Credit: Matt Boone @ wrestlezone.com
George Farmer sent along the following: Just wanted to show you an article on Matt Cappotelli from The Southeast Outlook. The Outlook is a publication put out by Southeast Christian Church,in Louisville KY and is focused on religious stories and events. You can view the article below which is from: http://www.southeastchristian.org/outlook/story.aspx?id=2982
Faith warrior
By Ruth Schenk
He’s a warrior.
Matt Cappotelli proved it on the football field at Western Michigan University. And he proved it as a professional wrestler in the ring as the Ohio Valley Wrestling Heavyweight Champion and Tag Team Champion. Matt has a certain star quality. He’s at home in front of a camera. He loves the ring, the showmanship of the story line and the thrill of competition. But wins and accolades tell just one piece of his story.
You see, Matt has proven he’s a warrior by pressing on through what he’s lost.
And that is, perhaps, the most incredible part of his story.
In September 2003, Matt was standing on the brink of reaching his dreams. He’d won a three-year contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) after winning Tough Enough, a 13-episode reality show on MTV where he battled other contestants from around the country. Viewers voted him the champion.
The contract would put him in the limelight with wrestling greats he watched as a kid like Rowdy Roddy Piper, Shawn Michaels, Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage.
But that dream slipped away just five days before Matt was due to leave for the debut on Monday Night Raw in December 2005.
He was knocked out in a routine Wednesday night match, but he came to after about three seconds. Trainers believed he was fine, but insisted on a quick trip to the Emergency Room.
"I remember lying there in the hospital," Matt said. "It was late at night, dark in those long hallways."
He’d been bloodied and bruised in the ring before. Matt didn’t think too much about it until the next morning when he saw four white coats coming down the hall. Committees don’t usually deliver good news.
"We have sobering news," they began. "You have some sort of mass in your brain, two to three centimeters in size."
That diagnosis ended Matt’s debut on national TV. In February 2006, he relinquished his championship title in a speech from the ring where he urged his fans to be positive and faithful, then led the crowd in prayer. At the time, he hoped it was just a delay, but a biopsy showed that the tumor was malignant.
From the beginning, Matt knew he had two choices. He could lie down and die or look cancer straight in the eye and fight it. He decided to fight.
Matt’s tumor wasn’t typical. He describes it more like spaghetti than a golf ball. It’s harder to treat and difficult to remove.
"From the beginning, I knew that whatever I was going through was going to be my story," Matt said. "When I tell it, I want people to know where my strength lies. When we’re Christians, we are often so reserved that we don’t say things for fear of criticism or weird looks or whatever. I decided to wear my faith on my sleeves."
Matt chose two tattoos for his forearms. "It is finished" is tattooed on his right arm in script so people will have to concentrate on the words. It’s big enough to be read from a distance.
"‘It is finished’ is a daily reminder of what Jesus did on the cross for all of us," Matt explained. "It’s the culmination of His purpose in coming here—to die and take our punishment. If He can do that for me, then I need to fulfill my purpose. Anything I have to go through pales in comparison to what He went through for me."
On his left arm, Matt tattooed the Hebrew letters for "through His blood, I am healed."
"Jesus took it for me," Matt said. "Through His blood, I am healed of my sin, sickness and pain. Jesus humbled Himself to our level and gave us the freedom we don’t deserve."
People ask about those tattoos in airports, doctors’ offices and churches.
Matt had no idea what the future held when he married Lindsay In March 2006. They made the commitment to stand by each other no matter what. Lindsay is a personal trainer and loves the gym almost as much as Matt.
For a year, doctors monitored Matt’s tumor. He got a good report in December, 2006, but just two months later, he woke up in the middle of the night with an excruciating headache. The pain was far worse than any injury in the ring.
Another MRI showed that the tumor had tripled in size in two months—now it was nearly 3 inches wide. Matt arranged to have surgery in Boston where he found a specialist and could be near family.
Matt’s horseshoe-shaped scar covers a chunk of his skull. As he waits to be released by doctors, Matt plays volleyball, works at Ideal Fitness and is finishing his degree in exercise physiology.
Matt’s dream is to return to the ring, but he has no idea when that will happen.
"My life is in God’s hands," he said. "I want to return to the ring, but I don’t want to do it for selfish reasons. If I’m on the huge stage again, I’ll be a witness and let Him shine through me."
In the meantime, he continues to tell his story.
"The most powerful thing you can do as a Christian is give God praise when you’re in the midst of the worst possible situation," Matt said. "It’s an opportunity to show people who don’t believe that you can stand strong in the midst of the worst. If you fold in the middle of a trial, you show that God is not enough."
Matt said it’s been a crazy journey, but through some of the hardest days of his life, he’s been able to speak to many different people and groups. Sometimes someone recognizes him as a wrestler and asks what’s happened.
"I know God is using this," Matt said. "A lot more people want to listen to people in tragedy than triumph. They want to know that God is bigger than anything they face."
Credit: Ruth Schenk @ http://www.southeastchristian.org/outlook/story.aspx?id=2982
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