CAGEMATCH » Promotions Database » Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW)

Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW)

Active promotion in the North America region

General Data

Current name:

Ohio Valley Wrestling

Current abbreviation:

OVW

Status:

Active

Location:

Louisville, Kentucky, USA

Active Time:

1996 - today

WWW:

https://ovwrestling.com

https://www.facebook.com/ovwwrestling

https://x.com/ovwrestling

https://www.instagram.com/ovwwrestling

https://www.youtube.com/@OVWTV

https://www.youtube.com/@OVWWeekend

Details

Names:

Ohio Valley Wrestling (2001 - today)
National Wrestling Alliance Ohio Valley Wrestling (1996 - 2001)

Abbreviations:

OVW, NWA OVW

Owners:

Al Snow, Craig Greenberg & Matt Jones (2021 - today)
Al Snow (2018 - 2021)
Danny Davis (2006 - 2018)
Danny Davis & Jim Cornette (1996 - 2006)

TV & Online:

OVW TV, Overdrive

Logos:

(2021 - today)

(2004 - 2020)

(1996 - 2003)

Current Champions

Title	Current champion(s)
OVW Heavyweight Championship	Dustin Jackson
OVW Media Championship	Jake Lawless
OVW Rush Championship	Brendan Balling
OVW Tag Team Championship	Donovan Cecil & Jack Vaughn (3)
OVW United States Championship	Big Zo
OVW Women's Championship	Leela Feist

Introduction

This text is hidden because it is only available in German language. Please click this line if you do not care and want to view it anyway.

6.23

Current Total Rating (?)

Valid votes: 115

Number of comments: 32

10.0

9.0

8.0

26x

7.0

15x

6.0

39x

5.0

21x

4.0

3.0

2.0

1.0

0.0

Average rating: 6.23 [115]

Average rating in 2025: 6.53 [15]

Average rating in 2024: 6.25 [12]

Average rating in 2023: 5.54 [13]

Average rating in 2022: 3.67 [3]

Average rating in 2021: 4.50 [6]

Average rating in 2020: 6.33 [3]

Average rating in 2019: 5.00 [2]

Average rating in 2018: 6.00 [3]

Average rating in 2017: 8.00 [1]

Average rating in 2016: 7.25 [4]

Average rating in 2015: 6.00 [2]

Average rating in 2014: 7.50 [2]

Average rating in 2013: 6.67 [3]

Average rating in 2012: 8.00 [1]

Average rating in 2011: 6.67 [3]

Average rating in 2010: 10.00 [1]

Average rating in 2009: 8.33 [3]

Average rating in 2008: 5.87 [15]

Average rating in 2007: 6.61 [23]

Your Options:

Other:

Latest comments of the CAGEMATCH inmates

tynibrian wrote on 11.11.2025:

"I enjoy OVW every week, and look forward to each new episode. They have strong locker rooms and Al Snow is great backstage. The promotion as a whole, already providing a quality product, has made great strides in terms of production value and capability since the release of season one of Wrestlers. As they work on a new season of the docuseries I am happy to be covering OVW during this new resurgence."

BlockBlockBlock wrote on 14.06.2025:

[7.0] "I actually like current day OVW. It has a lot of criticism, but they are far better off now than when they were a TNA developmental. They have interesting characters and factions and actually feel like they have a living and breathing show."

Eferska wrote on 13.03.2025:

[8.0] "They put on a terrific show but still somehow manage to hold onto a small town vibe. Many talented wrestlers on the roster to put on a weekly show on YouTube plus several PPVs each year. The shows are mostly just wrestling and do not waste half the time just talking in the ring like the big budget shows on the major networks."

sns2 wrote on 08.03.2025:

"Great promotion and academy that creates strong wrestlers. Also the only independent company that does live weekly television."

WrestlingReviewer33 wrote on 02.02.2025:

[8.0] "Watched Netflix show called wrestlers not knowing much about the USA indies and came out of it loving OVW and wanting it to do well.One wrestler in particular, Hollyhood Haley J I love her and hopes she goes on to the big leagues.Looks a great set up and I hope that Snow, Greenberg and Jones all figure it out and it becomes a great promotion that is up there.So overall, love it and it's a good promotion, just waiting to be great."

BarKing81 wrote on 13.12.2024:

[6.0] "OVW as a training school seem like a good training ground and a great place to learn, but so many guys and girls just seem to be stuck in the OVW bubble. Waiting for a try out that likely's not gonna come. The companies still desperately clinging on to what they had 20 years ago when Cornette was involved and they had the WWE relationship."

