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This weekend, WOW - Women of Wrestling returns to the airwaves for the latest in their nationally syndicated series with Jessie Jones vs. Americana among the bouts schedule to air. Earlier this week, Jones, a long-time veteran of the independent scene who has been involved with WOW dating back to 2019, sat down with PWInsider.com for an extended conversation about her career, the promotion, where she would like to see it go, the legacy of Tracy Smothers, and more.
Mike Johnson: This coming weekend is the latest edition of WOW - Women of Wrestling, which airs across the country and on Vice TV, including Americana challenging our guest at this time, Jesse Jones alongside a lot of other big matches that are scheduled. Jessie Jones, the pride of Bardstown, Kentucky, has been wrestling all over the country and the world for a number of years. With WOW, there's always this very unique dichotomy of talent, some of whom were discovered by WOW some of whom have migrated to WOW from other places. other parts of the pro wrestling spectrum. Jessie, first of all, thanks for sitting down with us. I think this is the first time we've ever had you on PWInsider, so I thank you so much. How are you doing this week?
Jesse Jones: You know what? I'm doing finer than frogs here. I can't complain if I did nobody to listen anyway, but I'm glad to be here.
Mike Johnson: So let's let's do the easy questions first. Obviously while this weekend you're going to be facing Americana. Let's talk a little bit about what sets up this match and what fans can expect from a very important episode of Women of Wrestling.
Jessie Jones: Americana forced her friendship upon me and we were tag partners. I was trying to help her out as far as training her in the ring and stuff like that. She's got two goody two shoes. She's just, she wasn't holding up her end and I'm trying to hold up both of our ends. And meanwhile, she's not only interfering in how I Get the job done in our tag matches, but she decided to invite herself ringside to my singles matches and interject herself and caused me to lose the first title shot that I've gotten at WOW Superheroes since 2013 when I started. This is the first title shot that I was going to be awarded if I had beat Genesis and Americana, for some reason, decided to distract the referee when I had Genesis pinned. Then she caught my attention, giving Genesis the opportunity to roll me up in the tights. So I had an issue with that. My friend, Amber O'Neal, she came back and joined me and she got my head back in the game. She said you are distracted with this rookie and her little kid, and you need to do what you do best, which is dislocate shoulders and win matches. And I needed to get my head back in the game and that's exactly what I did. Then Santana [Garrett] wants to run in and help Miss Americana and stuff like that. And then had the nerve to call for a match against me and Amber. Y'all saw how that happened. Now I just, I really don't think that Americana has the sense that God gave a goose. Because who in their right mind wants to challenge their teacher? Okay? I know all of her weaknesses, which are a lot and her only strengths, which are a few. You can't take the amount of knowledge, no matter how strong she is, no matter how hard she trains in the gym. You can't make up 18 years of knowledge in 18 months. And that's the difference that we're looking at here. She'll be lucky if I feel bad for her and don't dislocate her shoulder.
Mike Johnson: So let's talk a little bit about WOW, you've been involved with the promotion for some time. Jeannie Buss and And David McLane have done a lot of work to build this brand and spark a great partnership right now with Viacom, Paramount and CBS. What has it been like being part of WOW and watching it, from the inside, continuously grow and find a larger footprint. You've worked a lot of places, large and small. What has it been? What's the life experience been like watching WOW, piece by piece, build its legacy?
Jessie Jones: It's been absolutely awesome. I was actually getting ready to quit professional wrestling when I was told to go out and and try WOW and give it a chance and from the first time that I debuted with their show in Vegas at the Eastside Cannery Hotel and Casino all the way to now where we are filming in LA with Jeannie Buss involved and CBS and Paramount and Vice and everything, it's so awesome to see this happen because women have never really been given the platform a whole show. They get like a little spot, one match and nobody's ever said, 'Hey, go do what you do and do it and it's all yours. Spotlight's on you, and it's yours there to take.' I'm very grateful for Jeannie Buss and David McLane in that retrospect, because had it not been for them, I would have quit a long time ago. It's amazing to have a safe and fun place that has a global footprint like WOW for women. That was never a thing until now."
