OVW TV review
August 20, 2005
Taped August 17 in Louisville, Ky.
Exclusive report by Killian, PWTorch.com correspondent

The sixth OVW TV taping written by Paul Heyman exploded on Wednesday Night August 17th and aired on Saturday Night August 20th on The WB in Louisville, Kentucky. This show was about the aftermath of the bloody angle last week that saw new OVW Champion Johnny Jeter badly bloody Matt Cappotelli with a chair. The fact there's never been a bloody angle in the New Davis Arena made it all the more shocking. This week was the aftermath, and I don't think any heel in the history of OVW has ever been pushed liked Jeter or gotten this much intense heat from the crowd.

By the end of the show, Heyman had built the new champion as someone who can headline against former champion Brent Albright, Elijah Burke, OVW Owner Danny Davis, or former tag team partner Matt Cappotelli, who is the top babyface in OVW since Heyman became the booker. The fact Cappotelli is the top babyface while on the sidelines with a broken leg is a result of the focused push Heyman is giving the top characters in OVW. Cappotelli, Jeter, Albright, Ken Doane, Nick Nemeth, Bobby Lashley, Ken Anderson, Daniel Puder,  and The Tolands are all coming across like major stars, with or without a Raw or Smackdown affiliation.

The show opens with highlights from last week's angle which saw Jeter knock Brent Albright out with a chair and then badly bloody former partner Matt Cappotelli. I think it's important to point out TV host Dean Hill's comments about Jeter's actions being unforgivable aired here too. Read on, it only gets much better.

The OVW music video to "Let The Bodies Hit The Floor" aired, but this time they used the entire song, so it was like 4 minutes long. Lots of clips of all the players in OVW, plus extended clips of Melina's excellent catfight with WWE Raw interviewer Maria, lots of Daniel Puder "shooting" clips, and a video review of Jeter's actions. This was a really good way to make everyone seem like bigger stars, and yet another way to get the images of a bloody Cappotelli, and Dean Hill with Cappotelli's blood all over him, on the TV show.

Dean Hill and Al Snow opened the show and we're told of two big things on this show, OVW TV Champion Ken Doane vs Nick Nemeth, and we'll hear from Matt Cappotelli tonight! = Johnny Jeter's music hits, and the controversial champion comes out to the desk. Jeter does a really good heel promo here, bitter that Cappotelli is still getting all the attention when he is hospitalized and has a broken leg, when Jeter should be getting all the attention and publicity because he's the OVW Heavyweight Champion. Jeter then turns his attention to former champion Brent Albright. No more title shots, Brent has to start at the bottom. This brings out Albright, who continues to do the best work of his career with his soft spoken but very intimidating babyface character. Albright tells Jeter the only reason he doesn't tear Jeter apart is because he wants to get Jeter in the ring and take back his championship. Albright is right up in Jeter's face, and Jeter palms Albright in the face to back him off. Albright and Jeter lock up, and struggle for position as Al Snow tries unsuccessfully to keep them separated. A number of wrestlers run out of the back and try to pull them apart. As Albright is being pulled back, Jeter is running him down on the house mic and that's when Elijah Burke has had enough. Elijah breaks away from pulling Albright back, comes back towards Jeter,  grabs the mic away from the champ and cuts the best promo of his career. Elijah challenges Jeter to a match right here and now. Jeter says, "I'm sorry," and adds "I caused too much trouble tonight," and just turns his back and leaves! Elijah turns to the desk and puts down the mic and Jeter flies into the picture and hits Elijah with the title belt hard. Elijah crashes to the floor as everyone involved in the pullapart runs back out and Jeter runs off. Simply put, an excellent opening segment and a real character builder for Jeter, Albright, and Elijah.

(Commercial break)

Coming out of the commercial, Dean Hill and Al Snow talk about Jeter. You can see the frustration on both men's faces and in their voices as they talk about how Jeter has turned OVW upside down. Quick clips air as they speak of Jeter assaulting Cappotelli and also what just happened with Jeter and Elijah Burke.

