WWE Ends Relationship With OVW

[Flair Country]

GERWECK.NET has just learned that World Wrestling Entertainment has ended its relationship with Danny Davis' Ohio Valley Wrestling group as a developmental territory. John Laurinaitis was in Louisville today to make the announcement. All wrestlers under contract to WWE will be transferred to Florida Championship Wrestling in Tampa, FL.


Gerweck

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for this.

[Kaz]

wwe.com annonced it too and has a massive statement about ti (couldn't be stuffed reading it all)

[Ill Will]

^ It wasn't that long:

http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2008/2008_02_07.jsp

WWE® To Cease Affiliation With Ohio Valley Wrestling
February 7, 2008
World Wrestling Entertainment® announced today that Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) will no longer be affiliated with World Wrestling Entertainment as an official developmental territory, making Florida Championship Wrestling™ (FCW™) WWE’s official development training facility for talent around the globe.

“Ohio Valley Wrestling has been a tremendous partner with World Wrestling Entertainment through the years, and we thank them for their work in developing many of today’s WWE Superstars,” said John Laurinaitis, Senior Vice President of Talent Relations. “We look forward to Florida Championship Wrestling playing host to the next generation of WWE Superstars recruited from around the world.”

Last November, WWE announced the formation of Florida Championship Wrestling, a new training center for future WWE Superstars. The facility has four wrestling rings and approximately 35 contracted athletes, with plans to increase that number to more than 70 in the near future. The facility is now fully operational, as WWE undertook large-scale renovations to FCW in order to accommodate its training needs. The finished training facility is more than 10,000 square feet, including an arena that will seat nearly 300 fans. The new training facility will also host a weekly show in front of a live audience, to be broadcast for regional television.

FCW is owned and operated by Steve Keirn, a former professional wrestler and producer for WWE. WWE trainer Tom Prichard oversees all talent training at the facility.

I've got to say that I'm pretty disappointed. OVW has been around a long time, and is a well-established promotion in the Mid-South area. It truly did serve WWE well, but to be honest, it did decline slightly after Cornette left, and didn't recover even with Paul Heyman's help. Regardless, virtually every young WWE superstar was in OVW at some point. It became almost a tradition, and it'll be kind of sad to see it go. I'm sure there will still be a promotion, just because there will still be interest in that territory, but without all the WWE talent, OVW won't be much. Surely WWE wants to just replace it with FCW, but it will never really be the same. We saw so many WWE (and even TNA) stars and gimmicks born in OVW. All that can't be forgotten.

[Kaz]

Its too long for me (Font is too small).

[Ill Will]

Its too long for me (Font is too small)....mmmkay...

[Kaz]

...mmmkay...

I'm lazy and have horrible eye sight (I struggle to read black writing on white background)