All language subtitles for Dark Side of the Ring s07e09 Zach Gowen.eng

[cheering]

[Narrator] At just 19,
and with barely

any ring experience,

Zach Gowen became
one of the most

unlikely stars
in WWE history,

sharing the spotlight
with the

biggest names
in the business.

?

[Zach] I got signed
sight unseen.

[Vince] That little
kid right there.

[Zach] And, all of a sudden,
I'm in the ring with

Hulk Hogan and
Roddy Piper.

[Charlie] Here's a kid,
he's main eventing

vengeance against
Vince McMahon.

[Bill] You can't
really get on

a bigger rocket ship
than that.

[Rhino] Watching Zach
wrestle, only having

one leg, I was amazed
and intrigued.

[cheering &
indistinct commentary]

[Narrator] In the
locker room,

Gowen was seen
as an outsider,

with a spot on the roster
he hadn't earned.

?

[John] Forget about
his fake leg,

his whole career
is prosthetic.

[Rhino] We got a locker room
full of men and

a lot of testosterone
and here comes a kid

with one leg getting
a ton of TV time.

[Zach] Look me in the
eye you son of a-----!

[Charlie] He had the attitude,
he's making money,

he's living
the lifestyle.

But we gotta remember,

what comes up,
must come down.

[Narrator] As success
spiraled into self-destruction,

Gowen's career
didn't just fall apart,

it imploded.

[Jimmy] His reputation was
legendary for being awful.

[Zach] I was literally
handed everything

on a silver platter.

I was a
complete asshole,

there's no
question about it.

[Rhino] I didn't think
someone could be

that fucking dumb.

[Zach] The perks of being
a TV star at 19 years old-

free drinks, fast women,
and free pills.

[laughing]

[Colleena] I didn't know
how deep he was

into drugs at
that point.

[Zach] It got so bad that
either I'm going to die

or I'm going
to get better.

And I'm open to
whatever happens first.

?

[Zach] This is probably,
I'm 17 and this is,

I'm 19 here.

Somewhere around there.

I tried to put on a little size
for WWE but it was

really hard because I was
still going through puberty.

[laughing]
[Colleena] Yeah.

[Zach] You know,
I wanted to fit in.

John Cena and
Brock Lesnar

and Vince McMahon
and Matt Hardy,

I mean, these guys
were my heroes,

they were my idols.

My first couple of weeks
in WWE was pretty insane.

I'm sitting in the stands,
I'm looking at the ring,

and I'm trying to
envision what this night

is going to be for me.

When all of a sudden a
producer comes up to me

and says, "Hey Zach,
let's go meet Vince."

So, I follow the
producer backstage

to a dressing room.

We walk in,
I look to my left,

there's Vince McMahon.
The Mr. McMahon.

Just a wild moment.

All of a sudden I hear
the shower turn off.

And walking out, naked
as the day he is born,

is my childhood hero,
Hulk Hogan.

Beelining straight to me,
sticks his hand out,

"How you doing, brother,
nice to meet you,

glad you're here."
And I'm like,

"Thank you for ruining
my childhood, Hulk,

I appreciate it, man."

[laughing]

I did look,
I did look.

Brother's doing alright
for himself, man, you know?

Golly.

It's surreal to think
about the guy who's poster

that I had on my wall,
the guy who main evented

WrestleMania 3 with
Andre the Giant at

the Pontiac Silverdome,
is pulling me aside.

Saying, "Hey brother,
why don't you do this

instead of that,
or it might be better

for you if you do this,"
you know?

And then he would share
a Coors Light with me

after the match too,

which I thought
was really cool.

I'm not going to say no
to Hulk Hogan-

[Colleena] You weren't
old enough to drink yet.

[laughing]

[Zach] Maybe not
in America.

One of the earliest memories
that I have in life is just

sitting with my dad watching
WWF Superstars

on a random
Saturday morning.

But my dad left
when I was four.

Where my mom and I lived
wasn't so much a

lovely apartment
as it was the hood.

We shared a wall to the right
of us with a drug dealer,

we shared a wall to the left
of us with a prostitute.

And I was just outside
running with all the kids

in the neighborhood.

[Colleena] He was
extremely energetic.

He loved sports.

He would just play
for hours and hours.

I'm Colleena Graf,
Zachary Gowen's mom,

or as his friends
would call me, Momma G.

He loved wrestling,

from the time he was
a preschooler.

He wanted to
watch wrestling.

He wanted to
do wrestling.

He wanted to
wrestle me.

[Zach] One time I went
bowling with the summer camp.

I slipped and I fell.

I looked down.

My left foot is
pointed to the left,

but my knee is
pointed to the right.

And so my leg literally
breaks in the two places

and then I start screaming
because then the pain

kicks in and it's one of the
most painful moments

of my entire life.

I was in a cast for
about six months.

I was going crazy because
my leg hurt so much

and it wouldn't
get better.

Nobody can figure out why
my leg wouldn't heal

until the doctors did
a battery of tests

and the results
were conclusive.

