Rawk Hawk
Artwork fromPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch)
First appearance	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004)
Latest appearance	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch) (2024)

Not to be confused withRawk.

“Rawk out,Great Gonzales!!! RAAAAAAAAAAAAWK! Listen to me, Gonzales! Anybody who's beat me is not ALLOWED to lose!!!”

—Rawk Hawk,Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Rawk Hawk, also known as "The Feral Nuclear Reactor" ("The Golden Grandstander" in theNintendo Switchremake), is the reigning champion in theGlitz Pit inPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, untilMario arrives to take his title. Mario does this in order to obtain theGold Star, which is supposedly found on theChamp's Belt, which only the champion is allowed to wear. He is a parody of pro wrestlers, particularlyHulk Hogan.

History[edit]

Background[edit]

Prior to Mario's arrival, Rawk Hawk joined the Glitz Pit, achieved higher ranks and eventually became champion. However, he became champion only by default, since his rival,Prince Mush mysteriously disappeared before their title match could begin.

Paper Mario series[edit]

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door[edit]

Rawk Hawk standing next toGrubba, and holding the fakeGold Star on theChamp's Belt.

Rawk Hawk appears inChapter 3 inGlitzville. When Mario and his partners arrive, they find Rawk Hawk squaring off againstThe Koopinator, whom he manages to defeat easily.Grubba, the Glitz Pit promoter (and referee) congratulates Rawk Hawk for his victory. Rawk Hawk then holds up the Champ's Belt, which gets the attention of Mario and his partners. Shortly afterwards, Mario and his partners decide to become official fighters in the Glitz Pit in order to win the championship and obtain the Crystal Star. When Mario and his partners make their way into the major league, however, the Crystal Star in Rawk Hawk's belt is revealed to be a fake. Rawk Hawk overheard the comment about it being fake, which incensed him due to misinterpreting their remarks as them implying he was an incompetent fighter.

As Mario and his partners continue climbing their way up the ranks, the audience begins to take their attention away from Rawk Hawk and starts to focus on Mario and his party. Rawk Hawk, jealous, threatens them, though they continue to ignore threats. Rawk Hawk then sends Mario and his partners aPoisoned Cake (after they have received a realcake), which will cause Mario's partner to fall sick and thus not participate in the next round if it is eaten.

Mario andGoombella preparing to fight Rawk Hawk.

Eventually, Mario and his partners challenge Rawk Hawk in a title match. Rawk Hawk, afraid of losing his title, decides to cheat again by having a security guard lock Mario and his partners in an abandoned minor league locker room, which would cause them to forfeit the match. However, they escape by using a toilet, and eventually confront Rawk Hawk. When the match begins, Rawk Hawk reveals himself to be responsible for the several setbacks, so they accuse him of sending that threat about the Crystal Star as well. Rawk Hawk, however, was not the one who was sending them the threatening letters, nor did he care about or was even aware of the existence of the Crystal Star. Mario and his partners then usurp Rawk Hawk's champion status. The group is then awarded with the Champ's Belt, as well as access to the Champion's Room.

Mario using thePower Bounce technique on Rawk Hawk.

AfterMacho Grubba's defeat, many of the Glitz Pit fighters, including Rawk Hawk, line up to say goodbye to Mario and his partners before they left to continue their adventure. Rawk Hawk then tells Mario that he will fight fairly from then on.

His likeness makes a small cameo in the ending of the Bowser intermission for Chapter 4, as a decoration on Kammy Koopa's hat (implied to be part of souvenirs she got at the Glitz Pit).

During the intermission after Chapter 6,Bowser andKammy Koopa finds Rawk Hawk's secret training area, which is located somewhere underneathRogueport. When they arrive, they see the Champ's Belt hanging up on the wall and mistake it for the real Crystal Star. Just when they are about to grab it, however, Rawk Hawk enters the room. He expresses his amusement at how Bowser cleared his "secret training facility", stating that he "imported some super-freaks" to make it more difficult to get through, possibly alluding to theX-Naut soldiers that Bowser encountered in the prior level. During their fight, the false Crystal Star on the belt breaks into two. Kammy realizes that the Star is a fake and questions Rawk Hawk about the real Star's whereabouts. Rawk Hawk tells them that "The Great Gonzales" has it, but Bowser fails to realize that "The Great Gonzales" is Mario.

During the seventh chapter, Rawk Hawk sends Mario anemail saying that he has not forgotten about their last battle and that he "feels the rage all over again" on rainy days. He then calls him a coward for giving up the belt and threatens him, saying that if he ever comes back, he will get "Rawked". Rawk Hawk reappears during the cutscene that takes place during Mario's final battle with theShadow Queen. He,Jolene, and all the other Glitz Pit fighters began cheering Mario on, encouraging him and his partners to defeat the Shadow Queen and save the world.

After Chapter 3, the player can optionally choose to return to the Glitz Pit, where Rawk Hawk is once again the reigning champion (since Mario hands the belt back to him before leaving Glitzville). This makes him the only rematchable boss in the GameCube version.