Mike Johnson: I mentioned earlier there's women and athletes from all different walks of life and all these different realms, from even outside of professional wrestling who end up recruited into WOW. What's it like when you have a locker room with such a diverse group of women who come from all sorts of different backgrounds, but all working to try and create the best television show possible every week? What's that compared to your normal independent wrestling locker room where everyone has that freedom? Some fall in love with wrestling and want to hop over the rail and be inside the ring. I feel like some of these women obviously come from stunts, they come from acting, it's a different life experience, so there's a different journey for them to get into the business. So how do you compare the different locker rooms?
Jessie Jones: I think it's fun to watch them fall in love with wrestling. Even if they weren't wrestling fans to all of these girls are so insanely talented and most all of them come from some type of very physical background. There's some girls that have multiple mixed martial arts in their background, and then there's girls who are professional rugby players. We have Olympians, we have boxers like, and to watch them go from, 'Oh, maybe I'm just going to train and I'm just going to do this' and to absolutely fall in love with wrestling and with WOW, It's pretty cool to watch. You don't have the...You don't have the ego factor so much in the locker room as everybody is happy to be there and grateful to be there and very accepting and there's just I think it's awesome to see such. [It's] such a different locker room where we have people who are represented you, no matter who you are, you find somebody in the well locker room that you can associate yourself with and that you can aspire or or grow up to be.
Mike Johnson: What do you think is the most interesting or surprising thing about the promotion that as it's evolved over the years?
Jessie Jones: I would say the, it's just seeing everybody working together. That's, it sounds silly, but I've been in a whole lot of locker rooms and one thing that tends to hold true is if you get a whole lot of girls together or a whole lot of guys together, or, whatever, when you get certain groups of people, there's a level of competition, like trying to. That like they don't work together as well as they try to stand out, where here [in WOW], we are all a team. It's not about anybody in particular standing out, but making this show stand out and showing the world why it's different and everybody is on the same page with that because I say that Whenever I describe Women of Wrestling to people who ain't seen or ain't heard about it yet, I tell them it's what they loved about old school wrestling with the new age twist with all girls, you have the characters, you have the good guys, you have your not so good guys, like me, but it's just fun to watch. It's fun to be a part of. And I'm very blessed to be able to be a part of that.
Mike Johnson: It's been mentioned numerous times on WOW and on your bio on the WOW website that Dusty Rhodes Was the person that kind of first shined the light for you on pro wrestling. What was it about Dusty that he became such an integral part of your journey and making you wanting to start that that sort of path into pro wrestling
Jessie Jones: It wasn't just Dusty Rhodes. It was Dusty Rhodes, and it was Rowdy Roddy Piper, and it was Curt Henning. It was just Eddie Guerrero, like, when they talked, you believed them. It was gust the way that they could work and captivate and speak captivating audiences. It's just amazing. You can still go back and watch Son of a Plumber Man, promo and get goosebumps and chills and you feel it and you and it's just, it's everything. I, I was always an athlete in school. I was into drama. I was into improv. I was into everything and I just wanted to wrestle and wrestling like brought all that together and it's like the, it's one of the purest form of entertainment that you can find.
Mike Johnson: You've spent a lot of times in different locker rooms, and some of them were pretty rough places. IWA Mid-South was a place where a lot of people cut their teeth and found themselves, but it was not the easiest environment to work in and compete in. Obviously a very blue collar, rough audience, memories of that time period of your life? Obviously a completely different world compared to wrestling in the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles.
