-I was home over the weekend and had nothing to do so I thought that I would watch Ohio Valley Wrestling, which airs on my local channel 99 at 11. I haven’t watched OVW in several years so I am completely ignorant about the product right now. If the commentators don’t clearly give me names then I’m not going to be able to give them to you, so I’ll do my best. I hope to provide some coverage of this show on a more regular basis if things work out. If you are interested in watching OVW, you can stream their shows on their website by clicking here
-Dean Hill and Kenny Bolin are on commentary. Some things never change.
–Some woman comes out and gets on the mic and says that she is being overlooked and is the sexiest looking woman on the roster. Epiphany comes out and says that she is the most dominating female in OVW and that makes her the sexiest woman there. Women’s Champion CJ Lane and she says she’s the baddest woman so that makes her the sexiest woman in Kentucky. Josie then emerges and says she’s the sexiest woman around. All of them then start arguing until Dean Hill comes over. He says that there will be a Queen of OVW contest and the people will settle the dispute. Paredyse, the OVW TV champion, comes out and says that he is the prince in OVW. Hill then tells us that there will be a king and queen of OVW and people will vote. This segment was a total train wreck and was a really poor start to the show. It was like they were improving the entire thing and had no idea where things were going. Grade: F
–Fang says that they hope they can count on Sucio’s help tonight in the #1 contender’s match for the Southern tag team championships.
–CJ Lane is backstage looking for somebody.
–Opening Contest and #1 Contender’s Match for the Heavyweight Title: Jamin Olivencia vs. Mike Mondo:
Olivencia is wearing a bandage on his left arm, nursing a recent injury. Olivencia offers a handshake at the beginning of the match but Mondo refuses it. Olivencia trips him up and goes for a cover but there is no count. Both men engage in a wrestling sequence and Olivencia eventually applies an armbar. Mondo misses an elbow drop and Olivencia goes back to an armbar. A Mondo blind charge eats buckle and Olivencia splashes him against the buckles. Olivencia gets a reverse body press off the second rope and a delayed cover gets two. Olivencia hits a clothesline and grabs his elbow in pain and Mondo capitalizes by hyperextending Olivencia’s arm. Ali comes down to the ring and sits down as Mondo follows Olivencia on the floor and rams his arm into the ring apron.
After the break, Mondo is working the arm in the ring but when he tries a single arm DDT, Olivencia grabs the ropes. Olivencia gets a small package for two but Mondo gets up quickly and delivers a single arm DDT for two. Mondo covers again for two. Olivencia rolls to the floor and Mondo follows so he can throw Olivencia back into the ring. Back in, Mondo continues to work the arm. After a while, a chop fest ensues and both men end up on the floor where Mondo rams Olivencia’s arm into the ringside barrier and apron. Back in, Mondo covers for two. Mondo applies a standing armbar but Olivencia turns that into a fluke schoolboy for two. Mondo goes back to the arm and gets two near falls in a row. Mondo delivers a falling headbutt to Olivencia’s arm but a flying headbutt off the top rope misses and we have a double KO. Olivencia gets some elbows to Mondo when he tries to go back to the arm and gets a high knee off the ropes for two. A clothesline gets two. In a sweet spot, Mondo transitions his kick out into an armbar. Both men exchange near falls with some reversals. Olivencia gets two off of a headscissors/small package combination but Ali trips him when he runs the ropes. Mondo uses the opportunity to apply a half Boston crab which also applies pressure to the arm and before Olivencia reaches the ropes he releases the hold, drags him to the center of the ring, and reapplies it. Trapped in the middle of the ring, Olivencia eventually has to tap at 12:27 shown. I really liked the psychology in the match and how Olivencia sold the arm injury. This is textbook for how you can book a match and still make both guys look strong with the finish. Grade: A-
–Sucio says that he will see what happens in tonight’s #1 contender tag team match.
–The International Mafia, Joey Barone & Jimbo Onno are backstage and Barone says that they are going to win tonight.
