Zach Gowen (@zachgowen) is a professional wrestler and motivational speaker known for his time in WWE and IMPACT Wrestling. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood, CA to tell his inspirational story of losing his leg to cancer at age 8, becoming the first one-legged WWE Superstar when he was 19-years old, making his debut with Hulk Hogan, Rowdy Roddy Piper and Shawn O'Hare, feuding with Vince McMahon, getting beat up by Brock Lesnar in front of his mom, having Brock Lesnar push him down the stairs, his battle with drug addiction and how he beat it, being a father of 4, sharing his story as a motivational speaker to students around the country and much more! Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com Quote I'm thinking about: "Life isn't about what happens to you, it's about how you react to what happens to you" - Epictetus 00:00 Intro 00:36 How to be successful in content creation 04:10 His career as a motivational speaker 05:05 Does he identify as disabled? 07:23 His estranged father showing up at an autograph signing 11:54 Breaking generational curses 13:58 How the WWE Wellness Policy helped him to get clean 17:30 Memories of his WWE debut with Hulk Hogan & Roddy Piper 22:27 Working with legendary WWE names 25:45 His match with Vince McMahon 27:46 Meeting Tony Khan at AEW 29:37 His matches with Brock Lesnar 31:08 The spot with the wheelchair 36:47 WWE hiring the wrong one-legged wrestler 39:15 Not signing with TNA for WWE 41:36 Getting Brock Lesnar over as a heel 44:48 WWE’s lack of a concussion protocol back then 47:57 Things going downhill with WWE 54:35 Feeling unworthy of redemption 1:01:48 3 Things Zach Gowen Is grateful for Subscribe to http://youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet Subscribe to my podcast: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com Get awesome CVV t-shirts & merch: https://teespring.com/stores/chris-van-vliet Email me: cvv@chrisvanvliet.com Follow me on Instagram: http://instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Like me on Facebook: http://facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet #wwe #wrestling #aew #zachgowen #hulkhogan