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When last we left OVW, Cody Runnels had vowed to take everything away from former partner Shawn Spears after Spears attempted to put him out of wrestling, Jay Bradley debuted and ended up in a three-way brawl with OVW champion Paul Burchall and Idol Stevens that saw Troubleshooter Al Snow throw them all out of the building, ODB got her title shot against Katie Lea, and Beth Phoenix had fallen into the arms of Dan Rodmer in an attempt to protect herself from Jacob Duncan. For a visual aid of who some of the WWE developmental talents featured here are, visit www.OVWrestling.com
Ohio Valley Wrestling TV Report & Thoughts 5/26
OVW TV opens with Johnny Jeter trying to talk sense into OVW TV champion Shawn Spears, saying that he knows what happens when you ruin a friendship because of ego, noting his feud with Matt Cappotelli that was one of the highlights of the Paul Heyman OVW era. Jeter said it got him nowhere and got him nothing (except a Spirit Squad run..heh). Spears blew him off. Jeter told him that no one else cares to talk to him or help him. Spears said he doesn't care and Jeter is just jealous because he's TV champ and can take him. Jeter says that the TV title is the only belt he hasn't help in OVW and challenges him to a match tonight, walking off. For some reason, Jeter's delivery reminded me of Samoa Joe of all people.
Dean Hill and Kenny Bolin officially announce the TV title match and run down tonight's episode.
Pat Buck vs. Atlas Da Bone - Da Bone looks like he escaped from 1980s WWF. Buck now has blonde dreadlocks so it's dreads vs. Da Bone's afro. Da Bone comes out to Slick's "Jive Soul Bro" so he's automatically awesome. I can see Da Bone's character being a good silly undercard deal on Raw at some point in the vein of Eugene or Cryme Time because it's so colorful. With his look and tan, Buck is missing his calling as a California surfer character. Da Bone did a good job selling and making faces when in an armbar. He breaks it and hits a Samoan Drop. He comes back with a flurry of offense and hits a big splash, titled the Boneyard Boogie for the pin.
They go to a vignette where "earlier today" local authorities come across a group of the OVW women including ODB, who is arrested due to a complaint about public drunkenness. The cops say she's going to be locked up for 30 days, which of course would make her miss her title shot with champion Katie Lea. Lea shows up mocking ODB as she's arrested. Lea is hot and good in the ring but needs to show a vicious streak to get to the next level. The cops drag ODB to a patrol car as the other woman try to convince them to let her go. Lea says that ODB got drunk in public and it's not her problem. Vignette was pretty bad.
Backstage, Dan Rodmer lsends Beth Phoenix into a dark room to retrieve Jacob Duncan's treasure that Jacob keeps hidden inside a paper bag. Phoenix is funny complaining about the dark but finds the bag with a flashlight. Rodmer goes to grab it but Jacob grabs his arm. Rodmer has good delivery saying that they can work it out and gives Duncan a deal that they'll wrestle at Six Flags and if Rodmer wins, he'll get "Mama's treasure" but if Duncan wins, he gets a date with Phoenix. Phoenix's reaction as the girl who gets caught in the middle was great, slapping his chest and saying she wants nothing to do with this. She walks off as Rodman laughs to himself, "That's not what the contract says." Rodman's delivery is good and if he can get his wrestling up to par, he'll be an asset. Why in the world would Rodman even want what's in the paper bag, anyway? This felt rushed.
OVW TV champion Shawn Spears vs. Johnny Jeter - They jaw at the bell. Jeter takes control early with some offense and Spears screaming at each chop he takes. Spears catches him with a dropkick and pins Jeter that quick. I was surprised by how quick they ended it, but if they are trying to get the dropkick over as a finisher, that's how.
Jeter gets locked in a Boston Crab after the match until Cody Runnels, in a neck brace, hit the ring and lays out Spears with a series of punches and a backdrop. Runnels showed some good fire and ripped off the neck brace. Runnels pummels Spears until the babyfaces hit the ring to pull him off. They probably took too long to get to the ring as Runnels was running out of steam throwing punches. Spears breaks free and goes back to choking Spears. Al Snow finally hits the ring. Runnels breaks free again but is finally dragged from the ring. I was about to write that the segment seemed a little force but just then, Runnels broke free again and charged back into the ring, which looked good. Runnels was clawing at the mat, desperate to get back into the ring. They drag him to the curtain of the entrance but he breaks free and spears Shawn. Kenny Bolin told Dean Hill (who's legitimately a police officer), "Don't you have a gun? Fire a few warning shots!" Runnels is finally pulled backstage and Spears struggled to recover, crawling to his most cherished possession, the OVW TV title belt. Spears finally asked for the mic as they went to a commercial.
