This show report is from OVWrestling.com and Dale Sherman…
April 7 , 2007 – Davis Arena
MATCHES:
ROB CONWAY VS. CM PUNK
SIX MEN TAG-TEAM MATCH:
MIKE KRUEL, STRONGKO & VLADIMIR KOZLOV VS. ELIJAH BURKE & CRYME TYME
EIGHT WOMEN TAG-TEAM LOSER GETS PADDLED MATCH:
KATIE LEA (Champ), BETH PHOENIX , MILENA ROUCKA & MELODY VS. ODB (Miss OVW), VICTORIA CRAWFORD, SERENA & MARYSE OUELLET
TABLE MATCH:
JACOB DUNCAN VS. THE BOOGEYMAN
RUN FOR THE ROSES TOP CONTENDER ANYTIME/ANYWHERE MATCH:
SHAWN SPEARS, CODY RHODES, HAMMER, DANIEL RODIMER, CHET THE JETT, BORIS ALEXIEV, PAT BUCK, OX, STEVE LEWINGTON & “THE RIPPER†PAUL BURCHALL
A HUGE anniversary for OVW this week, as the 400 th episode of OVW Television occurred. With the event came the return of a lot of OVW fan-favorites, special messages from some very wellknown WWE Superstars who are also former OVW Superstars, plenty of special matches, and one truly inspiring man who came out to talk to the fans at the end of the program.
For those curious about more behind-the-scene details and pics from the taping of this week’s OVW Television, check out our article right here at OVWrestling.com! While you’re at it, don’t forget to check out OVW Women’s Title Champ, Katie Lea’s weekly rants er I mean commentary on all things in OVW, which you’ll find exclusively here at OVWrestling.com as well!
The show this week kicked off with special opening titles that highlighted the changing hears of OVW, from their early appearances at the Louisville Gardens, to the old Davis Arena in Jeffersonville, Indiana and straight on to the new Davis Arena here in Louisville and the current roster of OVW Superstars and Divas! Oddly enough, just like those first few episodes of OVW Television, this week’s show still had Dean Hill and Kenny Bolin at the announcers’ desk to begin the festivities. Or, rather, Dean would start it off if he could get Kenny to shut up. Bolin felt it was due to his credit alone that OVW had “managed†to make it to 400 episodes. Yet, he also had some bigger (or, rather, smaller) news to make: because he is so beloved in the tri-state area, there just isn’t enough of him to go around for all the personal appearances requested of him. Thus, in getting a DNA sample (no doubt from DNA tests done to see if he was the father to Anna Nicole’s baby), Bolin had himself cloned! With that bit of shocking news, Kenny brought out Mini-Bolin!
Before Dean could run off shrieking in fear over such a nightmarish scenario, former OVW Diva and current WWE Diva Maria came out! She entered the ring to announce the arrival of OVW Heavyweight Champ Aaron “The Idol†Stevens to the ring, bearing a cake in celebration of OVW’s 400 th episode! Stevens grabbed the microphone to first thank Danny Davis for starting OVW. And as for the fans, “there is nothing I love than coming out here every Wednesday night and performing for you guys!†To show his appreciation, Stevens said that the cake he had brought out and Maria was holding was for the fans at the show that night.
When Bolin heard the applause, he interrupted Stevens to announce that it was HIS idea to get the cake and Stevens had nothing to do with it. Stevens dismissed Bolin’s rant by detailing how he bought the cake at Kroger that morning, “while YOU were still waking up this morning, sitting on the toilet, crapping out that little butt-nut you call a clone!â€Â
As Kenny tried to cover up his butt-nu uh clone’s ears from hearing Stevens’ insult, Stevens and Maria left with ring and put the cake nearby on Timmy Baltimore’s desk as it was time for the first match to start – and what a great starting match for the 400 th episode!
ROB CONWAY VS. CM PUNK
REF: Ray Ramsey
One of the OVW originals, Rob Conway, had returned to Davis Arena to appear in the opening match of the program, and while he got plenty of cheers from the longtime fans of OVW, it couldn’t quite match the wave of excitement that went through the crowd when his opponent appeared: CM Punk!
