13 Things We Learned From Dark Side Of The Ring: Zach Gowen
2. The Moment That Marked A ‘5 Year Slide’
By 2008, Zach was delivering pizzas to make some money so he could keep partying.
One evening, he was delivering to a rough neighbourhood in Detroit when a guy pulled a gun on him outside his car. Frozen stiff, Gowen handed the man his phone, car keys and $40 in cash, then the guy told him to turn around and run. Zach ran for around 2 blocks, then reached into his sock and found 2 pills. Rather unbelievably, he relented to VICE: “I was willing to die for those pills”.
That was just 5 years removed from being on WWE television as a key figure in storylines involving Vince McMahon, Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper and more. That wasn't lost on Gowen as he reminisced during 'Dark Side's' season finale. He'd been on a remarkable and steep 5 year slide since flying high on SmackDown as a super-over underdog babyface who could've made more of himself.
Rhyno opined that Zach could've gone on to work special attraction matches aplenty, or maybe even bagged a role as GM/an on screen authority figure if he'd just kept his head down and stayed out of trouble. Instead, he was cast out by WWE, ruined his own second run at TNA, then was literally running to save...pills.
Something had to change. This was a bit of a 'coming to Jesus' moment for Gowen. He didn't know how to get out of the spiral he was in, but he knew he needed help and had to be brave by confronting his addictions head on.