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Source: Pros Report.
When we're young, we all have childhood dreams. Some of us dream to be astronauts or football players or police officers or even circus clowns. Some of these dreams can be realistic but, in reality, most of us shy away from our "silly" childhood dreams. Not WVU alum Michael Paris.
For a young Paris, the choice was between two dreams. Become a rock star, or become a professional wrestler.
"I grew up watching a lot of WWE and MTV. I wasn't interested in cartoons or video games, but something about rock stars and pro wrestlers intrigued me as a kid and still does to this day," Paris said of his childhood ambitions.
Most people can relate to the first part of Paris' story, but not many young kids can actually give reasons why they want to become these things. Most just see them on television and their first thought is, "Man, I want to do that!" Again, not Paris.
Paris says that he's always loved performing for crowds and being the center of attention and that must be why he's "drawn to both of those worlds."
The world of professional wrestling is one than attracts a younger generation of boys who can get their fill of action packed television. Those same boys might drop off the wrestling map forever after childhood, or they might drop off and then come back when they can understand and appreciate the story lines a little more. For Paris, wrestling has always been a big part of his life.
"I have been watching pro wrestling for as long as I can remember. Everything about wrestling just seemed larger than life to me, and being a wrestler was always a dream of mine."
Paris classified his love for wrestling as a kid as an "obsession". He says that he watched WWE, WCW, ECW, Japanese wrestling, Mexican "Lucha Libre", and independent wrestling.
"I was pretty obsessed," he said.
Another part of Paris' story that set him apart from young wrestling fans was that he never really had a favorite. Personally, I can remember growing up and reenacting my favorite Stone Cold Steve Austin matches on my childhood trampoline. Paris said his friends all had favorite wrestlers, but he just had a love for the sport.
Paris does, however, credit his inspiration to Mexican "Lucha Libre" wrestling.
"Mexican 'Lucha Libre' has been so influential and important to me for so many years that I have to consider that entire style of wrestling more of an inspiration to me than any one wrestler," Paris said.
Paris also said that being in Mexico helped him to learn how to be a star in his future endeavors.
Paris took his childhood dream, love for the sport, and inspiration and compiled it all into one and took off running. Right into wrestling school at the age of 15.
"A big turning point in making that dream into a reality was attending a local wrestling event at the age of 15, where I met a young CM Punk and asked him how I could become a wrestler," he said. "He introduced me to a guy who ran a 'wrestling school' in the Pittsburgh area. I then signed up for that school, started training and I've been doing it ever since."
In the midst of training for his dream job, Paris found time to attend WVU. There, he studied journalism, another passion of his.
"Writing was my strongest skill throughout high school. I had a natural passion for writing articles and news stories, and I even enjoyed proofreading, so being a journalism major was a no-brainer."
Paris said his brother also went there so the chance to meet up with him was one he wanted to take. He also said that journalism was originally a back up plan for his first love, wrestling.
"My time at WVU ended up being so much more than that. I did a lot of growing up there, which prepared me for the real world. I met some great people in Morgantown and I have so many fond memories of my time as a Mountaineer. I really miss it."
Since then, Paris has been discovered by TNA wrestling.
"Apparently I had been on their radar since 2008, as I had competed against some of their wrestlers on independent shows and those wrestlers had recommended me to TNA officials. I specifically remember running out of a class in Ming Hsieh Hall at WVU to answer a phone call from TNA back in 2008, asking me if I could come to Orlando for a tryout."
Paris said that tryout never happened, but three years later a talent scout with TNA, former WWE star D'Lo Brown, discovered him on YouTube and set everything up for him to get his opportunity. Paris passes his initial two-week contract and is still with TNA today.
Paris' character, Zema Ion, is known as the Filipino supermodel who is OCD about his hair. Paris explained that his character constantly sprays his hair with hairspray and makes sure its perfect as part of his persona. Zema has always been a persona for Paris, but TNA helped him to perfect the character.
"Opponents naturally try to mess the hair up, which makes Zema pretty angry. I had actually been doing the character since the age of 18 on the independent wrestling level, but TNA really taught me how to make it more over the top."
Paris explained to me that while TNA owns the name Zema Ion, he has a large amount of control over the character.
"TNA owns my name, but I do have a lot of creative freedom over how the character looks and acts. I also do not have any writers developing my interviews for me, I do those all completely ad-lib and off the top of my head."
Paris will return to TNA action in September and October on Spike TV on Thursday nights. While Paris continues with TNA wrestling, he's also a DJ and music producer. He's working on his own original tracks as well as some remixes and currently has a mixtape that you can download for free by going to https://soundcloud.com/foreignobjex.
Paris is truly one of the lucky ones who was able to take a passion for a childhood dream and turn it into a reality.
