had the crispy fingerprints of Ace Haven all over it.
Wicked Nemesis and Mathias Darkthorne manned the commentation station. Darkthorne did double duty as the ring announcer. Joseph Void and Becca were the officials.
(1) Justin McKenzie vs. Neji Ichiban (with Stella Randy) was a ruled a no contest after both competitors were attacked by The Process (7:16). A babyface match. They shook hands and wrestled clean, fast paced, 50/50, building to a finish. McKenzie slipped out of Scarlett Overdrive. They had a ridiculous exchange of strikes that took whatever they had left out of them.
Whatley and Tragick attacked. Whatley planted Randy on the apron with a Bottomless Pit and rolled her inside.Tragick choked Randy out with Captain's Hook while Whatley knocked Ichiban senseless with Kawada kicks.
If you don't like your pro wrestling to look to smooth and under control, you might like this. The way things ended up would make one think a tag match is in the offing.
(2) KJ Valentine defeated Alexandra Quinn (with Vougan) in 6 minutes. Valentine fought off Quinn's Oblivion-like manuever. His Blackout finisher appeared to land squarely upside Quinn's head. As the ref checked Quinn, Valentineg grabbed his min-baseball bat of the corner. Vougan jumped on the apron and snatched the bat out of Valentine's hand. Valentine went down like he'd been shot. Quinn saw Vougan with the bat in her hand. The tag team champions got into verbally and Valentine rolled Quinn up.
Vougan tried to explain but Quinn did not want to hear it.
Quinn and Vougan just won the tag team championship and already we have dissension? Valentine is a man without at faction. MPR is not a functioning unit at present. Steven Calozzi was arrested during the livestream two weeks ago. Trey Jordan is no longer with the promotion.
Christian Pierce called out referee Becca. A bottle of Busch beer in hand, Pierce called Becca out for an explanation of his bad call that cost him a big L against Garrett last week. Pierce said his shoulders were up and everybody saw it. Becca said it been on his mind all week. He couldn't see Pierce's shoulder up and he was sorry. Pierce said he had a solution: drop Becca with Once Bitten. Becca had alternative solution: get Joseph Void to ref Pierce's match. Pierce said mistakes happen. He wanted Becca to ref the match, just do better.
Got to love using a shoot screw up to enrich the story. I rewatched the controversial pin from the previous week again. From Becca's vantage point and the camera angle, it was not possible to see Pierce's left shoulder blade was off the mat.
(3) Christian Pierce defeated Christian Garrett in 11:36. PIerce had Garrett's set up for a draming DDT from the apron and thought it better to to expose a section of the floor. That did not end well for him. Garrett spiked Pierce with Michinoku Driver into the flimsy ringside padding. Pierce was on the floor for well past a 10 count but Becca gave up the ghost on a count and instead restarted at one when Garrett got back into the ring. Pierce threw his beer bottle into the wall. Becca stopped his count at nine. Garrett also got distracted and Pierce hit Once Bitten for the win.
Lots of fresh exchanges and counter wrestling. What has gotten into Christian Garrett? Guy is doing the his best wrestling ever in a ProSouth ring, breaking out all kinds of stuff he's never done before.
Twice, Becca should have counted Pierce out and shirked his duty and it was Pierce who used distraction for the win. Was Becca coerced? So who's the babyface here? Or is there one?
Whatley displayed the cold-blooded viciousness of his 2023 ProSouth Championship reign of terror. The commentators talked about the iterations of Whatley's brutality through the years. This was primo Whatley.
Commisioner and "Queen of the South" Amy Haven addressed her subjects. For 14 years, she fought for ProSouth Wrestling and that had gotten her absolutely nothing. The cancer of ProSouth wrestling was buried outside. The ProSouth fans only saw everybody's hero, the Friday Night Ace Haven. They did not see what she saw. Ace picked fights and ran people off. Ace was the reason the ProSouth roster had changed so drastically over the last couple of years. People that used to call her family and that her children aunt and uncle had left and never looked back because of him. In reference to Brother Azriel, ProSouth did not need a prophet, they neeed a killer as the face of their company. Enter Joe Black.
