In what’s now understood to be one of the worst instances of a “work gone wrong” in recent memory, mixed martial artist Raja Jackson violently assaulted pro wrestler Syko Stu (real name Stuart Smith) Saturday night at an independent wrestling show put on by the KnokX Pro promotion in the greater Los Angeles area. Word quickly spread about the incident, in large part because it was live streamed on the Kick platform. Our initial report on the incident, including the hard-to-watch video, can be found
here.
The Los Angeles Police Department is now investigating the incident, per TMZ.
Another KnokX Pro wrestler, Douglas Malo, is said to be one of the people who attempted to stop Jackson as he was raining down punches on the already unconscious Smith. Malo told USA Today that Smith is awake and talking in the hospital, but that he has broken bones in his face, and lost “a lot of teeth”. He described the scene on Aug. 23 in the ring:
“He was choking on his own blood and teeth. Somebody reminded me there’s kids there [at the show] and then I was like ‘oh my God.’”
Malo would later claim on reddit that Smith was being discharged from the hospital.
In the face of multiple reports that Jackson’s involvement in Saturday night’s show was planned, and a statement from Raja’s father — MMA pioneer and UFC legend Quinton “Rampage” Jackson – questioning the decision to include his son given he’d apparently been concussed while sparring days before, KnoxX Pro issued the following statement on their Facebook page:
First and foremost our thoughts and prayers are with our brother Mr. Stuart Smith (Syko Stu) as he remains a priority and we are monitoring his well being.
What was supposed to be a planned and agreed upon wrestling spot, turned into a selfish, irresponsible act of violence against Mr. Smith. This egregious act is reprehensible and never should have occurred.
In the 17 years of operation of KnokX Pro Wrestling Academy, there has never been anything as heinous take place such as this and we apologize to our patrons and fans.”
KockX Pro is run by WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi, father of Jey & Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa. It’s affiliated with WWE’s Independent Development program, although WWE is rumored to be re-evaluating that decision in light of this weekend’s events.
