On Episode #60 of Retro Wrestling w/Gene Jackson, Gene is once again joined by “The New King of Jonesboro”, Brian Tramel for Part Two of their deep dive into Ozark Mountain Wrestling, Bert Prentice’s short lived but wildly fascinating Jonesboro based promotion from 1995. What started as a one off look back has already turned into something bigger, because the response to Part One made it clear: a lot more people remembered Ozark Mountain Wrestling than anyone realized.
This time, Gene and King BT move deeper into what made OMW work: the local pride, the sponsor heavy TV presentation, the wild mix of outlaw talent and legitimate names, the way Burt made Jonesboro feel like it had its own hometown territory, and the feuds that gave the promotion real heat in the spring and summer of 1995.
The best part of this episode is how much more complete the picture of Ozark Mountain Wrestling starts to feel. Part One established the promotion. Part Two shows why it mattered. Bert Prentice wasn’t just throwing random wrestlers in a building. He was selling a whole local wrestling world with sponsors, TV clips, hometown pride, business tie ins, regional stars, young local guys, and enough old school carny energy to make the whole thing feel alive.
And BT being there gives this series something you can’t get from results alone.
Gene can watch the footage, read the results, and break down the booking. BT can tell you what the building and atmosphere felt like. He remembers the crowd. He remembers who was over. He remembers the people sitting around him. He remembers his family being into it. That changes the whole conversation, because Ozark Mountain Wrestling wasn’t just a weird Bert Prentice footnote. For a certain group of fans in Northeast Arkansas, it was their wrestling.
Episode #60 is another strong chapter in the OMW series. It’s part research, part memory, part territory history, and part two old wrestling fans realizing that this little promotion was bigger, hotter, and more interesting than most people ever gave it credit for.
Ozark Mountain Wrestling may not have lasted long.
But for a while, Jonesboro had its very own territory.
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