Steve's View #77
By Steve Bryant
This was once again supposed to
be my column on rookies, but I'll be holding that off for a little
while now.
August 2nd I put up the worst thing
I have ever placed on SCU. That the Messiah had been attacked
in his apartment, stabbed, and had his thumb cut off. Truly a
terrible event. Here is what happened:
The Messiah (William Welch) was
in his apartment in Canyon County on Thursday, August 1st. His
roommate had just left to walk her dog when two men entered the
apartment.
Messiah thinking the two men, described
as African-Americans, both in their mid-20s, about 6 feet tall
and weighing 230 to 250 pounds, were friends of his roommate greeted
them when they entered. They then began to attack him and cut
off his thumb with garden shears. They then tried duct taped his
hands together and tried to cut off his other thumb.
Fighting back, and making a fist
so that the attackers could not get to his thumb, the Messiah
was then hit over the head with a fish tank. Dazed from the fish
tank the attackers attempted to pull Messiah's pants down to cut
off his penis. Unable to get the pants off they began stabbing
Messiah in the general area, stabbing his leg in the process.
Messiah was fighting back too much for them to be successful so
they continued to hit him with furniture to knock him out. Being
unsuccessful in that and most likely due to the amount of commotion
being made, the attackers then left the scene, taking the thumb
with them.
Nothing else was taken from the
home, and authorities believe that the attackers were specifically
there to assault him. The police detectives have a description,
a vehicle description, and a possible identification. The police
are also investigating possible leads to who is behind the attack.
If you have any information on the
attack or the assailants, please contact Detective Victor Lewandowski
at the Santa Clarita Valley sheriff's station at (661) 255-1121.
-
Wiliam Welch started in wrestling
at Slammers Wrestling Academy in Studio City, CA. After training
he began his career as "Iron" Mike Earnhart wrestling
for Slammers Wrestling Federation. Welch then took a year off
from wrestling and moved to Georgia.
After his return to California he
was watching television and a commercial for XPW came on. Noticing
a lot of the guys he used to wrestle with at Slammers, Welch attended
the next XPW show and talked to Dynamite D, who he knew from Slammers
after the show. The next show Welch debuted as the masked wrestler,
The Blunatic.
The Blunatic was used mainly as
a jobber while XPW was trying to think of a new gimmick for Welch,
even losing to Nicole Bass in his XPW debut. A religious gimmick,
possibly even based on the "Fallen Angel" Christopher
Daniels who had wrestled a few shows for XPW previously, was decided
upon. At first Welch was to be a moral crusader, against everything
that was extreme in XPW, but then Rob Black decided that they
will take it farther, and he will be Jesus.
Welch debuted as Messiah (he was
actually called Jesus in his first appearance) on December 18th,
1999. He would quickly become one of the top stars in XPW.
In April of 2000 the Messiah had
his first match with Sabu, losing in what would later become the
biggest feud in XPW history. On November 10th of the same year
Messiah defeated Supreme for the XPW King of the Deathmatch title.
On May 26th, 2001 Messiah won the
XPW Heavyweight title by defeating New Jack, who defended the
title for Sabu when Sabu was unable to be at the show. Three months
later Messiah would be gone from XPW.
In the week before the XPW show
on August 25th, 2001 Messiah was fired from XPW, allegedly for
having an affair with Rob Black's fiancé Lizzy Borden.
On September 1st, Messiah made his
MPW debut. After his appearance in MPW he began to wrestle in
indys all over Southern California. He was nominated for Southern
California wrestler of the year for 2001, finishing 3rd behind
Super Dragon and B-Boy.
On January 12th, 2002 Messiah missed
his MPW booking to debut in Combat Zone Wrestling at the ECW Arena
in Philadelphia, PA. Messiah was instantly a huge star in CZW,
the biggest indy promotion on the East Coast.
Messiah continued to wrestle in
Southern California also, including winning the MPW Heavyweight
title on March 23rd, 2002. On May 11th, 2002 Messiah pinned Justice
Pain in Philadelphia, PA to become the 15th CZW World Champion.
Messiah lost the title back to Justice
Pain less than a month later on June 8th. The match where Messiah
lost the title became the beginning of his feud with "Sick"
Nick Mondo that would continue as one of the main feuds in EPIC
and also to an extent GSCW.
Hopefully it will not be long until
Messiah returns to wrestling and adds to his list of accomplishments.
-
If this attack is anyway wrestling
related, in my opinion they made a huge mistake. The Messiah,
who says he is not retiring from wrestling, will now be a bigger
star than ever. Imagine the ovations he will receive when he returns.
This news is on every major site, even the ones that rarely deal
with indy wrestling. Now all these people who have never heard
of him before now know the name Messiah. All you did is make him
stronger.
Also I want to echo what Paul T.
said on our message board. If you have any information on this,
and you don't come forward, you are as bad as the people who committed
the crime. You are truly a sick person.
There should be a lot of news forthcoming
on this situation this week. Keep checking out the site and we
will keep you updated on all the latest information.
-
The last thing about Messiah for
this column is the huge Messiah benefit show EPIC is running on
August 18th. This was originally going to be a TV taping but it
is now a benefit to help pay for Messiah's bills. Currently booked
for the show (and all will be wrestling for free) are Sabu &
Josh Lazie, New Jack, Super Dragon, Excalibur, Disco Machine &
Vixen, Larry Rivera & The Havana Pitbulls, Paul T, Ruckus,
Joey Ryan & Hailey, "Sick" Nick Mondo, The Hardkore
Kidd, "The Future" Frankie Kazarian, B-Boy, The Backseat
Boys (Trent Acid & Johnny Kashmere), Scott Lost, Silver Tyger,
TARO, Shogun, Mr. Excitement, The Ballard Brothers, and Lil' Cholo.
The show is going to have a $10
ticket price, but donations of more are encouraged. All proceeds
from the show are going to the Messiah. Tickets are available
now at epicprowrestling.com,
and I recommend you buy in advance as the show is likely to sell
out with the card and the publicity surrounding what happened.
-
On Friday I was able to have very
interesting long talk with Carlos Zamora, head of wrestling operations
for the Azteca lucha libre promotion. We talked a lot about indy
wrestling and television, building new stars, differentiating
a product, promotional wars, and a lot of other things. Azteca
has already had the largest non WWF crowd in the United States
this year, and if they do the stuff they are talking about, and
catch a few breaks, they will be big. Azteca has a lot of good
ideas and a lot of good things coming up it seems, starting with
their TV deal that will have them on KJLA on Saturdays at 10:00
PM starting August 31st. Definitely a fed to look out for.
-
I normally don't out and out plug
things but I can't recommend From Parts Unknown magazine enough.
At the San Diego Comic Con on Thursday I bought issue #6. That
night I read it and it was fantastic. The next day I bought two
more issues. If you are lucha fan you need this magazine. For
more information on FPU and to order issues check out their website.
Take my word, this is a truly great magazine.
-Steve
