AJ Mana Details His Side Of Raja Jackson-Syko Stu Incident

Raja Jackson, the son of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, legitimately knocked out independent wrestler Syko Stu at KnokX Experience in a planned spot that went too far.

Prior to the incident, Stu confronted Raja outside the venue and smashed a beer can over his head. Stu thought they were working and was shocked that Raja didn’t sell the beer can shot. Stu later apologized to Raja and they shook hands.

Another video showed AJ Mana telling Raja to give Stu a “receipt” and “tag his shit,” and that if anyone had a problem with it, he would run out to the ring.

Appearing on The F Y’all Podcast, AJ detailed his side of the story.

“I’m dealing with anything in regard to speculation, rumor, heresy, anything of that nature. I will deal only with my personal experience and the facts as I witnessed them and as I acted and whatever came out of my mouth and whatever I was involved in

“In a video, that was over an hour long, in that entire video, you only see my ass for eight minutes. I had the least amount of involvement in this shit. However, I’m taking most of the heat for it. What’s happening….I won’t get too much into family ties, but it’s very obvious and easy to throw me under the bus.

“One thing I will not do is set up or double-cross another man.”

AJ then said he was dropping the gimmick, taking off his cowboy hat, and saying he was speaking as Andre.

“My life is ruined because of your speculation. My life is ruined because you decided to throw me under the bus to protect your own image. To protect what you perceive to be your own good name when your name ain’t shit to nobody. I’m not afraid of you motherfuckers anymore. You know who I’m talking to,” he said.

He continued, “Raja is a teammate of mine, the son of Quinton Rampage Jackson. The man, not a character. Let’s deal with the facts. He was a guest. I didn’t bring him to the show. I was part of the show. I am not a promoter. I am a talent. It wasn’t even my idea to have a storyline with Raja. I have no creative control. I don’t own the fucking company. I carry out what was told to me to do. I was unaware by carrying out what I was told to do that I would be scapegoated to protect them. Raja gets to the door. Unbeknownst to whoever was working security, homeboy didn’t know I slotted a VIP ticket to Raja.”

AJ then alludes to KnokX Pro withholding money from him, before continuing, “For some reason or another, his name wasn’t on the list. I forked up another $30 to get his name on the VIP list. Why? Unbeknownst to production, a day prior, there was a meeting with me, Raja, and his pops about beginning a collaboration with [Kick livestream]. They have millions of followers. Rampage says, ‘You’re working hard to get your name out there, but something isn’t clicking. If you get on this stream with us, people will talk shit.’ They did. ‘People will ragebait you. Just be cool about it and your following will do up.’ It did. It really did. Then we started talking, ‘What if we bring this stream to KnkX Pro. It’ll be good for them and you.’ Raja was there on business. Y’all out here trying to say this whole thing was a work and part of a storyline that went wrong. That’s bullshit.”

AJ said he introduced Raja to the owner and it was known that Raja was streaming. They were told everything was okay.

“He was there for business. Not to do business on the show, but to promote the show, to promote me, to promote himself. It was a cross-collaborative agreement,” he said.

AJ showed his D6 tattoo and says Stu has the same tattoo.

“Y’all want to suggest that I would set up my own brother? Y’all want to push this fucking narrative that me, not the gimmick, the human being. After the fact. Y’all saw the video. I don’t know why there are questions about this. It is so cut and dry and obvious. The proof is in the pudding. Yes, he went too far. We don’t have to ascertain whether he went too far. I’m trying to absolve myself of these false allegations that I am an accessory to attempted murder. That’s a serious allegation. I am not responsible for what another grown ass man decides to do,” said AJ. “The part in the segment, that this was a vignette. Unbeknownst to you, who are saying that I put a hit out on him. You didn’t know that was part of the storyline did you? No.”

AJ said that Raja recognized some talent backstage because he’s been following AJ’s career.

“Then, up walks someone, ‘Don’t worry about them. Do you know who I am?’ ‘No, I don’t know who you are.’ ‘You should, I’m such and such.’ ‘I don’t know who the fuck that is.’ Pop [beer can hitting the head]. Need I say more? That wasn’t a work. That wasn’t a fucking storyline. That was a shoot,” stated AJ.

AJ referenced the video of the promoter clearing things up with Raja, and the promoter and Stu apologizing. AJ said that he believes that didn’t want a lawsuit, so they needed an alibi. He said the beer can was not a prop, and called out the locker room for drinking before shows. He admitted that he’s also drank before shows in the past.

“Promoter says, ‘Since this is already on camera, let’s use it and make it part of the show.’ ‘How are we going to do that?’ ‘I’ll give you a chance to roll in on his match and get your lick back.’ I said ‘receipt.’ I didn’t say ‘lick back.’ [Punches himself in the jaw]. That’s a receipt. That’s all the fuck I told Raja to do! The only thing I told him to do was give him a receipt because that’s what the promoter wanted done. The promoter sent me away with Raja to work out the details. I didn’t tell him to go beat that man. One punch.

“Someone pulled him aside afterwards, some jabroni from the bullshit production team, says to him, ‘Don’t just throw one punch. Slam him and keep hitting him until we come in there and pull him off.’ Who the fuck set that up? Guess where I was? Nowhere in the building. I was getting ready for my match.

“‘Get in there and fuck that motherfucker up.’ Did that come out of my mouth? No. It came out of the promoter’s mouth. I’m not the promoter. I carried out orders. That’s all.. I was given a script to work out and implement into the show and later pulled from that segment. It’s not my fault. I’m a piece in this puzzle. I was carrying out the order of the promoter.”

AJ said he has all the original footage, not just clips, and he’ll countersue if sued. He stated that he was out of the building and didn’t know what happened in the ring.

When asked if he spoke with Stu’s family or went to the hospital, AJ said, “I think some of them were there at the hospital when I went. The only reason I didn’t stay is because some of the other guys at KnokX Pro were already placing the blame on me, and it was an uncomfortable situation.

“I have no problem apologizing, and I did, and I did visit Stu. Y’all just don’t know. No, I didn’t visit Stu. That’s a lie. I didn’t visit Stu. They wouldn’t let me. They wouldn’t let me in. They don’t fuck with me because the world thinks I tried to unalive somebody. I did apologize for what happened. I was not admitting to anything, there was nothing that I did wrong, but I apologized because it was a work that went totally off the rails.

“I don’t have beef with Stu. That’s my brother. He’s another cowboy. Outside of wrestling, I’m closer to him than I am in wrestling. In wrestling, we’re working characters. Outside of wrestling, we’re living it up on the ranch. Stop trying to stir bullshit up. There was no beef between me and Stu. That was between him and Raja.”

AJ later said that Raja was assaulted by Stu with the beer can incident.

“There was no time to train him. He wasn’t there to be part of the show. He got attacked. He got assaulted, too. He got assaulted. They wanted to make it part of a storyline. There was no time to train him. This was a live show. One person assaults a guy, two hours later, another person assaults the same person. They assaulted each other. Yeah, he had permission. From the promoter, not me. I’m not the promoter,” said AJ before saying that Stu hit Raja in the head with a beercan out of sheer anger.

AJ reiterated many of his points throughout the stream and interview, specifically that this was his side of the story and he was in character, that he lost his job and people were messing with his life, and that the promoter was at fault.

At the end of the video, AJ broke down and said he didn’t care about wrestling anymore and that this took his passion.

Fans can donate to Stu’s GoFundMe here.

Fightful wishes Stu the best as he recovers.