Hawx Family Issues Spill Out at Wildcat Wrestling Saturday

The tag team Luke and PJ Hawx in better days, courtesy of NWA

A father and son squabble interrupted Saturday night’s show and ended up with Luke Hawx needing surgery.

[Updated] When I wrote about wrestler Luke Hawx’ work on Von Erich family biopic The Iron Claw for The New Orleans Advocate in January, Hawx told me that he and his son PJ were no longer speaking. I interviewed Hawx again this spring before his return to wrestling, and at the time he said things hadn’t improved.

Those tensions boiled over on Saturday night when Hawx’ Wildkat Sports put on a show at Crescent City Christian School in Metairie. Hawx was in the ring facing TNA Wrestling star Dirty Dango—who worked in the WWE as Fandango—when PJ got ahold of a hot mic. From the floor, he started airing his grievances. “While he was making movies, I was busting my ass making money for this company,” PJ announced as part of his litany.

PJ Hawx unloads on his father, by Alex Rawls

Hawx, Dango and the referee stopped to figure out what was going on and find him in the crowd. When security chased PJ and it became clear that the match wouldn’t resume any time soon, Dango washed his hands of the whole mess and left. (By the way, is there anything more southern than airing family shit in front of friends from out of state?) The audience, similarly shocked by such a break in decorum—even at wrestling—didn’t seem sure what to do.

Finally, Hawx left the ring to confront PJ while he battled with security. In the confusion, Luke caught an elbow in the jaw and fell stomach first across the back of a folding chair. That surprise fall left him doubled over and spitting blood from from what was later diagnosed as an abdominal tear. Hawx will be out of action for six weeks.

On Thursday, June 6, Wildkat Sports announced on its Facebook page:

We are disappointed to announce that Wildkat Sports has suspended Perry Hawxhurst, known professionally as PJ Hawx, indefinitely.

Wildkat Sports & Entertainment prides itself on providing professional, family friendly events, and the public incident that occurred during the June 1st Wildkat event does not align with the morals and guidelines we strive to maintain. Wildkat Sports would like to apologize to our fans for Perry Hawxhurst’s conduct.

PJ Hawx has spent almost a third of his life wrestling. He had his first professional match at age 18, and the 24-year-old has been working for seven years. He has worked for Wildkat and been featured on NWA’s programming, where he was also half of the tag team Hawx Aerie with his father.

In 2020, a video of one of his matches went viral when he dove from second floor balcony at the Esplanade Mall on to wrestlers in the ring below as part of a tag team match. One thing he thought as climbed over the rail was,“Hopefully, my mom doesn’t kill me,” he said in a 2021 interview. “She didn’t know. Nobody knew. It was actually the day of we decided to do that.”

When he conducted that interview in 2021, he said, “Watching my dad, who has been a wrestler since before I was born, was the coolest thing in the world. He’s basically my hero.”

Saturday night, it looked like things have changed.

Wildkat wrestling returns on July 27 at Southport Hall for an 18-and-over show in a bar. This being wrestling, the odds are that this conflict will continue to be dealt with in front of an audience and not cleaned up at home.

Updated June 6, 12:50 p.m.

We added the Wildkat announcement that PJ Hawx has been suspended on June 6, after the story’s publication.