From Lawrence Goodman:
Battle Rumble 2026 was won by Caeden Ooten, who is now guaranteed a ProSouth title match at Anniversary Supershow, ProSouth's final show of the year. Ooten, a former Piedmont High School football star is already a three-time ProSouth Champion at the age of 22.
It is not a forgone conclusion that Ooten's opponent will be reigning ProSouth Champion Joe Black. For one thing, Ayden Andrews, Joe's right-hand man in The Process, holds the Gold Rush Briefcase.
Who knew Ace Haven, broken face and all, would go all the way in Battle Rumble or that TragiCK would break the record for the most eliminations?
Christian Pierce is the new All-Out Champion and the way the final minute of the match went down may have stolen the show.
Who knew Ethan Case and Starlab would wreak as much havoc as they did?
Wicked Nemesis and Mathias Darkthorne on commentary, Darkthorne doubling as ring announcer, Joseph Void and Cody Clonts and Matthew Gibson were the refs. Emma and Katie Lindsey split the rover camera duties.
(1) Christian Pierce defeated Oliver Green via submission to win the All-Out Championship in 9:38. Green's neck was messed up from the beating the week before. First chance Pierce got, he went straight at the injured body part. Green's most effective offense was his handspring stunner. Pierce applied a sleeper. Green went to the ropes. Pierce had to use up his ropes break after being hit with the Green Arrow. Green reversed a second sleeper attempt. The action moved to the outside. Green whipped Pierce into the post. Pierce was bleeding bad. Back inside, Pierce locked the sleeper in again. Green went limp and it was over.
Pierce looked half out of it. Face covered in blood, he was the All-Out Champion.
The blood was shocking and compelling. Pierce bled a lot in a short amount of time. Green is better off without the pressure of holding a championship while he works on his game.
(2) Battle Rumble Showcase: Starlab (Ethan Case & Reylan Albey & Jake Parker & DPJ & Koa Kamai) defeated JT Paradox & Jay O'Neal & Eli Riley & Forsaken Legacy (LJ Borne & Brutus Dre) in 12:40. Case said he asked for Alabama's best and wasn't sure if the opposing team qualified for driver's licenses.
Case punched Riley with the mic. Starlab attacked. One-by-one the babyfaces took a beating. Dre suffered an injury to his left knee. A train of big moves ended with Riley's flip dive off the turnbuckle onto a mass of bodies. While Clonts was distracted by the pile-up, Case punched Paradox with one of his cowboy boots and covered for the 1-2-3.
This was the Starlab showcase, which played into the story of the Battle Rumble. Starlab was vigilant about keeping the babyface-in-peril trapped in their corner. JTP was positioned as the star of the home team, shame on Starlab for not ensuring that he shined.
Intermission was lengthened to 30 minutes. ProSouth posted in the online chat that the delay was due to Brutus Dre's injury.
(3) Joe Black (with Amy Haven) defeated Donnie Primetime to retain the ProSouth Championship in 14:12. Primetime was the overwhelming favorite in a fan vote about the outcome. The ProSouth faithful vocally had Donnie's back.
Primetime took an overhead belly-to-belly suplex on the ramp and almost landed on his head. Joe took an exploder suplex onto a chair. Back inside, Joe hit a release German and continued to dish out punishment. Joe did the deal with a Falcon Arrow. Primetime slipped out of pin attempt at the count of one. Joe got a two count with a senton off the middle rope. Primetime hooked the ropes with his feet to block Joe's piledriver. Primetime rocked Black with a sequence of strikes and got a near fall with an implant DDT. Primetime dove from the top and got caught with a cutter. Donnie got a foot on the ropes. Joe locked in a dragon sleeper. Primetime got his feet on the ropes again. Primetime's frogslash hit the mark. Joe kicked out. Primetime's palm strike connected. Amy got on the apron to distract Void from making the count. Primetime got in Amy's face. She tried to slap him but Donnie caught her hand. Joe spewed red mist in Primetime's eyes and pinned him with Murder Music.
Black whipped Primetime with his weight belt after the match.
I liked the match story, which was a play on Primetime's promo last week -- Donnie, the underdog, trying to hang in and find a way to solve the puzzle Joe presented. The action was kind of mid for a Joe Black title match. Never quite kicked into high gear. Joe's use of the mist was an unexpected twist. Primetime looked the best he has in singles action since his return to ProSouth but this is not primo Primetime, at least not yet.
