Peter Pan, Pro Wrestling, and Raja Jackson

There’s a reason wrestlers are called “Boys.”

In the Peter Pan story, lost boys are taken to the island where they never have to grow up. They have their own Court, and their own rules, and if you tell them to grow up, they tell you to leave. Because they are Boys.

Neverland is a real place. It’s everywhere a wrestling show pops up, not just in the ring, but buried in the back, behind the curtain, where the boys make their own rules.
On Saturday, August 23rd, AJ Mana invites Raja Jackson to KnokxPro’s Knokxperience. AJ takes him backstage, all the while Raja derides him for looking “like a gay male stripper.” This is exactly the language you would expect from boys, only this group has no minors present. It’s a group of boys in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s.

AJ takes Raja to Black Pearl, the booker for tonight’s event, who overlooks a grill. Raja shakes hands, and gushes over his favorite talent, El Presidente. Then, disturbingly, he is confronted by a beer-bellied 47-year old with PTSD, who proceeds to smash an opened can of beer over his head. Syko Stu, the shirtless boy in question, has never met Raja before. He infers, on his own, that Raja is one of the boys, and that the camera present means he is able to work him. This, to the boys, is not a cause for concern. This is a simple misunderstanding.

Anywhere else, this is cause for a nice trip to the police station. And if this was the case, Syko Stu has a chance to sober up, reflect on his abhorrent behavior, and walk out some time later with his face in tact. But this is not what happens. Because they are Boys.

Black Pearl, the eldest boy in the group by the look of him, separates Raja from Stu, and promises to make amends with Raja – by letting him retaliate in front of the paying fans – among whom are actual boys, girls, and toddlers. The boys shake hands and bury the hatchet, but… boys will be boys.

AJ walks Raja to the front, and along the way eggs on Raja, the professional MMA fighter, to lay in his receipt. AJ doubles down on this, and vows to defend Raja’s right to a receipt, promising to come out if anyone has a problem. As we will later find out, AJ doesn’t uphold this promise, but you can’t expect honesty from a boy.

Raja is given a front row seat, but not before asking to see Rikishi, the WWE Hall of Famer who owns and operates KnokxPro, along with his partner, the aforementioned booker Black Pearl. AJ informs Raja that Rikishi will be here ‘later,’ but that later is not before the show starts, where Raja, beer still in his hair and on his clothes, is seated front row.

It should be mentioned that Raja is wearing a microphone and what looks like a Bluetooth JBL speaker projecting whatever comments his Kick stream chat wants to vocalize. For the next hour and change, Raja confesses to the chat his intention to maim, harm, shoot on, and otherwise crash out on Stu for the unprompted beer can shot. And the Chat loves it.

All the while, Raja berates each act that comes out. The camera captures the live event. It starts with an a blue and white faced mascot named Mr. Freeze buzzing on the microphone with the charm of a mosquito in your ear. An abysmal hip hop performance from the doorman follows, who is also pulling double-duty as the kayfabe ‘Chief Wrestling Operator.’ A manager comes out and spews the most stereotypical cheap heat imaginable. The crowd at times is painfully silent. It is a hard show to imagine sitting through, let alone paying for. This promotion has the designation of a WWE ID Territory.

Fourth on the card is AJ, whom Raja is here to support. But… he doesn’t. He pokes fun some more. He’s laughing, staring at his phone, locked in the feedback from his chat. During the show, he is given instruction on when he will be able to, as directed by the co-owner of the promotion, exact his revenge in-ring. The paying fans seated next to him, must ignore this, along with his endless berating of what they have paid to see. Have you ever had someone talk throughout the entirety of the movie you paid to watch?

Then, it’s time for Stu’s match. Raja has made it clear he believes that Stu has been drinking, and from the open beer can in the back, it’s not hard to see why. Nevertheless, drinking or not, he is allowed to perform. By this point, Raja has gone twice to management to ensure his timing to exact his receipt. Twice, he is told, not that they have come to a better conclusion to avoid this public receipt in front of children, but to assure him that is exactly what is going to happen.

