Extreme Rising Headliner Leaves, Cites Dispute with Promoter

– Extreme Rising main eventer Luke Hawx has walked away from the promotion after an online dispute with promoter Steve O’Neill. Hawx and O’Neill got into it on Facebook when Hawx, who was schedule to main event the promotion’s Philadelphia events, posted the following to Facebook. Hawx told PWInsider that he made the comments half in jest because O’Neill had not responded to several attempts to talk and was becoming frustrated because he had to arrange transportation and the like for his students,
who were booked for the undercard:

Does anyone know if these April 25th and 26th Extreme Rising are happening or not?!?!?! I just talked to Stevie Richards and neither he nor I have any travel info yet….. We’d really like to fight til the death in Philadelphia for this belt but we may just settle it over a game of “Words with Friends”. If all else fails, the belt will be sold online and I will split the money with Stevie cause that’s only fair!

O’Neill then responded with the following:

I can tell you tell this. The shows will happen. Luke Hawx and Michael Manna (Note from Mike: Stevie Richards) will both get their travel –like they always do when I do shows –sometimes not til the week of at times (like before!). AND everyone can say GOODBYE TO LUKE HAWX FOR GOOD. How is that SHANE DOUGLAS PART 2? F**king a**hole posting sh** like this. YOU ARE NOT A TEAM PLAYER. YOU DONT HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A CHAMPION ANYWHERE, CERTAINLY NOT IN WWE. AND if you sell the belt I WILL sue you. Dumbass.

He added on his own Facebook page:

Kevin Kleinrock I hate to admit Shane Douglas was 100% right on about Luke Hawx. His true colors have been shown. He is not loyal team player for Extreme Rising. Explain to me again why I’ve been promoting pro
wrestling filled with egomaniacs with low self-esteem? Why have I wasted my time and my money on promoting people to make them “a star” in my company, AND increase their overall marquee value when no one else wasted this much (or in a lot of cases ANY) time, money, and effort BUT ME!?!? Please remind me why I do this with and for ungrateful people? SOME OF MY OWN PLAYERS DON’T HAVE FAITH. I don’t need un-loyal people in my camp, this sh** is hard enough with out blowhards like LUKE HAWX. Someone whose ego had to take the belt home with him to show it off when he knows he didn’t win it through ER. And thankfully so, because the match was not that good at all. If that match would’ve been in front of a loyal ER crowd they would’ve sh** on that match and it being a title change. LOYALTY is something you just can’t teach people unfortunately. Speaking of teaching, this guy supposedly teaches guys how to wrestle. Teach them about the wrestling business, AND THIS IS HOW YOU SHOW THEM HOW TO DO BUSINESS BY POSTING SH** LIKE YOU DO. You should really think about how you act, what you say. YOU ARE NOT A GOOD ROLE MODEL FOR PEOPLE WANTING TO GET IN WRESTLING –PERIOD!

Hawx then then posted an extended explanation on why he decided to quit, noting that he had previously said publicly that he would leave the company if there were any problems with pay or canceled shows and there have been many times where a majority of talent and crew have been shorted, along with last-minute canceled shows. He added, “Steve has lied over and over to talent and others about multiple things and has been caught in many lies. He just recently tried to pull bullshit with RF video and lie to them about not having them at the shows because another vendor didn’t want them there. When they asked the other vendor, emails were shown and it was all Steve just trying to manipulate things. (I read EVERY email)”

Hawx claimed that O’Neill never returns phone calls or texts about important promotion-related topics “because he feels he doesn’t need to” and that he hasn’t refunded fans for past canceled shows and “can’t tell us where the money has gone, he hasn’t paid the talent what they are owed from past events.” He said that “as a promoter he feels (as has done this several times) he can pay talent what he feels they were worth after a show, after they agreed on a price.”

He also included screenshots of text messages, which you can see at the above link.