In a move that probably should have happened a lot sooner, TNA has announced it has come to terms with Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) to become its new training and developmental program.
According to the press release, Danny Davis, the owner of OVW, will work closely with Bruce Prichard to develop talent through "training, live events, and weekly television production allowing talent to explore every aspect of the business."
Basically, TNA finally has somewhere to send its guys to actually get them ready for TV.
If OVW sounds familiar, that's because it was the developmental territory to WWE for eight years and produced megastars like Batista, Brock Lesnar and John Cena. Even after ending its deal with OVW, WWE maintained a close relationship with the program, though that's obviously no longer the case.
Current TNA wrestler Matt Morgan, who had his own stint with OVW, commented on the news on Twitter:
"Ecstatic that TNA has new deal in place for OVW to be used as our developmental system. That's where I trained as a list of who's who in wrestling today. We are very fortunate to have Danny Davis/OVW/trainers in helping our superstars of tomorrow."
Indeed, it should be rather interesting to see if Al Snow, Rip Rogers and Nick Dinsmore can get these young whippersnappers into shape and turn a few of them into stars.
An interesting side note here is the status of the relationship between OVW and Ring of Honor (ROH), which consisted of ROH holding events at the OVW Arena and talent exchanges. According to a Facebook post from OVW, that relationship will not change.
For those who have asked, our big announcement will not change our training programs listed on our website. You can still join the OVW school. Also, this will not negatively effect our relationship with Ring of Honor Wrestling, nor will it prevent future TV Tapings. ROH will still tape at OVW & use OVW talent.
Everybody wins.