VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Alcohol-fueled hostility ended with a famous professional wrestler pinning his son down at their Florida home early Christmas Eve, sheriff’s deputies said.
Former ring star Kevin Nash, alias Diesel, and his teenage son Tristen were booked on battery and later released without bond, according to arrest records from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.
When the teen came home drunk, insult and quarrel filled the air, according to the report, which included the Nash family members’ accounts.
Their stories about what happened next diverge.
Tristen Nash, 18, says his pro wrestler father, who is 55, chided him over being drunk and about his relationship with his girlfriend, then threw him down by the neck and lay across his chest.
He couldn’t breathe and briefly blacked out, the son told a deputy.
Nash, a giant
His father has an imposing physique. Wrestler Kevin Nash weighs 328 pounds and stands 6’10” tall, according to his World Wrestling Entertainment profile.
During his prime in the 1990s at WWE, he received multiple championships in the show-sport, before rounding off his career as a member of the group called New World Order, which included Hulk Hogan and was cast as a team of bad-guy “heels.”
Kevin Nash told the deputy a different story.
His son started the fight, spitting on him and striking him with his shoulder and elbow, he said. Nash admitted to wrestling him to the ground, but said he did so to protect his wife from his son.
The elder Nash was taken in and booked, his face marked by scratches on his mug shot. His son admitted to grabbing Nash’s face while trying to break his grip.
Roughness continued
Kevin Nash’s wife, Tamara, initially told police she had been upstairs and not seen the fight. But she changed her story when authorities charged the wrestler with domestic battery, the arrest report said.
Her son had been the attacker, she then told a deputy.
A short time after booking Kevin Nash, deputies were called back to the family’s home to arrest his son, after his uncle called 911.
Tristen Nash’s mother and uncle told a deputy that the teen had tussled with them after deputies left with Kevin Nash.
The family’s lawyer also placed blame on the son in a statement.
“The kid was out of control, and the father was defending his wife. I’m pretty confident we will have a resolution in the next couple of months,” said Michael J. Politis.
The WWE distanced itself from the incident.
“Kevin Nash has not regularly performed for WWE since January 2004,” it said in a statement. “He is currently under a non-wrestling ‘legends’ contract which has been immediately suspended until this domestic dispute is resolved.”