The two former OVW Heavyweight champs circled each other for a bit before finally locking up, moving to a corner where Conway kneed Punk in his taped-up torso several times before delivering a punch to the face and then stomping Punk in the gut several times on top of that! Punk managed to pull himself up and follow through with three elbows to the face before Conway bailed from the ring.
Punk followed Conway out and knocked him down with an elbow to the back. Punk took the rattled Conway and slammed his forehead into the apron before moving him to one of the barriers for a chop to the chest. Tossing Conway back in, Punk went to the top-rope in a corner for a move, but was not quick enough to stop Rob from running over and knocking his feet out from under him, forcing Punk to land chest-first on the top-rope. Seeing how much punishment Punk was taking to the torso, Conway tossed Punk into the ropes near then before whipping him across the ring to slam into a corner.
After stomping Punk in the gut on the canvas, Conway moved back to Punk only to get a blow to the gut and the head. Conway countered delivering a number of kicks to Punk’s ribs and then tossing Punk on the ropes. Punk hit the ropes hard enough to find himself bouncing upside-down back into the ring, but still had enough energy to fend off a pin-attempt from Conway. Conway. Conway seemed fed-up with the delay on what he probably saw as his obvious win against Punk and just began kicking and punching at Punk’s ribs, even with Ramsey’s warnings hanging over him. Nor did Conway heed Ramsey’s warning until the last possible split-second when holding on to the top-rope while twisting Punk up with the abdominal stretch!
After Conway and Ramsey exchanged some heated words, Conway and Punk went back and forth with punches and elbows to the head until Rob tried to kick Punk again in the stomach. This time, Punk caught the leg in mid-swing and went straight to the low-blow! A couple more kicks came from Punk before he bounced off the ropes for a tackle, followed by a clothesline and an atomic-drop and a spinning kick that sent Rob to the mat for a two-count. A couple of knees to the head came next before Punk whipped Conway to a corner for a shinning wizard.
Punk got Conway into a headlock and began rampaging to the opposite corner, but Rob ducked out of the hold and shoved Punk into the corner to do more damage to Punk’s injuries. As Punk staggered back, Conway went to the ropes for what looked to be a clothesline, but Punk avoided the attempt and instead threw Conway down into a submission hold which Conway could not fight off! After a brief struggle, Conway tapped out, giving a grinning CM Punk the win!
In a video message, WWE Champion and former OVW Heavyweight Champ John Cena congratulated Danny Davis on the success of OVW and thanked the OVW fans for making it all possible.
Back at the ring, Mike Kruel came to the ring with Milena Roucka, Vladimir Kozlov and – for the first time since his partner Boris Alexiev joined Kruel, Mr. Strongko! The mind boggles at how Boris convinced Strongko to join forces with Kruel after Mike had beaten him nearly unconscious a few weeks back! As Boris said last week, though, family is family. Come to think of it, Strongko’s angry demeanor could have been either directed towards the audience not giving Kruel “his dues†or if he was still a little bitter about the situation.
Just as Kruel was about to go on (and on) about his “triumph†over Flash Funk last week on OVW Television, he was interrupted by another former OVW Heavyweight Champ and current ECW Superstar, Elijah Burke! Burke entered the ring to the cheers of the crowd and, after complimenting Milena on how nicely she fit in her outfit, Burke took exception to how Kruel and his partners ganged up on Funk and offered them a match right there! Kruel and the others accepted, and that’s when Burke said that he had some tag-team partners for the match: Cryme Tyme!
SIX MEN TAG-TEAM MATCH:
MIKE KRUEL, STRONGKO & VLADIMIR KOZLOV VS. ELIJAH BURKE & CRYME TYME
REF: Kevin Keenan
Kozlov and Gaspard went at it, as Strongko took on JTG and Kruel went after Burke. Ref Keenan meanwhile had to try to calm the chaos in order to get things going in a proper manner and only managed that once Kozlov and Strongko were kicked out and JTG and Burke teamed up on a backdrop of Kruel!
