3. Perry Saturn stops a rape and gets assaulted in the act
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The former Airborne Ranger underwent a tumultuous struggle to get his life back on track after an injury in 2004 had rendered him on top of a hospital bed. This injury was the consequence of intervening and stopping the rape of a young woman by two gun-wielding men, who eventually shot Saturn with their .25 pistol. The incident occurred in April 2004, when the former Radicalz member was driving through Atlanta with his girlfriend and stumbled upon the heinous crime in progress.
Without hesitating for a moment, the wrestler overpowered and fought off the perpetrators, who in return emptied two cartridges into Saturn’s neck and shoulder before scurrying away. In his YouShoot interview, he claimed to have mistaken the bullet for a punch and had not even realized the extent of his injury before the police informed him of the same.
Nevertheless, this moment set rolling a downward spiral for him. As a means to cope with the pain, trauma and despair, Saturn took to methamphetamine and quickly became a sore addict to the drug. Consequently, he fell off the grid, became homeless for two years and maintained zero contact with family and acquaintances for an extended period. Saturn reemerged in 2009, clean as a slate and with renewed vigour resumed his career in the independent wrestling scene in 2011.
While by no measure as successful as the rest of the Radicalz, Saturn was every bit as talented and hardworking. Sturdily built, heavily tattooed and hardened to a fault, Saturn had come a long way from his ECW tag team days. Seeking to forge a name in the slowly rising vaults of the WWF, he jumped ship from WCW in January 2000 after being told by Kevin Sullivan that he was incapable of getting over with fans.
In the WWF, Saturn set up memorable feuds in the Hardcore and Tag Team divisions, often teaming up with fellow Radical Dean Malenko. Though the pair failed to secure any gold, Saturn became a two-time Hardcore Champion as well as a one-time European Champion in the company. One ludicrous yet popular gimmick later, as punishment for legitimately hurting a jobber, Saturn was eventually released by the company in 2002, beginning his stint in the independent circuit till 2004.
