The Life & Mysterious Times of The Convict

 

by Drew Archer

     A mountain of hate.

 

     Normally it’s a pleasure to interview the superstars of IZW. I’ve found all of them to be very professional and outgoing when they are talking about their own personal story. Recently, I set out to try and interview the most mysterious man in IZW, new Impact Division Champion, The Convict. Let’s just say this interv

iew went a bit different from the rest insomuch as there was no interview to be had. In fact he doesn’t give interviews, ever. It seems The Convict is a private man, a very private man. But I still believed there was a story to be told on this wrestler that has swept the nation and made an immediate impression on IZW. But the more I uncovered through my research it became crystal clear to me that The Convict was not the type of wrestler, or human being for that matter, that had the standard feel good story. The Convict’s is a story of blood, sweat and tears all right, but other people’s blood, sweat and tears. It’s a story of a man with a dark past and maybe a darker future. To learn more about the grappler that has been a one man wrecking machine in the Impact Arena I thought I would chronicle his activities while a member of IZW and try to piece together some semblance of a man that was already part myth and part legend. But that was only the beginning of what I found.

 

     The Convict debuted in IZW in May of this year. Most wrestlers work their way up through the smaller shows, making a name for themselves, building connections, the usual stuff one does when starting out on a new profession. Then when talent and preparedness meets opportunity, they seize it and hopefully make it to the big time and wrestle for an organization like IZW, but not The Convict. He took a very different road. In fact, IZW seems to be the only place of record that he has ever wrestled.

 

     Speaking of records, it’s no secret that The Convict is well, a convict. But in digging through newspaper clippings and perusing the Internet for information I uncovered The Convict past is not only checkered but it’s quite guarded as well. My hunt took me to several states where I contacted dozens of professionals and civilians in the justice system ranging from police officers, judges, prison guards, parole officers and even ex-cons. They all left me with a chilling profile of the man who has left a wake of bodies in his tenure with IZW.

 

     Because of states’ privacy rights laws that supersede my need to know every detail about the man they call The Convict, I was unable to uncover his name. I sensed my contacts where doing it partly because it was the law, but also for self-preservation. They didn’t want any more trouble with The Convict then what they already experienced in the past. It was a dead end and I didn’t want to push it. What I uncovered was terrifying enough. I did manage to discover one of his prison IDs and the violence that was attached to it, which was one of the bigger breaks of my quest. With that original prison ID I could track The Convict’s long history of violence. It was like a jigsaw puzzle and all the pieces finally started to fit together. What I found was an unrepentant man that has a blood thirst for inflicting as much bodily harm as possible on as many people as possible. The Convict has rap sheets in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado and Nevada. And the crimes he has been charged and convicted of read like a gruesome horror novel. Aggravated assault, burglary, stalking, arson, kidnapping and weapons possession are all some of the things The Convict has been charged with. Fortunately for him, but unfortunately for the roster of IZW, not all of the charges have stuck in a court of law. And now, with all of his “debts” fully paid back to society, The Convict is a free man able to do as he pleases, and what he pleases is to disassemble bodies in the squared circle of IZW.

 

     It’s easy to see with his short time in the squared circle that violence is second nature to the Impact Division Champ.

 

     Whether it was destroying IZW World Heavyweight Champion Double D in a non-title match or decimating former Impact Division Champion Jermaine Johnson week after week until finally squaring off one on one and capturing IZW gold for the first time, violence and lots of it is what The Convict brings to the party. In some respects I admire the man, as IZW seems to have broken in to two factions, Impact Elite and everybody else. But The Convict refuses to take sides. He’s a lone wolf with no allies and only enemies. That mentality served him well in prison where he was the king of the yard and it has served him well during his IZW tenure.

 

     I got a variety of quotes from a range of IZW wrestlers and they all came to a singular conclusion. The Convict is a bad, bad man. “I’ve faced The Convict on two different occasions and his strength is absolutely inhuman. His strength is matched only by the malice he obviously feels towards society. The Convict has that type of power for which you simply cannot prepare yourself. When you get in the ring with him, you simply know it’s going to hurt and you’ll have to fight with every ounce of your being, not only to win, but to survive,” said IZW World Heavyweight Champion Double D.

 

     Who can forget the epic Johnny Z versus “The Bronze Bull” Aaron Neil Lumberjack Match where every member of the IZW roster surrounded the ring? Neil was thrown out of the ring and as he gathered himself and stood back up he came face to face, eye to eye with The Convict and there was no backing down from either man. For a split second, it was the immovable object meeting the irresistible force. But don’t think The Convict would battle alongside Johnny Z or his comrades as earlier in that same night, The Convict defeated Jermaine Johnson using nothing but an animalistic approach. He has no allegiance except to himself. The Convict is the living proof of Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory and embodies the phrase “survival of the fittest” or to put it another way, “only the strong survive” better than any wrestler in the sport today and possibly throughout wrestling’s storied and long history.

 

     “The Convict has made quite an impact as everyone has seen this past month. He would make a great addition to Impact Elite, however The Convict is unpredictable and I don’t have the time or patience to spend grooming him into a member with STATUS at the moment. Impact Elite’s main focus right now is leaving Chaotic Christmas with all the Championships in hand,” Madam Commissioner Erica said.

 

     Now The Convict gets to make history once again by being involved in the first ever Impact X Match at Chaotic Christmas on December 22. The match consists of a steel cage with the Impact Division belt suspended above the ring by cables. The match features some of the most radical wrestlers in IZW history as Jermaine Johnson, Damien Morte, Jordan Jacobs and “The Brass Bull” IZW Wrestler will step up to the challenge and look to escape the match with not only their lives but also a championship. Johnson, Morte, Jacobs and Starr have all put their bodies and their livelihoods on the line before and they will all be taking that risk again in the Impact X Match by being locked in a cage with The Convict.

 

     It’s a fact, former champion and Leader of the Hype Section Jermaine Johnson is all too familiar with. “The Convict is without a doubt the most powerful person I’ve ever been in the ring with and it’s frustrating to hit someone as hard as you can just to be left wondering if it affected him at all.”

 

     I have a feeling things are going to get a lot worse for members of IZW before they get better when it concerns The Convict. The other competitors in the Impact X Match don’t know what they have gotten themselves in to. Most wrestlers are motivated by a sense of justice or what’s best for them or even money, but not The Convict. His motivation has been branded into his soul and it’s the complete and utter annihilation of anything in his path. That’s how he stayed at the top of the food chain in prison and that’s what he’s aiming to do in IZW. As the Impact Division Champion, The Convict is regarded as the #2 wrestler in the company, and whomever wins the main event at Chaotic Christmas, either Double D or Aaron Neil, a word of caution; please watch your back and sleep with one eye open. The Convict only knows one way and that’s destroy or be destroyed and he’ll be setting his sights on that title and the person holding it soon enough.