JTG pushed Burke and Gaspard back so he could start off against Kruel, but as he was doing so, Strongko ran into the ring and clobbered JTG from behind. Whipping JTG into Vladimir’s arms for a bearhug, the match began properly finally with JTG already in trouble against Kozlov! Several punches and elbows to the head seemed to have no effect on Vladimir and it took boxing his ears before Kozlov finally let go and even then it only led to being released in the corner so that Vladimir could tag in Strongko!
Strongko punched at JTG and then whipped him to a corner. Running at him, JTG managed to leapfrog over Strongko, leading to Strongko ramming his head into the middle turnbuckle. Strongko elbowed Gaspard off the apron before trying to swing at JTG, only to miss. This allowed JTG enough time to roll over to his corner and tag in Burke who clotheslined Strongko and Kruel before dropkicking Vladimir off the apron. After clotheslining Kruel again, Burke just set loose with multiple throws on Strongko to soften him up for the Elijah Experience. Just as Burke was about to hit the move, he was attacked from behind by Vladimir. Before Vladimir could do anymore damage, however, Gaspard ran into the ring and booted Vladimir in the head to send him reeling out of the ring.
With JTG working over Kruel in a corner, and Gaspard taking on Vladimir on the outside, Strongko and Burke continued with Burke hitting the Elijah Express on Strongko for the pin and the win!
With a wink and much waving of the arms, Eugene appeared in a video message to congratulate Danny Davis and OVW on 400 episodes of OVW Television! Coach from WWE also appeared briefly in another video message to congratulate OVW on 400 episodes, albeit in his slightly cantankerous way!
EIGHT WOMEN TAG-TEAM LOSER GETS PADDLED MATCH:
KATIE LEA (Champ), BETH PHOENIX , MILENA ROUCKA & MELODY VS. ODB (Miss OVW), VICTORIA CRAWFORD, SERENA & MARYSE OUELLET
REF: Goose Mahoney
As the name of the match states, the loser of the match was to get paddled at the end of this tag-team event that saw Katie’s team of Phoenix, Roucka and a bunny-slippers-wearing Melody (who still seems to believe she won the MISS OVW contest) going up against a beer-cooler-carrying ODB and her team of Victoria, Serena and Maryse! As Goose tried to keep the teams separated so that they could properly start the match, Phoenix grabbed Victoria by the hair and slammed her backwards to the canvas.
That was enough to establish the start of the match for Mahoney, and he asked for the bell just as Serena stepped forward to defend Victoria. That forced Goose to push her back and allowed Phoenix to push Victoria into her corner for some assistance from Milena. Katie tagged in for a backbreaker on Victoria and a two-count. A whip to the corner allowed Katie to get the tag to Milena, who thought she had things well in hand until she ate a sharp elbow from Victoria. Surprised by her response, no one knew what to do as Victoria then did the same to Phoenix and Katie. Phoenix, not happy with getting suckered by the jab, pulled on Victoria’s hair, throwing her to the mat!
Victoria nearly made it back to her own corner when Milena tagged in Beth, who moved Victoria back and held her in place for a tagged-in Katie. Just as Katie was to make her move on Victoria, however, Victoria managed to pull her legs up and knock Katie in the face with her boots. Victoria then elbowed her way out of Beth’s grip and scrambled to her corner for a tag to ODB!
DB clotheslined Beth and kept right on going towards Katie Lea, dropping her to the canvas for several blows to the head. Phoenix pulled ODB off, but ODB brushed her off before elbowing Milena off the apron and simply pushing the smiling, waving Melody off the apron as well. Grabbing Katie by the seat of her pants, ODB threw her over his head to the canvas. ODB kipped-up and celebrated, little realizing that Phoenix was making a mad dash for her. Fortunately for ODB, Phoenix didn’t see Serena enter the ring and Phoenix got knocked sideways and out of the ring with a spear from Serena. With no one to help her, Katie was defenseless to fight off the pin from ODB; nor could she get away from ODB’s team as ODB got the paddle ready. With the Divas – yeah, that name that Katie doesn’t want to be associated with anymore from what she tells us in her OVW article – holding her down, ODB paddled her five times before Katie could break away.
