Zack Gowen in USA Today

[Guest Red Hot Thumbtack In The Eye]

One-legged wrestler body-slams status quo

By Ross Forman, Special to USA TODAY

Zach Gowen is proof that dreams do come true, no matter how improbable.

 

  Zach Gowen, right, practices some moves with Doug Basham of The Basham Brothers tag team before a recent event. 

By Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

 

The 6-foot, 160-pound Gowen stands alongside Mr. America, aka Hulk Hogan, in World Wrestling Entertainment's hottest Smackdown feud, against the evil tandem of Rowdy Roddy Piper and WWE boss Vince McMahon.

 

Gowen's road to the WWE is remarkable considering that, in 1992, doctors removed his left leg about 7 inches below the hip because of osteogenic sarcoma, a cancer that probably would have been fatal had it spread, doctors told him.

 

Still, he flips, flops and flies through the ring with athleticism, drive and determination. The WWE has signed Gowen, 20, to a multiyear contract. Though he might not wrestle live at each arena, Gowen is scheduled to be a major part of each show, perhaps being interviewed or participating in other activities to further the story line, such as an arm-wrestling match recently against McMahon.

 

"If I had two legs, I wouldn't have been hired," Gowen says. "The fact that I have one leg and can actually work, that's the reason I got hired." Though pro wrestling matches are largely scripted, the athleticism and injury potential is 100% real. The risk Gowen faces in the ring is heightened not only by his missing leg, but also by his weight.

 

Gowen, who wrestled one year at Livonia (Mich.) Churchill High School, walks to the ring with the aid of a prosthesis and wooden cane. He can wrestle with or without the prosthesis; most often he wrestles without it. Still, he has a résumé of high-risk aerial assaults. He can, for instance, launch a "moonsault," in which he flips backward, heel over head from the top rope, onto an opponent.

 

  WHERE TO SEE TENACIOUS Z 

Zach Gowen and Mr. America (aka Hulk Hogan) appear at these upcoming venues, though Gowan doesn't always wrestle. The taped matches air on UPN's Smackdown

(8 p.m., Thursdays).

 

Today: Madison Square Garden,

New York

 

July 1: Blue Cross Arena, Rochester, N.Y.

 

July 8: Air Canada Centre, Toronto

 

July 13: Nationwide Arena,

Columbus, Ohio

 

July 22: Selland Arena, Fresno, Calif.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike Tenay, a broadcaster for pay-per-view's NWA:TNA (National Wrestling Alliance: Total Nonstop Action), announced Gowen's first nationally televised match last year. "I've never seen anyone like Zach, because there's never been anyone like Zach," Tenay says. "When WWE fans see Zach execute one-legged moonsaults ... their jaws are going to drop."

 

Gowen, who comes from a single-parent home and still lives with his mother, Colleena, and 11-year-old stepbrother, Matthew Yee, was diagnosed with cancer in October 1991. He slipped while bowling and his leg snapped. After the cast was removed, doctors noticed a grapefruit-size tumor. A biopsy determined it was cancerous. He started chemotherapy and lost his hair, appetite and partial hearing in his left ear. He also endured heart, liver and kidney problems. Doctors said the leg would have to be amputated.

 

"I was in so much pain. When they removed the leg, I was almost happy, because I knew it would get rid of the pain."

 

He spent about six months in the hospital. It was there, watching pro wrestling and Hogan on TV in his hospital room, that Gowen decided he wanted to become a pro wrestler.

 

Gowen, a high school honors student, won an academic scholarship to Eastern Michigan University but stayed only a year. He then attended Schoolcraft College in Livonia for a year before starting pro training at Thunderzone Wrestling Academy in Livonia. His first pro match was at the local mall last year in front of about 30 fans.

 

"It doesn't seem right, like I should be in the WWE. But I am, so I'm just having fun," says Gowen, whose ring name is Tenacious Z. "I'm living the American dream."

 

Hogan is a big fan: "This is an unbelievable human-interest story ... something that can help and motivate a lot of people all over the world," he says. "That's how big I think the Zach Gowen story is."

 

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