Tazz

The Tazmaniac

Wrestling as **The Tazmaniac**, Tazz had his first World Wrestling Federation (WWF) match on August 19, 1991, when he was defeated by Ray Odyssey. He then made his only appearance ever in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), when he defeated Joey Maggs in a dark match at a *Saturday Night* taping in Atlanta, Georgia on February 8, 1993. He would then make his second appearance in the WWF on May 5, 1993. Wrestling in a dark match at a *Wrestling Challenge* taping in Portland, Maine, Tazmaniac would beat Scott Taylor. He would go on to make two additional appearances on house shows in New Jersey on June 29 and June 30, losing to Jim Powers on each occasion.

In October 1993, he and Joe Chetti debuted in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) as the tag team The Tazmaniacs. When that team broke up, he was put into another team with Kevin Sullivan, with whom he won the ECW Tag Team Championship twice. During his second reign as Tag Team Champion with Sullivan, The Tazmaniac became a double champion when he also won the Television Championship for one night in March 1994. For most of the rest of the year, he floated around the tag ranks, teaming with different partners. He held the titles once more, this time with Sabu, until Sabu was fired. In August 1994, The Tazmaniac competed in a one-night eight-man tournament for the vacant ECW World Heavyweight Championship, losing to Shane Douglas in the quarter-finals.

The Tazmaniac was put out of action by a legit injury for much of 1995. On July 20, during a tag team match, 2 Cold Scorpio and Dean Malenko delivered a spike piledriver to him.

Following his neck injury, Taz made appearances with The Steiner Brothers, even standing in their corner during matches with The Eliminators and getting physical with Jason. It was at the November to Remember event when Taz turned heel and joined up with referee Bill Alfonso. Working as the special referee for Alfonso's match with ECW commissioner Tod Gordon, Taz refused to count to three and assaulted Gordon, then making the count for Alfonso. In his post-match promo, he claimed that no one was looking after him while he was injured and that no one cared.

Taz returned to the ring on December 19, 1995, at Holiday Hell, with a new look and wrestling style. The new character had him clad in a black and orange singlet and exhibiting a more physically intense in-ring style, focusing his offense on mat wrestling and suplexes (inspired by working with The Steiner Brothers), which announcer Joey Styles dubbed *Taz-Plexes*, earning him the nickname "The Human Suplex Machine". He also debuted his *Tazmission* finishing maneuver, causing opponents to tap out to signal their submission. Heading into the summer, Taz began feuding with Tommy Dreamer, joining up with Brian Lee to face Dreamer and Terry Gordy and later Dreamer and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams. Taz also developed a friendship with The Eliminators, based on mutual respect, and they occasionally involved themselves in his matches.

At November to Remember, things seemed to come full circle, as Taz stormed to the ring and interrupted Styles by announcing that there would be a "big show in the first quarter of the new year", basically telling the fans in attendance that ECW's first pay-per-view was on the horizon. At that "big show", he guaranteed that Sabu would finally face him. Later that night, he came out to force Scorpio to leave the ring and went on an angry tirade, abusing Bob Artese and holding him hostage in the ring. Taz demanded Sabu come out and face him. Several officials and wrestlers came out and Taz eventually got his hands on Paul E. Heyman. The lights went out and when they came back on, Sabu was in the ring, across from Taz. This was the first time they had been in the ring together since early 1995. Before they could lock up, the lights went out again.

During Sabu's match, where he teamed with Rob Van Dam to face The Eliminators and The Gangstas in a three-way dance, Taz attempted to attack his former partner, but Van Dam saved Sabu and was choked out in the aisle. This distraction caused Sabu to get hit with *Total Elimination* and his team lost. Taz also began a mini-feud with Rob Van Dam, dominating him in every match and was also out for a short time to get surgery on his injured shoulder. As 1996 ended and 1997 began, Taz and Sabu continued to try getting at one another, with no actual contact.

Early in 1997, the antagonism between Sabu and Taz was growing, as Taz attacked Sabu's partner, Rob Van Dam, costing the team matches with The Eliminators and other teams. In the months leading to ECW's first pay-per-view, Taz would choke out low-level wrestlers with the *Tazmission* due to viewing his matches as secondary to his rivalry with Sabu. He then dominated another series of matches with Van Dam before meeting Sabu at Barely Legal, where Taz defeated him with the *Tazmission*, only to have his manager Bill Alfonso turn on him and join Sabu and his partner Rob Van Dam. In response, Taz began teaming with Chris Candido to face Sabu and Van Dam.

Two months later at Wrestlepalooza, Taz lost to Sabu in the rematch, marking his first loss since 1995. However, later in the night, he won the World Television Championship from Shane Douglas to begin his second reign. He defended the title against all comers, including Douglas, Lance Storm, John Kronus, Al Snow, Jerry Lynn and Chris Candido. Throughout late 1997, Taz began feuding with The Triple Threat in addition to Sabu and Van Dam, where he sometimes teamed up with Tommy Dreamer during the feud. At November to Remember, he issued a challenge to World Heavyweight Champion Bam Bam Bigelow. The two would eventually meet, after Bigelow turned on Taz in a match against Shane Douglas and Chris Candido. Taz would ultimately lose the title to Bam Bam Bigelow at Living Dangerously on March 1, 1998.

After losing the World Television Championship, Taz was elevated into the World Heavyweight Championship picture. In May 1998, with Shane Douglas injured and unable to wrestle, Taz was given an old World Television Championship belt painted orange—his trademark color—and began cutting promos, declaring himself the FTW Heavyweight Champion at *It Ain't Seinfeld*. Though the championship was unsanctioned in storyline, it was defended at ECW shows until Douglas was healthy. Just before winning the World Heavyweight Championship, Taz "gave" the FTW Heavyweight Title to long-time foe Sabu in a match where he physically pulled Sabu on top of him to allow him to get the pin.

