The Crystal Ball 12.30.05:OVW Year-End Awards (Part 2)
Posted by Steve Sullivan on 12.30.2005
Best Tag Team Of The Year? Storyline Of The Year? And most importantly, OVW Wrestler Of The Year? Find out in the 2005 finale of The Crystal Ball!
The end of 2005 is here. The OVW wrestlers have been given the holidays off, which caps off a truly breakout year for the small indy federation. OVW in 2005 became one of the most talked about organizations on the Internet and gave this columnist a new job. We saw a few new champions. Some stars who rose out of nowhere. Brutal matches and a change in management. 2005 truly was a great year for OVW and 2006 can only bring improvements to an impressive year.
Welcome to Part 2 Of The Year End Edition of the Crystal Ball! Last week, we looked into the future, naming those who seemed to have a great future in the WWE, those who will break out in OVW this upcoming year, and who the best callup from OVW to the WWE was. A recap of the winners:
Most Likely To Breakout In OVW in 2006- C.M. Punk
Most Likely To Be Called Up To The WWE in 2006- Ken Doane
Best Callup To The WWE in 2005- MNM
This week, we will look into the best of 2005. Who was involved in the best storyline? Who was the best Tag Team? And most importantly, who won the prestigious 2006 OVW Wrestler Of The Year?? Meet the writers!
Larry Csonka- If you haven't read one of his columns. You aren't really tying hard enough.
Ari Berenstien- Column of Honor and C.M. Punk's Mickie James.
Bayani Domingo- From Truth B Told. I guess he thought he owed me a favor for helping him with some stable information!
Steve Sullivan- You're reading it. The Anti Team Spirit and Boogeyfan for life!
Let's get started! OVW had a breakout year creative wise. What was the most exciting storyline in OVW in 2005?? The nominees include:
Story Of The Year:
Johnny Jeter Turns On Matt Cappotelli and wins the OVW Title- Many wrestling fans in Kentuckiana and across the world were talking about this one. The former tag team champions broke apart after Matt Cappotelli suffered a broken fibula. Johnny Jeter went on to win the World Title from Brent Albright and would then wreak havoc on Matt Cappotelli and OVW for the next 3 months. Wrestling fans were glued to their TV's every week to find out what Jeter was going to do next. These were some of the most purchased DVD's for OVW ever!
Brent Albright Becomes The First Ever Triple Crown Champion- Not only did he become the first ever TV Champion early in 2005, but later that year, he won the Heavyweight Championship and became the first dual title holder in OVW history and the First Ever Triple Crown Champion in OVW history, having won the Tag Team Titles as a member of the Troubleshooters. A great moment in OVW history.
Jim Cornette Is Fired & Replaced By Paul Heyman- As we all learned, this is all The Boogeyman's fault! Cornette lost his fuse and went off on a wrestler which subsequently cost him his job. Who do you replace a legend with? Another legend of course! Paul Heyman comes in and completely changes the direction of OVW. His work has shown, as a slew of wrestlers were getting the WWE call at the end of 2005.
Matt Cappotelli Gets Revenge And Defeats Johnny Jeter To Win The OVW Title- After months of torment and torture with a broken leg, Cappotelli came in with vengence in his first match back in OVW challenging Jeter for the OVW title. He wouldn't get it in his first match back, but would get a best of 3 match the next week. After losing the first fall, Cappotelli put on a great comeback to win the other two falls, winning the last fall with a top rope superkick.
TV Title Turmoil- The introduction of the TV Title brought out the best in some wrestlers. We saw the singles power of Brent Albright, Ken Doane, C.M. Punk and others. We also saw the first ever OVW TV Title Tournament. It was a great addition to OVW's competition.
Let's see what the writers think:
Larry Csonka
Johnny Jeter Turns On Matt Cappotelli and wins the OVW Title – An out of nowhere storyline that ended up great. Cappotelli get hurt and Jeter totally makes it work and gets over huge as a heel. I really enjoyed the angle.
Matt Cappotelli Gets Revenge And Defeats Johnny Jeter To Win The OVW Title
Brent Albright Becomes The First Ever Triple Crown Champion
Ari Berenstein
Jim Cornette Is Fired & Replaced By Paul Heyman-When you have a name long associated with the product like Cornette was to OVW, when that person is removed and replaced by someone of Paul Heyman's caliber, then that is huge news. Heyman has actually done a good job of remaining true to the heart of OVW while putting his own mark on the product and the result has been some of the best wrestling shows never to be seen by a national television viewing audience. However, if I were an OVW long time viewer, I'd still miss Cornette something fierce.
