Wrestler of the Day – April 30: Tazz

Survive this one if you can. Today is Taz.

 

Taz got his start down in Puerto Rico but we’ll pick him up in 1993 at a shot called Grand Slam in Minnesota.

Tasmaniac vs. Brad Rheingans

Rheingans is a big power guy, a former Olympian, and a hometown boy. Tasmaniac has curly hair over his face here, is insane, and has Oliver Humperdink in his corner. Brad grabs a hammerlock to start and it goes nowhere. Some headbutts have Rheingans in trouble and a clothesline puts him down. Rheingans grabs a headscissors and Tasmaniac has to fight out of it for a bit. Brad gets two off a neckbreaker as this is very basic so far.

Tasmaniac sends him out to the floor and into the apron a few times. That’s fine with Brad as he nails Tasmaniac in the head with a chair to only a limited effect. Back in and Tasmaniac stomps away but Brad grabs a belly to back suplex for two. Tasmaniac argues with the referee and gets rolled up for a pretty fast count and the pin.

Rating: D. For something so low level as this, there’s only so much complaining I can do. They were in a gym of some sort and it can only be that big of a match. Rheingans never did anything for me but he was a big deal around this part of the country, so having him on a glorified indy show wasn’t the worst idea in the world.

We’ll head to Taz’s signature promotion against his arch rival. From March 15, 1994.

TV Title: Sabu vs. Tasmaniac

Sabu is defending and it’s in ECW if that’s not clear. During this period, Sabu was brought to the ring on a standing stretcher ala Hannibal Lecter. He’s strapped down so Tasmaniac wisely jumps Sabu while he’s still on the board. The brawl starts in the aisle with Tasmaniac in control, only to get caught by an Asai Moonsault from Sabu into the crowd. Back in and Sabu misses a corner splash and gets suplexed out to the floor. They get back in for a cross armbreaker on Sabu as Paul Heyman is cheering him on from the floor.

Sabu fights up and comes back with a springboard legdrop to the back of the head for two. We hit the chinlock by the champion before it’s off to an armbar. They hit the mat for some technical stuff to Joey’s shock before Tasmaniac comes back with a Tazplex to put both guys down. Sabu misses a flip dive to the floor and crashes through a table but Heyman blasts him in the head with a phone. Heyman and Tasmaniac’s manager Woman nearly get in a fight but Woman’s real husband Kevin Sullivan comes out for the save. Tasmaniac grabs a superplex out of nowhere for the pin and the title.

Rating: D+. To the best of my knowledge, this was their first match ever against each other. While I don’t think it’s as great as some ECW fans likely do, this was a better match than I was expecting. First and foremost, they kept Sabu doing basic stuff instead of the weapons and the tables and all that jazz. The story was only kind of there, but that’s what you usually get with a TV Title match: just a random defense with no backstory. The match was acceptable.

We’ll jump ahead to when he was known as Taz and a much more serious character. First up, House Party 1996.

Taz vs. Hack Myers

Speaking of guys that are only good for the live crowd, I give you Hack Myers. He’s a biker that doesn’t do much other than punch and he’s called the Shah of Hardcore for no apparent reason. Fonzie comes out in a Dallas Cowboys jersey, making him more awesome than anything on this show so far. Myers works on the arm for a bit but Taz throws him down like a fly. You know, because you often throw over flies.

Joey talks about “these Ultimate Fighting PPVs” which have inspired guys like Taz. Taz rolls him down to the mat and puts on a hold of some sort on the neck. Myers sends him into the corner and elbows him in the back of the head to take over. Taz is like screw that and takes him down with a judo throw. Some more punches are countered by a T-Bone Tazplex followed by a head and arms Tazplex. A German Tazplex sets up the Tazmission for the tap.

Rating: D. Taz was pretty awesome with those suplexes but he needed more to work with here. Myers was a hometown favorite but man was he boring to watch for non-ECW fans. Taz would run through ECW for the next year or so before facing Sabu in the real main event of Barely Legal.

In early 1997, ECW managed to get on pay per view with a show called Barely Legal. Taz was in one of the main events, and somehow ECW got to promote the show on Raw. Here’s an ECW match from Raw on February 24, 1997.

Taz vs. Mikey Whipwreck

Whipwreck is a cool name. Nice amateur stuff from Taz. We don’t see the extreme aspects here which is what’s hurting the show. Lawler asks him about that and Heyman says why do that when we can do that on PPV? Taz DESTROYS him as we hear from Farooq. Notice the ECW matches have had interviews that have nothing to do with the show spliced in but we hear nothing during the WWF matches. Not saying it’s unfair as it’s a WWF show, just an observation. Sabu pops up on top of the Raw R and falls off which sums up his career pretty well. Tazmission completes the squash.

