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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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