In the remake, Rawk Hawk mostly has the same role, although Goombella'sTattle onPrince Mush during the battle against him suggests that the former pulled a similar Poisoned Cake trick on the latter for the same reasons, with Mush falling for it to such an extent that he comes to dislike cakes as a result.

Email[edit]

YOU!!!

An attached image of Rawk Hawk in his email to Mario (GCN)

Attached image (Switch)

Is this the so-called Great Gonzales? Unh! Well, it's me, your worst nightmare! The new and improved Rawk Hawk! Don't think I forgot you, punk!

I'm reborn, you coward! My training regimen would blow your mind! I'm on the fast track back to the top, and ain't NOBODY gonna get in my way! Rawk!

And still...on rainy days, I feel the bruises your hammer of shame left on this bod, and I feel the RAAAAAAGE again!

If you EVER show your face in thering again, I'll beat you so bad your momma won't even recognize you! Remember the RAAAWK!

Number 1 (GCN)
Number 1, (Switch)

Rawk Hawk

Field Tattle[edit]

Outside of battle,Goombella can useTattle on Rawk Hawk only when he is in the lobby ofGlitz Pit surrounded by fans (who can be dispersed by Mario's hammer orFlurrie's ability).

• "Ah! The champ, Rawk Hawk. He sure has the star quality you'd expect from a champ. But know what? Who cares? Everybody knows we're gonna be the next champions!"

Super Paper Mario[edit]

InSuper Paper Mario, one of the items listed onFrancis's to-buy list isHarder Than Bedrawk: The Rawk Hawk Story, which is, apparently, a DVD detailing Rawk Hawk's wrestling career.

Super Mario-kun[edit]

Rawk Hawk inSuper Mario-kun

Rawk Hawk appears in volume 33 ofSuper Mario-kun during thePaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door arc. Just like in the game, he is the champion that Mario must fight to obtain the Crystal Star on his belt. However, the belt in the manga contains the real Gold Star, not a fake, and Grubba takes it from Mario after he defeats Rawk Hawk.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl[edit]

Rawk Hawk also makes a cameo appearance inSuper Smash Bros. Brawl as one of the manyStickers. In addition, one of the names that may come up on the name or stage builder entry when the random button is hit is "RAWK", a possible reference to Rawk Hawk.

General information[edit]

Personality[edit]

A clear demonstration of Rawk Hawk's arrogant attitude.

Rawk Hawk, over the course of the game, proves himself to be extremely arrogant, egotistical, and self-centered. He has a crude, obnoxious personality and frequently barges in out of nowhere to start trash-talking people. He constantly brags about his skill and looks down on the other Glitz Pit fighters, labeling them all as complete wimps. Up until Mario and his partners showed up at the Glitz Pit and made their way up the ranks, he was a hundred percent convinced that no one could defeat him. Rawk Hawk is also willing to cheat if necessary in order to win, portraying the typical wrestling role of a "heel." This is shown when he had a security guard lock Mario and his partners in an old, abandoned minor league locker room before the title match started, as well as sending Mario that poisoned cake, while he honestly denied knowing about Grubba's hate mail and the real Crystal Star. However, after Mario defeats him in battle, Rawk Hawk ends up gaining a lot of respect for him as a fighter (as he demonstrated during the Crystal Star intermission cutscene that took place during the final battle, but even then he was still showing a display of arrogance) and makes a decision to fight fair and square from then on. He also gets enraged whenever people imply that he is weak, as one of the reasons why he wanted to beat Mario no matter the cost was because he felt insulted when he heard them apparently imply that his belt was fake (although they were actually referring to the Gold Star on the belt), and also attempted to do a high kick suplex on Bowser after the latter mockingly called him an "adorable little weakling", while he actually ended up being flattened by Bowser.

Powers and abilities[edit]

Rawk Hawk performs one of his aerial attacks.

As it says in hisTattle information, Rawk Hawk mainly specializes in aerial attacks. His attacks consist of a jumping flip attack, a flying elbow attack, and his only ground-based attack, which is a slide kick. For his last attack, he will stomp the ground (which causes a rail to appear), hang on to the ceiling, and start shaking down a bunch of objects very quickly, which all deal 1 HP to Mario and his party, except forKoops, who is immune to the attack. Judging from his attacks, Rawk Hawk seems to use thelucha libre method of wrestling, involving flashy acrobatic moves. In terms of wrestling, he is also considered to be a heel, a villainous wrestler who uses dirty, underhanded methods to win, regardless of popular opinion.

