Rob Van Dam explains his post about “having the back” of Rampage Jackson’s son following incident
At Saturday’s Knokx Pro Wrestling event, there was an incident involving Raja Jackson, the son of MMA fighter Rampage Jackson, and independent wrestler Syko Stu. Prior to the show, there was a confrontation between the two men and during Stu’s match, Raja got into the ring and attacked him.
Shortly after the incident, WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam wrote “So far, I got Raja’s back” on Twitter/X. RVD discussed the situation during his podcast and here are highlights…
Clarifying his post: “I want to start out by saying best wishes to Skyo Stu Smith. Hopefully he will regain his health and do it quickly. That’s a shame. He definitely didn’t deserve what happened to him. If you’re wondering, if you’re a basic thinker, if you thought that me saying that was somehow hypocritical because my text said that I back Raja, then you are one of the basic thinkers that can’t understand how those can both be true in the same universe. I’m not picking a side. If I did, I’m not even saying it would be Raja’s.”
Raja’s mental state: “So, Raja doesn’t know sh*t about wrestling. That’s what I understand. I heard it from him saying on the stream before he gets to the event. He says, ‘You know, my boys got this wrestling event. I’m going to go and support. I don’t know sh*t about wrestling.’ And I believe him. He says he’s got concussion symptoms. His head is really f*cking with him a lot and he’s been having an upset stomach. This is something that a lot of the haters want to blow off. They don’t believe concussion symptoms are real, but they want to say, ‘I got CTE and that’s why I put that post out.’ You know, I don’t know if they’re trying to be funny, but you can’t have it both ways. He’s concussed. I don’t know the guy. He doesn’t seem like he’s the sharpest tool in the shed. I watched another video of him and his dad, and I love Rampage. I’m definitely not burying him, but it looks like a hard-love kind of relationship.”
Raja being told he could get a “receipt” after being hit with a can by Stu: “So, I’m going to assume that Stu thought that Raja knew he was going to do that. That’s the only thing that makes sense to me. And maybe Raja did know, and then Raja decided, ‘Uh, f*ck that.’ Or maybe because he got hit in the head and he was already concussed, maybe he forgot he was doing a skit. I don’t know. I don’t know. But it doesn’t make sense that a guy just went up and did that without knowing somebody, thought it was okay because he’s a pro wrestler. And that’s the story that’s out there. They end up making an agreement, shaking hands. From what I understand, Raja only accepted the apology reluctantly when they told him that he could get him back. Raja’s not a wrestler. He doesn’t know how the business works. He said he doesn’t watch it. He’s not into it. And they’re telling him ‘you can get him back.'”
What went wrong: “It was miscommunication. I think that Raja knew the whole time he was going to go in there and beat the dude’s ass. He told them that’s what he was gonna do—they told him to do that. They all agreed upon it, and then he went and did it. Did he take it too far? Yeah, he took it too far. You know, he’s definitely got anger issues, but I see the pathway of how we got there.”
Final thoughts: “He’s not a pro wrestler. He shouldn’t have been part of this at all.”