Daily Update: Billy Jack Haynes, WWE Raw, Steve McMichael

Latest News

• WWE Raw live results: Jey Uso & New Day vs. Gunther & Imperium
• Charlotte Flair says she's 'ahead of schedule' in recovery from knee surgery
• Brian Pillman's grandson, Lexis King's nephew honored for thwarting school shooting
• Natalya says Dungeon 2.0 is her 'love letter to wrestling'
• Matt Riddle 'not surprised' by Vince McMahon allegations

Latest Audio

• Filthy Four Daily: Smackdown, New Japan, and historic three vs. one DOG FIGHT main event
• Wrestling Observer Live: New Japan, all the weekend shows, WrestleMania main event, more
• Wrestling Observer Radio: Billy Jack Haynes, Okada update, New Japan, Smackdown, Collision, more
• Bryan & Vinny & Craig & Lance Show: Rampage and Collision, with Vinny live from Lance's house

Latest Free YouTube Video

This Week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter

• February 12, 2024 Observer Newsletter: More on Vince McMahon allegations, WrestleMania 40 main event

The new issue of the Observer up on the site is filled with tons of detailed news stories, between more on the Vince McMahon situation, WrestleMania 40 and the press conference, the new streaming services and changes in the sports media ecosystem, Rossy Ogawa and Scott D'Amore being fired as heads of Stardom and TNA, Steve McMichael makes the NFL Hall of Fame, and a study of AEW PPV buys.

• How Vince McMahon was let go
• The federal investigation of McMahon
• What they were looking for and confiscated and how it ties in with other news
• Who else has been talked with
• Lots more on the Ashley Massaro situation
• Why Ari Emanuel needs to answer a lot of questions
• WrestleMania 40 blurring the lines
• A look at the press conference and reaction to Rock
• Update on Elimination Chamber
• A look at the new sports streaming service that many networks are partnering in
• The firing of Rossy Ogawa with a look into the background of what happened
• Comments from both Taro Okada and Ogawa with both sides
• Different booking decisions overruled
• How AEW & WWE fit into the story
• Firing of Scott D'Amore, the background of it, the talent meeting, how successful the last PPV show really was
• Full coverage of NXT Stand & Deliver
• A study of AEW PPV buyers and what it reveals
• Steve McMichael makes NFL Hall of Fame as one of his last wishes and a look back at his run, plus other wrestlers in the NFL Hall of Fame
• The most detailed look at the ratings of all the wrestling TV shows, demo breakdowns, comparisons with last year, segment numbers and what can be learned from it
• Huge feud appears to be brewing with AEW internationally
• Gran Alternativa final draws back at Arena Mexico
• AAA Rey de Reyes notes
• Stardom anniversary show notes
• Lots of injury updates
• Toby Keith and his connection with wrestling that you probably do know and may not know
• 40th anniversary of the death of El Santo and David Von Erich
• Bret Hart talks problems with today's wrestling
• One of the best promos of the year by Amira
• Lots more on Revolution
• Largest crowds ever in Greensboro
• Wembley Stadium update
• Attendance updates for upcoming WWE, AEW and UFC shows
• Lots of injury updates
• Gina Carano sues Disney
• More WrestleMania updates
• International TV ratings and streaming numbers
• TV reviews and show notes
• Two personalities in Super Bowl commercials Sunday

This Week's Retro Observer Newsletter

• October 30, 2006 Observer Newsletter: Pride Real Deal, TNA Bound for Glory

Monday Update

Bryan and I will be up tonight with Wrestling Observer Radio covering Raw and the rest of the recent news.

A note on the horrible story of Billy Haynes (Billy Jack Haynes) allegedly shooting and killing his wife Janettte Becraft Haynes. Janette's only son, powerlifter and former indie wrestler Todd Becraft,. had been best friends with Billy since 1971 when Todd was nine and Billy was 18. Police were alerted to gunfire at the home that Haynes, 70, and wife Janette, 85, were living in. There was a two-hour standoff before they could get Haynes out of the house and into custody. Janette's death was ruled by the medical examiner's office as due to a gunshot wound.

Raw tonight is from Lexington, KY with LA Knight vs. Ivar and Bobby Lashley vs. Bronson Reed in men's elimination chamber qualifying matches and Zoey Stark vs. Liv Morgan in a women's qualifying match. Also announced is JD McDonagh vs. R-Truth. M Z. They had more than 9,800 tickets out for the show earlier today so they will have another big crowd, although that's far from capacity at Rupp Arena.

We're looking for reports from Lexington tonight with Main Event matches and anything else not on the live show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

We're also looking for your thoughts on yesterday's New Beginning in Osaka with a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

A great piece by ESPN on Steve McMichael:

Rocky Romero is now part of the AEW front office.

Smackdown on Friday did 2.58 million viewers and an 0.75 in 18-49, which are gigantic numbers for the show, and next week with Roman Reigns and Dwayne Johnson on and advertised ahead of time should beat that. Next week's show has a chance of being No. 1 for the week on network television since football is now over. The Super Bowl rating wasn't out but it was expected to be the largest audience ever to watch a television show in the U.S.

Rampage was also up from usual with 456,000 viewers and an 0.14 in 18-49.

The Iron Claw movie will be out on VOD tomorrow.

E! did a feature on Dwayne Johnson's kids and their interest in wrestling. Notable is the feature was put together before the change in plans at Mania as it talked about Johnson vs Roman Reigns at WrestleMania.

PWInsider reported Eric Young will be hosting the second season of Vinyl Obsession, a show where old time rock stars search for vinyl albums and talk about their past. Also Frankie Kazarian, Josh Alexander and Young will be on shows like Top 10 Revealed and The Very Best of the 80s. It's part of a program where Anthem Entertainment wants to get the TNA talent on its other programming on AXS TV.

WWE through its deal with the NFL has released a Super Bowl legacy title belt for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Star Jr. & Magnus from CMLL will be on the 2/29 MLW show at the Melrose Ballroom in New York. They will wrestle each other with Star Jr. managed by Salina de la Renta and Magnus by Cesar Duran.

PFL has announced a partnership with Torneos in Latin America and as part of the deal DirecTV will continue as the group's exclusive media partner in Latin America. 

WWE stock may take an uptick in the next few days as Jeffries targeted $120 per share price because of the expectation of huge profit increases due to WWE & UFC working together.

Hechicero issued a challenge to Zack Sabre Jr. after seeing his match yesterday with Bryan Danielson. The Sabre-Danielson match from Osaka is a strong candidate for the best match so far this year. If you are into technical wrestling, it's among the best bouts of all-time.

Bret Hart and Greg Gagne did meet and greets on Saturday night on the Midwest All-Star Wrestling show in Turtle Lake, WI. Hart arrival was delayed and he didn't make it until the end of the show but spent more than three hours after the show was over making sure everyone was accommodated (thanks to Cody Endres)

Moose vs. Kushida for the TNA title headlines Thursday's Ima[pct show along with Chis Bey & Ace Austin vs. Grizzled Young Veterans in the second best of a best-of-three series.

The final episode of the season of Big Little Brawlers airs at 10 p.m. tomorrow night on Discovery. The show has been doing usually in the range of 330,000 viewers and 0.08.

Mercedes Mone, Bayley, Britt Baker and Naomi were together at the Super Bowl game yesterday.

Matt Hardy will be recording his podcast The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy over Mania weekend on 4/5 at 4 p.m. Eastern at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown Hotel.

Bronson Reed posted on Istagram about the death of his cousin Kayla.

Kurt Angle makes an appearance for Outlaw Pro Wrestling on 3/2 in West Babylon, NY at West Babylon High School.