AJ Mana has spoken out regarding his role in the controversial Knokx Pro incident that saw Raja Jackson assault Syko Stu.
As we’ve been reporting here on WrestlingHeadlines.com, Jackson — son of UFC veteran Quinton “Rampage” Jackson — attacked Stu during Saturday’s Knokx Pro event following a confrontation earlier in the day. While the two reportedly shook hands after Stu apologized, the situation escalated when Jackson entered the ring during what was supposed to be a worked segment. Instead, he legitimately assaulted Stu, sending him to the hospital.
Mana became tied to the situation as Jackson was his guest at the show. Footage from Jackson’s Kick stream showed Mana telling Jackson to give Stu a “receipt.” On Monday night, Mana appeared on the “F Y’all” podcast to explain his side of the story, expanding on a Facebook post in which he insisted he was “in character” and that his comments were part of the show.
In the interview, Mana denied setting Jackson up to attack Stu and stressed that he has no personal issues with him. He claimed that Knokx Pro has scapegoated him and tried to spin the incident into a worked angle to shield the company from liability. According to Mana, someone from the promotion’s production team instructed Jackson to throw the series of punches that led to the assault.
Mana added that Jackson’s presence was originally meant to help promote Knokx Pro through his Kick stream, not to be involved in the in-ring action. He also revealed that he has since parted ways with Knokx Pro, lost his day job due to the fallout, and that the ordeal has killed his passion for professional wrestling.
Meanwhile, the LAPD is investigating the matter. Additionally, Knokx Pro has lost its WWE ID accreditation as a result of the incident.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Jackson appearing backstage: “Raja recognized some of the talent because Raja has been following my career since I f**king started in professional wrestling, You know why? Because it was Raja, it was Pops here. It was my Uncs. It was Rampage that pulled up to my very first f**king wrestling match six years ago. So there [were] certain talent there in the locker room. Raja’s, ‘oh sh**. You’re this. You’re such and such. Oh sh**. You’re such and such.’ Then up walked someone [Smith]. ‘Don’t worry about them. You know who I am.’ ‘Oh, no, I don’t know who you are.’ ‘You should. I’m such and such.’ ‘I don’t know who the f**k that is.’ Need I say more? That wasn’t a work. That wasn’t a f**ing storyline. That was a f**king shoot. For those that are offended at the fact that I just told the truth, f**k you, because now my f**king life is ruined over your lives. So f**k you….I got a call from my f**king job. ‘We saw the TMZ video. You’re an accessory to an attempted murder. We gotta let you go.’ I can’t wrestle anymore.”
On Knokx Pro promoter Black Pearl trying to turn it into an angle: “See in the video where the promoter goes. ‘Whoa, You know what? We’re so sorry.’ And, they’re trying to work. They’re trying to work this sh** out. ‘Raja, I’m so sorry that happened to you. Are you okay? I’m so sorry. Look, I know you’re hot. I know you’re hot. Just calm down. We’re gonna work this out.’ What they were really saying was, we don’t want a lawsuit. We don’t want a lawsuit. So we need an alibi, and we need an alibi quick because a fan just got assaulted. We need an alibi now. Think quickly. Think quickly….We need an alibi. What’s the alibi? F**k? What’s the alibi? Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you were a worker.”
On his part in the series of events: “Like I said, the tape never stopped running. Since this is already on film, let’s go ahead and use it. Let’s make it a part of the show. How are we going to do that? I’ll give you a chance to go in on, on during his match and you get your f**king get your lick back. You see I said receipt? I didn’t say lick back. I said receipt….That’s all the f**k I told Raja to do. The only thing I told Raja to do was give him a f***ing receipt, because that’s what the promoter wanted to do to f**king be done. The promoter sent me away with Raja to work out the details, watch the video. I didn’t tell him to go beat that man.”
On his claim that someone from production told Jackson to deliver more punches: “One punch….you’ve seen the clip where it was live streaming, and he said that ‘They didn’t tell me to pull punches’ or ‘They didn’t tell me.’ They didn’t tell me they pulled him aside after we hashed everything out. They pulled him aside, by the way, that video where I’m telling them that I’m telling Raja to f**king hit homeboy. That was a part of the f**king buildup to what was about to happen later on in the f**king show. Just so you know.