Taz finally defeated Shane Douglas for the World Heavyweight Championship at Guilty as Charged, thus ending Douglas' year-long reign. Taz was supposed to defend the title against Chris Candido in his first televised title defense at House Party, but Douglas attacked Candido before the match and took his place, whom Taz defeated to retain the title in his first successful title defense. He would then begin a feud with Sabu over Taz's World Heavyweight Championship and Sabu's FTW Heavyweight Championship. The rivalry culminated in a title unification match at the Living Dangerously pay-per-view, where Taz defeated Sabu to unify the FTW Heavyweight Championship into the World Heavyweight Championship. He would begin his next rivalry with Chris Candido, whom he defeated to retain the title at CyberSlam. The two were scheduled to a rematch at Hardcore Heaven, which Taz quickly won. However, he was attacked by the Dudley Boyz after the match, leading to a title defense against Buh Buh Ray Dudley in a falls count anywhere match in the main event later that night, which Taz won to retain the title. Taz then successfully defended the title against Candido on the June 4 episode of *Hardcore TV* to end the rivalry.

Taz made his next successful title defense against Spike Dudley in a falls count anywhere match on the June 25 episode of *Hardcore TV*. He would begin feuding with the members of Steve Corino's new rising stable, primarily Yoshihiro Tajiri. Taz successfully defended the World Heavyweight Championship against Tajiri at Hostile City Showdown, the Heat Wave pay-per-view and the September 3 episode of *ECW on TNN*. During that time, Taz signed with the World Wrestling Federation, losing the title as the first man eliminated in a three-way dance at Anarchy Rulz. This ended his eight-month reign at 252 days. As he walked out of the ring, a large portion of the ECW locker room joined him on the entrance ramp to give him an emotional sendoff. After being off of ECW television for most of the fall, he wrestled one final match as an ECW performer at November to Remember, losing to Rob Van Dam via pinfall. Taz's final televised match in ECW aired on the November 13 episode of *Hardcore TV*, in which he received a rematch against Mike Awesome for the World Heavyweight Championship, which he lost.

After being contacted by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), Taz debuted for the WWF, with the slightly modified ring name **Tazz**, at the 2000 Royal Rumble with a win over the previously undefeated Kurt Angle at Madison Square Garden. Just a few months after Tazz arrived in the WWF, Mike Awesome, the man he had lost the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to at Anarchy Rulz, secretly signed with WCW. Tazz would make a surprise appearance at an ECW show to defeat Awesome, a WCW wrestler, for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. Tazz held the title for ten days before losing it to Tommy Dreamer, during which time he wore it on various WWF shows, including an episode of *SmackDown!*, where he lost to the WWF Champion Triple H.

After losing the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, Tazz was placed into contention for the Intercontinental Championship, but never won the title. In the summer, after taking time off for an arm injury, he was turned into a villainous character and placed into a feud with color commentator Jerry Lawler. The feud included matches at SummerSlam and Unforgiven, which they split. Tazz was only able to pick up the Unforgiven win when he received help from Raven, who had returned to the company. Afterwards, the duo formed a tag team that lasted until November.

When the Invasion angle began, Tazz acted as "the voice of the WCW/ECW Alliance", sticking up for them and speaking on their behalf whenever possible. Over the next few weeks, he'd be beaten up by Stone Cold Steve Austin, made out as the weak link and "the example" needed to be made to the other Alliance members. Despite this mistreatment, Tazz would still speak positively about Stone Cold and The Alliance as a whole while on commentary. He eventually left the stable after he finally stood up to the leader Stone Cold Steve Austin and attacked Paul Heyman in the weeks leading up to Survivor Series, where The Alliance would go on to lose to Team WWF.

With injuries mounting, Tazz began performing part-time commentary on *Sunday Night Heat* in October 2000. He joined the *SmackDown!* team in February 2001 after Jerry Lawler quit the company, after calling his first pay-per-view on No Way Out with Jim Ross, as well as becoming one of the trainers for *Tough Enough*. Lawler returned to the company on November 19, 2001 and resumed his place as commentator, with Tazz becoming both a wrestler and a commentator. In January 2002, he and Spike Dudley won the World Tag Team Championship, holding it for over a month before losing it to Billy and Chuck.

When World Wrestling Entertainment split into two brands, Tazz was put on the *SmackDown!* brand, where he resumed his color commentator duties alongside Michael Cole. Not long after he retired from the ring, he became a full-time broadcaster. He co-hosted *SmackDown!* for World Wrestling Entertainment until a third brand, *ECW*, was introduced in 2006, at which point he became the color commentator for that show.

On June 11, 2006, Tazz wrestled his final match, defeating Jerry Lawler at ECW One Night Stand.

During the recording of the April 29, 2008 episode of *ECW*, Tazz's broadcast partner Mike Adamle abruptly walked off set prior to the main event. Moments later, after reading the promo for the upcoming pay-per-view, Tazz walked out as well, leaving the main event with no commentators.

In August 2008, Tazz filled in for Mick Foley as a color commentator on the *SmackDown* brand, while *Raw* wrestler Matt Striker filled in for Tazz on the *ECW* brand. When Foley left the company, Tazz became the permanent color commentator for the *SmackDown* brand once again. On April 3, 2009, Tazz left WWE when his contract expired.