As Katie made her way to the back, holding her backside, the cheers turned to worry as Jacob Duncan emerged from the back with a paper sack that he tried to give to Beth Phoenix. As Phoenix backed away in horror, her terror heightened when the utility closet in the corner burst open and The Boogeyman emerged!
TABLE MATCH:
JACOB DUNCAN VS. THE BOOGEYMAN
REF: Nick Andrews
The last time these two met, The Boogeyman sent Jacob through a table and force-fed his mask a bunch of worms. It took quite a while for Duncan to recover from the assault, so to have to meet up again with The Boogeyman was probably something Jacob was unsure of doing. Nor did the chants for The Boogeyman help calm his nerves.
The two traded punches before The Boogeyman clotheslined Jacob out of the ring. He followed Duncan out, where he whipped Jacob into a ringpost. Pulling out a table from under the ring, The Boogeyman set it up in one corner as Jacob slowly got up. The Boogeyman reached over the ropes to pull Duncan up by the mask, but Jacob pulled The Boogeyman’s legs out from under him and back out for a headbutt and a slam of the head on the apron before booting him in the face. Pulling out a table of his own, Jacob set it up on the floor and dragged The Boogeyman up to get him ready for the table. Just as he was about to do so, however, The Boogeyman reversed their places and threw Duncan up in the air and down into the table, breaking it in half!
The Boogeyman entered the ring to the chants of the crowd spelling out his name. Yet, just as the chant finished, The Boogeyman turned around to find himself in the clutches of Duncan! The Boogeyman got away with the assist of his worms into Jacob’s face, allowing him to beat down on Duncan for a bit. An attempt to ram into Jacob in a corner missed, however, and Jacob was able to chokeslam The Boogeyman straight through the table in the ring! Defeating the demon from the closet, Jacob Duncan got the pin!
Johnny Nitro, who couldn’t bother taking off his sunglasses for his video message, still was gracious enough to congratulate Danny Davis and OVW on its 400 th show!
RUN FOR THE ROSES TOP CONTENDER ANYTIME/ANYWHERE MATCH:
SHAWN SPEARS, CODY RHODES, HAMMER, DANIEL RODIMER, CHET THE JETT, BORIS ALEXIEV, PAT BUCK, OX, STEVE LEWINGTON & “THE RIPPER†PAUL BURCHALL
OVW Heavyweight Champ Aaron Stevens sat down at the announcers’ desk with the Heavyweight Title to watch the following match. Just to go over the rules of this match:
* Ten participants are featured in the match, with over-the-top-rope battle royal rules set in place.
* Two men start the match, with each new participant arriving at thirty second intervals.
* Participants are eliminated from the match upon being thrown over the top-rope and having both feet touch the ground outside the ring.
* In the corner of the ring stood a pole, with a bouquet of roses on top and a golden envelope attached to the roses.
* The first participant to get the golden envelope attached to the roses is declared the winner.
* Obtaining the envelope gives the winner the opportunity to have a match for the OVW Heavyweight Title “anytime and anywhere.â€Â
It should be noted that during the commercial break that refs Ramsey, Mahoney and Keenan came out to try to setup the roses on top of the pole. Only Mahoney had the nerves to climb the pole that nearly reached the ceiling of Davis Arena and even then there was a malfunction with the envelope that left it precariously dangling from the roses. In fact, during the match itself, there were obvious concerns from fans watching that the roses could topple from the pole due to all the movement in the ring!
Entering the ring first was the man with TWO OVW Titles (as he would want us to make sure to mention), Shawn Spears, no doubt hoping to make it three titles within his possession. Spears was soon joined by his partner and co-holder of the OVW Southern Tag-Team Titles, Cody Rhodes. The two shook hands and locked-up into a corner where Spears tried to launch Cody over the top-rope only to be shoved back by Rhodes. As they eyed each other, they were interrupted by the emergence of the third participant in the match, Hammer!
