ProSouth 3 Stages of Hell -- July 10

Photos by Peter Sigmund From Larry Goodman: ProSouth is no stranger to spectacle. The Joe Black vs. Ace Haven: Buried Alive and the Ravana X...

Photos by Peter Sigmund

From Larry Goodman:

ProSouth is no stranger to spectacle. The Joe Black vs. Ace Haven: Buried Alive and the Ravana Xin vs. Cameron Keast & Harley Haven handicap I Quit match immediately come to mind. For danger and insanity on a grand scale, ProSouth outdid themselves with this 3 Stages of Hell. The match will become legendary in ProSouth lore for the surreal flaming tables stage alone. 

TragiCK (Cameron Keast) was momentarily burning alive  as depicted in Peter Sigmund's thumbnail photo.Smoke, blood, fire, barbed wire,thumbtacks and anything else that wasn't nailed down, inside and outside the building, Ace Haven and TragiCK took the violence and brutality to the outer limits. 

Ace is the undisputed YouTube Champion. The match raised the possibility that Amy Haven's mind control collar is losing its power over TragiCK and Cameron Keast may reemerge.

This was one of ProSouth best episodes of the year, packed with content because there was also the matter of setting up Power To The People next Friday night with matches to be decided by a shoot fan vote. 

Joe Black's challenger for the ProSouth Championship will be determined from ballot choices Caeden Ooten, Justin McKenzie and Oliver Green.

The losers in the voting will challenge True Grit for the tag team championship in a triple threat ladder match along with the Process (Ayden Andrews & Joe Wood).

Fans pick the stipulation for the All-Out Title match as Vougan gets his long-awaited rematch with KJ Valentine. Will it be Doomsday Clock or Barbie's Playhouse?

Some kind of presidential nonsense involving Jon Averson and Lose Brantley is also on the ballot.

In addition, Joe Black and Will Huckaby appear to be on the collision course any ProSouth fan worth their salt has been hoping for.

Wicked Nemesis and Mathias Darkthorne manned the commentation station. Joseph Void and just plain Lou officiated. Emma and Jeremy were the ringside videographers.

(1) Ayden Andrews vs. Julian Balderas (with Christian Pierce) was ruled a double count out at 9:03. 

Balderas was throwing Andrews around at will for the first half of the match. The highlight was four consecutive long-distance Biel throws. Balderas was playing to the crowd and having a good old time until Andrews' flying knee rocked Julian's world. Andrews targeted Balderas' previously injured shoulder  Andrews got a two count with second flying knee to the face. Balderas tried for a press slam but his shoulder gave out and Andrews stomped his shoulder. Balderas speared Andrews but without his usual power. Balderas crawled for the cover. Andrews rolled out of the ring. They fought on the floor until the Lou called for the bell.

Afterward, Andrews ran Balderas into the post and had Pierce breathing down his neck. Andrews swung on him. Pierce ducked and tattooed Andrew's face. Joe Wood appeared out of the blue to help Andrews leave True Grit laying.  Andrews delivered the bad news -- Amy Haven had added them to the ladder match for the tag team championship. 

This match got the episode was off to rip roaring start. The attention to detail in the layout had Andrews and Pierce's fingerprints all over it. I've never been more pleased to see a double count out finish. No need for either one to take the L and maybe we get a Pierce/Andrews singles match down the line. 

(2) "Born Again" Christian Garrett defeated JT Paradox to win the rubber match of their series in 8:25. 

The backstory being Paradox was in concussion protocol coming out of their match last week. Garrett didn't wait for the bell to club Paradox in the brain. Paradox was trying to fight back but Garrett repeatedly cut him off with shots to the head. Paradox capped off his first sustained rally with a fisherman suplex. Garrett knocked Paradox woozy with another shot to the head and pinned him with Glycerine.

What quack neurologist did ProSouth find to medically clear Paradox? JTP sold the concussion like he had Excedrin Headache 39 (look it up kids), giving him every excuse to go under. Garrett was painted as a stone cold psychopath going after a brain injury the way he did. Commentary mentioned the possibility of a title match for the winner. 

 A Jon Averson for president ad aired as a preview to his state of the ProSouth union address.

(3) Will Huckaby defeated Vougan in 3:55.  Vougan came in hot for about 20 seconds before Huck beat Vougan to a pulp. The broadcast referenced the browbeating he received from Joe Black last week. Huck won with a hidden blade type manuever. Darkthorne said it was more like a machete to the back of the head.

There was really no other credible way this match could go. 

Huck said last week Joe Black called him a bitch. Is this what he wanted? Who's the bitch now? Black came onstage with his guitar case, Amy by his side. Joe treated Huck's hostility and victory over Vougan with sarcasm. Joe invited Huck to pick on somebody his own size and to make sure there was no chicanery, he would be in Huck's corner and Amy would represent the Process........................................

(4) Joe Wood (with Joe Black) defeated Will Huckaby (with Amy Haven) in 2:30. Huck was all over Wood before he had a chance to get in the ring. Match underway, Amy grabbed Huck's leg and Wood took full advantage of the interference. As Wood applied the full nelson, Black helped Huck get a ropes break. Wood went for the full nelson again. Huck fought it off but Wood pinned him with a backslide. 

Postmatch, Huck bludgeoned Wood into unconsciousness and shoved Amy down. Black knocked Huck out. 

This thing between Huck and Joe is clearly not over. With Brandon Whatley quietly excommunicated from the Process, Joe Wood has met the moment and stepped up bigtime.

Jon Averson made his State of the Union speech. Averson shared his vision of captured a ProSouth championship, any ProSouth championship, even a tag team title with his "Vice President" Wyn Brantley. 