The reason why I broke my
leg in the first place

and the reason why I never
healed was because of

a tumor growing on
my left femur.

So, at 8 years old,

I was diagnosed
with osteosarcoma,

which is a rare form of
children's bone cancer.

[Colleena] We went through
six weeks of chemotherapy in

an effort to try and reduce
the size of the tumor.

It didn't help,
by the way,

but that was
our protocol.

That's what
we did first.

[Zach] I think my mom did
all she could to protect me.

She was my biggest
cheerleader and she

assured me that everything
was going to be okay.

So, the idea of possibly
dying from cancer

never really entered my
thoughts until

all of my friends
that I made at

Children's Hospital
of Michigan,

they started
passing away.

They sat my mom down
and said, "Listen,

if you want to give Zach
his best chance at

seeing his
9th birthday,

I recommend
an amputation."

[Colleena] He was,
he was very scared.

We, we were all very,
very frightened.

[Zach] I was definitely
very nervous of

what was about
to happen.

I knew from this point
forward that life was

gonna be different

and there's no going back.

[Colleena] This picture is
when Zachary was in

high school and you joined
the wrestling team.

You were probably
16, 17 here.

[Zach] I joined the
amateur wrestling team

to get a foundation for

my professional
wrestling career.

[Colleena] Of course.

[Zach] Because all of my
favorite wrestlers had

amateur wrestling
backgrounds,

and I saw it as a way-

[Colleena] And you think
I didn't know that?

[laughing]

[Zach] I had a very, very
big dream at a young age

to be the world's
first one-legged

professional
wrestling superstar.

So, I told everybody
because I felt it

deep within me

that this was going
to be a reality.

And that's when I found
the local wrestling school.

?

I walked in with my
prosthetic leg on and

pants and a cane because
I wanted to hide

the fact that
I had one leg.

I didn't want to give the
owner any single

possible reason not to
accept me as

a professional
wrestling student.

And I paid him in cash,
up front,

because I also knew that
once he found out that

I had one leg, he wasn't
going to kick me out

because he wasn't going
to give me the refund.

A week later, I walked
in and I sit down,

I take my pants off and I
pull the pin and I pop

my leg off and my head's
down the entire time.

And so when I look up,

it was like the record
got scratched off

of a record player in a
movie and the whole room

just stopped and
stared at me.

The wrestling trainer
at the time

saw what was
happening and said,

"All right, come on
into the ring."

The truth is,
I was a natural.

I was very good
right away.

The trainer at the time
asked me if I can do

a back bump
and so I go,

"Alright,
I got it."

And then I executed
the best back bump

anybody's ever
seen right away.

And I'm thinking
to myself, man,

I can do a dropkick so much
better than everybody here.

[indistinct chatter]

[Colleena] I remember
his first show.

It was a local show
that he did.

[Zach] I wrestled
Truth Martini.

I was his first
wrestling school student.

There are only about 50
people in the audience

and 40 of them were my
friends and family.

[Crowd] Oh!

[Colleena] He was just
so happy to be doing it.

[Zach] Just to be able to be
out there legitimately

for the first time
was incredible.

[Announcer] This is TNA.

[Zach] Now, I wanted to
wrestle for TNA because

they had all of my
favorite wrestlers.

AJ Styles, Low Key,
Jerry Lynn,

all the X-Division
guys.

I wanted to mix it
up with them.

So, in late 2002,

I sent an audition tape
to TNA Wrestling.

I sent it to Bill Behrens,
who at the time is booking

the dark matches or the
tryout matches for TNA.

[Bill] I see a guy with
one leg doing things

that most people can
only do with two,

and he was
doing them well.

Anytime you can put
something out there that

people haven't seen in
the three-ring circus

that wrestling is,
that's a good thing.

I'm Bill Behrens, and it can
be said I discovered

Zach Gowen and gave him
his first pay-per-view and

television opportunities
in wrestling.

[Zach] All of a sudden,
my phone rings.

I pick it up.
It's Bill Behrens.

He's yelling at me
on the phone.

"Zach, I'm in the office
right now with

Jerry Jarrett
and Jeff Jarrett.

We're watching
your tape.

What the fuck
are we watching?

Can you come down this
Wednesday for a dark match

and bring somebody
to work with?"

And I said,
"Absolutely."

He goes, "Great.
See you then."

Hang up. Boom.
I called up Truth.

That was my guy,
man. I said, "Truth."

I go, "We have to get
down to Nashville

on Wednesday."
And he said, "I'm down."

This is the
big time, man.

We're talking big lights,
big arena,

professional cameras.

Boom. My music hits.
I go out.

I get to the
edge of the ring.

I pull the
strap on my leg.

I pull the pin,
and I pull my leg off.

The air gets sucked
out of the room.

I'm thinking to myself,
okay, I'm like, let me try

a little harder to get
the crowd going.

So I hop into the ring,
and I get on

the second rope,
and I fire up. Yeah!

Then Truth attacks me
from behind.

Boom.
Lays me out.

I jump up. I hit him
with a drop kick.

And as I land,
and as I pop up,

and as I look around,

the roof came off.