(4) Caeden Ooten won the 30-man Battle Rumble in 52:21. Order of Entrance: TragiCK, Ace Haven, Jay O'Neal, Brutus Dre, OJ Scar, Jon Averson, Rolando Perez, Jasper Reid, production assistant Jeremy Allen, Sean Nelson, LJ Borne, Christian Garrett, JACS, Wyn Brantley, Jabari Jaku (with Raheem), Brother Azriel, Oliver Green, Julius Pryor, Jake Parker, Reylan Albey, DJP, Koa Kamai, JT Paradox, Ethan Case, DRP, Ayden Andrews and Ooten.
Tragick and Ace battled on even terms. A new competitor entered every 90 seconds. TragiCK quickly eliminated O'Neal with a finger snap. Dre limped out and suffered the same fate. He laid clutching his knee.TragiCK racked up his third elimination with another finger snap on Averson. Reid entered wearing his Alpaca ass hair robe. On his way out, Averson got payback on Reid for last week. Allen pulled the ropes down to eliminate Reid. Ace eliminated Perez and Scar. Allen (wearing a ref shirt) rolled out and assumed the role of a fourth referee. Cross Country (Nelson & Garrett) hit End Of The Line on Borne and tossed him out. Cross Country beat up Ace. JACS (going with an S&M look this week) was a whirlwind as he tried bail Ace out. Brantley threw Allen back in the ring. It was chore but TragiCK got Allen safely over the top rope to score his fourth elimination. Nobody wanted to mess with Jaku. Brantley got the limber tail but Jaku planted him and threw him out of the ring. Tragick made Riley victim #5. Pierce entered with head bandaged like he was in a civil war movie. He eliminated JACS. Jaku double choke slammed Cross Country and eliminated both of them. Az went toe-to-toe with Jaku. For shits and giggles, Pierce left the ring to beat up JACS. Az eliminated Jaku but the refs were busy with Pierce and didn't see it. Jaku then eliminated Az. Jaku press tossed Green over the top. Green landed on a crash pad rather than the floor and was not eliminated. Green attached himself to a hoist that conveniently appeared in the ring and was elevated out of reach of the other competitors. Pryor eliminated Jaku with headscissors over the top rope. TragiCK booted Pryor off the apron to tie the Battle Rumble record of six eliminations.
Vanguard (Parker & Albey) ran roughshod until Wood entered the match. He almost eliminated Albey with the full nelson but DJP was next and Starlab was once again in total control. Starlab kept looking up at Green but couldn't reach him. Paradox courageously attempted to defy the odds. Former All-Out Champion DRP made a surprise return after a five month absence and was the somebody who finally laid hands on Case. Andrews entered with Nail In The Coffins for DRP and Paradox and eliminated both of them. Green was lowered to the mat. Another Nail In The Coffin and Green was gone. Ooten went at Starlab. Albey collided with Parker and eliminated his partner. Ooten simultaneously clotheslined Albey and Kamai over the top rope. Andrews eliminated DPJ. Case was the last man standing for Starlab and eliminated himself. TragiCK snapped Wood's fingers and knocked him off the apron with a TragiCK knee to break the record for most eliminations. Ace and Ooten eliminated TragiCK.
Andrews, Pierce, Ace and Ooten were the final four. Atonement (Andrews & Pierce) teamed up but were both quickly eliminated. The first competitor and last to enter battled on the apron. Ace went for Endgame. Ooten fought it off. Ace hit a cutter on the apron. Ooten regained his feet and speared Ace off the apron for the win.
Black and Amy came on stage. Ooten started talking to them. Joe disappeared through the entranceway as the livestream came to a close.
Lots to deconstruct. The first half of the match was pretty ho-hum. What was Dre doing out there? Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Business picked up with Jaku and Az. Their feud is clearly not over. Would love to see a babyface Pryor vs. Jaku. Green hoisted above the ring was a novel idea. Whimsical, crafty Green is a constructive direction for him. Starlab dominated the ProSouth talent for almost the entire time they were in the ring. Begs for a follow up. DRP was a pleasant surprise. More of him would be a plus for ProSouth. Bring back AJ Black whlie you're at it. TragiCK had quite the story arc - went 50 minutes, broke the record for eliminations, which included a fellow member of the Process. The finishing sequence was solid work. Ace going bell-to-bell was not on my bingo card.
.JPG)