Rhodes and Spears teamed-up on a suplex of Hammer to get him into the ring, followed by a combo hiptoss, dropkick and then a clothesline to send Hammer right back out and on to the floor – making Hammer the first elimination of the match! Daniel Rodimer appeared next, but he didn’t run directly to the ring. No, instead he grabbed a mic and slowly waltzed up to the ring to begin speaking to everyone. In fact, he took so long that the next participant, Chet the Jett arrived to simply grab him by the neck and trunks and toss the surprised Rodimer into the ring for some punches from Chet, Cody and Shawn!
As the three began to pull and push Rodimer over the top-rope, the next participant arrived – Boris Alexiev! Boris, not caring one way or another about Rodimer, took on everyone. As the dance continued in the ring, Pat Buck arrived to enter, but soon bailed completely when an angry Rombola appeared behind him at the entrance and chased him around the ring, into the ring, over the top-ropes and towards the back. Rombola was only stopped when he ran into the wall called Tony Braddock, but he could still be cheered by knowing he messed up Buck’s chance to win the match.
During all of that, the matched continued in the ring, with The Ox entering to become the next participant in the match. Picking out Cody and Shawn for previous reasons as well as eliminating his partner, Hammer, earlier, The Ox went working on them with Boris as Rodimer and Chet confronted each other in the corner. Steve Lewington then emerged as the next participant, who dropkicked The Ox a couple of times before assisting Spears in clotheslining him over the top-rope, making The Ox the third eliminated participant in the match!
With Cody and Shawn trying to get Daniel over the top-rope and Chet and Steve doing the same with Boris, the final participant, “The Riper†Paul Burchall, arrived. Not looking to clown around with fighting not needed, Burchall dove in and made a beeline to the pole to get the roses with the envelop attached. Cody spotted Burchall just as he was beginning his climb and managed to divert Burchall’s attention. Unfortunately for Cody, it also meant that Burchall’s attention was directed all at him, and with there already being friction with the two (thanks to Cody’s quick run as Heavyweight Champ after beating Burchall last month), Paul was not going to take Cody’s attempt to upset his chances lightly.
As Cody and Burchall fought in the corner, Chet tried to eliminate Boris with a running clothesline, only for Boris to duck and Chet to go over the top-ropes himself! Steve continued to work over Boris on his own, while Rodimer and Shawn fought in another corner. The fight between Cody and Paul moved over to where Rodimer and Shawn were and broke them up long enough for Shawn to try to stop Burchall from getting to the roses with the envelope. Meanwhile, Rodimer saw Boris and Steve on the ropes and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hit them with a strong double clothesline, eliminating them and himself in the process! Well, he always said he was the strongest in OVW, never said he was the smartest!
Burchall suplex Spears over the top-rope to get rid of him, yet he couldn’t get Spears to let go and as Spears went off the apron, Burchall followed him out and to the floor! This left Cody as the only person left in the ring! Groggy, Cody could not hear the cries of the crowd telling him to go to the pole to get the roses with the envelope. Instead, spying the others outside on the floor, Cody ran up the ropes in a corner and hit a splash on all of them, thereby eliminating himself in the process! Now all the participants had been eliminated! No one was sure what would be done as the cameras went to a commercial break.
When the cameras returned to Davis Arena, it was decided to restart the match with the final six participants, Boris, Shawn, Cody, Paul, Daniel & Steve. In the ring where five of the six, as Cody still stood on the outside trying to regain his strength from the splash before the commercial break. Rodimer, Boris and Steve went at it in a corner while Burchall had to keep fighting off Shawn as he made his way to the pole. Then, just as Burchall began climbing the pole and Cody had made his way back into the ring, the oddest thing happen – the golden envelope attached to the roses came detached from the roses on the pole and fluttered into the center of the ring!
