OVW Television Report - December 22, 2012

by Logan Scisco

About seven years ago I did some reviews of Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) for Inside Pulse.  This was during a time that Ohio Valley had CM Punk as its champion and had emerging stars like Elijah Burke, Cody Rhodes, and the Miz on the roster.  OVW is no longer the developmental territory of the WWE, but since 2011 they have been the developmental territory of TNA.  The promotion is no longer on my local station, but they do stream their episodes online (http://www.ovwrestling.com/tv) so I thought that I would drop in and review a show.  Since no one on the blog is chronicling the events in OVW, I wanted to see if there was any interest in following this successful independent promotion, which was arguably the best developmental territory the WWE ever had.

-Dean Hill, Gilbert Corsey, and Michael Titus are doing the announcing duties from the Davis Arena in Louisville, Kentucky.

-Trailer Park Trash, Director of Operations of OVW, comes out and calls out Josette Bynum.  Is Trailer Park Trash really the best name for the director of a reputably company?  He demands that Bynum call her man, Flash Flanagan, and she does.  Trash says that he’s tired of getting jumped by Flanagan and he presents some grainy video from the parking lot.  He demands that Flanagan face him in a hardcore match on January 5^th and if Flanagan beats him he can come back to OVW.  After Bynum gets in Trash’s face, since there is a “no touch” policy between both men leading up to January 5^th, Flanagan says he accepts Trash’s challenge and Trash uses the microphone cord to give him a low blow.  Decent segment that set up a big match for the January 5^th “Saturday Night Special”, but Bynum was trying too hard with her mic work.

-OVW Southern Tag Team Champions Alex Silva and Sam Shaw tell James Thomas that they can’t really help him tonight.

-Opening Non-Title Contest:  Alex Silva & Sam Shaw (OVW Southern Tag Team Champions) defeat The Wildcards when Shaw pins Shiloh Jonze after the Breaking Point (Flying leg drop) at 5:00:

Silva and Shaw are the faces and they have been tag team champions for the duration of December.  Silva and Shaw are referred to as “The Gutcheckers”, which is a play on TNA’s tryout program.  This is an average back and forth match that is meant to showcase the offense of the champions.  The Wildcards don’t get much to do other than absorb bumps.  Shaw shows a lot of signs of potential as he’s very nimble in the ring and can work a fast pace.  Rating:  **

-Dylan Bostic (w/Taeler Hendrix) defeats Ace Hawkins with a double knee backbreaker at 2:32:

Bostic is called the “Justin Bieber of Professional Wrestling”, which means that I hate him already.  Hendrix is the OVW Women’s Champion.  Bostic is a heel, so Hendrix interferes to stops Hawkins initial offensive rally.  Hawkins botches one of his springboard moves off the ropes, but Bostic plays it off well by finishing shortly thereafter and making it seem like a turning point in the match.

-Referee Chris Sharpe wins Shot Called of the Year in a funny B-segment hosted by Timmy Danger and Duardo Diamond.

-Cliff Compton, who has stolen the OVW Television Championship, says that he went to see his foot looked at by a doctor and they recommended amputation, but he said no because he is the true OVW Television Champion.  He says he has become a vigilante like Batman and that’s why he is stealing titles in OVW.  Television Champion Jamin Olivencia runs in after Compton throws the Television title in the garbage and regains possession of the belts.  This was a good promo, but the announcers kept talking over it to emphasize how much of a heel Compton is.

-Nick Dinsmore hypes his training program at Ohio Valley Wrestling.

-Crimson, Jason Wayne & Joe Coleman defeat James “Moose” Thomas & The Mascara Mafia when Wayne pins Thomas after a schoolboy and a handful of tights at 18:18 shown:

Wayne and Coleman have a military gimmick and Wayne is entertaining and fluid on the mic.  Crimson is with Wayne and Coleman as the general of their group, dubbed the Coalition Forces, and he says that they are there to root out “terrorists” in OVW.  The small storyline that is ongoing is that the Coalition has been targeting Thomas and destroying the people that he is associated with.  Thomas and his allies dominate the first four and half minutes, but momentum turns as the Coalition puts Brandon Espinoza in peril.  They work a false finish where Paredyse is hit with a side slam by the interfering “Wrecking Ball” Jack Black and that puts Paredyse in peril.  There isn’t a lot of drama for the hot tag segments, which disrupts the flow of the contest, and by the seven minute mark lots of rest holds are utilized by the heels.  It takes fourteen minutes for any psychology to enter the match, as the heels target Espinoza’s left leg, and after Thomas gets the hot tag he tosses the interfering Black over the top rope but is rolled up from behind to lose the bout for his side.  I like long main events, but this match went on entirely too long and by the ten minute mark you were ready for it to be over with.  Rating:  *½

-After the match, Doug Williams arrives as another ally of the Coalition and helps beat down the faces.  The Coalition goes to Pillmanize Espinoza’s leg, but Johnny Spade runs in and cleans house with superkicks for all five heels as we go off the air.

The Final Report Card:  OVW has a few bright stars in its developmental program right now and at least you have defined characters, tag teams that look alike, and a heel stable that is trying to inflict damage on anything that moves.  The beginning of the show was pretty good, but the main event took a little too much time for the story that it was trying to tell, so I’ll give this one a neutral rating.  I’m interested to see if people on the Blog want to see more OVW reviews or if this should just be a one shot deal.

Show Evaluation:  Neutral