“Somebody pulled him aside after and then says to him, and you can f***ing get this validated as well, pulled him aside, some f**king jabroni from the f**king goddamn bullsh** production team comes up to him and says, ‘No. Don’t just throw one punch. F**king slam him and keep hitting him until we come in there and pull you off. Now, who the f**k set that up? Guess where I was? Nowhere in the f**king building. You know why? Because I was getting ready for my match. I just…I had a match. I was f**king getting f**king dressed out, getting ready to f**king hit the road for another f**king gig. So I’m…I was out there. I had nothing to do with the show. From that point on when my sh** was done, I was out.”
On the backlash against him: “You saw everything in the video. That camera never stopped rolling. That camera was on me the entire time to protect me and to protect Raja to prevent bullshit speculation. I took part in the f**king segment as this was a vignette. Unbeknownst to you motherf**kers that are saying that I put a hit out on him. You didn’t know that was a part of the f***ing storyline, did you?”
On not being responsible for Jackson’s attack: “I am not responsible for what another grown ass man decides to do. I’m not. If I have a brother who decides to break into someone else’s house and sh** in their kitchen sink, is that my responsibility? That would be theirs. Although there is a connection, their actions are not mine. Their actions, I do not pay for it. Again, I don’t condone it, but I’m not liable.
“I am not the promoter. I carried out orders. That’s all. I was given a script in which to work out and implement into the show, and then later pulled from that segment. It’s not my fault. I made peace in this f**king puzzle. Again, I’m not the promoter. I was carrying out the order of the promoter that wanted to implement an individual into the show. I’m not Raja’s coach…I got a coach. I ain’t a coach. The only thing I coach is children and I can’t do that no more.”
On visiting Stu in the hospital: “The only reason I didn’t stay is because some of the other guys that were from Knokx Pro were already placing the blame on me… There’s nothing that I did wrong, but I apologized. Just this is a f**king work that went totally off the rails.”
On claims he had issues with Stu: “I don’t have beef with f**king Stu, and now you’re making me say [I had] beef [with] Stu that day. I don’t have beef with him. That’s my brother. He’s another cowboy outside of wrestling. I’m closer to him outside of wrestling than I am in wrestling because in wrestling we’re working characters. Outside of wrestling, we’re living it up on the f**king ranch. Stop trying to stir bulls**t up. That ain’t what happened. There was no beef between me and Stu. That was between him and Raja.”
On the incident overall: “That wasn’t supposed to happen. [Raja] was there for business when he hit him in the head with the can. That was out of sheer anger. Do I have to…I have to get back to why there was a beer can in the first place. Are we not putting two and two together? I don’t want to talk sh** because my brother’s in the f**king hospital, but let’s call a spade. Don’t drink beer and liquor in the f**king locker room. Get lit and twisted before a f**ing performance in which you are now a liability not only to yourself, but to anybody you’re in the f**king ring with. Let’s call a spade. No more drinking, especially on a live f**king production.”
During a recent appearance on the “Scaling Up” podcast, wrestler Doug Drago addressed the incident at KnokX Pro in which Raja Jackson legitimately attacked Syko Stu (Stuart Smith). Drago explained that he first heard about the situation after Smith had crushed a beer can against Jackson’s head.
Drago went on to place blame on AJ Mana, alleging that Mana orchestrated the assault by having Jackson target Smith due to previous issues between the two. According to reports, video footage shows Mana instructing Jackson to give Smith “a receipt” and to “tag his s***,” while adding that if anyone had a problem with it, he would run into the ring himself.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On providing an update on Stuart Smith (aka Syko Stu): “Broken facial bones, from what I’m hearing. Missing teeth. He has no recollection of what happened. Incoherent. Even from the people closest to it now, that I’m disassociating with, they won’t even put up the full story. Stu is pretty ****ed up. What happened yesterday is, he choked on his blood. Teeth and blood. He was out on the slam and then the guy made contact multiple times. I remember seeing that and being shocked. I went running. There are other people that could’ve gotten involved, who I made eye contact with, but they just stayed up on stage. I’m sorry to Stu that people who said were your friends let this happen.”
