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WWE Hall of Famers Mark Henry and Rob Van Dam each weighed in separately on the brutal attack by Raja Jackson on Syko Stu, real name Stuart Smith. Despite agreeing that what Jackson did was horrific and has no place in wrestling, they also placed some blame on Stu for what ended up happening.
In case you missed it, Raja Jackson, the son of former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, was caught on camera Saturday night jumping into a Knokx Pro Wrestling ring and savagely beating wrestler Syko Stu with repeated punches to the head, well after the wrestler was unconscious. Stu was unconscious for several minutes and eventually taken to a hospital where he was in critical condition with broken bones in his face, missing several teeth, and obviously, dealing with, at the very least, a severe concussion.
Raja Jackson is now the subject of an investigation being conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department, but has yet to be charged with any crimes. On Tuesday, it was reported that Knokx Pro Wrestling is allegedly instructing its wrestlers not to speak to the police.
Mark Henry weighs in
As for Mark Henry, a two-time world champion and 2018 inductee in the WWE Hall of Fame, he told TMZ that Syko Stu deserves at least some of the blame for what transpired Saturday night.
“I don’t know the full story, but I do know what I saw,” Henry said. “And it looked like he [Raja Jackson] wasn’t smart to what was going on. And uh, the dude that was messing with him [Syko Stu] bit off more than he can chew.
“You got to be careful, one, with who you mess with and two, like, you know, what kind of example are you as a veteran for inciting the riot with a kid, you know? And I mean he’s not 12 or nothing, but he’s still significantly younger and you know, you want to make sure that everybody knows what we’re doing.”
When asked if the incident was a “bad look” for pro wrestling, Mark Henry claimed it isn’t.
“It’s not a bad look for pro wrestling,” Henry replied. “It’s a bad look for the company that he performed at and it’s a bad look for him and it’s a worse look for the guy that got beat up, because now we know you can’t fight, and back in the old days if you lost a fight you lost your job.”
Mark Henry added, “If indeed what I saw was what I saw, which is people before the show, during the day time, drinking and intoxicated or partially intoxicated, and you bust a bottle over a guy’s head and talk trash like that guy was not going to do nothing, yeah, you’re at fault.”
Rob Van Dam weighs in
Rob Van Dam, himself also a two-time world champion and member of the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2021, caught a bunch of heat on social media for writing on Sunday, “So far, I got Raja’s back. Looking forward to talking about it tomorrow on my podcast.” On Monday, he clarified what he meant by that stunning statement.
“I want to start out by saying, best wishes to f—— Syko Stu Smith,” Van Dam said on his podcast. “Hopefully, he will regain his health and do it quickly. That’s a shame. He definitely didn’t deserve what happened to him.
“If you thought that me saying that was somehow hypocritical because my text said that ‘I back Raja,’ then you are one of the basic thinkers that can’t understand how those can both be true in the same universe. I’m not picking a side [with that post]. If I did, I’m not even saying that it would be Raja. All I’m saying, it’s like when [Jim Ross] said that Vince [McMahon] was looking ugly, and then he said, ’Well, that’s the pot calling the kettle black.’ One has nothing to do with the other. Right? So I’m not saying that this guy Stu deserved what happened to him by saying that ‘I got Raja’s back.'”
He added, “When I watched everything and when I say that ‘I have his back’ I’m not saying I’m going to stand back to back and fight a crowd of f—— million people that are trying to lynch him. What I’m saying is, I see the pathway that he took that led to what happened.”
Van Dam also deflected some of the blame off of Raja Jackson, pointing out that if Syko Stu hadn’t hit him in the head with a beer can earlier in the night, none of this happens, and perhaps most importantly, “He’s not a pro wrestler. He shouldn’t have been part of this at all.”