Jessie Jones: It is a whole different world and it's so funny because wrestling fans are so different because you go out there to Los Angeles and you've got the big ring, the guard railing up, right? We've got railing and we've got security and there's a barrier between you and the fans in a place like LA. and WOW - Women of Wrestling. Places like IWA and tons of places all over the South and the East. There, you've got a rope, maybe, if you're lucky, that's hanging like a foot off the ground, I have had on too many occasions to count, fans grab me, try to fight me, literally hit me, put their hands on me. I've had to call the police to get escorted to my car to get fans away from my car. IWA Mid-South was...I enjoyed working at the in that locker room. I learned a whole lot from Ian [Rotten]. I think the crowd maybe had [quieted] down a little bit by the time that I got to IWA, but that does not mean that I have not seen the rowdiest of crowds. I've literally fought my way from ringside to the locker room at least a dozen times. So it's fun, but you know what? I love that. I love it
Mike Johnson: There was a time period where you were working under the name Jessie Bell Smothers, obviously. in deference and in honor of the late Tracy Smothers, who I think anybody who ever came across him knows what an amazing person he was. What was it like working with Tracy and carrying on his surname for a while on the independents and IWA Mid South?
Jessie Jones: You know what? The greatest time of my life. I was riding in the car with Pops like I mean we rused the whole entire world...like, he literally just had an idea to tell people that I was his real kid and we made the whole world believe it and even interviews and stuff that I went on with people that were like we don't like There's no way she's lying. Me and Pops would convince them....we went as far as having a fake blood test and a fake DNA test and everything made on official hospital letterhead from a doctor that I used to do nutritional plans for. So, you couldn't debunk the story. I just learned so much like when people think, 'Oh, he just let you use his name.' No. Like when I say Pops, he. That was Pops. He was my dad. The only thing that did not make him my real dad was blood. You know what I mean? Like, when he would say, family ain't always blood, and blood ain't always family. He gave me that. He was that father figure. He was my mentor. He was my friend. He was my trainer. He was my everything and to have had the opportunity to not only just ride in the car with him, and listen to his stories and learn from him in the ring, when I first started traveling with him, I barely knew anything. I was not fully properly trained. I hadn't been to a school. He he took me everywhere on the road. And then if we were anywhere that, say, Bobby Eaton was having a seminar, or, Ricky Morton was, or Doug Gilbert, or I could list and list and list ...Tatanka, Badass Billy Gunn. Any time that we had a show with any of these Legends and veterans of the ring, Pops would be like, 'Hey, can my daughter get in and can she get in your seminar?' and I like he, he made it to where I had the opportunity to not only like to work in seminars with them, work in matches, just sit there and be quiet and listen. And....I just....I miss him so much words can't even begin to express how much I miss Pops.
Mike Johnson: How different do you think your life would be if you and Tracy hadn't crossed paths?
Jessie Jones: I don't think I would be around wrestling. I really don't because people don't understand...in a locker room, in WOW, we are so blessed and so taken care of and protected, and it's a safe environment, and it's fun, and it's just, it's like everything great that wrestling is supposed to be, but when you cut your teeth on the independents, like I did....it's not like that, and it's not safe, you don't know if you're gonna get paid, there's multiple times I drove for 1,200 to 1,500 miles, like 22-26 hours in a car because I don't like airplanes to show up to a show, wrestle and not get paid, not get my gas money or anything. Then, I have to turn around and go home and hope I did well on picture sales. I wouldn't have stayed with it because every I wanted to quit a couple of times and Pops is the one that He was like, 'No, don't. You're great. If you would come up in the 80s, you would be a star' and he, he was that motivation and he was that encouragement and he was the only person that motivated or encouraged me. My family doesn't support me. They don't like they told me that I should quit. Like I basically I'm the black sheep. When I say that I have sacrificed absolutely everything for wrestling and chasing my dreams, I have, because my family hates the fact that I wrestle. They hate it. So not having a support system at home, Pops being there because of everything that he's done in wrestling, because of the respect that people had for him, and because of his name, I was I was protected a whole lot. Like it did still happen to where I made long drives and didn't get paid, but you know what? I didn't get harassed by promoters as bad as the other. Other girls...I don't have the horror stories that other girls have, I don't have as many as they do, but, and I think that is, I know that is because of Pops, and him telling, he wanted to put, tell everybody that I was his kid, not only to start a fire, in the news of independent wrestling hey, 'who's this girl coming out? Tracy Smothers is back and working, who are they?' but he also did it to protect me, and he made sure that I knew that. I definitely would not have, I wouldn't have stayed as long as I did because if it wasn't for him, because it would have been, it just, it would not have been the same and I wouldn't have had the encouragement to continue.