[cheering]

[Jimmy] No one had ever seen
anything like this, man.

The place was
coming unglued.

I'm professional wrestling
writer, talent,

and producer,
Jimmy Jacobs.

And I've been friends with
Zach Gowen since

the day he broke into
the business.

TNA didn't quite know
what they had.

I mean,
let's be fair.

Like, no one knew what
they had with Zach.

Like, this is the first time
this is happening.

[Zach] Word spread around
the industry that there was a

one-legged guy, and that
he was halfway talented.

Somehow, that got
into the WWE office.

[Announcer] Look out!
You're kidding me!

We took a look at
Zach Gowen,

thought, holy cow, man.

This is pretty cool.

We called
Talent Relations,

which was John Laurinaitis
at the time,

and said,
"Hey, we want this guy."

So, Johnny called and
says, " Hey, guys, yeah,

I got him. Matter of fact,
you really can't even

tell that he's
missing a leg.

Yeah, he's not
19 either.

He's like
30-something."

[Bill] Steve Kern
was training a

one-legged guy
in Florida at the time,

and so they assumed,
well,

how many one-legged
guys can there be?

I believe they
floated a contract,

but once they finally got
to the point of potentially

signing him, they realized
they had messed up.

So, long story short,
we had to let the wrong

one-legged wrestler
go back to Tampa.

[phone ringing]

[Narrator] Following the
embarrassing mix-up,

WWE officials
reach out to Zach.

[Zach] Johnny Ace
gives me a call.

He's like, "Hey, Zach,

we think you're a
great wrestler.

We think you'd be a great
fit for the company.

Do you want to become
a WWE superstar?"

And I'm just like,

"What?" [laughing]

Like I couldn't-
My mind is blown.

[Colleena] He called
to tell me that

he'd gotten
this contract.

He was just so excited,
I had to peel him off the,

off the ceiling.

[Bill] I had a firm knowledge
of what we could offer

versus what WWE
could offer,

and it would be
tremendously selfish

to be upset that

somebody goes to
the better offer.

[Zach] The following day,
there's a voicemail

from Bruce Prichard
and WWE.

"Uh, you're going to debut
next Tuesday on SmackDown

in an angle
with Hulk Hogan.

Call me back.
Bye."

?

[Zach] What?

[cheering]

[Zach] So, I show up
to SmackDown in the

Baltimore arena,
and it's just like,

my eyes are this big,
you know?

This is the real deal
WWE, man.

I don't know anybody
there except Rhino.

[Rhino] The best way I can
describe Zach's attitude

when he first
got to WWE,

he was like a puppy
golden retriever.

So happy-go-lucky, and
you got a locker room

full of pit bulls that have
been bred to fight.

And he's going in
there thinking

everybody's his friend.
[laughing]

Hey, I'm Rhino.

I used to be a co-worker
with Zach Gowen,

and I'm a
professional wrestler.

[Announcer]
Oh, it's Rhino!

Oh, my God!

[Zach] Rhino is such
a good guy

who's always
looked out for me.

I think it's because
it's a Detroit thing.

You know, we wrestled for
a lot of the same people,

but he was in the 90's,
I was in the early 2000's,

and there's a
connection there.

?

[Narrator] In an
unconventional move,

WWE debuts
Zach Gowen,

not as a superstar,

but as a plant
in the crowd.

[Roddy] You, the biggest
idiot, with a flag,

sit down,
shut up,

or I'll put that flag where
the sun don't shine.

[Jimmy] Yeah, Zach
debuted with, what,

Rowdy Roddy Piper?

Yeah, yeah,
that's a big deal, man.

[Hulk] That fan has the
right to wave that flag.

[Zach] I hop the guardrail,
I slide into the ring,

I whack Piper as hard
as I possibly can,

because he told me
in the back, "Kid,

I want you to hit me as hard
as you fucking can."

So, I'm not going to
tell Roddy Piper no.

I bend this flagpole
over his back,

and then Sean O'Hara just
spears the shit out of me.

[Announcer]
Security trying to,

trying to drag the
fan out of the ring.

[Zach] Now comes time for
the big reveal for Piper

to rip my
prosthetic leg off.

The problem is, Piper
is pulling my real leg,

trying to rip
my real leg off.

I said, "Piper, you're
grabbing the wrong leg."

[indistinct commentary]

- Ah!
- [crowd shouting]

[Zach] He rips that
son-a-bitch off.

Piper is in the
middle of the ring

holding my
prosthetic leg.

[Crowd]
[indistinct shouting]

And so, on that day,
I became the world's

first one-legged
WWE superstar.

[Announcer] Mr. America
helping this fan

back to the
locker room.

[Charlie] Looks like he was
a fan in the crowd

that jumped the ring.

We're waiting to see
the cops come and

arrest him and handcuff
him back, you know?

But then I'm like,
he has one leg.

Hey, I'm Charlie Haas,
former WWE superstar,

and I used to beat the
shit out of Zach Gowen.

When you didn't see the
cops show up to arrest him,

and then, you know,
the agents had to

calm everybody down
and say, "Hey, look,

it's part of
the show, OK?

