The End Of An Era!

On Feb. 7, 2008 , WWE announced that they had ended their relationship with OVW as a developmental territory, moving all contracted talent to Florida Championship Wrestling.
For the past 10 years "Nightmare" Danny Davis has been making superstar after superstar for the WWE. It truly is the end of an era, and one that a lot of wrestling fans are sad about. Years from now they will be inducting a lot of his students in the Hall of Fame, I am sure. Here is a list of his students that are still working in the WWE.

Beth Phoenix, "The Big Show" Paul Wight, Carlito Colón, Charlie Haas, Cody Rhodes, D.H. Smith, Drew McIntyre, Jillian Hall, John Cena, Katie Lea Burchill, Lance Cade, Maria Kanellis, Malina Perez, Mickie James, Mr. Kennedy, Paul Burchill, Paul London, Randy Orton, "Highlander" Robbie McAllister, "Highlander" Rory McAllister, Santino Marella, Gene Snitsky, Dave Batista, Cherry, Curt Hawkins, Deuce, Domino, Eve Torres, Festus, Jesse, Kenny Dykstra, Mark Henry, Maryse Ouellet, Michelle McCool, Victoria, Zack Ryder, Armando Estrada, "The Boogeyman" Marty Wright, CM Punk, Elijah Burke, John Morrison, Kelly Kelly, Kofi Kingston, Shelton Benjamin, "The Miz" Mike Mizanin.

I am not going to say WWE would not be what it is today without OVW and Danny Davis. Full credit would still have to be given to the McMahon's for that, but OVW gave them the building blocks in which to do so. The list above is just the currently active OVW Alumni, I could not even begin to list the ones that have already left the WWE.

By the looks of things, it would seem that OVW is planning on continuing with business as usual. They definitely have the talent to do so. Also it seems that the talent have a little more freedom now to do a little more with their gimmicks. I don't believe Vince is totally going to turn off the tap either. He knows Danny Davis is a maker of superstars and will be grabbing a couple of talents here and there from the ranks of OVW. It is still sad to see the relationship ended though.

Since I live in the OVW area I will be posting from time to time a short profile of some of the current OVW talent and reasons why I think they are ready to be called up to one of the major shows. Weather it be WWE or TNA. So be looking for these posts in the future!
I would like to congratulate "The Fabulous One" Steve Keirn and FCW on being the new developmental contract they have with the WWE. I have always been a big fan of his and I wish him and his school the best of luck. You have mighty big boots to fill!