Johnny Jeter Turns On Matt Cappotelli and wins the OVW Title
Brent Albright Becomes The First Ever Triple Crown Champion
Bayani Domingo
Johnny Jeter Turns On Matt Cappotelli and wins the OVW Title - I had no clue who Jeter was until I read this so I'm going with this. Plus, it kinda made these guys important in a weird, "who is gonna be Jannetty" kinda way. <
Brent Albright Becomes The First Ever Triple Crown Champion
Jim Cornette Is Fired & Replaced By Paul Heyman
Steve Sullivan
Johnny Jeter Turns On Matt Cappotelli and wins the OVW Title- This storyline had the whole world watching and reading OVW TV results. It was exciting and made you wonder what was going to happen next. It also kept a fan favorite on TV despite a broken leg that added even more to the storyline. Pure genius.
Brent Albright Becomes The First Ever Triple Crown Champion
Jim Cornette Is Fired & Replaced By Paul Heyman
Here's the results:
5th Place- TV Title Turmoil (0 Points)
4th Place- Matt Cappotelli Gets Revenge And Defeats Johnny Jeter For The OVW Title (2 Points)
3rd Place- Brent Albright Becomes The First Ever Triple Crown Champion (6 Points)
2nd Place- Jim Cornette Is Fired & Replaced By Paul Heyman (7 Points)
2005 Storyline Of The Year- Johnny Jeter Turns On Matt Cappotelli and wins the OVW Title (17 points)
The storyline that got everyone's attention. The storyline is still continuing and is far from stale, though its future is now doubtful with Cappotelli's recent diagnosis. 2006 seems to have some great storylines in store as well.
Next up, Tag Team Of The Year. The WWE needs tag teams bad. Many were called up. Not all of them saw success. But many tag teams have great success in the OVW. The nominees are as follows:
MNM- The two time former WWE Champs shared a great success in OVW early in 2005. They shared a couple of reigns as the Southern Tag Team Champions before getting the call up to the WWE this past summer.
The Heart Throbs- They haven't had any success whatsoever in the WWE, but in the OVW, they were highly successful and very popular. They didn't grab any gold in the OVW, as they were called up quickly by the OVW, but their in ring antics were enjoyed by many and kept it fun to watch.
The Tolands (The Dicks)- With the assistance of Jillian Hall and Ken Kennedy, "The Blonde Bombers" had quite a big of success in OVW as heels. They had a couple of reigns as the Tag Champs and held the titles until dropping them to the current champs Seth Skyfire and Chet The Jet, to be called up to play The Dicks gimmick.
Seth Skyfire & Chet The Jet- The current champs have enjoyed a long and successful reign as OVW Tag Champs. They are fan favorites and Skyfire is a tag team expert, as this is his 3rd reign as a Tag Champion. They defend their titles almost weekly in highly exciting and high flying matches.
The Thrillseekers (Matt Cappotelli & Johnny Jeter)- Before they broke up, they were the Tag Champs, dethroning MNM and defeating fellow nominee The Tolands on several occasions.
Who was the best Tag Team? Let's find out!
Larry Csonka
The Heart Throbs – All of these tag teams were so great in OVW, until they had their act neutered. The HeartBREAKERS were just great as an overall ct and package I OVW. Then they had their mouthpiece taken away, then they changed their music, name and finally made them not gay and they were job fodder on Raw. But they were great in OVW!
MNM
The Tolands (The Dicks)
Ari Berenstein
The Tolands- Here is where my lack of watching all year starts to hurt me, so take that into consideration. From what I've seen and heard about their recent run in OVW, The Tolands were a wrecking machine against all the other tag teams in OVW. Sounds to me like that deserves some recognition.
MNM
The Heart Throbs
Bayani Domingo
The Heart Throbs- I hear they were over...too bad they were watered down and forgotten. Plus the "e" decided to copy their gimmick with a couple of Dicks later on.
The Tolands (The Dicks)
The Thrillseekers (Matt Cappotelli & Johnny Jeter)
Steve Sullivan
The Heart Throbs- They were fun. They had the crowd looking forward to tag team wrestling. The kids loved them. There were a couple kids who they would bring to the ring in pink feather boas who would do the hand slap/dance routine. It was a lot of fun and it's a damn shame the WWE didn't take advantage of its popularity.