Profiles and statistics[edit]

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door[edit]

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door enemy
Rawk Hawk
	Max HP	40	Attack	4	Defense	0
	Location(s)	Glitz Pit	Role	Boss	Level	34
	Sleep?	60%	Dizzy?	60%	Confuse?	60%
	Tiny?	85%	Stop?	50%	Soft?	90%
	Burn?	100%	Freeze?	40%	Fright?	0%
	Gale Force?	0%	KO?	0%	Moves	Slide Kick (4), Double Flip (4 to Mario and Partner), Superman Slam (6), Prop Drop (1x10, changes to ceiling), Drop 'Shroom (Heals by five), Drop Stomp (3x3)
	Exp. points	0	Coins	N/A	Items	Champ's Belt
Tattle Log #: 102	Log	A Champion Fighter. Battling him requires a certain level of artistry. "You wanna hate me, but you can't help but love the RAAAAAAAWWWWK!"
	Tattle	That's Rawk Hawk! He flips, flaps, and slaps! ...That's what the book says. Max HP is 40, Attack is 4, and Defense is 0.[A] He's really good at aerial maneuvers, but other than that, he's pretty... meh. One thing you should know is that Rawk Hawk NEVER fights above the board. Carelessness leads to lifelessness, y'know!

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch)[edit]

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door enemy
Rawk Hawk
	Max HP	40	Attack	4	Defense	0
	Location(s)	Glitz Pit	Role	Boss	Level	34
	Sleep?	60%	Dizzy?	60%	Confuse?	60%
	Tiny?	0%	Stop?	50%	Soft?	90%
	Burn?	100%	Freeze?	40%	Fright?	0%
	Gale Force?	0%	KO?	0%	Moves	Slide Kick (4), Double Flip (4 to Mario and Partner), Superman Slam (6), Prop Drop (1x10, changes to ceiling), Drop 'Shroom (Heals by five), Drop Stomp (3x3)
	Exp. points	0	Coins	N/A	Items	Champ's Belt
Tattle Log #: 105	Log	A champion fighter. Battling him requires a certain level of artistry. "You wanna hate me, but you can't help but love the RAAAAAAAWWWWK!"
	Tattle	That's Rawk Hawk! He flips, flaps, and slaps! That's what the book says. Max HP is 40, Attack is 4, and Defense is 0. He's really good at aerial maneuvers, but other than that, he's pretty... meh. One thing you should know is that Rawk Hawk NEVER fights above the board. Carelessness leads to lifelessness, y'know!

Super Smash Bros. Brawl[edit]

Sticker Rawk Hawk
	Artwork from:Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
	Effects inThe Subspace Emissary: [Arm] - Attack +5
	Usable by: Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, Bowser

Gallery[edit]

• 
• 
• 
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  Grubba and Rawk Hawk in the Nintendo Switch remake

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  The Koopinator battling Rawk Hawk in the Nintendo Switch remake

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  Rawk Hawk, Jolene, and the other Glitz Pit fighters wish Mario luck in the Nintendo Switch remake

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  Rawk Hawk and the other Glitz Pit fighters supporting Mario in the final battle in the remake

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  Glitz Pit fighter screen in the remake

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  Rawk Hawk alongside Minor League fighters in the remake credits

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  Concept art of Glitzville characters; Rawk Hawk's beak is not distinguished from the rest of his face.

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  Promotional character introduction

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  Rawk Hawk on the Nintendo Magazine for summer 2024, showing a relationship chart featuring many characters fromPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Quotes[edit]

For a full list of quotes, seeList of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door quotes § Rawk Hawk

• "Har har har har har!"
• "Feel the RAAAAAWWWK…"
• "Rawk out,Great Gonzales!!! RAAAAAAAAAAAAWK! Listen to me, Gonzales! Anybody who's beat me is not ALLOWED to lose!!!"
• "That's all ancient history! There's only one true champ, and that guy is Rawk Hawk!"
• "One of us is walking out ofhere withthe belt, and the other one's getting RAWKED!"
• "Hey, shutyour trap or this Gonzales won't be the only one feeling the RAAAAWK!"
• "Harharharharharharhar! Everyone wants a piece of the Rawk! It's a tough life!"

Names in other languages[edit]

Rawk Hawk[edit]

The Feral Nuclear Reactor / The Golden Grandstander[edit]

Notes[edit]

• After defeatingThe Koopinator, Rawk Hawk says "You weaklings might as well stick to videogame fighting, OK?" in most languages. In the original version's Spanish localization, he says "The weaklings should stay home playingSuper Smash Bros. Melee!". In the remake's Iberian Spanish localization, he instead refers toSuper Smash Bros. in general.
• If Rawk Hawk wins the match againstMario, the normal winning tune plays when the match is over rather than the tune that plays when a fighter claims the championship belt.
• When Rawk Hawk appears before Mario in the hallway during Chapter 3, if the player is quick enough to skim through the dialog after he leaves the map and head the same direction he went, they can get a quick glance of him disappearing into air.
• In the original North American version, Rawk Hawk is incorrectly listed as having 3 attack and 1 defense. This error was not present in the original Japanese version and was corrected for the PAL version alongside all versions of the remake.

Footnotes and references[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

References[edit]

• Raptors
• Wrestlers
• Glitz Pit teams
• Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door bosses
• Super Mario-kun characters
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl stickers

• Articles with unsourced foreign names