This is the storyline."

[Narrator] Stepping into
the ring as

a full-time performer,

Gowen's storyline
centers on

earning a
WWE contract.

[Zach] So, the angle was,
Zach, sympathetic character,

wants to be a
WWE superstar.

Vince, the evil owner
of the company,

Zach will get a contract over
his dead body, basically.

[Vince] It's you and
Stephanie in a

tag team effort

against The Big Show.

[Zach] My first
official match in WWE,

if I were to pin
The Big Show,

then I win a
WWE contract.

[indistinct commentary]

[Zach] I didn't want to
be looked at as

the handicapped wrestler,

and I didn't want people to
feel sorry for me.

I wanted them to be
impressed by what I could do.

[Announcer]
Look at this kid!

[Jimmy] To see a guy
jump off the top rope,

do a moonsault,
do the rolls,

do the drop kicks, just the
athleticism of this guy,

but he only
had one leg,

who could take
their eyes off that?

Once I saw that,
you're like, oh, this is,

this is something.
This is, this is magic.

This is magic.

?

[Narrator] Gowen's
next angle picks up

where his debut
left off...

putting him in the ring
with three of the

biggest stars in
company history.

[Zach] And this was
supposed to happen

over the course of
maybe three months.

But what happened
was Hulk Hogan quit

two weeks into my run.

A week later, I'm in a
limo in New York City

with Stephanie, Triple H,
and Vince McMahon

when Vince gets
the call that Roddy Piper

just went insanely
rogue on some sort

of television show
talking about all sorts of

bad things that Vince
did not want public.

[Roddy]
Everybody's dead.

They're all dying early,

and nobody cares about it.

[Zach] So, Vince
blows a gasket, right?

It culminates with Vince
saying, "Fuck him, fire him,

I never want to see him
again." And I'm like,

"Oh shit, the two main
ingredients of the angle

to lead us to finally to me
and Vince are gone."

And so, we fast tracked
me and Vince,

and the next
thing I know,

I'm in a pay-per-view main
event with Vince McMahon

in a one-on-one
match.

[Announcer]
Zach Gowen...

[Zach] You have to
understand,

I'm 20 years old,

I've had less than
20 matches,

I'm in a pay-per-view main
event with Vince McMahon,

and I have one leg.
[laughing]

[Vince] Agh!

[Zach] Which is
just a weird,

surreal moment for me.

[Announcer]
Put the chair down.

[Jimmy] During Zach's
match with Vince,

Zach hit a leg drop
on Vince with

a chair over
Vince's head.

And Vince just started,
like, bleeding everywhere.

[Announcer] Vince McMahon
took the knee and

he's busted open.

[Zach] Blood starts
spurting like a geyser...

[Announcer]
Oh, my god!

...and I'm thinking I'm dead,
I'm thinking I'm fired

immediately as soon
as we get to the back.

[Announcer]
The moonsault...

and Mr. McMahon
rolled out of the way.

[Zach] So, we got to end the
match super quickly after

that because it was a
dangerous situation

due to the
loss of blood.

[Announcer]
And it's over!

Here's your winner?
Mr. McMahon!

This kid,
Zach Gowen,

he is one tough
son of a bitch, Cole.

He is loaded
with heart.

[cheering & booing]

[Zach] The crowd reaction
after that match

was very moving.

[cheering]

[Zach] It meant a
whole lot to me.

Because even though
I lost the match,

the crowd still came up
and cheered for me.

And that told me that
they believed in me.

[Announcer] Zach Gowen
deserves to be applauded.

I'm sure his mom's
real proud of him.

Watchin' back home
in Detroit.

[Colleena] They were
cheering for him.

That much I remember.

He's the underdog,
of course, you know,

and so people get
right behind ya.

[Zach] So, I get to the back
and I'm thinking I'm fired.

I see Vince,
he's getting taped up,

he's getting
glued up, right?

He just gives me a
big hug and he's like,

"Oh that was great, kid.

That was amazing.
So good."

And I had a
huge sigh of relief.

It was just an insane moment
for me to go from

where I was to all of a
sudden in a pay-per-view

main event with
the owner of WWE.

[Announcer] Zach Gowen
is living his dream.

I can't believe this!

[Zach] The whole world of
professional wrestling at

this level,
doing promotions,

doing appearances,

wrestling with my heroes,

wrestling in front of
20,000 people,

was such a
mindfuck that

my head was
constantly spinning.

All of a sudden, being on
TV makes you, like,

10 times more
attractive to women.

It was a benefit, dude.

Like, it was like, this
is what I was looking for,

for the longest time
and I finally, like,

got everything I had ever
prayed for or wanted

all at once, all at
the same time.

I was, man, I was a
kid in a candy store.

But I was in no way
prepared for that at 19,

less than a year
into the business.

And I got distracted
very, very easily.

[Jimmy] When Zach got money
and attention for girls,

like, he was in
another world.

What are you going to do at
19 when you had nothing and

you grew up in this
broken home and

got your leg cut off
from cancer

and then all these shiny
things are around?