TPG wrote on 31.10.2024:

[7.0] "I think OVW is a really decent promotion. Of course it produced some of the most iconic wrestlers today, but it also has a lot of underutilized talent there that, if they can figure out how to use correctly, could have a very bright future. As it stands, I like OVW, with probably my favourite time being its early days under Cornette's control."

heskindatrippin wrote on 31.08.2024:

[2.0] "Tons of talent without any direction. The company boasts a big game, but in reality, it's very forgettable. I wish they had more awareness or a pulse on the business, but sadly, it's just not there for me. I feel like they have too many championship belts and none of them feel like they are adding anything except the Heavyweight and maybe the Tag Titles. I'm not a fan of EC3 making the National Belt feel more important than the Heavyweight belt, just because at one time EC3 was somewhat popular. Too many negatives. At this time I cannot rate this any higher."

Loghan Moresco wrote on 24.05.2024:

[9.0] "Certified Luke Kurtis, Tony gunn cash flo Hush EC3 jack vaugghn, all for free on youtube on a weekly basis the show is mostly wrestling with a decent amount of storytelling so far in 2024 they have keeping up with the audience pretty well a few sellouts in davis arena and the crowd is back alive, as a legendary promotion who is the harvard of wrestling ovw is doing great this year and has an outstanding legacy."

CarWashDumpsterBoy wrote on 24.04.2024:

[6.0] "OVW has produced some of the top stars like John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Batista, the list goes on. It deserves it's flowers for being still around all these years later. People dont realize OVW has been around just about as long as RAW has been. That makes them at least #2 in the most TV episodes, I attended some shows back in 2010 and was impressed by the way it was ran then. The OVW of today is certainly a different monster. They seem to be doing pretty good now after getting invested in and finding some people to put the money into making OVW into a bigger independent promotion, even doing tours outside of Kentucky now. Doing tours of other parts of the United States. I have heard that OVW of today is not as great booked but overall you got to give them at least a 6 for the past + the fact they are still here to this day."

CinnAqua wrote on 10.08.2023:

[3.0] "I started watching this promotion at the start of this year, and at first it had its charm, but i had to drop it recently due to the terrible booking. There are a lot of really talented guys in this promotion, Luscious Lawrence, Crixus, Manny Domingo, Cash Flo and Hy-Zaya to name a few, and they get to actually have some great matches when they're allowed to, but sadly it doesn't happen often due to a faction literally called The Faction. The Faction includes stars like EC3, Jessie Godderz and Shera, along with some OVW originals, and they ruin EVERYTHING. Half of the men's matches end with interference from them, and management doesn't put any effort into preventing them, it's so annoying. The women's division isn't any better, there once was a match between two women i don't remember, and midway through it, the champion Shalonce Royal decided to walk into the ring and start singing, and instead of kicking her out, the ref just let her in and called out the match! If they stopped with all the overbooking and just let the wrestlers wrestle more often, it'd be a damn great promotion."

Sabri87 wrote on 12.02.2023:

"relatively. The matches are at a high level. The results are logical and acceptable. The scenarios match the characters of the wrestlers"

NakazawaNumberOne wrote on 01.06.2022:

[1.0] "The name of a WWE developmental territory that limped along until, somehow, Al Snow convinced people to invest in it. Al Snow isn't someone who has his finger on the pulse, and the OVW of today isn't the same one that produced maiin-event WWE talent."

Zone8 wrote on 16.02.2022:

"Ohio Valley Wrestling is the top indy promotion in Kentucky. Some might think that it's not that good anymore since it is not WWE developmental promotion. Personally i think it is now better than ever. Wery good weekly shows on youtube."

5nicoShuffle wrote on 17.03.2021:

[2.0] "OVW has always been a great breeding ground for the next big stars. But their weekly TV show Overdrive does a poor job of showcasing it's talent, due to its ultra short matchups, overly long interview segments, poor editing, woeful camera work, technical slip ups, sound levelling and bland & often-confused announcers."

TheEternalSovereign wrote on 13.12.2020:

[5.0] "Free weekly shows is always a plus for any promotion, OVW does it on multiple platforms. It presents a rustic feel with an easy to understand storyline and a unique variation of characters in addition to exciting concepts like weekly gauntlet matches, however with larger participant matches the announcers are always rushed this really becomes a hassle when trying to learn wrestlers names. The presentation quality is also low budget and the wrestling feels a little too hoaky but this is still top tier for american promotions."

RatingsMachine wrote on 26.10.2018:

[7.0] "From 2002-2005, prior to Jim Cornette's sabbatical, OVW were one of the better promotions around. Yes, the matches were ropey at times, as you'd expect from what was a developmental group. But they had a compelling television program that was a throwback to the territorial days, every effort was made to make things as logical as possible."

browndog912 wrote on 28.01.2016:

[8.0] "as a fan of OVW and watching the weekly tv taping I enjoy what they do, they have a great legacy but I would rather watch the 50 minute tv taping over Monday night raw."

Phenomenal91 wrote on 06.04.2014:

[8.0] "They call it the Harvard of pro wrestling schools, and they're certainly not far off the mark. So many great wrestlers have passed through the Davis Arena that it's impossible to count them all. While they've had their greatest success working with WWE, their success with TNA was very limited. Hopefully they'll get another chance at being a great wrestling school for a major organization, or perhaps finally find mainstream success on their own."