wrestling / News

OVW Announces Cancellation of TV Events Due to Coronavirus

March 14, 2020 | Posted by Jeffrey Harris
OVW Image Credit: OVW

– Another wrestling promotion has cancelled upcoming events due to the coronavirus. Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) has announced the cancellation of its live television events as a safety precaution due to the coronavirus. You can read the full announcement below:

Ohio Valley Wresting Cancels Live Television Events as Safety Precaution amid Coronavirus Concern

LOUISVILLE, Ky— Adhering to local, state and national health warnings on efforts to fight the spread of COVID-19 Louisville based Ohio Valley Wrestling will temporarily suspend its weekly live television events until April 7th, 2020.

OVW welcomes hundreds of fans every Tuesday night to the famed Davis Arena, located at 4400 Shepherdsville Road in Louisville, KY. The event airs live each week at 8pm on WBNA-TV.

With nearly 1100 episodes and more than 25 years on the air OVW TV is the longest running episodic professional wrestling series airing on local broadcast television in the United States. The series has been the training ground for some of sports entertainment’s biggest stars. OVW alumni include John Cena, Brock Lesnar and more than 150 others who went on to perform on the national stage.

“We have never missed a week of television and we won’t start now,” OVW Owner Al Snow said. “Our library is a treasure trove of wrestling and we are already hard at work putting together special editions of OVW TV that will lead up to our fan appreciation night.”

Fan Appreciation was originally scheduled for March 31st to coincide with OVW’s first national television taping in partnership with cable channel YouToo America. YTA will air OVW TV Friday nights at 9PST/12EST. The national broadcast will still debut April 3rd however due to the suspension of live events OVW’s Fan Appreciation will move to Tuesday April 7th. Admission is still free for the Fan Appreciation event.

“We couldn’t have reached this national milestone without the faithful fans of OVW, and their well-being along with the health and safety of our athletes and staff remains a top priority.”

This week OVW also suspended instruction at its training facility out of an abundance of caution due to the physical nature of in ring training and the manner in which the novel coronavirus is spread. At this time no in ring talent or staff member on our roster has tested positive for the virus.

“The Coronavirus is impacting education, entertainment and sports organizations across the country and OVW works in all three of these fields.” Snow said.

In 2019 the Kentucky Commission on Proprietary Education accredited OVW as the nation’s first trade school for professional wrestling and sports entertainment broadcasting. The program combines in ring training with management, business, and TV production course-work.

For more information about Ohio Valley Wrestling, visit www.ovwrestling.com