OWNER DANNY DAVIS

The founder, owner, and operator of Ohio Valley Wrestling, Danny Davis has been involved in the pro wrestling game for 30 years as a wrestler, manager, promoter, and trainer. A native of Jackson, Tennessee, Danny was trained in the game by the legendary Buddy Fuller. The extended Welch family, of which the famous Fullers and the Goldens were a part, dominated the sport from Kentucky to Florida from the 1930's to the 1980's, as both promoters and top wrestlers, eventually boasting more than two dozen family members involved in the sport.

Danny's early training consisted of wrestling the way it was done in the South during the Depression era through the 1950's, employing crippling holds and moves that were the forerunners of today's "shoot-style" wrestling. Danny's physical and mental toughness came to the front here as though small in stature, no one could make him give up or discourage him from his goals. Soon after, he began wrestling in the Memphis area, where he learned more of the "catch-as-catch-can" style popular in that territory at the time.

Barely two years as a pro. Davis earned a main-event spot as a wrestler / manager, guiding the careers of the Blond Bombers Wayne Farris (later the Honky Tonk Man) and Larry Latham (later Moondog Spot). After that team split, Danny was back in the ring as one half of the masked team The Nightmares, going through a couple of different partners before his style meshed with a young man named Ken Wayne, who he stayed with for most of the decade.

At one point in 1983, wrestling as the Galaxians, Davis and Wayne were managed by a young rookie named Jim Cornette. Cornette has said that much of his success with the Midnight Express can be credited to his experience managing a great team like Davis and Wayne, and lists Danny along with the Express' Beautiful Bobby Eaton as the two most technically perfect wrestlers he'd ever managed.

Tours of Canada, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, Indiana, Mexico, and Japan occupied the next ten years of Danny's career, with the "Nightmare" never straying too far from the South for too long because of his established main event reputation there.

After almost 15 years on the road, Davis relocated to the Louisville area and opened OVW, first as a training school, then a full-time promotion. Competing at under 225 pounds his entire career, Danny was never asked to showcase his talents in the size-conscious WWE, but the officials there certainly knew of his reputation, and eagerly signed the deal to make OVW an accredited WWE training facility in the summer of 1999. Danny Davis' no-nonsense approach to all facets of the business is what separates OVW from the rest as a promotion and proving ground.