–The Lowrider comes out and hypes himself. He says that he is headed to his VIP suit at Churchill Downs and says that his wife and hot babes will be in room 69 at the Marriott. He announces that he is giving himself the night off but before can lead Raul comes out and attacks him. They fight out of the arena. The Lowrider rakes his eyes and sets off a small smoke bomb, which I don’t understand because the Lowrider isn’t a magician and can’t disappear. Hill tries to sell the smoke bomb as blinding Raul, but that’s impossible when the smoke isn’t anywhere near his eyes. The Lowrider makes off in a car and Raul comes back into the arena to cut a promo against the Lowrider. He says that the Lowrider is a liar and that he wants a rematch. Interesting segment, but the beatdown lacked the proper intensity for the “family†feud that seem to be building between these two. Both guys are above average on the mic, though, so they have that going for them. Grade: C+
–The Future say that they’ll get their revenge on the International Mafia in the three way number one contender’s match tonight.
–Paredyse, the OVW TV Champion, announces that the future king and queen of the universe is here and that he is here to stay for a while. He doesn’t have the belt because he doesn’t think the people deserve to see it. He says that since he is on a winning streak he wants to do a photo shoot of himself so he invites the camera man in the ring to do some posing. When the camera man can’t do a low shot, Paredyse gets angry and he gets angrier when the camera man won’t let him touch the camera because it’s expensive. He runs down the camera man and then asks the camera man to look into the camera and tell everyone what he thinks of him. The camera man responds that he thinks he’s rude and runs down Paredyse’s makeup. Paredyse rants some more and a second camera man gets called into the ring. Paredyse says that he is in the company to become a better person and the initial camera guy runs down Paredyse’s look some more. Not surprisingly, Paredyse ends the segment by assaulting him. This segment took waaayyyy too long to achieve a predictable ending. At least Bolin’s cheap shots made the segment tolerable, although he almost spoke too much during the segment. Grade: D+
–Three Corner Tag Match to Determine the #1 : The Future vs. The International Mafia vs. Fang & Sucio:
The Elite are sitting at ringside to observe this match. Sucio doesn’t appear when his music plays so Fang has to go it alone. The match starts during the commercial break so when we get back, Joey Barone has tagged in Jimbo Onno and he pounds on Fang. Fang delivers a dropkick but he’s tagged by the Future and the Future get the upper hand over the International Mafia as they turn this three-way tag into a regular tag match. Sucio is shown backstage watching the match, and Fang gets tagged in but is slammed by Onno when he tries a top rope flying body press. Onno whips Fang into the corner with authority and Barone is tagged in to deliver a slam and elbow drop for two. Barone stretches Fang and Onno is tagged back in to finish Fang off. A blind charge eats buckle, though, and Fang gets a missile dropkick off the second rope for two for a double KO. Sucio then shows up and urges Fang to tag him. Fang tags Sucio and he annihilates Barone. A cannonball off the ropes gets two before Lacroix breaks it up. All hell breaks loose as the Future clothesline Onno out of the ring and when the dust settles, Sucio avoides an enziguri from Barone and he delivers a vertical suplex. Tag Fang and he tilt-a-whirl slams Fang onto Barone to get the win at 7:11. After the match, Fang & Sucio reconcile and the Elite run in and attack them as we go off the air. Okay, so you’re telling me that Fang doesn’t mind that Sucio decided not to show up except for the last two minutes of the match? Aside from that, this match never had a flow to it and was very disjointed. Maybe if they hadn’t wasted time on the stupid Paredyse segment earlier they would’ve had time to give all the guys in this match a good amount of offense. As it stands, the Future were treated as an afterthought. Grade: C-
The Final Report Card: Well OVW isn’t as good as I remembered it but there have been a lot of changes with the WWE’s partnership and that has led to a decline in the quality of the production and some of the star power. When I was last watching the show it had the Miz, CM Punk, Elijah Burke, and others so this is more toned down. However, the #1 contender’s match for the heavyweight title was solid and demonstrates that there is still some talent in the company. Also, they could have squeezed a third match into this show because there was tons of wasted time in the middle.
Show Grade: C