Rating: N/A. This was to make Taz look good and that certainly worked. Whipwreck would also get a lot better which was fun watching. This wasn’t much at all though but it did its job well enough I guess. Still though, would it kill you guys to tell us why Taz vs. Sabu is a big feud? They didn’t say it on Barely Legal either so it doesn’t really matter.

And now the Barely Legal match.

Taz vs. Sabu

This is one of the main events here. They’re former tag partners that hate each other now. They have been building to this match for a year, so that’s about all there is to it. The intro for Taz is great as he has his own entourage. No Jeremy Piven jokes coming. In a weird moment, we’re in a close up of Taz and Joey is talking about the Tazmission and Sabu jumps over the ropes for the introductions.

That just came from nowhere. I’ve yet to see a good match out of genie pants but we’ll see if it works here. Fonzie is Taz’s manager at this point too. Sabu manages to block the Tazmission which never happened back then. We’re doing a wrestling style here which I like a lot better than starting with wild brawling. It plays to Taz’s strengths better and I’d much rather have him calling the match rather than Sabu.

The man with more adjectives than Schoolhouse Rock has a broken nose from a Taz punch. Naturally we hit the crowd for a bit and of course Sabu does a huge spot to get there. After a lot of brawling that we couldn’t see any of because there were no cameras out there, we’re back in the ring and surprisingly on the mat. In something that I’m very glad about they’re doing about 80% standard stuff here which is really making me buy into this match more than before.

Sabu is trying to get a few shots in here and there which is actually working. Sabu gets a running springboard spot but misses everything. I mean Taz just stands there and watches him crash. They set up a table between the guard rail and the apron. Sabu goes for a swinging DDT and shocking no one, he winds up going through it in what looked like another botch. This match is certainly intense.

They’re definitely making sense here as when it’s slow paced Taz controls it but when it’s fast paced the guy that Van Dam carried to an allegedly good tag team is in control. In something I’ve never seen before, Sabu stands on the post and jumps to the ropes for a bigger bounce to hit a guillotine legdrop. Not bad at all. Taz just goes insane and starts suplexing the heck out of Sabu. Other than a quick break where Sabu uses a T-bone Tazplex and the Tazmission on Taz which is funny, Taz hits like three more suplexes to more or less kill Sabu and then the Tazmission is academic.

Taz says gets on the mic and says good match and that he would love a rematch and he wants a handshake. Sabu does it and raises Taz’s hand. Van Dam comes in and hits Taz and when Taz goes for him, Sabu goes after Taz as well. They put him on a table and Sabu goes for a big running spot. Say it with me: BOTCHED. Fonzie turns on Taz and leaves with Van Dam and Bazoo. Van Dam says he would love to work Mondays.

Rating: B+. Again, they kept the weapons use to where it made sense here and the match went way up as a result of it. These two were beating the heck out of each other and the psychology was there. However, the flat out stupid looking things Sabu did really hurt it here. There were two big spots where he did stuff that was just bad looking. That and the times where they were brawling in the crowd and you had no idea what was going on bring this down from a much better grade.

Taz would pick up the TV Title again in 1997 and defend it against Al Snow at Born To Be Wired.

TV Title: Taz vs. Al Snow

Snow is challenging and is on the verge of the push of a lifetime which would result in Heyman completely screwing up and not putting the world title on him because Shane Douglas must be champion forever in ECW. Snow rips into the fans for saying that he’s not Leif Cassidy (role he played in WWE) but Al Snow. The fans want Taz to murder Snow which is the norm for them most of the time.

After a long stall Taz takes it to the mat to take over. The fans want Snow’s neck broken. The champ cranks on the arm and does it again after Snow escapes. Snow tries to fight up and gets caught in an ankle hold. This is all mat stuff so far and it’s pretty good as well. After Snow bails to the floor he comes back in and is immediately caught in an Alabama Slam but he hits a kind of enziguri to the face of the champ to take over.

A suplex puts Taz down and the fans are still all over Snow. Taz is like screw this wrestling stuff and takes Snow down to pound away, but Snow rakes the eyes. Now Taz is like screw this brawling stuff and suplexes Snow down. Snow slams him down and fires off some kicks but gets pounded in the face for his efforts. Taz comes back with a German suplex but walks into a suplex from Snow. That gets no sold and it’s the Tazmission to retain the title.

