Ohio Valley Wrestling TV Report for August 6, 2005

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Matt Capotelli’s injury could have thrown Paul Heyman into a problem situation, but Heyman built the entire show around the injury and thrust Capotelli into the promotion’s top spot despite Capotelli’s injury. Sounds crazy? Actually, it was a really good show with some very good booking.

The show opened up differently than usual, with Dean Hill and Al Snow at the OVW desk, with no fan fare or music or crazy fan response. Dean reviewed the events of last week, with The Thrillseekers scoring simultaneous pinfalls over Joey Mercury and Johnny Nitro (WWE Smackdown former tag team champions MNM) in a match that would determine not only who was the number one contender for the tag team titles, but would allow the person who scored the pinfall to become number one contender for Brent Albright’s OVW Heavyweight Title. With the simultaneous pinfalls, Heyman booked a great angle between partners, and just when the cliffhanger as to who is number one contender is scheduled to be answered, Capotelli breaks his leg. Dean Hill did the best he has ever done here, because he treated this really seriously and the usually clownish Al Snow was deadly serious too. So Dean gets into the broken fibula, and how they don’t know who will replace Capotelli at Six Flags on August 12th (where The Thrillseekers are teaming up with Maria from Raw against MNM which includes Smackdown’s Melina) when Ken Anderson and Daniel Puder interrupt the serious update.

Ken Anderson is great here. He runs down the top three matches for Six Flags (the six person tag with the mystery of who will replace Capotelli, Ken Doane defending the TV Title against Nick Nemeth, and Anderson himself teaming with Daniel Puder against Brent Albright and Chris Benoit). Puder is behind Anderson the whole time shadowboxing and getting ready for his match. Anderson does the routine where he introduces the opponent, in this case Seth Skyfire, and then introduces Daniel Puder. This was a shockingly fast match, with a doubleleg takedown into a Key Lock. The winner in just a few seconds, with a total UFC style, Daniel Puder. Anderson announces Puder as the winner. This is Heyman’s fourth OVW TV show, and Daniel Puder is one of the standout stars. Puder comes off like a totally heel version of former UFC star Tito Ortiz. I don’t know why Puder was never used by either Cornette or Dreamer, but Heyman has broken him out. The tap out by Skyfire looked like he was in a lot of real pain.

Time to go backstage to see Maria interviewing Nick Nemeth, who asks Maria who will be replacing Matt Capotelli in the six person tag team match at Six Flags. They’re pushing this six person tag as “intergender and interpromotional.” Maria doesn’t know who will be replacing Capotelli, but she says Jeter has a plan, and then hits the line, “I don’t know much, but I know I trust Jeter!” Nemeth reviews his feud with Ken Doane, who started with the first week of Heyman writing the TV, and Nemeth comes off real good here. I think Nemeth has shined in this push and is now one of the top babyfaces in OVW. Both Cornette and Dreamer kept Nemeth in tag teams, but he’s emerging as a top star now. Nemeth says, “I can put you down with the RKO. I know I can beat you with your own move. It’s not even your move! It’s someone else’s move! I can beat you with your move, my move, or someone else’s move!” I liked that a lot.

After the first commercial break, we have Nick Nemeth coming out for his match. Nemeth’s scheduled opponent, Dean Visk comes out, looking like he’s about to burst. Before Visk can get to the ring, Kenny Bolin comes out with OVW TV Champion Ken Doane, Sosay, Bobby Lashley, and the world’s ugliest woman Melissa Coates. Bolin and Company get in the ring and confront Nemeth. Bolin says he has been assaulted by Nemeth too many times and has left the “beautiful virginal Miss Blue” at home. To replace her, another surgically enhanced old hag, Bolin’s new director of security, Melissa Coates. Nemeth decks Bolin. Doane almost jumps on Nemeth, but says, “you just decked Bobby Lashley’s manager!” I guess he’s not a Blaster anymore. Lashley looks unimpressed by Doane. Melissa Coates tries to attack Nemeth from behind, but Nemeth hits the RKO on her. That was a good spot, and a good thing because seeing Melissa Coates on TV every week would be a real drag. She looks like a guy in drag, and she drags down the show just by being on it. Doane turns to Lashley, and says Lashley should take out Nemeth. Lashley turns to Doane and tells him to fight his own battles and walks out. Doane tries to shake hands with Nemeth, but they come to blows and Doane goes for the RKO. Nemeth shoves Doane off into the ropes, then goes for an RKO of his own, but Sosay pulled Doane out of the ring as August 12 at Six Flags is built up by the line, “who can Ken Doane hide behind now?”