Mike Johnson: That's a hell of a legacy that he's left behind just in the continued exploits that you have in the business. Wanted to ask you some WOW questions. We've seen Abelene Maverick is now the new WOW Women's Wrestling Champion. Thoughts on her returning to WOW and her surprising championship win?
Jessie Jones: I think it's surprising that she ain't managed to get into the title match and I didn't. I'm a little bit annoyed by that. Just go away for a few years, come back and automatically get a title shot. When people like me been there for ten and ain't got one. But you know what? That's alright. I'm going to take it as she's rusty, she got lucky, and if she comes up against me, she's not going to be that lucky because I'm a little bit meaner than her.
Mike Johnson: Amber O'Neal and you have been teaming again. We saw you during the Trios Tournament turmoil a couple times against the All American Girls. Thoughts on teaming with Amber again and what she brings? out in you as a partner and just her as a person.
Jessie Jones: I love Amber O'Neill. I love her with all my heart. You're talking about a woman who has more than two decades worth of experience worked for every top company in the whole entire world. She has just as much drive and determination and do what it takes as I do. So I love tagging with her as far as I'm concerned. If she wants. to keep on tagging. We'll keep tagging and we'll go all the way and take the tag titles from the Tongas or whoever ends up with them, if that's what she wants and if that's not what she wants, then I will be going after Barbie's or a little Miss Maverick's head on a silver platter. That is the metaphor. I'm not really going to put her head on the platter. It's just saying I'm coming for her.
Mike: Obviously WOW has been a pretty successful weekly television series that airs all over the United States and internationally. Would you like to see the company do live television or pay per views or maybe some live streaming events? Like what would you like, what would you like to see WOW strive for in the future as we head deeper into 2024?
Jessie Jones: In the future, in a perfect world, if I could have whatever I wanted, I would say absolutely let's do weekly live television tapings. Let's do pay per views, but let's get out of Los Angeles. Let's take it out. Let's go everywhere. Let's go to the old ECW Arena. Let's go to Louisville Gardens. Let's go to historic wrestling buildings. You know what I mean? Let's go to the Evansville Coliseum. Let's get those rowdy, into it, wrestling fans and let them experience how great WOW is, because the more people see it, the more they're going to love it. In a perfect world, yeah, absolutely. Weekly television, live tapings, traveling to historic wrestling venues. That's what I would like to see. I would rather have 15 rows of fans that are able to be a part of it and really lose themselves in it, than 200 where the people in the back who, they don't get to experience it quite as much. You know what I mean?
Mike Johnson: When you look at WOW as a television product. How has that changed how you look at and approach pro wrestling? Cause obviously the television tapings are a little bit different than working in OVW or IWA Mid South or even independents in different places. How does the television production and style reflect how you look at putting together matches and performing and competing?