Wynn Brantley made his return from self-imposed exile. 

Brantley said Averson was a self-appointed president which made him a dictator. Averson's administration was corrupt. Brantley maintaned his administration would not be corrupt. 

Out came "Sleazy C" Caeden Ooten with Harley Haven. Ooten wanted to know what they were the president of? Was this the midcard presidency? C was there because there was real voting going on to determine Joe Black's opponent at Power for People and he needed the fans' help to become a four-time ProSouth Champion. C said he could talk more about what he was going to do to Joe but actions spoke louder than words. Joe was one of the greatest talkers ever but he was not able to wrestle C without cheating. 

Oliver Green made his way to the ring. His head was bandaged and he needed assistance from head of security Jamie to stumble up to the lectern.  C said he was not aware Green's head was in worse shape than Brantley's outfit. 

The number of head injuries at ProSouth his appaling.

Green said he pinned Joe Black once and maybe he could do it again. He should be the one to dethrone Joe. 

All-Out Champion KJ Valentine interrupted. KJ said if Averson and Brantley were his picks for president he would self-deport to hell. Ooten's win over him last week was a fluke because he had to listen to a minute of BS (from Vougan). Taking a sideways glance at Green, Valentine said, "What's this cripple doing over here? I have a thing for bats but you're not my problem." 

Out came Valentine's problem -- Vougan. They lobbied the crowd for votes, Doomsday Clock or Barbie's Playhouse. The meaning 

Justin McKenzie appeared on video to state his case as a candidate for the title match with Joe Black but had to put it on pause to get his Door Dash.   

The camera cut back to the ring to find Valentine brawling with Vougan, Averson pummeling Brantley and Wood and Andrews battling Ooten and Green.

Amy Haven came onstage and said they had a Three Stages of Hell match to do so get the hell out of her ring.

This segment covered a lot of ground. As live television, it had entertainment value, perverse and otherwise. For so many iffy moving parts it came off incredibly well. Valentine is a gifted talker.

(5) Three Stages Of Hell: Ace Haven (with Harley Haven) defeated TragiCK (with Amy Haven) to become the undisputed YouTube Champion in 23:10. Both men said to sequestered in the ProSouth Palace for the last 24 hours, no food, no sleep, no escape. 

Stage One - Flaming Tables. Ace set a table ablaze. Scott Adams ran onstage and extinguished the fire.  TragiCK threw Ace through the smoking table.  Smoke was billowing through the ProSouth Palace. Void pulled his ref shirt up to cover his mouth. Darkthorne was choking on commentary. A thick haze hung over the arena.  Harley lit up a second table. TragiCK's collar light was blue as he jumped into the flaming table unassisted. TragiCK's pant legs were on fire for a second or two. He rolled to snuff the fire out and avoid serious injury. 

Darkthorne called it a smoke filled hellscape. Amy looked distraught. If she was acting, she had me fooled.   Adams had just been released from the hospital where he had surgery to have kidney stones removed. Committment to the art is one thing, this  was madness.

Stage Two -  Monster's Ball.  TragiCK's collar light returned to green. Ace and TragiCK went out the back door and reentered the Palace through the front door. TragiCK started wailing on Ace with a piece of lead pipe. Back inside the ring, TragiCK gave Ace a Keast Infection on a chair and Tyler Cullprett Raindrop. Harley tried to help her stepfather by slugging Tragick with brass knucks. TragiCK put Harley in a bulldog choke but she was able to slide the knucks to Ace. He used the knucks and slammed the back of TragiCK's head slammed into  a very ECWish  section of barricade that was propped up in the corner. Amy poured a bag of thumbtack onto the mat. Ace teased giving his wife Endgame (Pedigree) into the tacks but let her loose in favor choke slamming TragiCK into the tacks. TragiCK sat up with tacks stuck in his back and a smile on his face. TragiCK sent Ace into the tacks face first with a Keast Infection to win the second stage.

I believe Abyss would have given this stage his seal of approval.

Stage Three - Barbed Wire Massacre. The setting: A ring outside the building with barbed wire instead of ropes, no turnbuckles and no padding, just boards. Next to the ring was trampoline that had been converted into a spider web of barbed wire.

Ace emerged from the grave of the Buried Alive match to attack TragiCK, who had been sitting in the ring wating for him. They ran each other's heads into the barbed wire ropes. Both were bleeding. Wicked was calling it raspberry jam to appease the AAC I guess. Amy handed a baseball bat to TragiCK but Ace got possession of the bat and did a number on  TragiCK. TragiCK suplexed Ace into the barbed wire. Jamie cut the barbed wire on one side of the ring and crawled in to check on Ace. Wood, Ooten and Green all got in the ring to do battle. They were soon joined by Averson carrying one of his campaign placards. A shotgun dropkick sent all four of them and ref Lou into the barbed wire spider web. TragiCK hit Blood Tears (headlock driver) but Lou was still stuck in the barbed wire. Void slid in to make the count. TragiCK's collar light went blue, meaning Keast was now present. Ace superkicked Keast off the apron onto a barbed wire board and pinned him on the ground.

Ace checked on his friend Cameron Keast before confronting "The Grim Reaper" Joe Black who was indeed carrying a giant scythe. The collar light returned to green and it was TragiCK who rose from the ground as the livestream came to an end. 

The match was as much about what is a very complex story as it was about the horror althought there was plenty of that. ProSouth loves their callback and there were lots of those, too. The massive ensemble bump into the spider web was nuts. Unfortunately, the finish was anticlimactic after all inconceivable carnage and insanity that preceded it.