[Rhino] We're up
in Canada and

he wanted to have a beer.

He wasn't quite 19
and we just said, ah,

he didn't have his ID
and all that stuff.

He's like, "Yeah,
I'm Zach Gowen.

I'm on TV. I'm a
WWE superstar."

And I'm like, "Man,

that is just something
you don't say."

[Zach] I thought WWE
superstars walked around

like this and they did this
and they told fans to

fuck off and they drank and
they hung out with women

and they were the
cock of the walk.

So, that's what I
pretended to be.

A lot of my confidence
came off as arrogance.

I was definitely
an asshole.

[Charlie] You can't
go from zero to hero.

I don't think
Zach knew that.

?

?

[Narrator] Zach Gowen's
rapid rise comes with

an attitude that doesn't
go unnoticed

in the locker room.

?

I know when it came
down to match etiquette,

how to put a match together,
we tried to help him out,

but you know,
he just wouldn't listen.

[Announcer]
Weighing 159 pounds,

Zach Gowen...

[Charlie] In the match that
showcased Zach Gowen

tagging with Brock Lesnar,
Kurt Angle

against Charlie Haas,
Shelton Benjamin,

and Big Show...

[Announcer]
[indistinct commentary]

Leg drop!

[Charlie]
He was difficult.

He already had
what he had planned out

and what he
was gonna do.

Not putting in the
psychology and

not realizing who he's
in the ring with.

No, he didn't come
to us and say,

"Hey, this is
what I like to do.

How could I get you
to there, to do this?"

He said, "Hey, this is
what I'm gonna do.

I need you
here, there.

I'm going to do this,
this, and that.

Then I'm going
to do this."

[Charlie] And then all of a
sudden I hear, Big Show goes,

"Whoa, whoa, whoa,
you're going to do what?"

"I'm going to go off
the top rope,

cross-body Charlie
and Shelton.

I'm going to come over,
I'm going to knock you

off the apron,
Big Show."

[Announcer] Back to
the right hand.

[Charlie] He goes,
"The fuck you are!

I'm a goddamn giant."
He goes,

"You got one leg and
you're 145 pounds?

The hell if you're
going to knock me off."

[Announcer] The courageous
one-legged athlete

tossed into both
Haas and Benjamin.

[Charlie] Zach's like,
"I'm not getting shit in.

Well, I don't
look strong."

You're a 145-pound kid
with one leg.

You're a baby face,
white meat baby face,

supposed to
fight from under.

You're never going
to look strong.

Thus, the beating
took place.

[Announcer] Zach Gowen...
Oh, wow! Oh, my god.

Oh, my.
Shelton Benjamin...

[Narrator] Gowen risks
blowing an opportunity

most wrestlers
spend years chasing...

?

Until a hometown match
with the company's

biggest star
gives him a chance

to prove himself.

?

[Announcer] Brock Lesnar
has vowed to break

Zach Gowen's leg
here tonight.

[Zach] Early in
the morning,

Bruce Prichard called me
and he said,

"You're going to
wrestle Brock tonight."

He goes, "Can you get
your mom there?

I think she would add
something to the angle."

[Announcer] Zach's Mom
and the rest of

his family down there.

They wanted me to interact
with Brock Lesnar.

So, that's exactly
what I did.

I'm standing there and
the man is, you know,

doing one of these
things with his chest

and I'm not impressed.

You know, you don't
impress me at all.

[Announcer]
Don't do it, Brock.

Don't do it.
Oh my God!

So, Brock's going to get
heat on Zach, obviously,

in his hometown.

But to really get that
sympathy, it's like,

all right, now he's
going to get color.

He's going to bleed.
Great.

Arn Anderson,
that day,

taught Zach
how to blade.

I don't know if
Zach was listening.

[Zach] He was like,
"Hey kid, I'm going to

make your blade.
Here's how you do it.

You pull it out of your
wrist and then you stick it

in your forehead,
and you twist.

And when that happens,

you just pull it out and
you'll have color."

And so just like
Arn Anderson said,

I pull it out
of my wrist,

I stick it in my forehead,
I twist, I pull it out,

nothing happens.

So, I do it again and I dig
in a little deeper and

I twist a little harder
and I pull it out.

Then nothing comes out.

And I'm thinking, "Oh shit."
The whole angle depends on

the amount of color
that I get from here.

So at this point, I say,
"Fuck it."

And I just dig it into my
forehead and I yank it.

That's when all
that blood came out.

[Announcer] Zach Gowen's
been busted open and now

Brock Lesnar with
the head butts to

the bloody head
of Zach Gowen.

[Colleena]
No, it's over!

[Zach] The reaction from
my mom was a real reaction.

[Announcer] Somebody's
gonna stop this!

[Colleena] No!
What are you doing?

[Announcer] This is, this
is premeditated assault.

Don't do it!
[indistinct commentary]

[Zach] She hopped
the guardrail.

She's checking on me.
She said, "Zachary,

you didn't tell me about
all this blood."