We come back from a commercial break to find Da Beast in the ring. Beast’s right hand is still heavily taped up. Beast’s opponent is Deuce Shade, also known as Jimmy Snuka Junior. Beast uses his right hand during the match, and the announcers make sure to point that out. Deuce has a lot of energy and beats Beast, then goes back and “rides the wave” by getting Beast down and pretending Beast was a 300 pound Brooklyn, New York surfboard. We’re told The Thrillseekers have arrived, and we see them backstage with Chet The Jet, Chris Cage, and Alexis Laree . Brent Albright comes out of the locker room and everyone hushes up like a confrontation is going to take place. Brent asks Capotelli how he’s doing, and then invites Capotelli and Jeter into his locker room. Albright’s tough guy personality is really over, and he’s playing the character great. The Thrillseekers follow Albright into the locker room, as we get a clear camera shot of Capotelli on his crutches and his leg in the cast.

So we come back from a commercial and see Da Beast storming through the dressing room screaming out for Deuce. Obviously, Beast wasn’t thrilled with getting punked out by Deuce. Beast barges into a locker room but doesn’t find Deuce, he finds Deuce’s tag team partner Elijah Burke. This was a really good confrontation, as Elijah got up in Beast’s face and cut a super promo on Beast. Although Beast is a lot bigger than Elijah, the story here was Elijah defending his friend Deuce and Elijah’s anger towards Beast would overcome any size advantage Beast could have. When Elijah challenged Beast to fight, Beast cited his hurt hand again, backing away saying, “you’re lucky I hurt my hand again!” Mike Mondo then entered the scene, saying, “hey what’s going on here?” and then helped Beast back away. Heyman again keeps stories going week to week, as Mondo said, “I am my brother’s keeper” to Beast. This is a story that has built since Heyman’s first week as booker when Elijah beat Mondo in a match. I don’t know where it’s headed, but so far it is a really good midcard angle that has helped Elijah, Deuce, Beast, and Mondo.

Back into the Davis Arena, we have The Blonde Bombers, the OVW Southern Tag Team Champions The Tolands coming out, without Jillian “Moleface” Hall. Tolands come to the ring to defend the titles against Cliff Compton and Robbie Dawber. Before the match begins, Tank Toland get on the mic and directs his promo straight at MNM. Tank says he’s sorry to see what happened to Matt Capotelli, which is a nice touch since Tank’s a heel and everyone should be upset about an injury, and then says he’s still pisseed at MNM for stealing The Tolands’s publicist Jillian Hall without even the courtesy of a phone call, which was part of the dressing room confrontation last week between The Tolands and MNM. Tank says, “Johnny Jeter, you got two choices at Six Flags,” when it comes to the six person tag team match, “you can get out of the way or rolled over” because The Tolands promise to confront MNM at Six Flags. Tank promised not only to teach MNM a lesson, but also to show them which team is the greatest in OVW history. Hey, makes sense to me. Good way to hint what’s going to happen without tipping what happens later in the show. This is building really nicely. Tolands make an example of Compton and Dawber and once again win clean with their vege-matic like manuever. I like the fact that the heel tag team champions keep winning because they are so good instead of because they are unworthy champions. Al Snow says The Tolands are sending a message “loud and clear.”

So we come back from another commercial and we have Alexis Laree coming out to the ring in a hot rock n roll type outfit. Alexis gets right into her match with Miss Passion, who is a blonde fitness instructor type in her 30’s who is actually pretty hot. Passion looks like she wrestles a really stiff style, and Alexis either was hurting or selling convincingly. Passion went for a suplex but Alexis turned it into a cool looking spinning DDT for the pin.

