The professional wrestler who intervened to stop Raja Jackson from inflicting further damage to Stuart Smith, AKA Syko Stu, during a KnokX Pro Wrestling event gave his account of what transpired over the weekend.
Doug Malo, AKA Doug the Epic, pulled Jackson, the son of former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, off of Smith and engaged in a clinch battle before others arrived to assist.
“I just got done with my match. I was blown up, took the heat, did the sh*t. Then I got a whisper from somebody, ‘Hey, something is not right. I might need you to go out there and check a scenario. This guy is going to do a spot,'” explained Malo.
Jackson was in attendance to watch a friend, AJ Mana, featured on the event. During some backstage introductions, Smith approached Jackson. During what came off as an impromptu promo, Smith said, ‘You need to be worried about Syko Stu,’ and smashed a beer can on the side of Jackson’s head. The situation turned intense but cooler heads prevailed.
While Smith apologized to Jackson and explained that he thought Jackson was another pro wrestler, the promotion was worried enough to have Malo close by in case things got out of hand.
“I was informed about the beer can incident actually shortly before that. They told me that they made up, shook hands, hugged it out multiple times, so it was going to be fine. I just want to make sure,” Malo said.
“I see the slam. I see the first punch, the second punch. By then I have people in front of me. I start moving. I kind of wish I would have just sprung on like the slam.”
Malo believes the incident was premeditated by Jackson’s friend AJ Mana. After the beer can incident and Jackson was brought into the act, Mana is on video encouraging Jackson get payback.
Related: Raja Jackson’s immediate comments after brutal attack on pro wrestler sound like a confession
Jackson was told by Mana, “When you run in on his sh*t, you f**king give him his receipt. You know what a receipt is. Give him that f**king receipt. Tag his sh*t.”
“I think the premeditation part comes on the side of AJ Mana,” Malo said. “He brought somebody that was volatile that you knew had issues.” Malo classified Jackson’s actions as ‘attempted murder.’
“I think the culmination between his dad picking on him, his daddy issues came out, and all this sh*t AJ gassed up in his head,” said Malo. “I don’t like Raja. I think Raja is a sh*t person for what he did, but I think AJ is a bigger piece of sh*t for gassing him up, to be in that f**king ring, leading him to ruin his own f**king life, to hurt somebody that AJ also has a problem with. I don’t believe in coincidence.”
Had Malo not been there to stop Jackson from continuing to punch away on Smith, he’s convinced Smith would have died.
“I think he would have killed him,” Malo said. “I promise you, he would have killed him.”