And I'm like, "Mom,
it wasn't supposed to be

this much blood.
I'm so sorry."

[Announcer] Stay out of
the way of Brock Lesnar.

[Colleena] It was quite a,
quite a bloody mess.

[Jimmy] It was a
home run segment.

I mean, people still talk
about how violent that was.

[Announcer]
Oh my god.

No, no, no.
What the hell is this?

Brock! No!
Come on!

?

[Narrator] As a
top star in the company,

Gowen is in demand-

both in the ring and out.

[Zach] WWE booked me for
an autograph signing.

And I'm sitting there and
there's a long line of people.

I can't believe how
many people showed up.

So, I'm just sitting
there with my head down,

signing autographs,
saying thank you,

taking pictures for
two straight hours.

Finally, we get to the
end of the line and

somebody walks up
and says,

"Hey, can you sign a
picture for your pops?"

I look up
and it's my dad.

My dad, who I haven't seen
since I was four years old.

So, I signed this picture
and I gave it back to my dad.

And I said,
"Here you go."

And he said,
"Thank you."

He handed me a letter and
he walked away.

I don't remember
what the letter said.

I, I think it was a letter
of reconciliation and

trying to establish
a relationship.

My initial reaction
was anger, though.

I'm a WWE superstar.

So, now, of course,
you want to be in my life,

rather than when I
needed you the most

and you weren't there.

One of my first
memories in life is

being three years old
and watching my dad

beat up my mom while
I hid underneath

the kitchen sink
and I peered through

the cabinet door.

Seeing that

and just having your
whole world shattered

and everything that you
think you know is just

out the window
at that point.

[Colleena] It just breaks my
heart to even think that

he could see someone
hurting his mother.

We were,
I was done.

Zachary and I, we moved
out from our family home.

We moved into a small
apartment and his father

left the state and
just disappeared.

He never conquered the evils
that were looming over him

and he passed away.

?

[Zach] It threw me off so
much that I had to

collect myself and they shut
down the entire signing.

And that was the last time
that I saw my father.

And I always said that
no matter what happens,

that I will never, ever,
ever be like him.

I'll never be
like my dad.

At the height of my career,
I'm on top of the world,

but emotionally,
I feel like

I'm at the bottom
of the ocean.

?

here comes Zach Gowen!

[Narrator] At the
height of his success...

[Brock] How's your
leg doing, buddy?

[Narrator] Zach Gowen
starts making decisions

that threaten his career.

[Zach] I got injured in an
angle with Brock Lesnar on TV.

He breaks my leg
in two places.

It's a wrestling
storyline.

And after that, I hit the
road to Philadelphia

with my friends.

I wanted to hang out with
my real friends because

I understand that
people in WWE aren't

so much besties,
you know, with me.

Word gets back to the office
that I'm out in public and

I'm taking pictures with
fans and all of this

right after my leg is
supposed to be broken

and I'm supposed to be
in the hospital.

So Johnny Yates calls me
up and he's pissed, man.

He's like,
"What the hell?

You're supposed to
be in the hospital,

now you're out in public."
I go, I go, "Johnny,"

I go,
"It's fucking fake.

Like everyone knows
it's not real."

It was just a really
dumb thing to say.

And I know I caught a lot of
flack from the office because

up until this point, it was
just with the other wrestlers.

But now all
of a sudden,

my heat is going
into the office,

which now is really
starting to affect

my position within
the company.

My last match in WWE,
I wrestled Tajiri.

Tajiri has his bodyguards.

He hit me with
a double STO.

[Announcer] Wait a minute,
what the hell is this?

Whoa! Hey!

[Zach] Knocks me
out completely.

?

I wake up a few minutes
later backstage,

I have no idea
where I'm at.

It's really scary.

And so, when I got home,
I called the office,

I called Johnny Yates
and I said,

"Hey, Johnny,
I have a concussion.

The doctor recommends
I take a few weeks off".

And he goes, "All right,
call me when you're healthy."

You know.

A few weeks goes by,
I'm feeling healthy.

I call Johnny Yates, I say,
"Hey, I'm healthy, I'm ready.

You let me know."
And he's like,

"Zach,
at this point,

you got a lot of heat
with the office.

You got a lot of heat
with the boys.

I'm just not comfortable
bringing you back to

television to do anything
until this can be resolved."

I said, "Okay." I took
a few months off.

Then I get a phone call from
Johnny Yates and he asked me

to fly to New York
the following week

to meet with Jim Ross.

He said, "Zach, you're
a unique talent and

you're always welcome back,
but I need you to mature

and I need you to get
more experience.

Then we can have a phone
conversation or another

conversation about what your
future is going to be like

with the WWE."
But what I heard was,

"Zach, you're not
good enough.

You're dog shit.

You didn't fit in.
You'll never fit in.

This business
isn't for you.

Go away forever."

[Colleena] Zachary just
came home and said,

"I'm done.
They fired me."

He had told me that
he got knocked out.

He wasn't big enough.

He couldn't hold his own
with all the pro wrestlers.

No mention of
anything else.

