Chael Sonnen thinks everyone needs to slow their roll regarding Raja Jackson’s viral attack on a pro wrestler in Los Angeles.
Over the son, Jackson, the son of former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, blew up the internet after a livestreamed KnokX Pro Wrestling event in Sun Valley saw the aspiring mixed martial artist jump in the ring and brutally attack Stuart Smith, otherwise known as Syko Stu in the ring.
The incident reportedly stemmed from an altercation backstage an hour earlier when Smith mistook Jackson for another wrestler. After Smith hit Jackson with a beer can over the head, the two were separated before shaking hands and going their separate ways.
Shortly after, Jackson slid into the ring mid-match, picked Smith up off his feet, and violently sent him crashing to the canvas. Jackson then proceeded to unleash 23 full-force punches to the already unconscious wrestler.
Since the incident, users on social media have been calling for Jackson to be arrested. Sonnen, on the other hand, thinks that there could be more to the story than the footage suggests.
“You do not get to go arrest Al Pacino for selling cocaine and chopping people up with machetes because you just watched an episode of Scarface,” Sonnen said via his YouTube channel. “You don’t get to decide as the viewer where the show ends and real life begins because you’re so skilled and talented that a good worker doesn’t have the ability to fool you. And I’m going, ‘Yeah, but John Cena just did that. He just did that to sell 80,000 live seats that booed him on Monday night. And by the pay-per-view on the weekend, we’re cheering him.’”
“What you just described is every wrestler that was on the card that night, every single wrestler hit the opponent, whether you won the match or lost the match. Every opponent took a fist to it for the entertainment of the crowd.
“Supposed to be controlled working shots is what they call this. Raja was throwing potatoes. But your idea that you have all the evidence that you need and you can prove premeditation, which escalates this by the way from an assault to attempted murder, all the evidence that you need, you’ve got because Raja himself told his live stream that he was going to do this and he was going to do it to seek retribution for the disrespect he was shown for being hit with the beer can.”
The Los Angeles Police Department is actively investigating the attack, though no warrants or arrests have been made thus far.
“You will get really good actors that will go into a movie set for 90 days and it’s a western movie and all of a sudden they come out and they’re done,” Sonnen continued. “They go home and they’re talking with a twang and they just forgot. Yeah, I’ve been doing this for 90 days and it takes them a minute to unwind.
“And when you have a good worker, and let’s say Raja is a natural, the absolute best thing that he could do to get in character is to sell it to you. The problem is you begin to sell it to yourself. And that’s the accident. That’s absolutely the accident. You begin to sell it to yourself.”
