OVW Indianapolis Invasion
February 25, 2024
Indianapolis, Indiana
Irving Theater
By Michael Weaver, Jr. [Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | X | YouTube]
This past Sunday, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) continued their national tour with a stop in Indianapolis, Indiana. The men and women of OVW made their debut at the Irving Theater to a jam-packed house of die-hard wrestling fans.
Before the show, I had the privilege of interviewing The Golden Lions. The Golden Lions are former OVW Tag Team Champions and are comprised of Ca$h Flo and “The Indian Lion” Mahabali Shera. Ca$h is a former OVW National Champion, former 2-time OVW Heavyweight Champion, and a former 6-time OVW Tag Team Champion. Shera is a former OVW Heavyweight Champion, former OVW National Champion, and a former OVW Tag Team Champion.
I asked what made them decide to become a tag team and Flo replied, “Well, we’re unstoppable. We’re unstoppable apart. We figured, why not tag up? See who can take us.”
When asked what their ultimate goals are, Flo responded by stating to win championships. It doesn’t matter if it’s singles gold or tag team gold – that’s the ultimate goal for every professional wrestler. He added, “We’re all about the gold!”
Flo told me that he is a big fan of professional wrestling and would watch such legendary performers as “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, Bruiser Brody, Manny Fernandez, and Wahoo McDaniel. Meanwhile in India, Shera would watch Dwayne”The Rock”Johnson, John Cena, Bill Goldberg, “The Viper” Randy Orton, and “The King of Kings” Triple H. He added that they were all of his favorites and he loves Triple H.
As the conversation turned towards dream matches, Flo would have enjoyed battling Ole & Arn Anderson or Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson when The Four Horsemen were running strong in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) during the 1980s.
He doesn’t necessarily have a dream match for current tag teams and invited anyone to “Bring it!” Ca$h said that it doesn’t matter what tag teams face them inside the squared circle because The Golden Lions will be victorious in the end. Shera added that The Golden Lions should be the dream opponents for all the other tag teams.
As the interview moved on to the Netflix documentary, Wrestlers, Ca$h feels there’s a misconception about it. “That documentary has done wonders for OVW as a company. But what people don’t realize is that OVW had an upward projectory before the show had come out. We were selling a lot of tickets. We were doing a lot of stuff. What that [Wrestlers] did, what that did was put OVW on the map, as far as what you call mainstream wrestling fans. Not necessarily wrestling fans, but kinda the mainstream, and what that does is increase all of our opportunities by tenfold. It’s been really busy. You don’t really have time to think these days. You know, you hardly have time to think nowadays, you might’ve had a few days, pre-Netflix documentary, but now we’re running on a full tank.”
He definitely hopes there’s another season of Wrestlers because, “All exposure is good in wrestling. That would be awesome! I honestly feel like, I know this is cliche in today’s wrestling, but I feel like the story has yet to be told. There’s still a lot more story to be told. I feel like it could do very well. Just my opinion.”
Viewers of Wrestlers will remember that one of the storylines the documentary told was how Shera was here in America while his family was in India. “It’s been more than three years since I’ve been home to see my family. I’m still waiting for the right opportunity to go back. I’m still talking to my Mom and family every day. I’m still close. I love them. So yeah, I haven’t had a chance to go back yet. I’m looking for the right opportunity to go back.”
After an exciting night of action, which featured appearances by the OVW National Heavyweight Champion EC3, Beaches & Cream, Dysfunction, Jake Omen, The Golden Lions, among others, and featured championship matches by Ohio Valley Wrestling Country Boy Brewing Media Champion Kal Herro, Ohio Valley Wrestling Rush Division Champion Manny Domingo, and the Ohio Valley Wrestling Women’s Champion Leilah Grey. The evening concluded with an exciting, Ohio Valley Wrestling Heavyweight Championship Match between the OVW Heavyweight Champion Jack Vaughn successfully defending the championship against “Certified” Luke Kurtis.
At the end of the evening, after all of the action had concluded, OVW Co-Owner and Executive Producer Al Snow made his way to the ring and had this to say to those in attendance:
Hello everybody! I want to say sincerely, and I’m not, listen, you hear this shit all the time. I get it. I understand. Okay? But I want you guys to understand how much this means to me that you’re all here tonight. I want to thank each and every single one of you. Thank you so much! I hope all of you had a good time. Did you have a great time? Again seriously, every one of us, all of us, every wrestler, every staff member, every referee, everybody pours their heart and their soul into OVW and we all only exist because of all of you! No mistake – professional wrestling is YOU! 100% YOU! All of you. And we, all of us in OVW, thank YOU for being here and we’ll be back. I promise!
During Snow’s message to the OVW faithful, he informed them that OVW management was speaking to the owner of the Irving Theater to return at the end of April.
There are a lot of companies in the industry that proclaim themselves to be the number one wrestling company or they’re the alternative to WWE. But that’s not what those in attendance heard or saw at the Irving Theater. They saw almost every member of the roster, the referees, and members of the Ohio Valley Wrestling management team walking around before the show to meet the OVW faithful.
This past Sunday, I witnessed the co-owner of a wrestling company, Al Snow, being accessible all show long. He didn’t sit in the backstage area or in a private box, like some owners do, to watch the show. Throughout the show, I saw numerous fans walk up to the former World Wrestling Federation (WWF) Hardcore Champion and either have a full-length conversation with him, get his autograph, or take their picture with him.
OVW Indianapolis Invasion was an intimate atmosphere. There were no security guards separating the fans from the OVW Superstars or the fans from Al Snow and the rest of the OVW management team. In fact, at one point, I witnessed Ca$h take time to speak to a little boy who wanted to talk to him about how to become a professional wrestler.
What I saw this past Sunday night at the Irving Theater in Indianapolis, Indiana was a group of men and women doing what they love to do – entertain a full house by performing the greatest form of entertainment – professional wrestling!
Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) can be seen every Thursday on FITE TrillerTV and YouTube LIVE from the Davis Arena in Louisville, Kentucky. Their next premium live event is titled OVW March Mayhem on March 16th. In this journalist’s opinion, if you have the opportunity to witness the fast paced action of Ohio Valley Wrestling live and in person – make sure you do. I promise you won’t regret it!
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