The Hit on The Messiah

William Welch aka The Messiah debuted in XPW with the gimmick that he was the 2nd coming of Jesus sent back to show the XPW stars the errors of thier hardcore ways. He quickly became a breakout star for XPW working high profile matches with Supreme, Sabu, and New Jack. He even at one time held their Deathmatch title and World title simultaneously. In August 2001, The Messiah was abruptly fired from XPW without explanation but the widely believed rumor is that he was fired for having an affair with XWA Owner Rob Black's wife Janet Romano aka porn star Lizzy Borden. Messiah claimed later in an interview that those rumors were completely false and his departure from XPW was due to him missing some dates and appearances with the company due to some personal issues. He had also stated he was no longer comfortable working for XPW and XPW's parent company Extreme Associates which is an adult film company. On August 1,2002 two attackers entered the Messiah's apartment and brutally attacked him. They knocked at his door, thinking they were friends of his roommate he let them enter. They then locked Messiah's door and when he confronted them they slammed him to the floor. One of them had him in a chokehold and the other grabbed a pair of gardening shears which would be used to cut his thumb off. He fought them off and made his way to the door. They managed to stop him and one of them attempted to cut Messiah's penis off. They finally left and took his thumb as a sort of a souvenir to get proof for a paid hit. The story was featured on the Sept 21, 2002 edition of America's Most Wanted. The focus of the story seemed to point the finger at Rob Black, who may have ordered the attack as some sort of revenge for the alleged relationship of the Messiah with Black's wife Lizzy Borden. Coincidentally just days before the attiack during an indy booking in Califo, Messiah received non stop crowd chants of "You fucked Lizzy" to which he was responded toting crowd "And she loved it!". Another strange occurence was that the office of Rob Black's company Extreme Associates was closed during business hours on the same day that America's Most Wanted had come to interview him for the story. In his first appearance since the attack The Messiah shocked the wrestling world and made his return entering himself in the tournament defeating one of his main rivals Adam Flash (the CZW Iron Man champ at the time) in an impromptu first round matchup. Not even 30 days ago he was attacked and fighting for his life, now he was looking at a second round match in a deathmatch tournament. He would come up short but 2 weeks later he returned to Viking Hall and what resulted became dubbed the "Ultraviolent Freedom of Expression". At the end of the show the entire CZW roster came out. The Messiah grabbed the mic and what followed was no promo, it was a declared his attackers as "cowards" and also made it very clear on his opinion who was behind his attack leading the fans in chants of "Fuck Rob Black". Messiah still makes occasional appearences for CZW but for the most part is retired.