Seth Skyfire & Chet The Jet
MNM
Here's the results:
5th Place- The Thrillseekers (1 Point)
4th Place- Seth Skyfire & Chet The Jet (2 Points)
3rd Place- MNM (5 Points)
2nd Place- The Tolands (8 Points)
2005 OVW Tag Team Of The Year- The Heart Throbs (16 Points)- Known as The Heartbreakers in OVW, the success of the now WWE jobbers has been all but forgotten but by those who saw how great they were in OVW.
And now what it all comes down to. The big one. Can I get a drum roll?? ……. OK maybe not. Who is the 2005 OVW Wrestler Of The Year? The nominees are as follows:
Brent Albright- He became the first ever TV Champion, won the World Title, became the first ever OVW Triple Crown Champion, and gave an exclusive interview to 411mania. Not that has anything to do with the voting.
Johnny Jeter- Became involved in the hottest OVW angle in the history of the federation. He won the World Title and had a stranglehold on the World Title until losing it to former partner and nominee Matt Cappotelli.
Matt Cappotelli- Has been through everything. Concussions. Broken legs. Now a brain tumor. He still managed to win the OVW Title and is the current holder of the title. He got revenge on his partner and the crowd is crazy for him.
Ken Doane- Broke out big and made the heel turn to win the OVW TV Title. He's currently involved in a very hot angle between Brent Albright and C.M. Punk and is about to make his WWE debut soon as…a male cheerleader.
Chris Cage- Cage returned to OVW just in time to make a big impact in the last show of 2005, turning on Matt Cappotelli and forming a huge stable with Johnny Jeter and Mark Henry. The former OVW Champion is also on his way up to Raw.
Who gets the big one?? Let's find out!
Larry Csonka
Brent Albright – Triple Crown = Awesome stuff. Albright has now done it all in OVW, and maybe after a long time of teasing the E will actually bring him up.
Johnny Jeter
Matt Cappotelli
Ari Berenstein
Brent Albright - The man can simply wrestle circles around the rest of his competition. his style is reminiscent of Chris Benoit, simple and effective use of submission moves, suplexes, and a nearly unbeatable finish with the Crowbar. He gets a lot of play with the OVW fans in his role and just realizing he is a triple crown champion seals the deal. "Get Out or Tap Out", either way, Albright is OVW wrestler of the year.
Ken Doane
Johnny Jeter
Bayani Domingo
Matt Capotelli - This guy is becoming the Lance Armstrong of OVW, he either has the worst luck of any wrestler in OVW history, or a serious hotline to the man upstairs...no, not Vince McMahon.
Brent Albright
Johnny Jeter
Steve Sullivan
Brent Albright- Nobody had a better year than Brent Albright. He won the medium one and the big one. He got into a great angle with C.M. Punk and Ken Doane. He was the successor to the hottest OVW angle of the year. Albright has had nothing but success and is very deserving of a WWE callup ASAP.
Johnny Jeter
Matt Cappotelli
Who gets the honor?
5th Place- Chris Cage (0 Points)
4th Place- Ken Doane (2 Points)
3rd Place- Johnny Jeter (7 Points) TIE
3rd Place- Matt Cappotelli (7 Points) TIE
2005 OVW Wrestler Of The Year- Brent Albright (17 Points)
A landslide vote for The Shooter, the former OVW Champion, TV Champion, and Tag Champion. His impressive year grabs him the first ever Crystal Ball OVW Wrestler Of The Year!
That's it. Here's a recap of the winners once again:
Most Likely To Breakout In OVW in 2006- C.M. Punk
Most Likely To Be Called Up To The WWE in 2006- Ken Doane
Best Callup To The WWE in 2005- MNM
Best Storyline of 2005-Johnny Jeter Turns On Matt Cappotelli To Win The OVW Title
2005 Tag Team Of The Year- The Heart Throbs
2005 Wrestler Of The Year- Brent Albright
Thanks for reading the year end edition of The Crystal Ball! A special thanks to 411mania for bringing me in to be a part of the crew and thanks to the writers who helped me out over the last couple of months. I hope to continue to bring you great OVW coverage in 2006 and am looking forward to an exciting year for wrestling. Happy new year!
