TNA's DJ Z Talks About Thinking He Had Cancer, Todd Pettingill Tourney, NatGeo Documentary, More

I had the chance to speak to former TNA X-Division champion DJ Z about a number of topics recently, including his huge health scare a few years ago. In the second part of our interview, he opens up about the terror he went through, along with many other finer points in his career.

You can check out part one of our interview at this link.

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As I researched for this interview, I saw that you were a Todd Pettingill Invitational winner. Please tell me more about this, because it sounds awesome.

"(Laughs) I'm pretty sure there's some kind of lawsuit about that, so I don't know the details. Some of the Cleveland guys like EC3 can shed some light on that. It was really cool. There used to be this tournament on the independents called the Ted Petty Invitational, the TPI. It was a tournament popular among tape traders and things like that, and had internet buzz. There were a group of fans who missed the TPI. So AIW decided they'd bring back the TPI as the Todd Pettingill Invitational, and they actually tried to get Todd Pettingill to appear at the show, which is a shame it didn't happen. It was their was of paying homage to the TPI in a way."

You were in the documentary Slammed: Inside Indie Wrestling. What was that experience like for you?

"Yeah, that's a crazy story. There was a time in my career that I thought I was getting pretty good at this wrestling thing. I was almost entitled, I'm embarrassed to say, and thought I deserved a job somewhere. When that was filmed, I was thinking that I might end up in Ring of Honor. The National Geographic channel came to Ring of Honor and said they wanted to do a documentary about one of their up and coming wrestlers, and they said me. I wasn't even on their roster yet. When I got e-mailed about this I thought finally I'm getting a job I deserved in wrestling. They had to want me because why else would they pick me for this?

"I talked to a producer from the National Geographic channel and basically told him my life story. He called me like three hours later and said 'Hey man, after you told me this story about your life, I'm changing this all around. I want to film your whole family, I want to fly to your hometown, I want to tell your whole story.' It went from this thing where it was just this little section about me trying out for ROH into my whole family's entire story on national television. It was a really cool opportunity and I thought for sure afterwards that ROH was going to come calling but they never did, and TNA did shortly after, and that's where I've been ever since."

Did that documentary help you get work with TNA?

"I don't think so. I was actually in TNA by the time it aired on television. It aired August 2011, and I signed with TNA in July 2011."

You've worked as a heel for a long time, and now you're working as a babyface. What's that like, switching after so long?

"It's just where I've been comfortable. I've been booked as a heel most of my career just because I seem to be good at it and a knack for it. I really like the leadership role, because when you're wrestling as a heel, you're the ring general a lot of the time. That speaks to me. It's cool, I'm comfortable as a heel, but I think it's time for people to see what I can do as a babyface as well. I'm one of those wrestlers that when I wrestle as a heel I wrestle one way, then when I wrestle as a babyface, I wrestle a whole different kind of way. TNA fans haven't even seen what I can do athletically, because I've always been a heel. Now that I'm a face, it's going to be a more high flying, action packed, adrenaline pumping DJ Z. I'm bringing that high energy X-Division back."

You have a TNA X-Division title match coming up with Grado, Rockstar Spud and Tigre Uno. What can we expect out of that match?

"People can expect a very entertaining match, just look at the personalities involved. There's Spud, of course, the ultimate underdog. I'm not sure what to make of Grado, he's very interesting, Tigre Uno, a high flying luchador who wears a cute mask and doesn't speak any English, and then the DJ of course. It's a mix of characters for sure, and fans definitely want to check that out when it airs."

A few years ago you had some pretty well documented health issues. How are you doing today?

"Well my health is fine, my back's a little sore from lifting yesterday, but other than that we're good. It's crazy, because there was a period of about six months where I was not sure if I had cancer or not, and that's a really scary feeling. You're sitting there and you've been healthy most of your life and all of a sudden you can't work out, wrestle, not sure how much longer you have to live. It was really crazy for me back then.

"I could have just moped around and felt sorry for myself and thought I was going to die or something, but I took that time as time to accomplish everything I wanted to accomplish if I didn't have that much longer to live. I really got into DJ'ing and learning to produce music. My dreams were to always be a wrestler or be a rock star, and in my opinion DJs in 2015 are the new rock stars. It really helped me get through that time. Then it was really cool because when I came back to TNA, they decided they wanted me to be a DJ character. I was able to combine both of these passions into one on national television. Thankfully I don't have cancer, I'm okay, so I'm thankful for that every day.

"They found the tumor when they weren't even looking for it. I was getting my appendix removed, and when they did the CT scan, they happened to find this tumor. I would have just kept living with that, had I not had to get my appendix removed, not knowing I had this potentially cancerous tumor there. It was crazy, and terrible as well because I'm about to get this surgery and they're putting me to sleep and they tell me 'Oh by the way, you have this tumor, you might have cancer, you might have to get chemotherapy,' and I'm like 'what?' then they put me to sleep.

"It's one of those things, like had I not had my appendix rupture, they would haven't found that tumor. There are some weird inner workings in this world for something like that to come together."

Where can the fans follow you on social media?

"You can follow me on twitter @ZemaTNA. I'm more of an Instagram guy these days, and you can follow me there @DatDJTho. Follow me!"