(1) Aaron "The Idol" Stevens (w/Beth Phoenix and Shelly) pinned Mike Mondo (w/Da Beast) in a heel vs heel match. Stevens came out with Beth and Shelly. Mike Mondo came out with Da Beast. Mondo cut a promo getting over The Idol's character for him. Mondo started describing what he likes about women, like the smell of their sweat when they don't shower for a week, and his weird desires seemed to be to Shelly's liking. Looked to me like The Idol waited too long to spring into action, but he sucker punched Mondo and the match was on. Good back and forth action. Mondo hit a big move, and Shelly jumped up on the second rope. She called Mondo over, and then kissed him. Mondo liked the kiss, and when he turned around he was kicked in the stomach by Idol, who then hit the reverse neckbreaker for the pin. Shelly has such a sexual aura, that should have been a really hot kiss, but it looked like the usual fake kiss in wrestling so it didn't look all that good, and Mondo waited too long to turn around into the move.

WWE Monday Night Raw's Maria Kannelis interviews Nick Nemeth, who talks about how he beat Ken Doane in a tag team match last week, and Doane has to be distracted by the dissension with Bobby Lashley. Nemeth predicts he'll win the OVW TV Title from Doane tonight. Again, when prior incidents are spoken about, we see the clip while the interview is happening, which is a nice touch because it brings new viewers up to date and reinforces the visual images that are the selling points being talked about.

(Commercial break)

We come back from break and see Mr. Ken Anderson in the locker room. Anderson says he's so confident in his tag team partner Daniel Puder's ability, that Puder can handle business out at the ring all by himself. Anderson is a great heel and entertaining too. So Anderson introduces "Daniel Puder" and then pauses, and repeats "Puder!"

(2) Daniel Puder defeated Robert Fury in an MMA UFC style match.  This was Puder's best MMA UFC style match to date. Short but hard hitting action, and Puder wins with the Key Lock.

Anderson appears again from the locker room and sticks his face right into the camera doing the "I told you so" routine. We get a quick shot of Puder getting his hand raised by the referee  Anderson was great and Puder is very over in the New Davis Arena.

(Commercial break)

We are once again reminded that we'll hear from Matt Cappotelli on this show.

(3) OVW TV Champion Ken Doane (w/Sozay, Kenny "Starmaker" Bolin, Bobby Lashley, and Dean Visk) defeated Nick Nemeth in an excellent title match. Doane's live promo at the New Davis Arena didn't make air. Instead, once Doane and his posse are in the ring, we cut backstage to Maria Kannelis.

Maria is standing outside Elijah Burke's locker room door trying to get information on Elijah's condition. Referee Chris Kay comes out, and Maria stops him and asks for an update. Kay says they used smelling salts because Burke was knocked out, and Kay is going to get his car and take Burke to the hospital. Kay then says, "What's up with Jeter?" and starts to talk about Jeter's recent behavior. Excellent booking. Everyone is angry at someone's despicable actions. Head trainer Eric Langley comes out of the locker room, and tells Kay to get the car. Langley says Elijah was knocked out, definitely has a concussion, and is being taken to the hospital for observation. Langley then says, "I may just be a trainer, I know my opinion doesn't count for anything, but something needs to be done about Johnny Jeter." This is simple but so intelligent at the same time. Langley gets angry about Jeter's actions and goes back into the room. Maria promises more updates as news breaks.

We come back to the ring for Nick Nemeth's entrance, and after the introductions of the participants, we go to a commercial before the match begins.

(Commercial break)

Doane and Nemeth lost the crowd after about 2 minutes. Nemeth kicked out of the RKO to little reaction If you just watch the first half of this match, you're sure they're going to bomb. Doane tries to put Nemeth away, but can't. He looks to Bobby Lashley, who shrugs his shoulders. Doane grabs a hold and we go to a commercial. So far, not too impressive, which is surprising because this has been built brilliantly for weeks.

