Was it a mistake to never push Tazz?

[Matisyahu]

I often wondered after Tazz came to WWE right before ECW plummeted why they never pushed him. I understand that Vince doesn't like to live off the credibility of one companies success with a wrestler much like the situation when Mick Foley came in and Vince said lets create something new..lets make our own history and instead of Cactus Jack we got Mankind. But why then did he just add a Z to Taz and make him look like a watered down version of the Human Suplex Machine? Worst of all he took the Tazzmission and made it a stand up version where nearly anyone could break free. The beauty of the original was that once you were locked in it was over! Isn't that the whole point of the finisher and most of all the submission factor in wrestling?!

I seriously believe that Tazz could have been and deserved a small taste of fame in the WWE and they could easily have banked off him big time. Sure he became a commentator and I for one associated Smackdown with the voice of Tazz and Cole for the longest time. But then again I go back and see all his old ECW stuff and see how amazingly talented and brutal he was in there with his numberous variations of the Tazzplex and just say man I cannot believe he never made it big.

Maybe it was his size given that he is short and all I mean everyone knows about Vinces legendary love of the big man who knows.

Either way it sucks that ol Tazz got the shaft. Thoughts?

[mork83]

I always assumed it was his health. I recently watched his debut on Youtube and his ovation was incredible (granted it was in NYC) and he gave Kurt Angle his first loss. They had him face HHH as the ECW champ and also, for some reason, remember a triple threat match on RAW with Tazz, Angle, and the Rock.

I figured they had big plans for him, but he had health issues and he then just wrestled in lame hardcore matches or squashes with Jerry Lawler or RTC.

I wished that instead of the Benoit, Jericho, Angle match at WM XVI, they would've thrown in Tazz.

[Y 2 Jake]

Originally I didn't think it was a mistake that he didn't recieve a proper push. I felt he was too small. But then they went and made Rey Mysterio champ. Don't get me wrong I like Mysterio. But he's 5'3'' and against smaller opponents he's pretty good. He's ok against bigger opponents as well. But Tazz despite being a midget he could wrestle with Super Heavyweights. If he'd been booked in WWE the same way he was in ECW he would have been huge imo.

[A.J.]

Looking back it i thought Tazz was over his head in the WWE. I saw him going maybe as high as IC champ but never the WWE Champ. As Jake said Tazz could wrestle the bigger oppnents as Rey Rey struggles badley look back at his championship matches vs JBL and Booker they were nothing special.

Tazz was miss used back then but looking at the time he joined Vince didnt vision anyone under 6'4 to be champion. Hell he always thought Y2J and Angle was too small to champs at first. If WWE used Taz as he was in ECW he would have been big prolly be one of the top ten guys back in the WWF in 2000 if WWE used his ECW stuff, but they didnt. Sad thing now is he is rotting as an ECW commentor

[RVDgurl]

I know that I'm very partial to the ECW, but I really think that Taz was completely misused in the WWE. Taz was the first big talent taken from ECW by the WWE. He didn't jump the ship before it went under, he headed for the WWE a few years before ECW closed its doors. Taz was brought in at the same time that Chris Jericho was a major player and the two are nearly identical in height, so size cannot be used as an excuse. Taz's character was never given a chance to develop in the WWE which is a complete shame.

[Rabbid Wolverine]

ye, he never got off the ground, i'm guessing alot of the talent in wwe wasn't too sure about get suplexed 10 dif ways, and the guys in wwe would be harder to throw for the most part i think.

he could have had some good fueds thought, even with his size, why not have submission matches with jericho,benoit, malenko.. or even fueded with a guy like guerrero

but he doesn't really look to be to upset about being an announcer.

there was an old article up about how kurt angle saw rvd slap tazz and he did nothing....... that suprised me big time (if its true)

[Kasey]

Taz was pissed away for the sole purpose of killing the mystique of ECW...plain and simple. He was brought in hot as it gets upon debuting. However, instead of allowing him to do what he did to garner attention in the first place (wrestle a smashmouth, semi-shoot style that garnered a rabid fanbase) they did another one of McMahon's "Let's fix what isn't broken" schemes and let his star burn out. He had one of the hottest debuts of his time and had instant cred as the dominant monster of ECW who ate guys like Rhino for breakfast without even breaking a sweat. In the end, though, McMahon worked his magic as usual and had Taz get a hold of the ECW title so that he could bring it to Smackdown and job to HHH. Just like Tajiri, Rhino, RVD, Super Crazy and numerous others, McMahon tried to change the root formula of what made these guys beyond over in ECW. The sad thing is that no one ever told the dumbass that he didn't need to meddle in their gimmicks. Just book them right and the rest would take care of itself.

The only thing more disgusting is having to watch Taz and Styles pretend that "ECW" on Sci-Fi isn't a complete asswipe of a show. Taz has become a really good actor on the headset. Much moreso than when he was an active wrestler.

[natecook59]

Tazz was pushed by WWE. After his debut he was pushed to mid-card status amongst Jericho, Benoit, Dudleyz, etc... He was in contention for the IC title on a number of occasions and wrestled in the hardcore division often where he was able to use a more "ECW" style. The big problem for Tazz was injuries. His neck continually got worse and other injuries accumulated. This made it necessary for him to transition into a non-wrestling roll.

[xfearbefore]

Finally something I can agree with! While Taz should most definately have started off as he did, I mean his debut again Angle was the perfect way to debut a new wrestler with a big name (especially in MSG) he also should've been pushed after a while. His biggest match really was when he was the ECW champ facing Triple H who was the WWF champ back in 2000. Great match.

Yeah they really lost a lot of money they could've made bringing over Taz's ECW fanbase there. But no, instead Vince would rather just kill off a promotion that put on better wrestling on a daily basis then the WWF could have achieved in its first ten or twenty years.

Taz's ECW days were just monstrous, the guy was so over it was scary. He was like the Stone Cold of ECW in the sense that he was the guy who just didn't give a fuck, and the crowd loved him for it.

Not to mention Taz was easily one of the best wrestlers of the last twenty years, the way he would just invent suplexes in his matches can only be matched by a Scott Steiner in his prime when he used to just make up suplexes in matches.

Taz I believe deserved atleast one reign on top, as much as RVD did atleast.

Tazz's push in WWE was there, but very short lived. As natecook said, his neck condition continuously grew worse, as well as, as taz himself said, years of working with no knee pads pretty much destroyed his wheels. So yeah, he deserved a bigger push, but I think he and WWE both knew that a long-term push would not have been beneficial to either party.