Syko Stu says he never said he forgave Raja Jackson for the August 2025 attack at a KnokX Pro Wrestling show in Los Angeles, only that he isn’t holding a grudge.
Stu, whose real name is Stuart Smith, spoke with hosts Matt Rosa and Neno Torres on the Space of Solace podcast, in what the show billed as his first interview since the attack. He addressed how his court statement was reported.
“That was a little bit out of context,” Stu said. “What I actually said was, ‘I’m not holding a grudge.’ I never said anything about forgiveness.”
“I just didn’t want to hold a grudge, because I feel like that brings the negative energy into it,” he added. “When you got to let something go, then it kind of helps you heal from it.”
When Jackson began his jail sentence in July, Stu told the court, “I hold no grudges against Mr. Jackson,” POST Wrestling reported.
Injuries and recovery
Stu said he has no memory of the attack and did not wake up until the following Tuesday. The attack happened on a Saturday, and he was discharged from the hospital that Thursday.
“I did have a severe traumatic brain injury,” Stu said. “I lost these two teeth up here. I shattered my maxilla, and I know there’s more stuff, but I just can’t remember off the top of my head.”
“I really had to relearn how to walk,” he said. “I couldn’t walk after that for a while.”
Stu, a 10-year U.S. Army veteran, said he was off work for a full year because his job requires a lot of computer work. He is still seeing traumatic brain injury doctors, doing memory exercises, and waiting on dental implants.
He said the memory loss affects him every day. “My wife, she’ll tell me something and then, like, five minutes later, I’ll forget it,” he said. “I’ll do things multiple times because I don’t remember that I did it.”
The planned finish
Stu said that after the beer can spot backstage, the two agreed to turn it into an angle in the match, with Jackson coming in to throw one punch. “It’s supposed to be a wrestling punch,” he said. He said the slam is what knocked him out.
Stu said he does not hold KnokX Pro accountable for what happened. “I don’t see it that way,” he said.
Rampage Jackson’s call
Stu said Raja Jackson’s father, former UFC champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, called his phone while he was in the hospital and asked for a call back. Stu said he decided not to return the call after hearing Rampage discuss him on podcasts.
“Then I seen him go on all these podcasts and stuff that he did, and it was just basically like trashing me,” Stu said. “And I was like, well, I’m not going to call you back if you already made up your mind about me.”
Stu said Rampage talked on podcasts about “me being drunk all the time,” and said that none of the statements from people who actually know him would support that.
Asked whether Jackson’s 90-day sentence was enough and whether justice was served, Stu said, “We might have to just hold off on that one for right now.”
Return to the ring
Stu has not wrestled since the attack. He said the hardest thing for him right now is not being able to wrestle, because the memory loss makes it hard to put a match together.
“My doctors tell me I shouldn’t,” Stu said. “But it’s one of those things, you have a love for something so much, you really want to find any way that you can make that happen. Whether it’s going to happen or not still remains to be seen.”
He said he would consider other roles in wrestling, such as training students.
The case
Jackson, who was streaming on Kick during the segment, slammed Stu and repeatedly punched him after Stu appeared to lose consciousness. In May, Jackson pleaded no contest to a felony battery charge. He was sentenced to 90 days in Los Angeles County jail, two years of probation and $81,000 in restitution, and he began the sentence on July 2. Jackson was released from jail on Sept. 29.