So when it does, the boys let it happen.

When Raja first enters the ring, a woman is heard crying out, sensing that something is out of place. The referee, the other workers, the promoters back stage, give him space. Raja double legs Stu and carries him over his shoulder. Stu does not stop this, because he knows he has something coming. He doesn’t know what, because Black Pearl has never told Raja what he is or isn’t allowed to do. AJ has instructed him to lay it in. And production crew have guided him, twice, to continue with the ‘make-good.’ The fear of legal repercussions from Raja, and the lack of any voice of mature reasoning, has lead us to this present moment.

So when Raja Alabama-slams Stu to the mat, KnokxPro delivers exactly what it wrote. A concussed Stu is star-fished in the ring, and looks to be genuinely KO’d. Here, I believe, is where something further snaps. Raja hammer-fists Stu with an unbelievably cruel right hand. The announcer, seen in the back of the video footage, jumps to his feet, horrified by what is transpiring in the ring. Raja delivers in quick succession another 10 blows, while the referee shouts at him to stop. If this were an MMA fight, the referee would throw his body over the KO’d fighter, but in wrestling, verbal commands are enough. But Raja is not a wrestler.

I want to be clear, Raja pulls a Benoit. he goes for the Kill. Twenty two shots are fired from a loose cannon before any of the boys reach Raja. It takes a small army of wrestlers to corner the MMA fighter in the corner. The CWO holds his leg for good measure. Ghastly, inexcusably, shamefully, one of the boys makes a cover – to finish the match. The referee breaks from throwing up his arms in an ‘X’ – to make the count.

Raja is escorted from the premises, blood on his shirt, without so much as another finger laid on him by the boys. The livestream’s audio receives some interference, and the juxtaposition of feedback and Raja’s disheveled exit is something out of a Scorsese film. It is the most bizarre thing I have ever seen in my entire pro wrestling fandom. It will always be with me.

Once Raja is a block from the venue, Mr. Freeze, the mascot, shouts at Raja for ‘his viral moment.’ Mr. Freeze had been behind Raja the entirety of the walk out of the venue, but chooses a safe distance to speak up. Raja’s camera man, who earlier in the stream shared his lifelong friendship with Rampage, Raja’s dad, pushes Raja further away from the venue, lest more unfolding is to occur. Mr. Freeze will later use the occurrence to promote his social media handles, acting tough for the twelve fans with cell phones, calling out the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion of the world – for the actions of his son. It reeks of desperation, which has been consistent with his performance for the evening.

Mind you, Stu is still out cold in the ring. Stu’s skull is broken. His teeth are bits and pieces. Fans slowly realize this is not part of the show, and point at Stu’s motionless body in the ring. Raja, on the outside, vents his frustration, anger, and vitriol at his treatment.

This is a tragedy. Not for Stu, who is an idiot. Not for KnokxPro, which is the new definition of a slop shop. Not for Raja, who is now a criminal. Not to TKO or WWE, who has, as of this writing, remained silent on the matter. It is a tragedy for wrestling fans. Because once again we have to answer to everyone in our lives for the action of these boys. We’re the ones left defending this when our friends send us those inevitable ‘What the hell is wrong with wrestling?’ texts.

I feel shame. I feel sick. Just like I did after the Chris Benoit double-murder suicide. Because in some small part, I have participated in this Neverland ritual, and the senseless, stupid, violent display has left me feeling I too have blood on my hands. There’s no pay off for this. I have, nauseatingly, remained glued to the story, seeking someone to make sense out of it. Did WWE revoke KnokxPro’s ID? Did Raja get charged? Did Rikishi ever show up to his own show? All I’m left with is silence. And in that silence I realize that I am wrong to expect something mature from wrestling. Boys don’t take accountability for their actions. They blame someone else. They refuse to grow up.

I’m looking for something else to fill the void. Watching Raw tonight, headlined by Rikishi’s nephew, is not happening. The entire circus itself has lost any sort of appeal. I don’t want to go back to Neverland. I want to grow up.