Last Week - The Demon of the Deep Leviathan powerbombed Randy Orton. Rico Constantino lost a loser-leave-OVW handicapped tag match to his former tag-team partner the Prototype and his former manager "King" Kenny Boland. A #1 contender's match between the Minnesota Stretching Crew and the Disciples of Syn was declared a no contest when Syn threw a fireball in the face of Brock Lesnar. "Mr. Wrestling" Nick Dinsmore and the Damaga beat "Sexy" Sean Casey and Chris Michaels in a tag match, and the "Machine" Doug Basham retained his OVW heavyweight title over Flash Flanagan with the help of some interference by the Revolution, Bull Buchanan and Trailer Park Trash.

I Don't Get Letters: Mr. Obvious is still a little embarrassed over his incorrect prediction that it would be the Undertaker turning at Survivor Series last week. Seeing the Man (Whoooo) back certainly makes up for that, and also helps to erase the nightmares of having to see Mr. Mac-Man strike the Coppertone pose (yuck!). No matter how many times I've seen his promos this week, I've marked out every time.

The sweet, pavlovian sounds of "Bodies" by Drowning Pool welcomes us to the Davis "Arena" and OVW Wrestling. The next image we see is a very somber James E. Cornette welcoming us to a very special edition of OVW. (OVW tapes it's weekly shows on Wednesday nights and since this past Wednesday was the night before Thanksgiving, they didn't have a taping this week)

Opening Update: James E. Cornette

Brock Lesnar is seeing a specialist about his injury from last week via Syn's fireball. The smarks among us will realize that those specialists are the WWF wrestlers that are making him count the lights as he learns how things work in the bigs over the holidays.

However, Cornette wants to talk about the OVW championship situation. He flashes back to July of 2001 where the Machine had put Trailer Park Trash in the hospital with a devastating piledriver. The Machine and the Revolution had also put Cornette in the hospital with an old-school parking lot beating. In retaliation for those actions, a match was signed between the Machine and then-OVW champion Flash Flanagan for the title. The Revolution ran interference as Flash set up for his whiplash finisher allowing Machine to get his DDT on Flash for the pin and the title. Also as a result of the match, Flash was hospitalized with an injury to his arm.

When Cornette returned from the hospital, he swore vengeance upon the Machine and the Revolution. He stated that anytime Basham stepped in the ring, he would have to defend the OVW title against all comers, and when he lost, he would be fired from OVW. To speed up the process, James E. would bring in some hired guns from the WWF to get the job done. First up was the Big Show. Despite interference from the Revolution, Show was able to pin the Machine. However, in the confusion after the match, Doug Basham ran out and revealed that Show had pinned another member of the Revolution in Basham's leather S&M mask. Thus, he retained the title.

As a result of the Revolution's continued interference, they were put into a six-man tag match against Team OVW, which consisted of "Mr. Wrestling" Nick Dinsmore, the Damaga, and the "Ironman" Rob Conway. The stipulation was that if any member of Team OVW pinned any member of the Revolution, they would become OVW champion. To counter, Victoria (formerly one of the Godfather's "Ho's") debuted as the Revolution's valet, and assisted the Revolution in beating Team OVW.

Growing increasingly desperate, Cornette imported Bull Buchanan from the WWF. The Big 300 pounder was able to overcome interference from the Revolution, but couldn't overcome the returning Flash Flanagan who swore to protect Basham from losing the belt until he could be the one to take it from him. Further proving this, he interfered in the Machine's next match with Val Venis, giving him the whiplash so Machine could score the win. After the match, Flash also laid out the Machine.

Then a confusing situation got worse, Bull Buchanan stole the OVW belt from Basham's home, so Machine would give him a rematch. To settle the situation, a #1 contender's match between Flash and Bull was signed. As seen in the 11.03.01 Audit, Flash was about to win the match and the title shot, but Trailer Park Trash made his return and gave Flash a DDT which allowed Bull to do the non-yodelling legdrop for win. TPT was bitter that Flash didn't try to hook up with him to take on the Revolution while they were both in the hospital.

As recounted in the 11.10.01 audit, EVERYONE got involved in Bull and the Machine's match allowing Basham to retain the belt. This led to last week's 4-month-in-the-making showdown between Flash and Machine where again, there was mucho interferenco allowing Basham to retain in an awesome match.

Cornette has now had enough. He hasn't been able to import anyone to get the job done, and everyone in OVW has had a shot and can't get it done. Oh wait, there is ONE person left in OVW who hasn't had a shot, but he's going to have to make a deal with the devil to get it done. We cut to Cornette and cameraman "Chris" outside a funeral home. Cornette mugs around a bit to sell the spontaneity of the situation and then rings the doorbell. Syn answers and invites Jim and cameraman Chris in. Cornette has come to reluctantly ask for a favour. Cornette says that since the Demon of the Deep, Leviathan is under a personal services contract to Syn, he can't book him in a match against the Machine, so he asks Syn to let him book the match. Syn runs down all Cornette's nicknames for her "Bitch Hazel, Beelzebroad, Satan's Cheerleader, the Wicked Witch of Kentuckiana." I say it should be Screaming Mimi (Think Drew Carey's nemesis in short skirts, thigh-highs, and red hair....okay stop cringing). Mimi, I mean Syn says that she'll allow Cornette to book Leviathan in the match, but someday she'll require a favour of him. Jim has no choice but to agree. This brings out Leviathan who grabs Cornette by the collar and we have the following exchange:

Leviathan: "Do you fear the powers of the Lord"

James E. Cornette: "Yessir, yessir"

Leviathan: "When you make a bargain with Syn, you make a bargain with OUR Lord, and I'm his right hand man. Don't betray Syn, because if you betray Syn, you betray ME, and if you betray me, you will feel the fires of HELL!"

Syn laughs manically and we return to the studio where Cornette shakes off the unnerving experience and says that as a result of this Faustian bargain, we will see the Demon of the Deep and the Guardian of the Gates of Hell, Leviathan versus the Machine for the OVW championship next week. The only pinfall win against Leviathan in singles competition came last year at Christmas Chaos when Kane was able to tame the Demon, but only with assistance from Stone Cold Steve Austin.

The show closes with a special video look at Leviathan. As clips of Syn taking beatings from various OVW superstars plays, she waves what appears to be a gingerbread man over a kettle in her fireplace. Leviathan appears, complete with chain around his neck and fangs in his mouth. We also see some cheesy video of the Demon of the Deep climbing out of a shallow grave in a graveyard and tearing up a wooded area near the Ohio River. The big match is next week!!!

Conclusion: Well, it is a clip show, so it's got that going against it. However, I certainly understand it given the timing of their taping schedule. For those who have watched the show every week, this was probably extremely boring. However, for those of us (like me) who haven't watched the show every week until recently, this was an excellent recap of why things are the way they are surrounding the OVW title. I am looking forward to the big match next week, as well as an update on Lesnar and what they'll do with the tag belts. I'll be back, will you? Some feedback would be appreciated. Is anybody even reading these??

Thanks for reading.