Jessie Jones: You don't have any idea how much goes into taping a wrestling TV show until you're actually there to see it. There's so many people there's so many cameras, there's so many jobs, there's so many different things for people to do, where on the Independents, you might have one hard camera that's set up and then maybe, one to two moving cameras. When you go to someplace like WOW, when there's multiple stationary cameras, boom cameras, like a camera on each side of the ring, you gotta be careful. You gotta watch, you don't only gotta watch what's going on inside of the ring, but you gotta watch what's going on outside of the ring, because if I run at the turnbuckle and set myself out to come and springboard in or do something like that, I need to make sure that there's not a camera person, a security person, a mic person. I need to make sure there ain't nobody there that I'm going to accidentally [hit.] It's definitely an experience and I just love all of it. I'm just so happy. I'm happy to be here. Pops used to always say that. I can relate so much. I'm happy to be here. I can't believe it. You wouldn't have been able to tell 12 year old me sitting around watching Monday Night Wars. That I was going to be doing this, I would have laughed at you and been like, you're kidding, get out of here. And now the fact that I'm doing it it's just, oh my gosh it's insane.
Mike Johnson: The great thing about this experience is there's going to be someone, maybe a woman, maybe a young man who gets inspired watching you or someone else on the roster on WOW, and they might have that Eureka moment of, I want to do this, and that begins their deep dive into the pro wrestling world and perhaps leading them to training and performing and competing. So you never know how the good fortune that you've had with this experience will cascade into the next generation of performers.
Jessie Jones: Yeah. Crazy. It is so crazy. It's so crazy to think that there's somebody watching me. Like I used to watch, Eddie Guerrero thinking, man, that's so cool. I want to do that. I want to be just like her. That's crazy that it's just, it's so it's for lack of a better word, I don't have the widest vocabulary. I'm. I really am that simple country girl that can barely use a computer and the fact and to think that somebody like would look at me or show that I'm doing as something that they found inspiration and I just, I'm just blessed and happy to be a part of it and just want to I just want to entertain and just be the best role model, the best entertainer. That I can be like, I just love it. I love wrestling. You don't even understand like it is my whole life.
Mike Johnson: As someone who's so proudly country and so proudly from Kentucky, is there like a culture shock when you go to a New York City or a Los Angeles? Do you have that moment where you are just counting down the moments to get the hell back home. What's that experience like?
Jessie Jones: There used to be like a culture shock. Like when I went when I say I cut my teeth in wrestling, being from Bardstown and where i'm from, ,my world was real small. Going to going to these bigger cities and stuff a lot of it breaks my heart when you see, not just like the congestion, not just, not the pollution, like the lack, the lack of greenery to say the least. Like I'm I get real uncomfortable, completely surrounded by concrete. To me, it's very depressing. I hate seeing it. My heart breaks. Seeing like the situations of homeless and stuff like that. So I'm always like, 'Oh, I can't wait to go home. I can't wait to go play with my dogs. I just want to go to the creek. Like I want to go out in the woods, get me out of here.'
Mike Johnson: why should fans make sure to check out yourself against Americana this weekend as well as everything else that's taking place on WOW Women of Wrestling this coming weekend?
Jessie Jones: You definitely want to see this match with me and Americana because imagine that you have worked at something your whole entire life. Maybe it's your job. Maybe it's, maybe you're military. Maybe you work in a factory. Maybe, whatever your job is, imagine that you have dedicated the last 20 years of your life to work in that and you started working for this company and you've been working hard, excelling, passing every single goal, doing everything that you want to do. But, you just keep getting passed up for promotion. They're promoting everybody else around you. Then, you take on a new trainee at your job and this trainee, deliberately, purposely causes you to lose your promotion after how much you've helped them. Wouldn't you be ready to just kick the snot out of them? That's what you're going to see. I am ready to mop the ring with Americana and bless her heart. I don't know what she was thinking because she obviously ain't got the sense that God gave a goose because you don't ask your trainer, somebody who has 17 more years experience than you and knows every one of your weaknesses. You don't ask for a match against that person, especially when they're a little ticked off at you, or a lot ticked off at you. Because I'm going to dismantle and destroy her, and I'm going to make an example of Americana, is exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to let every other girl in that locker room know, you best not stick your nose in my matches, or this is going to be you, and that's what you're going to see in the match with me and Americana.
WOW - Women of Wrestling airs across the United States. To track it down in your local area, visit WOWE.com.
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