OHIO VALLEY WRESTLING

'Ohio Valley Wrestling' ('OVW') is an American independent professional wrestling promotion based in Louisville, Kentucky. OVW is mostly recognized for its up-and-coming wrestlers and serves as an official training ground for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). OVW is run by owner Danny Davis and the organization was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (as 'NWA Ohio Valley Championship Wrestling') from 1998 until 2000, when OVW became part of the WWE developmental program. Jim Cornette was head booker of OVW for a period before being fired by WWE for slapping a student. He was replaced by Paul Heyman who booked OVW until being called up to be the booker of the ECW brand. Greg Gagne was supposed to be booker after Heyman, but his knowledge of OVW was limited so the booking was extended to also include Al Snow and Danny Davis. Gagne was later released from the company, leaving booking to Snow and Davis.
OVW wrestlers are often used as jobbers, or "enhancement talents", for WWE to make their stars look better, particularly when WWE runs shows within a few hours of the Louisville area. Sometimes OVW wrestlers are even used as plants for WWE shows. Of the stars who have been called up from OVW to WWE, a number of them first established themselves as heels, and the majority of them (such as Randy Orton, Ken Kennedy and Carlito) adopted the personalities of egotistical heels. Also, many of them have become extremely popular with the fans such as former WWE Women's Champion Mickie James, former WWE Intercontinental Champion Santino Marella, former World Heavyweight Champion Batista, current ECW Champion CM Punk and current WWE Champion John Cena.

Contents

Television

Current champions

Defunct championships

Ohio Valley Wrestling Triple Crown

Roster

Alumni

Monday Night Raw

Friday Night SmackDown!

ECW

See also

External links

Television

The OVW currently airs a one-hour television program Saturdays on WBKI-TV in Louisville at 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time, on WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio at 1:00 p.m., and on WOBZ-LP in London, Kentucky at 9:00 p.m. The television shows originate from the Davis Arena in Louisville, and fans are invited to attend tapings on Wednesday nights free of charge. [1]
A new division called Derby City Wrestling, featuring members of OVW's training school airs at 10 p.m. on WYCS in Louisville, with TV tapings on Thursday nights. [2]

Current champions

'Championship'	'Current champion(s)'	'Date won'	'Won from'
OVW Heavyweight Champion	Michael W. Kruel	July 28, 2007	Vladimir Kozlov
OVW Television Champion	Colt Cabana	September 5, 2007	Shawn Spears
OVW Southern Tag Team Champions	Terminal Velocity (Chet the Jet and Steve Lewington)	September 5, 2007	The James Boys (K.C. and Kassidy James)
OVW Women's Champion	ODB	June 1, 2007	Katie Lea

Defunct championships

★ OVW Hardcore Championship (2000 - 2001)

★ OVW Light Heavyweight Championship (1999-2001)

Ohio Valley Wrestling Triple Crown

The following is a list of individuals who have won the OVW Heavyweight Championship, OVW Television Championship, and OVW Southern Tag Team Championship, the three tiles which make up the OVW Triple Crown. The dates in bold are the last title won.

Name	OVW Heavyweight Championship	OVW Southern Tag Team Championship	OVW Television Championship
Brent Albright	'April 25, 2005'	March 31, 2004 (with Chris Masters)	January 5, 2005
CM Punk	May 3, 2006	'July 28, 2006' (with Seth Skyfire)	November 9, 2005
Idol Stevens	'March 14, 2007'	October 10, 2003 (with Nova)	January 4, 2006
Cody Runnels	February 17, 2007	October 18, 2006 (with Shawn Spears)	'July 6, 2007'

'Potential Champions'
The following active wrestlers in OVW and as of August 2007, all need one title in order to complete a triple crown.

★ Charles Evans and Shawn Spears both need an OVW Heavyweight Title reign.

★ Chet the Jett and Johnny Jeter need an OVW Television Title reign.

★ Michael W. Kruel needs an OVW Tag Title reign.

Roster

:''Main article: World Wrestling Entertainment roster''

Alumni

This is a list of current superstars that joined either RAW, Friday Night SmackDown!, or Extreme Championship Wrestling after completing their training at OVW.

Monday Night Raw

★ Shelton Benjamin

★ Lance Cade

★ Carlito (Carlos Colón, Jr.)

★ John Cena - ''wrestled in OVW as The Prototype''

★ Charlie Haas

★ Mickie James - ''wrestled in OVW as Alexis Laree''

★ Maria Kanellis

★ Santino Marella (Anthony Carelli) - ''wrestled in OVW as Boris Alexiev''

★ Robbie McAllister (Derek Graham-Couch)

★ Rory McAllister (Russell Murray)

★ Beth Phoenix (Elizabeth Carolan)

★ Melina (Melina Perez)

★ Randy Orton

★ Cody Rhodes (Cody Runnels)

★ Snitsky (Eugene Snitsky)

★ Queen Sharmell (Sharmell Sullivan-Huffman)

★ Mr. Kennedy (Ken Anderson)

★ Bobby Lashley (Franklin Roberto Lashley)

★ Daivari

★ Jillian Hall

★ Paul London

Friday Night SmackDown!

★ Batista (Dave Bautista) - ''wrestled in OVW as Leviathan''

★ Cherry (Kara Drew)

★ Chris Masters (Chris Mordetsky)

★ Deuce (James Reiher, Jr.)

★ Domino (Cliff Compton)

★ Mark Henry

★ Maryse (Maryse Ouellet)

★ Michelle McCool

★ Brett Major (Matt Cardona)

★ Brian Major (Brian Myers)

★ Kenny Dykstra (Ken Doane)

★ Victoria (Lisa Marie Varon)

ECW

★ The Boogeyman (Marty Wright)

★ Elijah Burke

★ Kelly Kelly (Barbie Blank)

★ CM Punk (Phil Brooks)

★ Kevin Thorn (Kevin Fertig) - ''wrestled in OVW as Seven''

★ The Miz (Mike Mizanin)

★ John Morrison (John Hennigan)

★ Armando Estrada (Hazem Ali) - ''current ECW General Manager; also known as Osama Rodriguez Alejandro in OVW''

See also

★ World Wrestling Entertainment roster

External links

★ Official website

★ OVW Title Histories