In an exclusive for WrestlingNews.co, Steve Fall spoke with former WWE star Zach Gowen. Scroll down to watch the entire interview.
Zach Gowen was asked if he was signed by WWE because he was an amputee or to show that people can achieve their dreams in the face of adversity:
“It was 100% both of those reasons. I wouldn’t have been signed if I wasn’t an amputee. There’s no question because I’m 6 feet tall and I weigh 160 pounds. How many 6 feet 160 pound wrestlers do you see in WWE? I mean, you see a few more now. It was because of the inherent marketability of the gimmick, the fact that it’s never been done before, and the fact that this story has never been done before. That’s what we do in the wrestling business. We tell stories, so this variation of an underdog overcoming, using the power of love and magic of professional wrestling from a young age to help him overcome obstacles to now seeing him living his dream, that story, from an amputee's perspective, has never been told before. It just so happened that I am really good at what I do.”
On how he got hired by WWE:
“I really don’t know how anything happened to be perfectly honest with you. I call myself the one-legged Forrest Gump because I’m not that bright, but I find myself in these insane situations and these circumstances. I look back with so much gratitude at the breaks that I caught, especially early on in the wrestling business.”
“What happened was I had a dark match with Truth Martini, the man who trained me and the man responsible for all this, good or bad. It was a dark match. It was a tryout match, but the buzz created from this match, I mean, I went viral before there was a viral. Word spread throughout the industry that there was a one-legged guy and he wasn’t half bad and he could put on a match. Word traveled fast and basically, WWE decided to sign me sight unseen. They had no idea what I looked like. They had no idea what I was capable of or what I could do or what I couldn’t do. They just knew there was a lot of buzz created from this one match that I had in TNA, this tryout match, and that was the first domino that fell that led me to being signed by WWE.”
On Brock Lesnar tossing him down a flight of stairs in a wheelchair on WWE SmackDown:
“I didn’t take it. They brought in a stunt double to take that fall for me. They brought in a stunt double to take that particular fall down the stairs tied to a wheelchair. This guy looked just like me except he had two feet, which is pretty cool to see. Right before we cut, Vince asked me if I wanted to take the bump. I looked at him and said, “Are you crazy?' I know how to get powerbombed, I know how to jump off the top rope, but I don’t know how to fall off a flight of stairs with a wheelchair bouncing right behind my head, so I politely declined. Vince would have let me take that bump if I obliged and thankfully, I didn’t."
Click below to watch the full interview.
This interview is exclusive to WrestlingNews.co. If you use these quotes, please include a link back to this page.
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