Ohio Valley Wrestling

[Chris]

A pro wrestling docuseries is coming to Netflix next month.

It was announced via Variety today that "Wrestlers," a Netflix docuseries on Ohio Valley Wrestling, will premiere on Wednesday, September 13. The series focuses on the wrestlers of OVW, trainer Al Snow, and those behind the promotion.

The story for the series is that OVW's new ownership group has given Snow one summer to turn the promotion around.

OVW is based in Louisville, Kentucky and is best known for having been WWE's developmental territory in the 2000s. It has also served as developmental for Impact Wrestling.

It was first reported in May 2022 that this docuseries was in development. The synopsis for the series can be seen below:

Once a proud finishing school for aspiring pro wrestlers, the gym has since hit hard times. Acclaimed wrestler Al Snow clings to an old school wrestling philosophy with a heavy emphasis on storytelling, but in spite of the love of a few diehard fans, the gym struggles week to week to stay relevant enough to keep its doors open. Things have become so dire financially that Al has to sell a majority stake to a group of local businessmen including Matt Jones, the most popular radio personality in the state of Kentucky. Matt and the new ownership group have infused the struggling gym with much-needed cash but it still operates at a staggering loss. The new owners have given Al the summer to turn things around. 'Wrestlers' chronicles the efforts Al and his band of aspiring wrestlers make as they struggle with their personal ambitions and each other while they attempt to come together to save this historic gym.

"Wrestlers" is from producer Greg Whiteley, who previously created both "Cheer" and "Last Chance U" for Netflix.

The trailer for "Wrestlers" can be seen below:

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/indies/wrestlers-docuseries-to-premiere-on-netflix-this-september

 

[John McHenry]

So if the docuseries was first reported in May 2022 and they gave snow one year to turn it around it's now August 2023 he did it?

 

[John McHenry]

I've always wanted to go to OVW and was almost trained there I'd submitted the application and been accepted just not enough funds. I'll definitely be watching

 

[Chris]

 

[Leon TrotSky]

Maybe this should be the OVW thread, it's got a new investor

 

[Cwalker]

Sheesh lol

 

[Chris]

Maybe this should be the OVW thread, it's got a new investor

Do we not have one already? I could merge them but if not I'll just change this one

 

[Leon TrotSky]

I couldn't find one and it's not in the directory

 

[Chris]

It is now

 

[Skyefire]

I'm taking a road trip from my home in Cincinnati down to Louisville for next Saturday's Independence Rage. Still making my way through recent TV episodes. As of the last show I saw the only match booked is Leila Gray vs Tiffany Nieves for the Women's Championship. Mick Foley has made a few appearances on color commentary recently and has gotten himself involved in a feud with the soon-to-be NWA World Heavyweight Champion, Carson Drake. A group of mysterious masked men (ala Retribution) have been taking over OVW as of late and the Heavyweight Champion, Crixus has joined them.

 

[Skyefire]

I went to OVW's Independence Rage PPV over the weekend. The main event saw OVW National Heavyweight Champion, EC3, defeat Luke Kurtis to retain his title. OVW head trainer, Doug Basham (who WWE fans may remember from his days on Smackdown teaming with "brother" Danny Basham and managed by Shaniqua aka Linda Miles) was in Kurtis' corner and got busted open really bad by Crixus who was in EC3's corner. The downside to the whole event, from a personal standpoint of being there, was the fact that the building had no air conditioning. At the start of the show the outside temperature was 95. They had large misting fans there, but it was not enough. It was miserable in there. OVW has since announced that they are postponing all events at the Davis Arena until such time as they make some building upgrades, including A/C. There National Tour events and their next PPV, taking place in Pikeville, KY, will go on as scheduled.

 

[Kim Jong Umb]

I went to OVW's Independence Rage PPV over the weekend. The main event saw OVW National Heavyweight Champion, EC3, defeat Luke Kurtis to retain his title. OVW head trainer, Doug Basham (who WWE fans may remember from his days on Smackdown teaming with "brother" Danny Basham and managed by Shaniqua aka Linda Miles) was in Kurtis' corner and got busted open really bad by Crixus who was in EC3's corner. The downside to the whole event, from a personal standpoint of being there, was the fact that the building had no air conditioning. At the start of the show the outside temperature was 95. They had large misting fans there, but it was not enough. It was miserable in there. OVW has since announced that they are postponing all events at the Davis Arena until such time as they make some building upgrades, including A/C. There National Tour events and their next PPV, taking place in Pikeville, KY, will go on as scheduled.