As the five other participants literally dove on top of the envelope and tried to tear it away from each other, Burchall continued to climb the pole, unaware that the envelope had gotten loose from the roses! (And we’re not just hot-dogging you on this, it’s clear from the camera and as audience members could tell you, Burchall had no way of seeing that the envelope had come loose!)
As Burchall reached the top of the pole and pulled off the roses, Cody pulled away from the ruckus in the middle of the ring to display the golden envelope in his hands! Although the roses had the envelope attached, the objective was the envelope, so even though Burchall got up the pole for the roses, it was Cody’s possession of the envelope that made Rhodes the winner!
In amazed disbelief, Burchall bellowed and howled as he clutched the roses in his hand. Also in disbelief was Cody’s partner Shawn Spears, who slowly emerged from the ring to follow his partner out, although with not the happiest look on his face! As Shawn left with Cody, Burchall grabbed a microphone, screaming at anyone who thought it was funny that he was not named the winner of the match. Walking around the desk, Stevens told Burchall to take his best shot if he thought he had it. Burchall was fine with that and slapped Stevens across the face, leading to the two brawling on the floor before finally being pulled apart by the refs.
As Stevens began to make his way to the back, he was stopped by Kenny Bolin who declared that Stevens had stolen the Heavyweight Title from Burchall just as he “stole that cake from Kroger this morning!†Stevens responded by shoving Bolin’s face into the cake and then doing the same to his Mini-Bolin, throwing cake on top of the two afterwards before finally leaving ringside to the cheers of the OVW audience, taunting Burchall with the belt in the process!
Robby and Rory of The Highlanders appeared in a video message congratulating Danny Davis and OVW on 400 episodes!
SUPERSTAR MATT CAPPOTELLI GIVES AN UPDATE
In a night of special moments, the biggest had to have come at the end of the program when OVW Troubleshooter Al Snow asked for the OVW roster to come out around the ring. Once everyone was there, Snow then announced the appearance of an OVW fan-favorite and former OVW Tag-Team and Heavyweight Champ, Matt Cappotelli to the ring. After a long standing ovation, Cappotelli, who looked to be in good spirit and with a wide smile, addressed everyone there. Here’s what he had to say:
“I can’t tell you how humbling it is to come here. We go way back. First of all, I want to deeply – from the bottom of my heart – thank everybody here, everybody at home watching, everybody who sent an email, and everyone who’s said a prayer for me at night.
“I know the last time I was here it was hard for everyone. I know it was extremely hard for me.
“I feel like this is my family. It’s about time to update my family and let you know what is going on with me and what’s coming up in the future.
“About two weeks ago I had my latest MRI. Let’s cut to the chase: everything was good and then the last MRI showed not exactly what I’ve hoped for. The tumor has grown a little bit. My tumor is about seven to eight centimeters. I’ll reference that – it’s a little bit bigger than Mondo’s entire brain!
“So they’ve suggested I get in for surgery. I’m going to Boston: got a great staff; great team of surgeons; the whole deal. So as of right now, Game Day is May 1 st , followed by treatments to take care of what is remaining in there.
“This is just the next step in beating this thing. I’m more than willing to do what I’ve got to do to get this taken care of and God will not lead me astray now. In the past we know the stories. God has performed a whole lot of miracles throughout the days. I think he’s got another one left. This is the beginning of the new part of the battle. I know that everyone in here will walk it with me.
“I appreciate you and all the support you’ve given me. And that I know you’ll continue to give me. I know I’m not the only one fighting battles. Whoever is fighting a battle – I have your back and I’ll walk it with you too.
“So as of right now, May 1 st is Game Day. We start the new stage of the fight. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. All of you are family.â€Â
Thanks, Matt for allowing us to be your family! Just as you are opening your heart to others fighting their battles, always remember that we’ll be there to help you fight as well.
That wraps up our 400th episode of OVW Television! Keep checking us out here at OVWrestling.com for the NEXT 400 episodes, which you can see on the CW Network in Louisville and Cincinnati! Until next time, don’t forget to keep hitting the OVW Live Events in your area!
Credit: Dale Sherman, OVWrestling.com (click through for the full report including photos from the show)
