TNA wrestler goes online to get help for paying his medical bills

[Smith]

https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/6hd2...mpaign=Isupport

 

Michael Paris (Zema Ion of TNA Wrestling) was recently rushed to the hospital and unexpectedly diagnosed with an appendicitis. While examining his condition through cat scans, doctors discovered that the 26-year-old also has a 5 cm tumor located on his colon. While we are currently waiting for the biopsy results to determine whether or not the tumor is cancerous, Paris will soon have to undergo another surgery to remove it. In the meantime, we are trying to fight for a way to afford to keep him healthy and pay his growing medical expenses. Paris does not have health insurance, so the costs for these surgeries and hospital stays are going to be extremely expensive for him. Please help us to afford this effort and pitch in any way possible! Michael Paris is a recent graduate of West Virginia University and the oldest of three children raised by their single mother, who came to the US as a mail order bride from the Philippines. Paris began chasing his lifelong dream of becoming a professional wrestler at age 16, and after 9 years of hard work, he was signed to a contract with TNA Wrestling in 2011. Paris can currently be seen on TNA's television show, Impact Wrestling, which airs Thursday nights on Spike TV. We are asking friends, family, fans and people of the community to reach out and help in any way possible, so he can afford the medical help necessary to get him back on his feet, back in the ring and healthy again. Thank you and God bless.

 

Hope things work out for the guy, sounds like a bad situation.

[TheShowOff]

"Help pro wrestler Zema Ion with his medical expenses so he can continue performing for all of his fans!"

 

Going to be bloody awkward if he doesn't reach his goal.

 

Sad news to hear that anybody is in a bad way, hope things work out well for him.

[bAzTNM#1]

I wouldn't be admitting my mother came over to the US as a "mail order bride".Hope he gets the funds though.

[Joey Joe Joe Jr]

He's spoken about it quite openly on AOW and a National Geographic doc. It makes his backstory stand out a bit more.

[Guest]

His family where on a big documentary on us tv where it was a main part of it re his mums background

[Duke]

So, genuine question. Is this a case of tna not paying their talent enough or is his lack of insurance because he's an idiot? Edit: I didn't read it properly. Question is now editted to "why hasn't he got medical insurance?

[Benno]

Yeah there's a few things with this, if he's a TNA regular, surely he's making okish money, I.e. enough to get his own insurance.

 

Whether he is or isn't though, from TNA's point of view surely it would make sense to help him out, rather than look as smalltime as they do when their wrestlers beg fans to pay their medical bills.

[Teedy Kay]

I don't mean to speak bad of an ill man, however is this going to be the norm now? Wrestler doesn't pay his medical insurance gets inevitably hurt at some point and gets the fans to pay the costs?

[Vamp]

Yeah there's a few things with this, if he's a TNA regular, surely he's making okish money, I.e. enough to get his own insurance.

 

I'm under the impression that TNA guys (bar certain ones) aren't on what you'd call okay money. But I can't remember where I've got that impression from. Anybody?

[IANdrewDiceClay]

If he's getting more than $300 a show, I'd be stunned. X Division wrestlers are like the women. Just look at some of the names they use? Scorpion Sky and Suicide are back. Alex Shelley left because of money issues. If you let someone as good as him go, its shows the budget in these smaller wrestlers.

[Sexy Dad]

On the TNA backstage pass thing they did for the UK tour, Zema shown a picture on his phone of his car filled to the brim with his stuff as he was living out of it for a bit when he broke up with his girlfriend. He then said "People were really surprised because I was on TV every week but living out of my car" or something along them lines. The lads not earning a whole lot by the looks of it.

 

Im in two minds whether this is bad press for TNA though. In some respects it may be viewed as TNA underpaying certain talent, but at the same time the guys that are basically indie talent that get TV exposure know what they are signing up for, it's their choice to pursue wrestling over a different career.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Its pretty horrible publicity for TNA. One of their wrestlers has set up an account to pay for his medical bills when the money he is asking for is the same amount they are paying Hogan and Sting to do an interview on a episode of Impact. Ion has worked as a TNA regular since early to mid 2011, so its not like he's an OVW worker. This makes TNA look heartless. But its nothing new. TNA has been sued so many times by ex-wrestlers who don't get their bills paid. They dont seem to bothered because they keep doing it. But this one is quite glaring. The fact he set up an account on a fundraising website is a sad state of affairs.

 

In some respects it may be viewed as TNA underpaying certain talent, but at the same time the guys that are basically indie talent that get TV exposure know what they are signing up for, it's their choice to pursue wrestling over a different career.

Quite a unfair and silly attitude to look at it. By that token, is it also TNA's fault when they lose out on wrestlers like El Generico, Antonio Cesaro, Daniel Bryan and Alex Shelley because TNA dont think they are worth the money? Fuck TV exposure. TNA doesn't hire them as a favour. TNA should be hiring wrestlers on good deals so they can justify making stars out of them and helping their own product grow.

[TheShowOff]

I.e. enough to get his own insurance.

 

Not commenting on what he may or may not earn, but many simply use crowd funding platforms these days as another avenue to get money.

[pgi86]

It's not just that the pay is crap in TNA for the lower and midcard talent but it's also that there's not enough work to go around for the 60 or so people that they have under contract. Even if you make crap money per appearance if you worked all of the 150+ shows that TNA run each year you'd be making a decent living (that you can further supplement with extra indy bookings, merch and stuff). But no one works that many dates in TNA, which is fine if you're a top name but for the lower card talent it can get quite hard. Hard to make a living if you're only working from 3 to 5 dates per month (unless you're a top guy being paid top money that is).

[Sexy Dad]

Quite a unfair and silly attitude to look at it. By that token, is it also TNA's fault when they lose out on wrestlers like El Generico, Antonio Cesaro, Daniel Bryan and Alex Shelley because TNA dont think they are worth the money? Fuck TV exposure. TNA doesn't hire them as a favour. TNA should be hiring wrestlers on good deals so they can justify making stars out of them and helping their own product grow.

 

Wrestlers working on TV should be making good money but it just seems to be their way. I'm not justifying it but it's something that low paid wrestler must consider. There's Hulk Hogan, Sting and Angle's pay bracket, the likes of Bobby Roode, AJ and Storm who have proven themselves to be worth good money and then a bunch of wrestlers that haven't proven themselves yet and haven't made a name for themselves elsewhere getting their per appearance payday.

 

If TNA don't see enough potential in guys to sign them to a good deal then it definately shows why there has been a total lack of talent coming through the ranks. I guess they want to save the money for the big names that they feel are less dispensable than the bottom rung of guys. Obviously an attitude with little future to it.