As Alexis celebrated, we take a look at the closing moments of last week’s 30-something minute match between MNM and The Thrillseekers, starting when Maria and Melina did their excellent cat fight and ending with the double pin and the cliffhanger announcement of both Capotelli and Jeter being number one contender for Brent Albright’s OVW Title.

After a commercial break, we come back to Dean Hill and Al Snow at the OVW desk, and they remind us of the three big main events for Six Flags on August 12. What I like about Heyman, and he did this in ECW, is that he backs up what the announcers are talking about with footage playing while you hear about the match. So when Hill and Snow talk about Brent Albright and Chris Benoit VS Ken Anderson and Daniel Puder, you see clips of each guy or incidents between the teams. They also talked about, and showed clips of OVW TV Champion Ken Doane VS Nick Nemeth, and the Six Person Interpromotional Intergender Match they’ve talked about all night, MNM VS Thrillseekers and Maria, with the disclaimer again that Capotelli has to be replaced. So now’s the time to find out who is replacing Capotelli. Dean Hill introduces The Thrillseekers, who come out with Capotelli on crutches. Al Snow takes a moment in front of the OVW desk to say how sorry he is that Capotelli got hurt, which seems to really move Capotelli. Now it’s Matt’s time to talk, and this is the best interview of Matt Capotelli’s career. Fighting back tears, Capotelli spoke about breaking his leg at the worst possible time. Capotelli revealed what the conversation in the back was about, in that Brent Albright told Capotelli and Jeter they should all fight in a three way match. Capotelli really put over Albright. I like the way Heyman builds Albright as this tough champion everyone respects. It really puts the title, and Albright over.

Then Jeter grabbed the mic and said Capotelli was being arrogant, thinking only of himself. Jeter said he didn’t want to wait 8 weeks for Capotelli to get better, he wanted his title shot now. Jeter mentions that he and Capotelli “ride together, die together, Thrillseekers for life.”
Jeter says, “but that doesn’t mean my career has to die with your’s. I was in the same match, I didn’t break my leg.”

Out came Brent Albright, who walked up to The Thrillseekers and said, “Hey, Capotelli, I guess your partner doesn’t know the meaning of the word deal.” Albright then told Jeter, “you don’t like being called his partner, do you?” Albright then said he’d give Jeter his title shot right then, right now.

Albright rolled into the ring, and Capotelli enthusiastically encouraged Jeter to do the same. Jeter got in the ring, the referee held the title high in the air, and it’s time for the last commercial break of the evening.

When the show resumes, they are going at it, and it’s pretty damned good action. Albright and Jeter had a really good match, with not one punch thrown except for an attempted punch by a frustrated Jeter that almost became a Crow Bar by Albright. They exchanged moves, and then Albright locked in the Crow Bar. Jeter was too far from the ropes, but the referee wasn’t, as Ken Anderson and Daniel Puder ran to the ring and then pulled the referee to the floor. The referee was in the process of throwing Anderson and Puder out when Jeter started tapping out. But the referee was on the outside of the ring. Jeter was tapping when Albright finally got off him and challenged Anderson and Puder to come into the ring. Jeter got to the far corner, clutching his arm from the Crow Bar. When Albright turned around, Jeter hit a superkick and the referee dove back into the ring to make the three count.

Jeter was declared the new champion, and paraded around the ring with the belt. He came out of the ring, walked up to Capotelli, who was on crutches but practically jumping up and down for Jeter’s win. Jeter then said to Capotelli, “I guess I don’t need you anymore” and smashed Capotelli in the head with the title belt. Dean Hill and Al Snow were yelling at Jeter, and then Jeter grabbed the mic and said, “I ride alone, I die alone. I’m Johnny Jeter, OVW Champion for life.”

The whole show built to the last minute, and set the stage for Capotelli’s return. Albright’s feud with Anderson and Puder was taken up another notch, and with Ken Doane and Nick Nemeth being pushed as top acts too, Six Flags was promoted like a major event as they set up the Jeter era in OVW.

Another really good show.