Professional wrestling is probably getting more mainstream acceptance now than it has at any other time in the history of the sport. Sure, today’s product isn’t nearly as popular as when the genre drew 10 million weekly viewers during the peak of the Attitude era when Raw and Nitro went head-to-head every Monday, but the notion that sports entertainment would be on ESPN, let alone the network paying 1.5 billion for the broadcast rights, would’ve been considered laughable in years prior.
Within the landscape of sports entertainment as a whole, Netflix, USA network, the CW, TBS, TNT, Peacock, HBO Max, and ESPN will distribute pro wrestling in some form of fashion by the start of next year. As we’ve seen, despite the fact that ad rates are generally lower for pro wrestling than other types of shows, there’s no shortage of sponsorships, especially in the TKO era when management will seemingly slap logos on anything. Of course, inflation plays a role, as well as the evolution of the media landscape with the improvements in technology, but there’s record-setting money being made from pro wrestling today. Pro wrestling isn’t just about tickets sold at the box office or the pay-per-view buy rate as it was decades ago, it’s based on billions of dollars on the stock market.
However, and maybe its just the nature of the beast of the business that originated on the carnival circuit, unfortunately, professional wrestling will probably always have a sleazy side to it.
Athletic commissions are generally useless, as they often just want to take their piece of the pie with the gate tax on independent shows, but do literally nothing to regulate or help the process of events for smaller groups. This allows shady con artists or completely unqualified local yokels to buy a ring, rent a building, and call themselves professionals without any quality control.
Unfortunately, independent professional wrestling made headlines for all the wrong reasons this past weekend and it should be a notice for every athletic commission in the country to actually start to do something productive to prevent some of the unprofessional nonsense in exchange for the cash they take from the box office of each event.
Originally, I wasn’t going to write an article about the absolutely horrendous incident that happened at the Los Angeles-based KnokX Pro event over the weekend, as everyone seemed to have an opinion on it, but there were several different accounts about exactly what happened that were posted online.
As information continued to surface, there are only a few things that are clear, this should’ve never happened and a few careers have been ruined in the process of the unprofessional circus that took place at the KnokX Pro event. I’m only going to base my two cents on the matter on the things that appear to be confirmed, and what I think it should translate to for independent wrestling going forward.
The only thing that I knew about KnokX Pro prior to this was that it was Rikishi’s promotion and it was a part of the WWE ID program because of it. KnokX Pro isn’t usually a part of the discussion of the independent scene, and there’s nothing wrong with that, as it appears that its primary objective is to be a profitable wrestling school, with the live events being used as a platform for their students to gain experience more than anything else. It’s much easier to sell prospective students on the chance to pay a few thousand dollars to get trained by Rikishi if they know that they will have a place to hone their craft after they complete the training process.
Somehow, Raja Jackson, the son of former UFC fighter Rampage Jackson, was involved in an attack at the KnokX Pro event. There are several different versions of the story, but there are a few things that are undisputed based on video evidence. Prior to the show, wrestler Syko Stu, real name Stu Smith and US military veteran, hit Raja Jackson with a worked shot with a beer can, apparently with the thought that Raja was there to be a part of the show. Raja wasn’t aware of the worked nature of professional wrestling and there was almost an incident at the time before the situation was defused. Raja, who was streaming his involvement on the Kick platform, agreed to be a part of a worked run-in to provide a conclusion to the prior altercation. Raja and Stu were seen on video shaking hands, giving the impression that Smith thought that Raja was going to work with him for the run-in at the event. Raja was sat front row for the show and continued to stream live online when he hopped into the ring for the planned spot.
Raja said on video that he was going to hit Smith, and he did. Raja landed a takedown on Stu, who went along with the spot, thinking that it was simply a part of the worked plan agreed upon previously. Instead, Raja legitimately slammed Smith to the canvas, knocking him out before he landed literally 20 unprotected punches to his face. Fellow wrestler, Doug Malo made the save, but was also punched by Raja while Jackson was restrained by several people in the corner of the ring.
A video surfaced afterwards of Raja outside of the venue where it was very clear that he decided what he was going to do before he entered the ring and there was no doubt that he wanted to hurt Smith. The Wrestling Observer’s Bryan Alvarez reported that wrestler, AJ Mana brought Raja to the building and supposedly had some type of issue with Smith so it’s possible that Mana wanted their to be a physical confrontation. Mana was on video telling Jackson to “get a receipt,” which definitely implies that he wanted to see Smith injured. Following the incident, Mana was fired from his day job and will no longer be a part of the KnokX Pro organization.
Stu Smith was said to be in stable, but critical condition. A GoFundme was launched online, with several well-known wrestlers donating to the campaign to cover medical expenses. Malo revealed in a podcast appearance that KnokX Pro management told its roster not to cooperate with the authorities, and a screenshot was shared online to confirm it. That tells you everything you need to know about how irresponsible the company was in this situation.
If Syko Stu was too overzealous with trying to work an angle with Raja Jackson is irrelevant, the guy didn’t deserve to have his life put in jeopardy at a wrestling show. Why was Raja Jackson at the show? Why was he allowed to get into the ring if he wasn’t aware that pro wrestling is scripted? Plain and simple, Raja Jackson is a coward, as it’s very easy to knock someone out when they are cooperating with you the way that Smith was for the set up to the legitimate slam. Raja, who is a pro MMA fighter with one bout on his record, lost via unanimous decision in 2023. Raja Jackson isn’t some tough guy, he’s a moron that took advantage of someone that didn’t know he was gong to be legitimately attacked.
KnokX Pro was immediately stripped of their WWE ID status, and even though it was said that Rikishi wasn’t there, he’s still partially responsible for this. It might be unfair, but when you lend your name to a project, you’re responsible for finding responsible people to run the show. Reno Anoa’i is said to be the promoter of the live events. Rikishi makes money being a trainer at the training school, and one of the reasons that students are willing to pay thousands of dollars to train there is because of the association with his name.
Not surprisingly, Rampage Jackson has flip-flopped on the situation, initially expressing remorse for Smith before a later video was released where he tried to claim that MMA fighters only have real fights, criticizing the pro wrestlers that have spoken out against Raja’s actions. Rampage Jackson isn’t known for common sense, but taking into account the series of events that led to this point, it might be a good idea for him to stop talking about any of this on camera until the matter is settled.
So, what now?
The police are said to be investigating the situation, and it should go without saying that Raja Jackson should be arrested and charged for the violent assault on Stu Smith. If Raja Jackson did something like this in an MMA fight, he would be banned from the sport and arrested because the athletic commissions actually regulate MMA. Make no mistake about it, what Raja Jackson did was criminal and should be dealt with by the authorities, not some nickle-and-dime wrestling promoter.
The attack was picked up by several main stream media outlets and it makes the entire industry look terrible, especially independent wrestling, a level of the industry that doesn’t have the safety net of corporate sponsors. An incident like this could sour fans from sampling their local independent group, an organization where those ticket sales could make a difference. The importance of independent wrestling can’t be understated, as it provided a place for many performers to gain valuable experience before they get a chance on the national scene.
It’s obvious that this incident has ruined almost everyone involved, as Stu Smith might have to deal with extensive health problems from the attack, Raja Jackson should probably never to allowed to fight in mixed martial arts again, it’s a stain on Rampage Jackson for some of his comments, and KnokX Pro probably won’t be able to continue to get students for it’s training center.
All the best to Stu Smith in his family and hopefully, he can make a full recovery from the injuries.
What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
Email [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