Rating: C+. This never quite clicked as they were didn’t seem quite sure what they were going for as Taz kept switching from wrestling to brawling. Maybe that’s what they were going for but it didn’t quite work. Snow as a guy completely hated by the fans because he used to be in the WWF worked fine and it worked even better when he turned into the psycho head shaking guy. Not terrible here but it was your usual Taz match from this time period. The mat stuff was good though.

We’ll jump ahead again to 1998 when Taz is ticked off and makes his own World Title: the FTW Championship. Here’s a defense from Heat Wave 1998.

FTW Title: Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Taz

You know, for an unrecognized title, it certainly was recognized by the announcer. Oh this is a death match, meaning falls count anywhere. Bigelow is noticeably less fat. Shane says he won’t cheer lead. That’s rather amusing. First move of the match: Bigelow powerbombs Taz and it’s completely no sold. Give me a break. This isn’t your standard big man vs. little man match as Taz isn’t your typical little man.

Taz goes air (Evan) borne by jumping off the stage at Bigelow who catches him. That’s always been a move I get impressed by. They’re in the crowd here which at least makes sense in this case as it’s falls count anywhere. We get an armbar on the floor. Ok then. Shane of course takes credit for everything that Bigelow does. At least he’s being a heel. The lack of weight really does help him out I think. Taz is bleeding.

Back in the ring now and IT’S TABLE TIME! SO NEW! SO INNOVATIVE! OH YES!!! Taz goes through it and Bigelow is dominating. They exercise recycling as they have Bigelow go through the same table that Taz did. ECW is environmentally conscious if nothing else.

And then we go on the ramp and Taz reverses a DDT through the ramp to do the same big mindless spot that they did in the first match. Both guys of course come out of the hole and the Tazmission is on for the tap out. Shane’s reaction is great. I’d sell my G-Mod spot for a curses foiled again from him.

Rating: D+. Again just an overblown brawl. Thankfully this ended their feud but again it’s just another chapter in the Shane/Taz saga. It was all about one spot which is the smoke and mirrors booking that Heyman was notorious for. It’s ok to just wrestle but Heyman never quite got that.

Taz would finally get a chance at the real World Title at Guilty As Charged 1999.

ECW World Title: Shane Douglas vs. Taz

Oh and to be clear: Shane has a broken wrist so Taz won’t win deservingly no matter what he does. Ok, before we get into this, let’s get this out of the way. In my eyes, it was this feud that officially killed ECW. Shane should have dropped the belt at least six months ago to Taz who would then be able to drop it to RVD who was the hottest thing in the company and also the best wrestler in the company.

For those of you that don’t know, Taz wins the belt here and holds it until September when he goes to WWF. The problem was that by this time, no one cared about Taz at all. RVD was the popular guy but instead of putting the belt on him like the money would have been in, as that by this time, no one cared about Taz at all.

RVD was the popular guy but instead of putting the belt on him like the money would have been in, he belt more or less had to go to Taz since he had chased it for a year now. Shane should have dropped it in like August and this should be Van Dam vs. Taz for it, but instead by the time Taz dropped it, ECW was dead in the water anyway.

Overall Rat….oh that’s right we still have a match to go. They’re trying to make this seem epic but both guys are more or less done as far as meaning anything in the ring at this point. Taz is ok but the people are just rather apathetic to him at this point. We get a conversation with either production or security guys which is always interesting.

They’re out in the crowd now, meaning more time that the inevitable can’t happen. No one on the planet thinks Shane has a chance here but I guess it has to be made out to be epic right? We’re still in the crowd, which is a very annoying one this time. OH GOOD NIGHT JUST GO TO THE FREAKING RING!!! This is so stupid. We can barely see them as they’re just brawling.

This has been going on for nearly 10 minutes. Shane is bleeding and we’re BACK IN THE RING! Oh look, it’s a table. Taz goes through it as I think watching a test pattern might be more interesting. Shane goes through a table. This is just dull. And now we have no lights. Sabu appears, complete with pyro (in ECW?). He beats up both guys for not apparent reason other than Taz breaking his neck and Shane putting Taz up to it. At least it makes sense.

Pretty impressive that a guy with a broken neck can beat up two professional wrestlers. Shane calls for the Triple Threat and here’s Tammy (Sunny). You know what that means. Candido is here and he turns on Shane, I guess going face? That sets up the Tazmission which of course Shane is allowed to escape for a second before it’s locked on again and Shane passes out. Was that supposed to be Austin/Hart again or something?

Rating: D+. And that’s being VERY generous. This match was 22 minutes long. Of that, 12 were brawling in the crowd, three were Sabu doing his thing, two were Candido running in and 5 were actual wrestling. That’s the EPIC match though right? This could have been good, but seriously, there was enough time spent just “brawling” in the crowd to have the main event of Mania 9. Steamboat beat Savage in about as much time as they brawled in the crowd. See what I mean?