They were pushing the 6/1 Six Flags show with Chris Benoit appearing really hard the entire episode since it was just days away.
Back in the ring, Spears says that his jealousy, his ego and the OVW TV title aren't worth losing his best friend in the world. He apologizes to the fans and to "my best friend Cody." He asks everyone to let Runnels come back to the ring. Runnels returns looking like he was in a fight for his life. The realism was great and the look on his face returning to the ring was awesome. You can see he's got the presence down pat. Spears keeps trying to apologize but Runnels keeps slapping him. He asks for a second and Runnels tells him he has one. The fans chant, "On Your Knees" so Spears gets down. He tries to apologize but Runnels grabs the mic and tells him he doesn't buy it so shut up. Spears said that he doesn't blame anyone for not believing him because he wouldn't buy it either. Spears said that the fact he piledrove Cody has been eating him up. He said that everything Runnels said last week on TV opened his eyes. He thanked Cody for introducing him to his idol, Ric Flair. He says that he knows he can't be forgiven. Runnels tells Spears to say what he really wants and to get to it. Spears says he wants to be a tag team again. Runnels stops him and looks around, then hugs his former partner.
Runnels and Spears leave the ring and walk around ringside slapping hands. I keep waiting for Spears to turn on Runnels. Spears finally shoves Runnels face-first into a ringpost and throws him into the ring. He grabs a chair from ringside and began drilling Cody with chairshots and attacks the throat with the chair. Spears had this great frenzied face. Steve Lewington and Chet the Jet hit the ring but were taken out with chairshots. Dean Hill says Spears just conned everyone in the Davis Arena but the feud was far from over. Spears stood triumphant with the OVW TV title belt.
The angle was good. Runnels showed a ton of good fire and just as he was losing that, the babyfaces hit the ring. If they had just done a pullapart, this would have been pretty forgettable. Spears trying to apologize after getting his head handed to him was a great promo, as was Runnel's response. The turn at the end was predictable but they did a great job playing it up like it was the reunion of the team. The beatdown by Spears at the end was great and really, the only thing missing to make it perfect would have been Runnels gushing blood like an old NWA angle. I doubt that's allowed in OVW though. Spears stepped up in a big way here as a performer as far as I'm concerned. Runnels shows flashes of great charisma and needs some work but you can see he's going to be something special if all the stars align.
OVW Southern Tag Team champions Justin "The Ox" LaRoche & Charles "The Hammer" Evans vs. The Major Brothers (Non-Title) - If the Majors win, they get a title shot at Six Flags on 6/1. My guess is the Majors are going to be the heartthrob babyface team for the territory now. It's funny to hear them pushed as ECW stars when they've had one or two TV matches under their belt. Bret Major avoids the champs and tags out, leading to Brian hitting a flying clothesline. All four brawl in the ring. Evans gets knocked out of the ring. LaRoche goes for an F5 on one but the other Major dropkicks him. LaRochse gets sunset flipped and pinned. Too short to be anything of consequence but never boring. Majors get a title shot on 6/1.
Backstage, LaRoche and Evans are throwing things all over their locker room. The debuting "Doctor Thomas" shows up to calm them down, saying that he's been working on Evans' anger the last two weeks. He tells them he will help them manage their anger and their careers.
Cassidy James vs. Jake Hager - Hager is attacked by Cassidy as soon as he hits the ring but Hager makes a quick comeback. Cassidy tries to beg off, but KC jumps Hager with his cast from behind. Cassidy chokes Hager with a belt as KC demands to know who's Hager's partner is at Six Flags. He threatens to split Hager's head open with the cast but Dr. Death Steve Williams hits the ring and helps Hager clean house. Williams has slowed considerably but given everything he's been through, it's a blessing he's even able to compete. Hager takes the mic and it's his chance to have a big promo. He says that they want to know who his partner and they are looking at him. He says KC went to Memphis to get his little brother, so Hager went home to Oklahoma to get Dr. Death. Williams raises Hager's hand. The James Boys act like they've seen a ghost. Promo was decent. They probably needed a longer reaction shot from the James Boys' looking like they pooped their pants but instead went to commercial.
