Nobody expected to hear good news out of that ugly scene, but here it is. Stuart “Syko Stu” Smith is awake, alert, and talking from his hospital bed. The pro wrestler survived a brutal assault over the weekend and is now on the long road to recovery.
The update came straight from Douglas Malo, the man who jumped in and stopped Raja Jackson during the attack. Malo told TMZ Sports that Stu remembers parts of the day, can speak a little, and knows what’s going on around him. The injuries remain serious, mostly to his face, but doctors don’t consider them life-threatening.
Malo didn’t leave the incident unscathed either. He admitted Jackson punched him in the face and tried to take him down in the chaos. “I’m pissed at what he did to my friend, I’m pissed for him punching me in the face. I’m pissed for him that when I went to take him off and told him to calm down, he tried to double leg me,” Malo said. He added that if Jackson had landed that takedown, the outcome could’ve been much worse.
Syko Stu’s Fight Back To Recovery
Witnesses say Malo’s intervention prevented a disaster. He pulled Jackson away long enough for help to arrive, and Smith was rushed to the hospital. Jackson fled the venue, but the fallout continues. LAPD opened an investigation, and calls for criminal charges against the son of Rampage Jackson have only grown louder.
Malo also addressed another part of the story, which is the beer can incident before the in-ring assault. While some, including WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry, suggested Stu carried some responsibility for escalating the issue, but Malo took his friend’s side. “He would have done the same for me,” he said.
Meanwhile, fans have rallied around Syko Stu in a big way. A GoFundMe for medical costs has already hit around $150,000. The donations include $10,000 from YouTube star MrBeast and $2,500 from wrestling legend Chris Jericho. Thousands of others have also chipped in, showing the wrestling community’s loyalty runs deep.
For now, the focus stays on Smith’s recovery. He’s still hurting, still dealing with painful injuries, but he’s awake and communicating. And after seeing how close the call was, this feels like a win for his close ones.