And a defense from Heat Wave 1999.

ECW World Title: Taz vs. Tajiri

This was when Tajiri was pretty awesome awesome in the ring so there’s a tiny chance he could pull this off. He hits a picture perfect Asai moonsault over the railing to take out Taz. That was sweet looking. It’s all Tajiri to start us off. He’s fun to watch if nothing else. Taz gets a suplex and imitates the Japanese bowing. Can Taz do anything other than throw suplexes? It certainly doesn’t appear that he can.

To be fair can Tajiri do anything but kick? The Buzzsaw kick gets two. Taz shoves Tajiri onto Rhyno. This isn’t the most interesting match of the night really. We head to the ramp for some brawling of course because it’s ECW. Taz busts out a Batista Bomb on the ramp. Cool. Tajiri goes through a table. Yeah this is boring. Taz has left. Good to see that he has intelligence still. He comes back with barbed wire but Joey insists we go wide. Never mind that we couldn’t see that at first. Taz puts him in the Tazmission with the barbed wire. Ok then.

Rating: D+. Well the kicks and suplexes looked good so I can’t complain there that much. It went way too fast though so it was hard to keep up with things. The barbed wire at the ending was just odd. Also it felt thrown together which is never a good thing. Not a very good match.

Soona fter this, Taz would jump to the WWF. After a few weeks of vignettes with no one being named, he debuted at Royal Rumble 2000.

Kurt Angle vs. ???

Angle is undefeated at this point. Kurt says he’s a real winner here, unlike the New York Knicks. This is goofy Kurt, which means he’s hilarious. He says that the mystery opponent must be scared to come face him, but the opponent needs to take a deep breath, come out here, and face Angle like a man. The self-help thing here is hilarious. The fans chant WE WANT TAZ….and here he is!

Kurt Angle vs. Tazz

Tazz pounds away on Angle and hits a HUGE backdrop to send him to the floor. Angle escapes a suplex in the aisle (painted like a street with a big cab hanging above the entrance, which looks like an alley. It’s really cool) and takes over. Back in and Kurt hits a forearm for two and chokes away in the corner. A belly to belly puts Tazz down but Angle goes up and gets crotched. Tazz hits a super Tazplex for two before getting rolled up for two. Angle gets two more off a bridging German before walking into a release German from Tazz. We unleash the suplexes on Kurt before the Tazmission ends Angle’s undefeated streak.

Rating: C+. This was short, but to say it was an effective debut is an understatement. The place ERUPTED when Tazz won which is exactly the point of the opening match. See, this is what you call LISTENING to the audience. WWF knew they had to appeal to the ECW fans and what better way than to have Tazz debut here? Today, Tazz would be in some comedy match and would likely lose, because Heaven forbid that the fans get what they want in one city for one night.

Due to a complicated situation that I don’t want to get into again, Taz would become ECW World Champion despite being signed to the WWF. He would bring the ECW Title to Smackdown and challenge HHH in a non-title champion vs. champion match on April 21, 2000.

HHH vs. Tazz

The referee holds up HHH’s title, even though Cole says it’s not on the line. Taz grabs a quick suplex to start and some running clotheslines put the Game down again. This is in Philadelphia so the fans are WAY into it. HHH fights out of a t-bone suplex but gets caught by a clothesline. Tazz keeps up the streak with a clothesline to put HHH on the floor. They brawl outside with HHH whipping Tazz into the steps to take over.

Back in and HHH scores with a suplex but Tazz gets one of his own to put both guys down. A northern lights suplex gets two for Tazz but he walks into the facebuster. The Tazmission goes on and the place ERUPTS but Stephanie distract the referee so HHH can kick Tazz low. Pedigree connects but Tommy Dreamer runs in and the referee goes down. Dreamer accidentally hits Tazz with the chair before eating a Pedigree. HHH covers the unconscious Tazz for the pin.

Rating: C. This was about as good as it was going to be. Obviously you can’t have a WWF midcarder pin the World Champion so Tazz getting this close was fine. Dreamer running in was just for the live crowd so there’s nothing really wrong with that either. All in all this was fine, if a bit pointless.

One of Tazz’s major feuds in the WWF was with Jerry Lawler. Here’s the blowoff from their initial feud at Unforgiven 2000.

Jerry Lawler vs. Tazz

It’s a strap match. We’re also in Philadelphia so what are you expecting here? You win by pin, submission or four corners. That’s a nice change of pace so we don’t have to go through the whole dragging thing necessarily. These two hate each other in general so there’s no specific backstory given. Plus it’s Tazz in Philly so do you really think he’s not incredibly over?

