Inspirations and failures

I’m sure many people will celebrate WWE ending their contractual agreement with the one-legged wrestler Zach Gowen earlier this week. I’m going to leave rumours of why this (probably) happened out of this – they are not that hard to find in case you’re really interested. Instead I’d like say that I’m saddened that this has happened.

No, I don’t think it was a good idea to put Gowen into such spotlight that he was put into. No, he wasn’t that good, for quite obvious reasons, and never will be. But I think his story was – and could have been even more – a success story. I think Gowen showed that it's possible to be whatever you want to be as long as you really want it and work hard for it. He shouldn’t have been a headliner, but he could have made a decent addition to the cruiserweight or the tag team division once all the hype had calmed down.

I know he was hired for his novelty value, and I know his matches against huge men were meant to shock us. None of my friends could see past his disability – whenever he came on they would fast forward or look away, thinking that it was sick having him in matches. (And yes, even I have to say that some segments were sick and totally unnecessary). Hell, Sky One even censored his matches against even-sized opponents - which I think was totally out of line.

He had chosen a profession – a professional wrestler. Part of this job is to take part in very physical matches, take punches and kicks and being thrown around the ring. All the other wrestlers do this. So why is it more horrible when a disabled person does this? I understand if you are against the sport because of its violence, but to discriminate against a guy because of his disability should be illegal. I mean, what if he wanted to work matches here – no one would have heard of him because his matches were always edited out.

Story of Zach Gowen is of course by no means over. He’s such a determined man, I’m sure he will surface in the indy arenas. He started from NWA-TNA, I’m sure they will take him back – if not with a contract, to do individual matches. And let’s face it – WWE is not the right place for all wrestlers – some of them will be better of elsewhere. Maybe what Gowen needs is a different environment – he will never be a legend, but I’m sure that he’s capable of winning at least some of the audience over.