Zach Gowen recalls the scrapped plan for Brock Lesnar to throw him off the top of the SmackDown fist in 2003.
The early 2000s WWE SmackDown stage is most well-known for the iconic fist that was protruding from the top of the set in between two Titantrons. While climbing to the top of the fist was only something wrestlers were capable of in video games, Zach Gowen, a one-legged former WWE Superstar who had a major run on SmackDown in the summer of 2003, says that the iconic moment where Brock Lesnar pushed him down a flight of stairs in a wheelchair was supposed to be Brock delivering an F5 to Gowen off the top of the SmackDown fist.
Zach Gowen shared the original plan while speaking with Chris Van Vliet on the Insight podcast.
"So the wheelchair spot that wasn't a wheelchair spot to begin with. The original idea. I don't know if we've talked about this. The original idea was for Brock Lesnar to F5 me off of the SmackDown fist through the stage," he revealed. "That was the original idea. Do you remember the SmackDown fist? So we were going to be on top of this SmackDown fist, Brock Lesnar was going to toss me off this bad boy and I was gonna go through the stage, and that was the plan for like two or three weeks, we had to a pivot to the wheelchair spot down the stairs because creative, we couldn't figure out a plausible way for me and Brock Lesnar to be, a reason for us to be on top of the fist. Like how do we get up there? Did he drag me up there? Did he climb up? Is there a secret ladder like we couldn't figure that part out? I was really excited about that. Because you remember back in the day dude Shane McMahon falling off the set Jeff Hardy doing all this crazy stuff and I'm like, Man, I can't wait to you know, to me like that doing that stunt was exciting.”
While that ultimately never happened, Lesnar pushing Gowen down a flight of stairs remains an equally iconic and vicious moment from Brock's run as a heel during the back half of his original stint with WWE.
In the past, Zach Gowen has said that, despite what you saw on TV, Vince McMahon with actually very good to him. In fact, Gowen credits Vince McMahon with saving his life. Read more here.
Thanks to Chris Van Vliet for sending the above quote.