Michael W. Kruel vs. Mike Hutter - Milena Rouka introduced a special paid for announced by the friends of Mike Kruel, but before he could speak, Chris Benoit appeared on the OVW Titantron. He said that he's heard all of the things Kruel has said about Canada and that Kruel thinks he's the best. He tells Kruel that at Six Flags, he's going to step into the ring with the best, Chris Benoit and Benoit was going to break his face. Kruel and Team America looks shocked and angered, then all attack Hutter, laying him out as Rouka cheerleads them on the mic. Kruel drops Hutter in the Liberty Lock then began screaming into the mic for, "Benoit to tap out. You're gonna break my face? I'll break your neck!" Kruel said that he warned everyone about the border jumping Canadians like Chris Benoit but says he has nothing to fear because he'll have an army of Americans there at Six Flags to support him. He promised to plant the American flag like Neil Armstrong did on the moon, up, "your Canadian a** and ship you back to that third world country." Team America puts Kruel on their shoulders. Rouka did her "God Bless America" spiel to close it. She's growing on me with every appearance and Lord knows she's hot as hell. Decent promo by Kruel and a good but fast build to the Benoit appearance. I'd love to see them give Kruel famous military quotes for the "Real American Hero" character, since his comment about fear would have been perfect to pull out, "Nothing to fear but fear itself."
They announce OVW champion Paul Burchall vs,. Idol Stevens is next. Interesting that they never pushed that match the entire hour, but I kind of like that since the focus was on the undercard talents. That's something you'd never see on Raw and Smackdown since the rating is the most important thing at the end of the day, so it's hype, hype, hype and sell, sell, sell.
OVW champion Paul Burchall vs. Idol Stevens - Stevens rolls up Burchall quickly for a two count. Burchall battles back but is clotheslined down. Burchall tries to crotch Stevens on the ropes but he lands on the apron, The ref gets bumped. Stevens gets Burchall down but there's no referee. A second referee hits the ring but there's only a two count. Burchall superplexes Stevens into the ring. They lock up in a small package and each referee counts the other down. There's an argument over who won the match. The lead referee says Burchall won while the other referee says Stevens is the new champion. Al Snow comes out on the mic and asks what's going on. The referees each argue over who won. Burchall and Stevens start arguing and Snow tells them to relax. He holds up the title and says they'll have a rematch at Six Flags to determine who the new champion is.
Bradley Jay comes out and says he promised he'd take an opportunity if it came up and he's taking it. He grabs the title belt. Snow takes it back and says he's sick of all three of them, so he's making it a Three-Way Dance at Six Flags. Snow walks off with the title.
Cody Runnels comes out and gets in front of one of the cameras. He tells Spears that the business is the only thing he has and he loves. He says the business made a star out of his father and put Cody through school. He tells Spears he's nothing, "but a glorified indy worker, 26 going bald and grey." Ouch. He says that the last thing he wants Spears to know when he goes to sleep that he's going to get his at Six Flags. He tells Spears he's a thief and he's done taking from Cody. Runnels cut the best promo of his career, easily, at the end of the episode,
They tried to get a lot over and get lot accomplished to push Six Flags on 6/1. They were stretching with some of the undercard setups, but I enjoyed the episode. Cody is really great on the mic. Spears is finding himself. Mike Kruel's act gets better every week. Atlas Da Bone is a silly undercard character, sort of the Jimmy Valiant of 2007, which is perfect for an opening match performer. Jake Hager got a chance to talk and did a decent job. The James Boys are so good together, you'd think they really were brothers. I'm not sure how some of these talents would fare on the main roster yet but there's some good talent in OVW.
For those who want to see what went down at the 6/1 Six Flags event, click here.
I'll be back tomorrow with the next episode of OVW, starting their June TV.
Mike Johnson can be reached at Mike@PWInsider.com.
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