When it got around that
Zach got fired or let go,

I wouldn't say
people are happy.

I think people are like,
they expected it.

I think they
saw it coming.

[Jimmy] Zach should
have been in the

WWE family for, forever.

That's how it should
have gone down.

If Zach knew
how to act.

[Rhino] He could have been
general manager.

He could have done,
you know,

the spot matches
here and there.

He could have done a lot
of stuff behind the scenes.

[Jimmy] But that
experiment just, like,

never unfolded
that way.

[Zach] My drug use really
accelerated after I was

released by WWE because
the money dried up,

the girls left, nobody
recognized me anymore.

The only thing left
is the partying.

[Colleena] I mean, I wasn't
naive to know, you know,

he did party
a little bit.

And certainly,
given his father's

history of drug abuse,

that I was concerned,
but I just,

I figured he needed to go
through this by himself

and he needed to
figure this out.

[Announcer]
Here we see...

Zach Gowen coming out!

[Zach] I had an opportunity
to go back to TNA in 2005.

It was supposed to be a
one-off type of situation,

you know...

[match bell ringing]

The work in the ring was
really, really, really good.

And the reaction from
the crowd- so strong.

After that match,
they were talking about

offering me a
contract and

using me more or using
me on a full-time basis.

But what do I do?
I go straight to the bar,

I start drinking,
I start popping Somas.

I end up back
at the hotel.

I go up to
Jeff Jarrett's suite.

Jeff Jarrett is
the owner of TNA.

They're hanging out,
they're having a party.

I'm thinking, this is
the place to be.

I pull Jeff Jarrett aside,
I go, "Hey, Jeff."

I go, "Hey, do you know
where I can get some coke?"

And he looks at me,
he's like,

"What did you say?"

I'm like, "Come on,
man, let's party."

He's like, "No, I don't,
you gotta go."

So he kicks me out.

Needless to say, I don't get
the TNA contract that

they were talking about just
a few hours before.

I'm always one step forward
and two steps back

at this point, and it feels
like I'm out of control.

The hope and the dream of
getting back to WWE

at this point is pretty much
out the window.

[crowd cheering
& chatter]

[Zach] I was addicted to
opiates,

benzos, and alcohol.

And the more,
the merrier.

This is the biggest
night of my career.

So, my career
is doing this,

my drug addiction
is doing this.

[Jimmy] He and I started
living together

from 2007 to 2008,

yeah, and we were
drug bodies, man.

I had four pills and
Zach had four pills.

I would take two today
and wait, you know,

two for tomorrow because
I don't want to

go through withdrawals.

Zach would take all
four at once, right?

And obviously those numbers
start to get higher and

higher and higher
as time goes on.

Zach had no,

no self-control
with any of it.

[Kelly] I was 18

and he was 24.

He was funny.

He always, like,
has the right thing to say.

My name's Kelly.
I'm Zach's wife

and we've been together
for about 18 years.

I was so naive.
I had no idea.

I liked to drink a little bit,
party a little bit.

So, it was exciting
for me that, you know,

I got to do that and
that he enjoyed that.

And so I never
really thought

there was an issue.
I thought it was fine.

He would spend every
couple of weeks

trying to get sober,

trying to stop drinking,
trying to stop taking pills.

He would struggle.

He would go through this
detox by himself...

go through all this pain,
I don't know,

for two days,
three days at a time.

But then he would
always go back to

talking himself
into getting drugs

or going out and
partying.

It was just like a cycle for

probably honestly like

the first two years
we were together.

[Zach] Any way that I could
get my hands on some money,

to support the habit,

all options were on
the table for me.

One day I'm delivering a
pizza in one of the...

scariest neighborhoods
in Detroit.

I walk up to this house.
I ring the doorbell.

There's no answer.

I'm thinking I'm at
the wrong house.

So, as I'm walking
back to my car,

a man comes around the
corner wearing a hood.

And as he approaches me,
he pulls out a gun.

?

My whole world stops
in this moment,

stops completely.

He says,
"Run your pockets."

That's all he says.

I pull out my phone,
my wallet, car keys,

pull out my
$40 in cash.

I go, "That's all I have.
I swear to God."

He goes, "Okay,
turn around."

I'm thinking,
this is it.

He's going to shoot me
in the back of the head.

He said, "Run."

I ran down two blocks

and I stopped and I
collected myself.

I reached down into my
sock and I pulled out

two Oxycontin pills
and I knew that

I could still get high
that night.

I was not about to
part ways with those

two Oxycontin pills.

I was willing to die
over those pills.

That was only
five years removed

from me pinning
The Big Show,

the main event of
SmackDown and getting

13,000 people
on their feet.

That's how fast addiction
took me down

and that's where
it took me.

My biggest fear was
that my mom was

going to find me
dead for sure.

And it really felt like
I was coming to an end.

[Jimmy] He was living
with his mom

and he's going
through detox,

just going
through withdrawals.

And his mom finally confronts
him about what's going on.

"Zach, are you all right?
Zach, what's going on?

Are you okay?
You on drugs?"

