Meet Long Island wrestler who beat cancer twice and overcame paralysis before emotional WWE debut

He wouldn’t stay down for the count.Long Island’s Sean Wachter was given only three months to live after doctors discovered stage 4 melanoma that became a malignant brain tumor a decade ago.“I had a massive stroke that was caused by the golf ball-sized tumor.I had a rare complication called leptomeningeal disease, where the cancer spreads to your spinal fluid,” he told The Post, recalling the darkest days of his life.Wachter, 40, a wrestling fanatic who played college football and lacrosse at Nassau Community College, was preparing for the worst in what he expected to be his final days.The Oceanside native often recited a quote by the late sportscaster Stuart Scott, who died of appendiceal cancer in 2015.“When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer.

You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live,” the quote goes.For Wachter, now a married father of two girls, the priority is quality, not quantity of life.“I was going on 12 weeks to live and I’m going on nine years now,” Wachter, now 40, said of his miracle recovery.“I’ve been published in a few medical journals as the only documented case in the globe of a complete reversal of leptomeningeal disease.”Wachter’s agonizing bout with cancer, which came shortly after a construction work-related accident left him temporarily paralyzed, “was the best thing that ever happened to me.”“I’ve done more living in the past nine years of my life, and better quality living than I did in the previous 31.”Being bedridden by the illness for months rekindled Wachter’s love of wrestling as he would watch WWE and stream related podcasts.“It really helped me get through everything,” he said.Stepping in the ring again represented the realization of a lifelong dream for Wachter.In high school, he tried covertly becoming a pro wrestler until his father followed him to the Hicksville ring he practiced at one day.Given the choice — give up wrestling or...