Bryan Kennison was standing at gorilla with his best friend when he first realized how much the Netflix documentary Wrestlers would change his life. “Dancing Stevie J” Stephen Johnson always went last when they were introduced as the announce team for OVW. That’s how Stevie J liked it, and Kennison was fine with it. But on that Thursday night, less than 48 hours after the documentary was released, Johnson stepped in front of his friend to go out first.
“What are you doing?” asked Kennison.
“This place is going to explode for you,” said Johnson. “Let’s give the people what they want.”
Bryan Kennison was never supposed to be featured in the documentary. The title is Wrestlers, after all, and plans were made to feature a number of rising and veteran stars. But when director Greg Whiteley’s cameras caught a private – and very real – conversation with Matt Jones about Kennison’s job, plans changed.
“I walked out of the office, and I could hear the footsteps behind me,” said Kennison. “I thought, ‘Oh no.'”
That evening, Kennison told his wife he had good news and bad news. “The documentary crew wants to come here and interview us,” he told her. “Also, I may be fired.”
Spoiler alert: Kennison was not fired. Almost two years later, he’s just accepted a promotion to Chief Commercial Officer under a new ownership group, and he could not be more excited for the future.
That future was very uncertain during the filming of Wrestlers. The drama about his job was real, and so were the tears shed on screen. “When people come up to me and say, ‘I saw you on Netflix!’ All I can think is, ‘You saw me cry on the golf course.'”
This tears elicited real empathy from viewers, including some WWE stars. “Kevin Owens is one of my all-time favorite wrestlers. He reached out after seeing the show to let me know he thinks I’m a good dude and a cool guy.”
Wrestlers opened doors for many OVW stars. Cash Flo just became a full cast member for the third season of Tulsa King. Haley J signed with the NWA and is now training in Texas with Booker T. Kennison, whose background is in comedy, got some commercial spots on national television as well as a series that will soon be released for streaming.
“I can’t say much about it,” he said over lunch at Local’s, a pizza and beer pub in his Germantown neighborhood. “I was brought in as a cameo for the first season, and they liked me so much, they made me a cast member with my own storyline for season two.”
Kennison took some time away from the OVW announcer’s table to do the television program. He came back for a short time, but after the January 2025 Nightmare Rumble, he stepped aside for good. While he knows better than to never say never, his focus now is on fulfilling the vision of the new majority ownership group, Morley Sports Management.
That vision, fans will be happy to know, includes a renewed commitment to the Louisville community. While previous ownership sought to expand OVW’s visibility nationwide through television broadcasts and touring, MSM wants to deepen the company’s local roots.
“When Rob Edwards, the founder of MSM, purchased the Haverford County soccer club in Wales, he invested heavily in the community around the club,” said Kennison. “He wants to do the same thing with OVW and Louisville. OVW’s been a part of this community for more than thirty years. People who went to OVW as kids are now bringing their kids and even grandkids! There’s no reason it can’t become one of the reasons people travel to Louisville.”
Fans have been traveling to Louisville to see OVW for decades. It started with the hardcore faithful, the Internet “dirt sheet” readers who knew that the Superstars of Tomorrow were training under Danny Davis and Rip Rogers in Louisville. In more recent times, fans flocked from all over the country after seeing OVW on Netflix. Ring announcer Eric Cornish still makes it a point every week to find out which fans have traveled the farthest to see OVW live.
“I don’t know why, but every week, you hear CM Punk or Cody Rhodes on WWE television mention 4400 Old Shepherdsville Road,” said Kennison. “They don’t say OVW or Davis Arena. Just the address. After 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, it might be the most famous street address in America right now.”
As CCO of OVW, it’s Kennison’s job to find the opportunities to make deeper connections with the Louisville community. He spends a lot of time talking to the Louisville and Kentucky tourism boards as well as the state athletic commission. OVW’s already made some in-roads with major Louisville events, from the Kentucky Derby Festival to the Germantown Dainty Festival, and the company hopes to make even more connections.
Kennison’s job is to find partnerships with other Louisville destinations, to draw fans who will want to include a trip to Hotpoint Davis Arena along with their bourbon tours or a day at the races.
That’s not to imply that OVW will be scaling back on broadcasting or even touring. But future broadcasting and touring efforts will have an even greater Louisville-centric flair. “What if when we go on tour, there’s a banner for Churchill Downs on one side of the ring, and a banner for a Louisville distillery on another? A different tourist destination on each side of the apron?”
In short, OVW wants to bring as much benefit to their sponsors and partners as those organizations can bring to the company.
MSM could not have picked a better ambassador for the job. Kennison’s choice of lunch, Local’s, is a reflection of who he is. “The map of Kentucky over there on the wall tells you where everything comes from: the cheese for the pizza, the beers, the chicken for the wings. This place is pure Germantown, just like me.”
One only needs to look at the banner hanging over the entrance to 4400 Old Shepherdsville Road to see the impact Kennison has already made. “Hotpoint Davis Arena is because of me. I did that!”
It hasn’t been easy stepping away from the announcer’s table or the creative team that gave Kennison an opportunity to chase his dreams. “I came to OVW to be a writer, and for the last few years, I helped write our TV show every week. I coached wrestlers on promos. I taught classes. There’s a little bit of mourning that comes with leaving that behind.”
But with change comes new opportunity. “OVW has never had a comic book,” said Kennison. “Al Snow had one, but OVW did not. We’re going to have one this fall. I’m writing it, and we’ve got a major comic artist on board to bring it to life.”
Kennison’s writing comics outside the wrestling genre, and his comfort zone as well. He’s even working on his first novel. “It’s very liberating to write what you want instead of writing for someone else. I can do anything I want on the page.”
Truer words were never spoken. See Dead Park Books (shameless plug) for further elaboration.
While fans may see less of Bryan Kennison on OVW television and Hotpoint Davis Arena, he’s hardly out of sight. There are plans to use him in cameos here and there where it makes sense, and Kennison hopes to be a familiar and welcome face across the city as OVW solidifies its place as one of Louisville’s premiere entertainment and sports experiences.
They may know him first as the guy who cried on the golf course, but they’ll know Bryan Kennison best as the man who knows what OVW can do to help their business grow!