(Commercial break)

Now they get the crowd into the match. Doane and Nemeth started doing false finishes on each other and the crowd was noticeably getting into the match.  Doane kicked out of Nemeth's RKO which actually got a really good reaction because people thought the title would change. The last 5 minutes of the match had really good crowd heat. Doane couldn't put Nemeth away and asked for Lashley's help, and Lashley said no and walked to the other side of the ring. Nemeth had Doane in trouble, and Visk shoved Nemeth off the top rope. Chris Cage came out and started pounding on Visk, who never left his feet but was rocking. Lashley creamed Cage with a clothesline. Nemeth dove over the top rope to save Cage, but Lashley caught him and smashed him into the ringpost. That looked like it hurt. Lashley threw Nemeth into the ring and Doane crawled over for the pin. Dean Hill and Al Snow pointed out that Doane's TV Title was saved by Lashley, but Lashley didn't even mean to do it, as Lashley just acted instinctively when Nemeth dove over the ropes onto him. Lashley stared at Doane, who had a worried look on his face, as the crowd started chanting "Lash-ley, Lash-ley" as we go to a commercial.

(Commercial break)

So could Heyman top last week's angle with Jeter and Cappotelli? Read what happened in the last ten minutes of the show and judge for yourself. Dean Hill and Al Snow are on the house mic and say we've got Matt Cappotelli on the phone. Al asks Matt how he's doing, and Cappotelli's voice can be heard over the PA system. Cappotelli's promo was great. Live, Jeter came back out halfway through the promo, but on TV we don't see Jeter until he makes the move to hang the phone up on Cappotelli. Jeter takes the house mic and starts his heel promo, saying Cappotelli is a cripple, Jeter is a champion. Jeter talks one syllable at a time, pretending to do sign language as well. He calls Cappotelli a cripple, and then Jeter says, "Cripple, champion" over and over again until Jeter says "cripple" and Dean Hill says "asshole." Jeter wasn't sure he heard this right, and asks what Dean Hill said. Dean Hill says, "I called you an asshole!" Al tries to calm Dean down, but Dean is going off the deep end. Dean starts screaming about how he's had it, doesn't want it anymore, and he's directing his tirade at Jeter. By this point, it really looked like a shoot. People in the New Davis Arena, who are not the most lively bunch in the world, were jumping up and down. Dean Hill storms off and I think he said "F--- you" to Jeter. There was some confusion, and Dean turns around, power walks up to Jeter, sticks his middle finger in Jeter's face and shouts "Fuck you" and walks out of the arena. While this is bleeped on TV, you get the point. . Jeter turns to a cameraman and says, "Do you believe this guy?" , and the cameraman then starts cursing at Jeter, puts his camera down by Al Snow and walks off as well! Heyman has Jeter playing this no good prick who everyone should hate, and has everyone hating him. Why can't anyone else write this good? It doesn't seem very complicated.  Jeter turns his attention to Al, and asks if Al has a problem. Al never says a word, and starts taking off his watch. This is amazing. When Al stands up, Brent Albright comes out of the locker room with a bunch of people holding him back. Jeter eggs Albright on, but Albright breaks free and they start a brawl that looked like it was pretty real. People going nuts. The wrestlers pull Albright away, and Jeter grabs Dean Hill's chair and turns around and while everyone is holding back Albright, that's the cheap shot Jeter was looking for and he bashes Albright over the head with the chair. This enrages the babyfaces, because they were holding Albright. So everyone starts walking towards Jeter, who gets into the ring. Everyone is getting in the ring with Jeter, and he's surrounded. OVW Owner Danny Davis runs into the ring and instructs the wrestlers surrounding Jeter to leave. Davis even tells the remaining ringside cameraman to leave. Davis then says to Jeter, "You STAY!" Davis is screaming in Jeter's face and starts slapping him with both lefts and rights. Davis starts punching Jeter, who is bumping everyone. Jeter gets his hands on his title belt and smashes Danny Davis, who takes a bump. Jeter starts whipping Danny with the OVW Heavyweight Title belt.

My thoughts are this. This angle was simply amazing. Every week, Heyman continues to present better and better shows. The angle last week with Cappotelli was so good, and came off even better on TV. This angle just played out amazingly, because one thing lead to another, and then lead to another. Heyman's attention to detail on these angles is what makes them seem so real. This was as heated an angle as any one I have ever seen in OVW history.

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