Ohio Valley Wrestling

Founding & NWA roots (1993-1997)

OVW was founded by Nightmare Danny Davis in 1993^[8] as a NWA member under the name NWA Ohio Valley. The company primarily ran in the Kentucky and Indiana territories that were formerly run by the USWA with weekly shows run out of the Original Davis Arena on Mechanics street in Jeffersonville, Indiana and larger shows run out of the Louisville Gardens in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1997 OVW would end it's relationship with the National Wrestling Alliance and rename itself Ohio Valley Wrestling. Trailer Park Trash would become the first OVW Champion defeating Vic the Bruiser on August 17 of that year.

TV Era (1998-Present)

On January 11, 1998 OVW would tape the first episode of its weekly television series. It would emanate from the original Davis Arena in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Louisville Gardens ring announcer Dean Hill did play by play duties with Faye Davis as the Ring Announcer. The show would also feature an introduction to the company by owner Danny Davis. The main event would be Nick Dinsmore and Rob Conway vs Juan Hurtado and The Intern.^[9]

OVW becomes Developmental Territory for WWE (1999-2008)

On July 10th 1999 Jim Cornette who was a WWE booker and on screen personality at the time made his first appearance on OVW TV. He announced that he was moving back to Kentucky from Stanford, Connecticut and that OVW would be the official farm system for WWE and he would be the companies official match maker. He would also become the Color Commentator of the weekly series alongside Dean Hill from this point going forward.^[10] The first WWE contracted talent to be assigned to OVW would be Rico Constantino. The first group of developmental stars would prove historical as prospects developed under this class would go on to be the biggest names in pro wrestling and beyond in the 2000s.^[11]

New Davis Arena

With the influx of new talent the company out grew it's small location in Jeffersonville and needed to expand. The final show at the original arena would be on August 21, 2002 headlined by a match between Damaja and Rene Dupree.^[12] On September 4, 2002 the company would debut its show at the current Davis Arena at 4400 Shepherdsville Rd in Louisville, Ky. This venue could seat up to 500. Even with the expansion, lines before the show would start hours beforehand with a large standing room crowd being let in after seats were filled. The first main event would be Doug Basham vs Chris Benoit.

The end of the Jim Cornette era

On July 10, 2005 Jim Cornette would be fired from the WWE which would include being relieved of his position overseeing OVW. This was after an incident where he was reported to have slapped one of OVW's beginners class students Anthony Carelli for having an inappropriate reaction when being confronted by a horror character called The Boogeyman during one of the companies shows.^[13] The two have not been on positive terms since with them having a confrontation during an event in which both were booked as recent as October 2017.^[14] Cornette would be replaced in the OVW Broadcast booth by WWE Trainer Al Snow with his position overseeing creative being taken over by Paul Heyman. This would be short lived as Heyman would eventually be put in charge of the revived ECW brand leaving OVW television having a revolving door of producers which included many ECW alum as well as former AWA booker Greg Gagne. Eventually the booking duties would go to Al Snow who would have the longest tenure outside of Cornette. Jim Cornette was still part owner of the company for another two years before selling his end to Davis in 2007 ^[15]

End of the WWE era

Rumors circulated that WWE was looking to relocate its developmental talent. The main reason given being location of OVW being a main factor with WWE's talent relations not wanting to have to travel to Kentucky with the preferred location being Florida where many of them lived. Deep South Wrestling was established in Georgia but did not last long as it was never able to reach the popularity in its market that OVW had in Louisville. In 2007 the rumors were proven true when WWE helped fund Florida Championship Wrestling in Tampa, Florida.

Initially the two operated together but on February 7, 2008, WWE announced that it had ended its relationship with OVW as a developmental territory, moving all contracted talent to Florida Championship Wrestling.^[3] However, on September 23, 2009, OVW announced via a press release from WWE that Senior EVP John Laurinaitis visited and scouted OVW wrestlers and that WWE will take "a much more active role in recruiting OVW developed talent". Throughout 2008 and 2009 WWE-contracted talent would make occasional appearances on OVW shows including a John Cena vs Lance Cade main event for the companies final Kentucky Kingdom Show^[16] and OVW talent has remained a large part of WWE's recruiting classes with many talents signed to the WWE since February 2008 and many more being used on WWE programming as extras or enhancement talent. On February 22 and 23, 2010 the WWE in conjunction with OVW held a two-day tryout camp for independent wrestlers. It was the first event of this nature held outside Florida Championship Wrestling since FCW became WWE's sole developmental territory. WWE would eventually buy OVW's video tape library and has featured some of its top stars early matches on various DVD's and on its WWE Network.

