OVW Television Report - December 29, 2012

by Logan Scisco

Since the review of the December 22^nd show got a good reception, I’ll continue on with some more OVW shows as the weeks progress.  I will also make sure to point out details about the roster, since many readers may not be familiar with the talent.  As a reminder, you can stream these shows on the OVW site (http://www.ovwrestling.com/tv) and that’s a great thing that the promotion is doing since TNA fans can see what is happening in developmental and get invested in some of the guys before they make the main roster.  Shows are posted every Thursday.  As far as scheduling these reviews, they will likely go up very early Sunday morning since OVW’s show airs on Saturday’s.  Episodes are posted earlier than their air date, but by posting them on Sunday’s I can avoid spoilers.

- Dean Hill, Gilbert Corsey, and Michael Titus are doing the announcing duties from the Davis Arena in Louisville, Kentucky.  To break a couple of these guys down, Hill has been with the promotion since its early inception when Jim Cornette was running it for WWE.  Corsey reminds me of the role that Corey Macklin used to play in the USWA, minus the ring duties, which means that he hypes house show cards and that type of stuff.  Titus is the heel color commentator and he tries to do the Bobby Heenan shtick of making lots of jokes about the faces.  Some are good, but many fell flat in the first episode that I reviewed.  Titus is also known as the “Rocky Mountain Mouth.”

-Eddie Diamond, Timmy Danger, and Bobbi Bordeaux come out to some rap music and dance to celebrate Christmas.  Since Eddie and Timmy are white they remind me of PG-13, but they are more street and have a better physical build.  Eddie and Timmy discuss who has been naughty and nice, which is slow and dry, but the Coalition comes out and Crimson says they are terrible.  The segment goes downhill with some stereotypical gay and women bashing until the Coalition begin a beat down that is interrupted by James Thomas and the Mascara Mafia.  Paredyse proposes an eight man tag between James Thomas, the Mascara Mafia, and a mystery partner against the Coalition’s Crimson, Jason Wayne, Doug Williams, and Joe Coleman and the Coalition accept.  This sets up the main event, but everyone was trying to take shortcuts to get heat and everyone just looks cheap as a result.

-James Thomas asks Johnny Spade if he has his back and Spade tells him no because he has his own problems.  James seems to take rejection rather well from the guy who saved him last week.

-Opening Contest:  Dylan Bostic (w/Taeler Hendrix) defeats Stephon J. Baxter III with a double knee backbreaker at 3:24

The running gag with Bostic seems to be that no one knows what his moniker of “The Justin Bieber of Professional Wrestling” means.  Baxter is a black guy playing a nerd gimmick.  Bostic spends the entire match slapping Baxter around, not taking him seriously, and when Baxter tries to “nerd up”, Bostic just ducks his punch and finishes him.  This squash took entirely too long for what it was, but I suppose the point was to make Bostic look like a big bully.

-Randy Royal meets up with a trainer starts getting in shape for a return to the ring after a heart attack.

                          

-Our next scheduled match is for the OVW Television Championship, but when Elvis Pridemoore, a white guy sporting a street/rap gimmick (how many “street” gimmicks are in this company?) makes his entrance he is attacked by Cliff Compton, the “Vigilante of OVW.”  Compton gets on the house mic and says that he’s the true OVW Television Champion, but that brings out OVW Television Champion Jamin Olivencia, who runs him off.  Olivencia says that he is the champion and he challenges Compton to a match, but Compton says he hurt his injured foot and can’t compete.  Olivencia says that he’ll give Compton a title shot next week.  Compton’s mic work is carrying this program, but I’m more into this feud than anything else happening.

-BTE (The Best Team Ever) of Jessie Godderz and Rudy Switchblade and they make fun of the OVW Southern Tag Team Champions Alex Silva and Sam Shaw.  The humor is lost on me since I haven’t followed Silva and Shaw outside of one show, but it elicits little in the way of crowd reaction.  After some painful minutes, Silva and Shaw show up and make the BTE run away.

-The Mascara Mafia talks to some of the OVW knockouts, Epiphany, Jessie Belle, and Heidi Lovelace and ask them if they will use their “assets” to convince Johnny Spade to team with them and James Thomas tonight.  The knockouts seemingly have no problem doing this and they talk Spade up, but are interrupted by Taeler Hendrix, who turns the women against each other.  Hendrix proposes that Epiphany and Belle face each other in a number one contender’s match and Spade just walks away.

-Nick Dinsmore hypes his wrestling class in OVW.

-Josette Bynum appears and says that she petitioned the OVW Board of Directors after last week’s show to let Flash Flanagan have a warm up match.  She calls Flanagan on her phone, who shows up shortly thereafter.  Trailer Park Trash tries to rush the ring, but OVW officials hold him back.

-Flash Flanagan (w/Josette Bynum) beats Jace King with a neckbreaker at 4:12:

I was surprised to find out that Flash Flanagan was still competing when watching last week’s show.  This squash is meant to show that Flanagan is a great wrestler that does not need weapons in order to win a match.  Flanagan yells a lot at Trailer Park Trash during the match and Bynum works in a few slaps on King before Flanagan finishes him.  This is a squash where the angle overwhelmed the match, but this is the second match we’ve had tonight where a jobber was just slapped around for more than three minutes.  It hardly makes for captivating television.

-After his squash, Flanagan taunts Trailer Park Trash about his overweight daughter, which causes Trash to be held back by OVW officials when he wants to charge the ring again.

-James “The Moose” Thomas, the Mascara Mafia & “Smooth” Johnny Spade defeat “The General” Crimson, Doug Williams, Joe Coleman & Jason Wayne when Thomas pins Wayne after Spade superkicks Wayne at 9:19 shown:

Wayne does a great job introducing his team, continuing a great run of mic work from last week.  Spade decides to be part of the face team, but I think they played this wrong by having him show up during his team’s entrance and not later in the match.  The Mascara Mafia has a gay/flamboyant gimmick and is made up of Paredyse and Brandon Espinoza.  Paredyse has a disturbing move called “Say No to Crack” whereby he puts his opponent in a headscissors near the corner and pulls them to his rear end.  The Mascara Mafia spend time in peril as this match builds a better story than last week’s six man tag.  The Coalition really needs to find more team maneuvers if they are going to be booked in tag matches like this because the only cooperative move they have is to pound on an opponent in the corner.  Thomas eventually gets the hot tag and everyone trades moves with each other until it comes down to Thomas and Wayne.  Wayne puts Thomas in a full nelson, but Thomas gets out of it and Spade drills Wayne with a superkick to send the Coalition down in defeat.  Rating:  **¼

The Final Report Card:  The main point of this show was to hype matches taking place at the Saturday Night Special on January 5^th and a lot of the angles to get to that stage are running out of steam.  The main event was okay, but much of the first three quarters of the show was a chore to sit through.

Show Evaluation:  Thumbs Down