Tazz takes over to start and hits a suplex. We go outside and Lawler gets choked while Tazz talks trash to Ross. Lawler takes over and chokes a bit but gets whipped hard. Jerry isn’t totally hated here and he hammers with right hands. To be fair though, when he’s on offense the fans don’t care as much. Tazz no sells a piledriver and then no sells another. Jerry hits a third (in Memphis the guy would be gone 4 months minimum) and Tazz gets up again but this time he collapses. Jerry celebrating is kind of cool.

Jerry gets three corners but stops to choke Tazz a bit and there goes the referee. Since it’s Philly it’s time for a run-in. And who better to debut in this spot than Raven? The place ERUPTS and Raven plants Jerry with a DDT. Tazmission goes on and Jerry is already out cold so the ending is academic. The fans LOVED Raven.

Rating: D+. The match was boring but the whole point was to prove to the ECW fans that maybe WWE isn’t totally evil. There was no way you could put Lawler over here and never let it be said that he won’t job when need be. Tazz was still serious here so the ending was all that mattered. Raven would be nothing for the most part but had some weird energy in WWF in 2001 which was cool to see.

Another issue was with the Right to Censor, culminating in a match at the best show ever, Wrestlemania X7.

Right to Censor vs. APA/Taz

The RTC is a censorship group with Val Venis, Goodfather and Bull Buchanan with Steven Richards outside. They censor stuff, the other three don’t like it, let’s fight. Oh and Jackie is with the good guys but no one cares about her. It’s a big brawl to start with the RTC getting destroyed very quickly. We start with Faarooq vs. Buchanan with Bull hitting the climb the rope clothesline for an early two. Off to Taz who gets kicked in the head and triple teamed by RTC.

Venis comes in with some knees to the ribs for two before it’s off to Goodfather. He continues the destruction of Taz including the non-Ho Train for no cover. There’s the hot tag to Bradshaw as the beating shifts. Venis gets caught in the fallaway slam as everything breaks down. A double spinebuster crushes Venis and there’s a belly to back superplex for good measure. Goodfather misses a charge in the corner and Bradshaw kills him dead with the Clothesline for the pin.

Rating: C-. This is pretty easily the worst match of the show and it’s certainly not bad at all. This was short and almost sweet which is what it was supposed to be. The idea here was to have the censors get beaten up by the Texan and give the fans a good feeling which is exactly what happened. Not a good match or anything but it’s completely watchable.

We’ll jump ahead to 2002 as Tazz didn’t do much in the Invasion. From Raw, January 7, 2002.

Tag Titles: Dudley Boys vs. Spike Dudley/Tazz

This is hardcore for no apparent reason and Stacy is with the Dudleys. It’s a brawl to start with Spike being sent into the steps. Bubba sprays him with a fire extinguisher as the fans want tables. Spike tries a sunset flip on Bubba, only to get blasted with the extinguisher again. A HARD trashcan lid to the face puts Tazz down and What’s Up Tazz? Bubba wants tables but whispers it because he’s evil right now.

Tazz is almost put through but Spike makes the save with a stop sign. There’s a Tazmission to D-Von but Tazz has to let it go to move a table. Stacy flashes Tazz to distract him but Bubba gets the view instead, allowing for a suplex onto a table. Spike puts him through the table with a Dudley Dog for the upset and the titles.

Rating: D+. The match was fast paced but not all that great. The problem here was that at the end of the day, does anyone buy Spike and Tazz as a long term championship team? It was clear that they were transitional champions, which is ok, but it doesn’t do much overall. The live crowd loved this though and there was a match before this to set it up, so it was far better than some other angles I’ve seen that tried to do the same thing.

The reign would last over a month before Billy and Chuck took the belts. Tazz’s neck would really start to go after this point and he would retire a few months later. He would come back for one more match at One Night Stand 2006.

Taz vs. Jerry Lawler

They had feuded with their commentaries for weeks leading up to this. Oh before I forget: there was a show called WWE vs. ECW on a Wednesday where Big Show jumped. That show will likely be referenced a lot tonight. Lawler of course is booed out of the building. The good thing though is Lawler is one of the best natural heels that has ever walked the face of the earth so this is no problem for him.

Overall Tazz is a guy that was perfect for ECW. He wasn’t the kind of a guy you could put on Raw or Nitro every week due to his size, but he was really good as the tough guy in ECW that could suplex you out of your shoes. Injuries caught up with him as they do with a lot of people, but he was capable of having some solid matches if you gave him the right opponent.

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