Post WWE era

OVW would see a drastic change in 2008 with much of its established roster being picked up by the WWE and TNA Impact Wrestling that same year. Starting in the beginning of 2009 it would shut down its own developmental system Derby City Wrestling and merge the rosters with the remainder of the talent left in Ohio Valley Wrestling. Creative would initially go to Danny Davis and long time referee Ray Ramsey but in early 2009 the company fell on financial hardship. In an attempt to keep the company afloat OVW alumnus John "Bradshaw" Layfield would eventually leave the WWE and sponsor the company himself.^[17] Meanwhile, creatively it was decided to let some of the younger veteran talent as well as members of its production crew help "modernise" the show to draw new fans. These changes would include being one of the first full-time professional wrestling organizations to have a weekly online series and the introduction of monthly pay per view live events. Much like with its wrestler training, members of the post developmental transition team have gone on to make names for themselves not only in the front offices of major pro wrestling companies but throughout the sports and entertainment world with members including The Florida Panthers Bill Clark,^[18] Seminole Hard Rock Casino's Rob Longo, NXT's James Long^[19] and the NFHS's Jason Frost.^[20] The creative team included eventual TNA Impact tag champion Anarquia, Global Force Wrestling Australia's Ali Vaez and WWE star Viktor

Partnership with Ring of Honor (2010-2011)

On September 8, 2010, in what was dubbed the company's season premiere, Danny Davis, who himself was making his return for the first time in over a year, announced that Jim Cornette was returning to his role as match maker of the company.^[21] Cornette, who was also executive producer of Ring of Honor's HDNet show, stated that Ring of Honor (ROH) talent as well as talent from other companies were going to work in OVW along with the current crop of stars and returning former OVW stars in an effort to return the company to its previous reputation as the best independent wrestling company to get recruited from. A similar claim was made by Cornette during the announcement of the ROH HDNet program moving its tapings to the OVW/Davis arena. This would also mark when Ring of Honor would start using the larger regulation sized ring which was provided to them by OVW.

TNA Impact Developmental (2011-2013)

On November 7, 2011, it was announced that OVW and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) had reached an agreement for OVW to become TNA's official training and developmental territory.^[22] TNA's Director of Talent Relations Al Snow returned as booker of the company, replacing the outgoing Jim Cornette. The announcement which was first announced on Twitter by Dixie Carter abruptly ended the ROH/OVW relationship. The deal was put together when former WWE talent relations executive and OVW proponent Bruce Prichard was hired by Impact to a similar position. Impact immediately sent younger talent to Louisville for seasoning and Doug Williams was also sent down as a veteran trainer to work with younger talent on the show and help them in ring while veteran wrestlers Josie and Epiphany would hold a similar role for the female wrestlers. OVW would also become the primary home to the winners of TNA's Gut Check and British Bootcamp contests with owner Danny Davis even being a judge on Gut Check during its final segments before OVW and TNA mutually ended the relationship on November 2, 2013 after a financial dispute.^[5][23]

Purchased by Gladiator Sports Network (2018-Present)

On April 6, 2018, it was announced that Al Snow was purchasing the promotion from Danny Davis, who was planning to retire but didn't want to shut the company down.^[24] On September 12, 2018 it was announced that Ohio Valley Wrestling would be merging with Top Notch Boxing who is a major boxing promotion in Louisville to form the Gladiator Sports Network with the goal to expand both companies to a more national audience.^[25] OVW's first big event under the Gladiator Sports banner will be its 1000th episode on October 10 from Louisville's Fourth Street Live!. This will mark OVW's first ever live televised event and will air on FITE.TV October 10.^[26]

Defunct championships

Male wrestlers

Female wrestlers

Commentary team

Officials

Management