OVW Heavyweight Championship

The OVW Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling heavyweight championship owned by the Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) promotion. The title was introduced on August 17, 1997 at an OVW live event, then known as the NWA-OVW Heavyweight Championship due to OVW's relationship with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) governing body. OVW eventually parted ways with the NWA in October 2001, and the title was renamed the OVW Heavyweight Championship. OVW later became a developmental territory for the World Wrestling Entertainment organization, but their partnership eventually ceased on February 7, 2008. The title has no known weight-limit, even though it is a heavyweight championship.

Title changes happen mostly at OVW promoted events. The inaugural champion was a man known as Trailer Park Trash. His reign began on August 17, 1997, but ended in a vacancy for unknown reasons; it is also unknown how he became the first champion. Nick Dinsmore holds the record of most reigns, with ten. At 192 days, Rip Rogers's first reign is the longest in the title's history. Rob Conway's fourth reign, Chet the Jett's second reign, and Vladimir Kozlov's only reign are all tied for the record of shortest reign in the title's history at less than one day each. Nick Dinsmore's combined ten reign lengths add up to 529 days—the most of any wrestler. Overall, there have been 85 reigns shared between 42 wrestlers, with seven vacancies. One of those vacancies was due to then-champion Matt Cappotelli being diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, and thus he chose to vacate the championship.



Previous champion
Rudy Switchblade began his first title reign, after defeating previous champion Nick Dinsmore, Adam Revolver, James Thomas, Jason Wayne, Mike Mondo, Ted McNaler and Rocco Bellagio in an Eight Man Melee on November 2, 2011, to win the title.

Current champion
Marcus Anthony is the current champion. He began his first championship reign after defeating Jamin Olivencia during the OVW Saturday Night Special on January 4, 2014. This officially made Anthony's first official singles championship.

List of combined reigns
As of August 28, 2024

Trivia

 * Nick Dinsmore holds the record for the most OVW Championship reigns (10).
 * Prototype (now John Cena), Leviathan (now Batista) and CM Punk are the only former OVW Heavyweight Champions who have gone on to win a world title in WWE.
 * Paul Burchill is the first Englishman to hold the OVW Title.
 * Rob Conway, Chet the Jett, Vladimir Kozlov and Cody Runnels (now Cody Rhodes) are the only four wrestlers to lose the title in under 24 hours.