Feels like a episode of their Netflix

 

[Skyefire]

OVW will return to their home at the Davis Arena on August 29 for a live TV broadcast and all general admission tickets are free premium seats are $10. Also, August 31st is their next PPV event this one taking place from Pikeville, KY and feature appearances from Kevin Nash, Victoria, and The Boogeyman.

 

[Skyefire]

I attended OVW's Reckoning PPV last night at the (now Hotpoint) Davis Arena. Here are my thoughts on the show. First of all, if you don't know, OVW has been running this angle for much of the year that started out like WWE's Retribution stable (remember those guys from the pandemic era?) and morphed into the nWo. They're called The Revolution and were originally run by OVW National Heavyweight Champion EC3, but it was later revealed that the mastermind behind the group is Al Snow's second in command, Doug Basham, who attacked Snow a few months back and has now taken over as Director of Operations.

Spoiler

The first half of the show last night was great. Dustin Jackson and Donovan Cecil stole the show and had the crowd on fire. The tag team of Beaches and Cream had a fun match despite one of their opponents being totally green. Star Rider vs Super Z seemed like it could have been a better match for two high flyers but it was still good. And the crowd loved Jota Peso in action. The top three matches, however, were rather disappointing. The big advertised match was EC3, who has since been kicked out of The Revolution defending the National Heavyweight Championship in a Fatal 4-Way match against Will Austin, Tony Evans, and Jay Deniro. Doug Basham had offered $10,000 to anyone of the three challengers who could beat EC3 for the title. The match was filled with 3-on-1 attacks on EC3 followed by guys trying to break up each others pinfall attempts. The other angle of the match was Deniro being Evans' bodyguard and the crowd wanting to see him turn on Evans (he didn't). The match lasted less than 10 minutes with EC3 winning to retain his title.

After that was OVW Heavyweight Champion Mt. Kadeem vs Cash Flo in a non-title match where if Cash Flo won he would get five minutes in the ring with Doug Basham. Earlier in the night, Basham, and some of his Revolution goons attacked Cash Flo backstage. Cash was advised not to compete, but still did. Not only did Cash Flo not get his five minutes with Basham, he didn't even get five minutes with Mt. Kadeem as the champion made rather quick work of his opponent. In my opinion, Kadeem is a poor choice as champion, he's a relative rookie but with Crixus out of action with an injury they wanted a new monster heel as champion, so he was chosen.

So then the final match was a Parking Lot Brawl between Kal Herro and Tony Gunn (two guys far more deserving of the Heavyweight title). the match started in the parking lot then they made their way into the arena. For the parking lot portion of the match (which was not pre-taped), the crowd in the arena had to watch it on the video wall (which is four TVs put together). Most fans view was partially obstructed by the ring. To make matters worse, the video feed kept cutting out, so fans had no idea what was going on. When they got into the arena, the match was decent. The ending came when the match was stopped after Herro hung Gunn over the ropes with a bullrope. Officials and security had to pull Herro off of Gunn. But after that Herro decided to attack Gunn on the outside of the ring as officials and trainers attempted to help him. The crowd was very much into Herro getting revenge on his former friend, which kind of made up for the lackluster match, but not that much.

 

[Skyefire]

OVW Apparently had some technical issues with last night's Christmas Chaos PPV and now they're offering the show for free to everyone. OVW Christmas Chaos

Every match takes place inside of a steel cage including now former Director of Operations Leather Daddy Doug Basham vs Cash Flo, Tony Gunn vs Kal Herro in an "I Quit" Match, Mount Kadeem vs Luke Kurtis for the OVW Championship, J-Rod vs Freya the Slaya for the Women's Championship in a Knockout Match, a 5-man ladder match for the Rush Division Championship, and other matches all inside of a steel cage.