On his involvement: “I just got done with my match. I got whispered by somebody, ‘Something is not right. I might need you to go out there and check a scenario. This guy is going to do a spot?’ ‘What’s the spot?’ ‘We’ll let you know.’ You’ll let me know, but you’re not telling me when the cue is or when the spot is going to happen? You’re just going to let me know just in case? I’m waiting for this cue. I walk up to somebody with a radio, ‘Talked to the back. When do you guys want me to go? What’s happening?’ I was informed of the beer can incident shortly before that. They told me that they made up, shook hands, hugged it out multiple times and it was going to be fine. I talk to the person up front with the radio, I walk back to the ring, I see the slam, the first punch, second punch, by then I have people in front of me. I just start moving. I wish I had sprung on the slam. There is nothing worse…you watch somebody you care about, he’s a veteran. These are people who are supposed to love him. I’m the only one on the outskirts being told to watch this, apparently? I’m in there, battling, trying to work this, telling the guy to calm down, and now he’s trying to fight me.”
On if he believes the incident was premeditated: “I think the premeditation part comes on the side of AJ Mana. You brought somebody who was volatile, who you knew had issues. That’s the small *** chicken legged ***** with the cowboy hat.”
On AJ Mana provoking the incident due to his issues with Smith: “I don’t like Raja. I think Raja is a **** person for what he did, but I think AJ is a bigger **** person for gassing him up and leading him to ruining his own ****ing life. To hurt somebody that AJ also has a problem with. I don’t believe in coincidences. … He ruined two people’s lives.”
On his belief that Jackson wanted to kill Smith: “I think he wanted to kill him. I promise you he would have klled him. He would have killed me if he got the best of me. If he would’ve taken my legs from under me, like he was tyring to, he was going to do the same thing to me that he did to Stu.”
During a recent appearance on the “Scaling Up” podcast, a former KnokX Pro wrestler alleged that the promotion is instructing its talent not to cooperate with law enforcement in the ongoing investigation of the violent attack involving Raja Jackson and Syko Stu this past weekend.
The unnamed talent, who was not present at the event, revealed that KnokX Pro Wrestling is encouraging its wrestlers to avoid speaking with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), which is actively investigating the assault. The individual said,
“I was not present for this event. I was at home, I heard about it like everybody else, until I started communicating with my friends and colleagues at that organization, and they were giving me details. I have actually stepped away from the wrestling world because of personal growing safety concerns and social concerns in terms of my reputation. I have been slowly distancing myself from this brand because I am not surprised at all that this happened. There are some great people in this industry. There are a lot of bad people congregated at that place.”
“The most disgusting thing, which is the reason why I ultimately decided to be present for this, given that my involvement wasn’t direct with the situation that has gone viral, which a blessing and a curse. Part of me wishes so bad that I was there to assist the situation and help my friend. The other part of me is glad I wasn’t there because there is a good chance I would have gotten locked up that night as well if I was present. The most disgusting thing is that people at this school are being encouraged not to cooperate with the police. From what I hear, the police were there investigating the scene shortly after Stu was removed and there have been multiple requests that have gone downstream from upper management to not talk with the police directly if they are contacted and to only let a certain group of individuals interact with the police. That is extremely dishonest. You let your friend almost die, and now you’re trying to have people lie for you. F*ck you to every single person who replied to them ‘Yes, sir.’ You are all weak sacks of s*it and I hope you rot in hell. You are wasting oxygen other people can be breathing. Go f*ck yourself. If you continue to be complacent in this investigation and you side with people who you know are wrong, I wish nothing but the worst for you.”
Text messages shared during the podcast, purportedly from KnokX Pro wrestler Kevin Thomas, read,
“Please refrain from engaging in comment sections on social media posts about this tragedy. It will be weaponized in potential criminal and civil cases. Fly low. If law enforcement or an attorney for the suspect contacts you in any capacity, let someone here know right away for guidance on how to address them.”
Another message from an individual named Miguel, likely referring to KnokX Pro Wrestling booker Miguel Diaz, states,
“No one needs to be discussing anything. I’ll shut this feed down.”
KnokX Pro Wrestling is owned by WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi, who was reportedly not in California or at the event when Jackson attempted to murder Stu in the ring.
Stu remains hospitalized due to injuries sustained in the attack, while no arrests have yet been made in connection with the case.
(h/t – Fightful)
