Imagine you're a 19-year-old kid and you've been wrestling on the indie circuit for a year, then WWE signs you and, suddenly, you're sharing the ring with the likes of Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper, Brock Lesnar and Mr. McMahon himself. That's exactly what happened to Zach Gowen, the one-legged wonderkid who had a cup of coffee with WWE stardom in 2003. Gowen debuted in WWE as a 'plant' who came to the aid of Mr. America as he was being attacked by Piper and Sean O'Haire. This led to Gowen accompanying Mr. America to ringside, a partnership that raised the ire of Vince McMahon. Vince then made it his mission to humiliate Gowen, trying to make him join the Kiss my Ass club and putting him a match with the Big Show. This ultimately led to a weird match at Vengeance between Gowen and McMahon, which Vince won. And then Gowen's momentum stalled. He lost a series of matches against Shannon Moore, John Cena and Nunzio, before he was completely annihilated by Brock Lesnar on back-to-back episodes of Smackdown. When Gowen returned from his storyline injury he scored a win over Matt Hardy on PPV but then suffered an injury and was off TV until his February 2004 release. Gowen reportedly didn't make many friends backstage with his supposedly cocky attitude. He was heavily featured on WWE TV in the summer of 2003 and WWE would have probably continued to feature him, had he remained humble and injury-free.
