It’s Saturday and that means it’s time for Wrestling Observer Live.
A warning: If you want to hear about pro wrestling storylines and the road to WrestleMania, this is not the show for you.
After being gone for two weeks, I finally give my opinion of the situation with Janel Grant, Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis and explain why certain arguments against Grant are ridiculous.
Then I discuss former Portland wrestling and WWE star Billy Jack Haynes and the tragic situation police are still investigating in Portland, Oregon.
While Don Owen did promote a show at the Portland Sports Arena on Christmas night, it was never the biggest or most important show of the year. However, it’s Christmas time on this week’s edition of the Portland Wrestlecast.
If you ask fans who grew up in the 80s about the most memorable holiday angles, there’s one with a Christmas connection that will definitely be on the nice list: the night Rip Oliver dressed up as Santa Claus and attacked his longtime rival Billy Jack Haynes on December 21, 1985.
While wrestlers dressing up as Santa is nothing new, there was something unique about this angle and the history behind it.
On this episode, I talk to both historian Rich Patterson who was in the “crow’s nest” the night it happened and legendary Portland Wrestling announcer Don Coss, who called the action and has the backstory on everything that unfolded as well as some stories about Christmas in Portland and memories of Oliver, Haynes, and Owen.
The “concussion lawsuits” between the clients of Konstantine Kyros and WWE kept rolling along the last few weeks.
Two weeks ago, Jerry McDevitt filed two lengthy motions on WWE’s behalf, Those are motion to dismiss in the Russ McCullough/Ryan Sakoda/Matt “Luther Reigns” Wiese lawsuit (McCullough v. WWE) and an opposition to Kyros’ motion to dismiss WWE’s preemptive lawsuit against Robert “Blackjack Mulligan” Wyndham, James “Koko” Ware, Oreal “Ivan Koloff” Perras, and Thomas “Dynamite Kid” Billington (WWE v. Windham). The Windham motion starts with an eight page introduction that, among other things, a reference to Billy Jack Haynes, the plaintiff in a related case, having “posted various illiterate rants on social media identifying those allegedly joining the lawsuit.” McDevitt adds that “in other illiterate posts, Haynes admits that he was a drug addict for the last 27 years and speaks of his lawsuit as his ’cause to have a union in the pro wrestling industry, vacation, time off injured, a 5 day/night work week, buy[ing] stock in company…” Both Haynes and Windham have routinely posted about the cases and solicited co-plaintiffs on Facebook, and an exhibit to the motion suggests he’s done even more in private.