[Colleena] He said, "Mom,
I've got a problem."

I'm like,
"Let's figure this out."

And he's like, "No, Mom,
it's a real problem.

It's, you know,
I can't stop taking drugs."

[Zach] I'd overcome so
many things in my life

up until this point, but I
had met my match.

You know, my biggest
opponent wasn't cancer,

and it wasn't
Brock Lesnar

and it wasn't
The Big Show.

My biggest opponent was
the man in the mirror

and I couldn't beat him.

?

[Narrator] After years of
drug and alcohol abuse

and repeated failed
attempts at sobriety,

Zach turns to
his mother for help.

[Colleena] He said, "I just
can't do it on my own."

And I said,
"Stop talking.

I got something for you."

[Zach] She reached into her
drawer and she pulled out

a letter from the WWE-

newly implemented
wellness policy-

that stated if
any talent either

currently under contract

or previously under
contract is struggling with

drugs or alcohol,

that they would pay
for the treatment.

And within two or three
minutes after that

initial phone call, I was
booked on a plane to

a rehabilitation center in
Minneapolis, Minnesota

that saved my life.

[Jimmy] I didn't think
Zach's chances

of succeeding
were high.

Like, of course,
like I'm rooting for him,

but he was such a
degenerate, man,

and he was worse off
than I was.

But Zach did it just like,
it's cliche, but it's true.

It was like one day
at a time,

one step at a time,
you know,

just doing the
next right thing.

[Zach] I was definitely
worried about getting back

into wrestling
after I got sober.

I didn't know mentally if
I could do it and

I didn't know physically
if I could do it either.

[Announcer]
Ladies and gentlemen,

I present to you,
Zach Gowen!

[Crowd] [cheering]

[Announcer] No mistakes
have been made.

Gowen flies in
off the tag

[Rhino] I actually ran into
Zach after he had

cleaned up and
everything.

We're going on
the road together

and he just
looked good.

There was something
about him.

You knew something
had changed.

[Charlie] He looked healthy,
he muscled up,

he looked great,
he beat cancer,

and he is beating
addiction.

He's got two
great stories.

[Zach] Rejoining the
wrestling business was a

blessing and a gift and I'm
so glad that I did it because

it's led to an insane
number of opportunities.

I'm not defined by
what happens to me

or by what somebody
says about me.

I'm defined in my choice
and how I respond to that.

[Colleena] Zachary has
always loved being

in front of a crowd.

[Kelly] He's sharing
his entire life story.

He is completely
transparent.

I feel like in a way
it's him trying to help

who he was or be the
person he needed.

[Zach] I've been able to work
with over 200,000 parents,

teachers, and students from
all over this country

sharing a message of hope,
sharing tools of resilience,

sharing my story.

Whatever I can do to
help you along your path,

that's the mission and

I've been doing it for
10 years and I love it.

I love it just as much as I
love professional wrestling.

[Announcer] For those fans
that are unfamiliar with

Zach Gowen, we'll have
more on his story.

?

[Narrator] Years removed
from addiction,

Zach gets
one more chance

to prove himself.

[Announcer] From
Detroit, Michigan,

weighing 170 pounds,

Zach Gowen!

- [cheering]
- Zach Gowen...

[Zach] To be in
that locker room

and to wrestle in front of
that big crowd

and to do it on
national television but also

have the awareness to
appreciate it and enjoy it,

which is something that
I couldn't do all those

years ago in WWE,
was magical for me.

[Announcer] And that's
what Zach Gowen's

fighting for right now.

[Colleena] I was there
cheering him on,

as I always have, and his
four children were there.

They have not been to
many wrestling shows,

so this was all new,
but they, they got it.

They understood
what was going on.

[Announcer] Zach...
oh, the attack!

[indistinct commentary]
Unbelievable.

[Jimmy] I was so glad
that other people,

at least for one day,
got to see Zach, like,

do what he does.

Because Zach's
good at what he does.

He's very good
at what he does.

[Announcer] Oh yeah!
You know!

I'm looking forward
to seeing it!

When Zach Gowen
goes to the corner!

One foot and oh no!

[Kelly] I was so
happy for him,

and it was such a
beautiful thing for him

to get to do
and experience.

And his kids got to see
that and experience that,

and so it was amazing.

[Announcer]
And it's Zach Gowen,

whose career continues!

[Zach] I love being a dad.

Being a dad is the
greatest thing that's

ever happened to me.

My kids have never
seen me drunk,

they've never seen me high,
they've never seen me

be violent, they've never
seen me not there.

Which is all I knew
when I was their age.

[Colleena] I'm so proud
of the father that he is,

his ability to stay sober.

He's so special.

We're just very, very,
very proud of him.

[cheering &
crowd chatter]

[Announcer]
Come on, kid!

[Jimmy] There's very few
people in my life

I look up to and go,
I want what he has.

Not what he has
in possessions,

but what he has.

This dude's like a
light for the world.

He's allowing his light to
shine for everyone else

to see,
and in doing so,

inspiring them to have
their light shine.

Like, that's the
Zach Gowen story, man.

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