10 Things We Learned From Dark Side Of The Ring: Billy Jack Haynes

Former WWE star Billy Jack Haynes is currently imprisoned and awaiting trial for charges of second degree murder. 8 February 2024 changed his life forever, but it ended the life of his wife Janette Becraft. She'd been suffering from dementia when police say Billy Jack shot her in the head. His trial has been pushed back, but will commence in December 2025.

Truthfully, Haynes had lived a puzzling life full of violent outbursts, conspiracy theories, possible mental illness and more long before February 2024. He was a big star in the 1980s WWF boom period, albeit briefly, and VICE's producers managed to get to the real story behind his dramatic exit from the company in 1988 just as things seemed to be going well for him. It turns out that missing some bookings after a WrestleMania high and fudging a tag-team push alongside Ken Patera was just the tip of the iceberg. 

This week's 'Dark Side Of The Ring' episode included stories about his bid to become the next Vince McMahon, his wild and often controversial claims about the entire McMahon family, Billy Jack's decision to involve himself in a double murder case from 30 years before, and even a "mercy killing" claim so incredible that nobody's quite sure what to make of it.

Admittedly, there wasn't actually that much behind the scenes wrestling chat on the show. No, VICE's documentary crew had far too much to discuss when it came to Billy's private life. Remarkably, Haynes was willing to sit down and talk freely (or as freely as lawyers would let him) about his life and career.

Here's everything gleaned from another hair-raising hour of pulsating human drama.

Many Billy Jack bios say he was trained by Stu Hart in Canada. Whilst true, that doesn't begin to tell the full story, at least according to Larry Oliver. Larry, who is the son of ex-pro Rip Oliver, told VICE that Stu actually dismissed Haynes from his territory "because he was too rough and beat all of his boys up". That's where 'Dark Side' interviewers needed to feed Larry another question.

It's unclear whether or not Oliver meant that Billy Jack was rough with Hart brothers like Bret, Bruce etc, or if he meant "boys" in a looser wrestling locker room sort of way. Haynes did spend some time in Stampede Wrestling before really making a name for himself in Portland then jumping to the WWF's fascinating boom in the 1980s, but details remain rather sketchy on why the Harts cast him out.

Using follow up stories to come to your own conclusions is always risky, because there are some talking head accounts from fellow pros who say Haynes was actually kinda quiet and reserved behind the scenes. However, he was known to have a vicious, violent temper, and he was roundly regarded as someone who enjoyed being a bully (or at least seemed that way on the road to his peers) with those smaller than him.

Therefore, it's possible that Haynes did get too full on with a few of Stu's sons during his time in Canada. That isn't something the Hart patriarch could've tolerated; Stu was known to be a tough customer himself, but no self-respecting father was going to sit idly by and watch anybody treat his family poorly.

It wasn't long until Billy Jack moved on to pastures new anyway.