Amy delivered quite the promo, a blend of fact and fiction, inside baseball and common knowledge, talking about Ace being buried and in the next breath, speaking of him in the present tense. It remains to be seen if Ace will rise from the dead before or after Easter. The people that were like family are Shean Christopher and Ravenna Vein.
Brother Azriel confronted ProSouth Champion Joe Black. Az wanted to know what it was going to take to get Joe to give him a title shot. Az spread his newly won Kraken Championship and the PWA No Limits belt on the mat in front of Joe and said he was willing to put it all on the line. He knew what Joe was trying to do. True, Joe should have been all over the world and signed out of the Carolinas like Cedric Alexander. But there was so much more Joe could do for the business than be miserable and burn things down. Do that in North Carolina and Southern Honor. Az said he came close to dying backstage. ProSouth was his home and he was not going to allow Joe to burn it to the ground.
Az raised his game, more fire, way better material. He effectively painted Joe as a malevolent bitter veteran.
Joe responds. Where was Az when Joe was putting Ace's pasty white ass in a grave and burning him to a crisp? Punching a man's wife in the face, menacing ring announcers like Shauna Alexander and attacking referees like Joseph Void and T-Bird. You think throwing worthless titles at my feet means something? The Kraken title is William Huckaby's. Tag him about me. Maybe your big black ass should be the next to go through a windshield. He didn't care about Az's brush with death. He'd had his own. Joe's answer to Az's challenge: "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Amy gave Az a low blow. Az crumbled. Joe delivered the kill shot to the base of Az's brain and deposited Az's titles on his carcass.
Here I go again, praising a Joe Black promo. His disdain for Azriel was palpable. He put unsung talents over by dropping their names. Joe's eloquently expressed thoughts on death are quoted at the top of this story. For newbies, Joe and Amy's actions were a repeat performance of what they did to Az at Anniversary.
Julian Balderas and Caeden Ooten did prematch backstage promos. Something was up with the audio. Their lips were moving but the viewers could not hear a word they said. Balderas went first. Ooten joined him and had his silent say. All-Out Champion/special referee DRP made it a threesome. The audio finally came up as DRP said he was going to call it down the middle.
The camera followed DRP to the ring. Ooten grabbed the camerawomen and brought her all the way back to the interview area so she could give Ooten the proper tracking shot through the backstage area. Balderas insisted he needed a tracking shot as well. Why not?
In the fine tradition of ProSouth: things tend to come in three and egregious excessive is at times, the name of the game.
(5) Caeden Ooten (with Harley Haven) vs. Julian Balderas to determine the number one contender for the All-Out Championship with Champion DRP as the special referee was a no contest (5:22). DRP's first act as special ref was to eject Harley from ringside. She took a seat in the front row. DRP's second move was to insist on a prematch handshake. Sleazy C balked. DRP asked Ooten if he wanted to earn a shot at becoming the All-Out Champion for the first time or not? Ooten slapped Julian's hand. DRP said not acceptable. Ooten finally gave in. DRP strictly enforced the rules. Neither wrestler was happy with him. Harley interfered from outside the barricade and ate an inadvertent chop from Ooten. Ooten speared Balderas. DRP refused to count past one. Balderas hit Project Mayhem. DRP stopped his count as Harley came to ringside. Double clothesline both men down. DRP made a SLOWWW 10 count. As DRP's count reached five, Balderas and Ooten cut him in half with a double spear.
Ooten and Balderas gave DRP the beatdown and went nose-to-nose. DRP said since the stupid hooligans would not follow the rules, he would wrestle both of them for the title in a triple threat at Redemption. Ooten and Balderas beat DRP up some more until Oliver Green hit the ring with kendo stick whack to Ooten's back as the livestream ended.
Inspired ensemble work from four young performers, none of them older than 22. They made a match I want to see. DRP was given free reign to display the puckish side of his personality and nailed it. Ooten and Balderas fumed. Harley is a unique character unto herself and those are hard to find.
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