Yes– I’m going to use my article this week to promote myself.
Don’t judge me! I just feel like there is just some stuff that needs to be said about the stuff I’m doing with my long time dear close personal friend, Zach Gowen.В Some of you have heard our story. Many of you may have not. In my opinion, I think Zach and I have the best honest to goodness story in all of pro wrestling. I mean, I might be a little bias in my thought process, but I guess you can be the judge on that at the end of this article.
Zach Gowen wrestled in the WWE in 2003. Pretty impressive right? Even more impressive was the fact that he was only twenty years of age when he was called up to the main roster. Pretty cool, huh? For someone so young, it’d be crazy to think that he’d get to work with the likes of Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper, Big Show, Stephanie McMahon, Brock Lesnar, and the chairman himself, Vince McMahon, all within his first three months on WWE television.
Zach’s run was short lived, only lasting six months, before he was released and he began competing on the indepen– oh, wait. I skimmed over a minor detail or two. When I mentioned Zach worked with guys like Piper and Brock and Vince– he was doing it allВ
on one leg.
В Yea, I almost forgot to mention that he beat cancer as a child, only by allowing doctors to amputate his left leg, В and he somehow managed to overcome the odds, make it to the biggest wrestling company on the planet, doing one legged backflips from the top turnbuckle.
My bad. I’ll just blame it on my C.P.
C.P. stands for cerebral palsy, for those of you who are unaware. I’ve had it since birth. It’s a disability that, in my particular case, hinders my brains ability to send messages to my right side, mainly my arm, hand and fingers. I’m stuck like this. There isn’t a cure.
Girls weren’t exactly swarming after this young Zach Gowen fanatic.
Growing up, I loved professional wrestling, so much so that as I was turning sixteen, I knew where I wanted to work as an adult. No career fairs or employment excel tests would be able to properly determine where I wanted to end up. I was destined for a job in wrestling– maybe as a storyline writer, or a backstage interviewer, or a play by play commentator. Commentator was my number one choice, as I figured memorizing every Royal Rumble winner in chronological order, and knowing that 93, 173 fans packed the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan for WrestleMania III on March 29th, 1987 practically guaranteed I’d land the job.
You see, though, that all changed the day I saw Zach Gowen onВ WWE Smackdown! В I watched in awe as Zach Gowen team with Stephanie McMahon, winning with a moonsault onto The Big Show. That was the first moment I started thinking that maybe– just maybe– a guy with a limp arm could be a professional wrestler.
I was upset reading that Zach got released at the end of 2003. His performers, despite only performing with onrle bottom limb, trumped many of the wrestlers with two. He inspired me week after week, and it sucked that I wouldn’t get to see him on TV any longer. His stint in WWE was short lived, but his six months of performing for the industry leader in sports entertainment would have a great impact on me. I had no idea just how life altering it would truly end up being.
After seeing Zach, I began weight lifting. 80% because of him, 20% in an attempt to get girls to look my way– okay maybe it was a bit closer to 60/40. The point is, Gowen helped me do something I might not have thought about doing otherwise. Without knowing it, Zach Gowen was helping create Gregory Iron.
Imagine my excitement three years later when I’d be a wrestler myself, and I heard that Zach was coming into my home promotion of Cleveland All Pro Wrestling. I just wish I could say that on the day we met, he went on to inspire me in person the way that he did on TV…
Check back for Part two on Thursday, as I recap the first meeting between Zach and I! It’s sucky!
Help out my sponsor and or pick up one of my brand new shirts at www.prowrestlingtees.com/GregoryIron !
-Greg
