Days after criticizing Ronda Rousey’s debut on RAW with Stephanie McMahon, Triple H and Kurt Angle, Taz spoke with Chris Jericho about his own debut in WWE. Appearing on the Talk Is Jericho podcast, Taz explained how his transition from ECW to WWE was the best and worst moment of his career.
“When I came out, when I was in Gorilla position, Bruce Prichard was in Gorilla. When Kurt Angle was out there cutting his promo I said to Bruce that I hope they know who I am,” […] “I was afraid, because I was from ECW, the ‘small, little bush leagues.’ When they heard the heartbeat of my entrance, the crowd exploded and Bruce Prichard said to me that he thinks they know who I am. When I walked through the curtain and walking slow with a towel on my head, I had an epiphany that I was doomed, because the pop was not built by this place. It hit me walking down the aisle.”
Taz was never told that his finishing move, the sleeper choke hold that closed the match, would be described as illegal. The first he knew about this was when watching the match over and listening to commentary from Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. Prior to this, Taz hadn’t wanted illegal chokes to be part of his gimmick.
“When I came through the curtain after that it was like a ghost town. Vince McMahon wasn’t in Gorilla. It was a live Royal Rumble at the Garden, I thought that I had heat. If you go back and watch it, there was a German Suplex that I did to Kurt and he landed on his belly. What happened was when I grabbed Kurt, he popped up and I took him back down. I would always say to guys to let me control them. Kurt Angle, we didn’t know each other that well in the ring. Kurt is aggressive, and I knew the timing was way off. I knew that if I went through that throw he was going to get hurt, I just knew it. I put him back down and then did the throw on my pacing. From what I feel and heard that freaked out the boss and those that were close to him.”
Before WWE, Taz was FTW (F*ck The World) Heavyweight Champion in ECW, which he created himself after not being able to challenge for the official title. Although Vince McMahon and Vince Russo talked with Taz about his character/persona, they never mentioned anything about illegal chokes.
“Everyone knows my rep […] When I first met with Vince McMahon we had this great meeting in a conference room at a hotel on a Wednesday afternoon because it was a secret since I was the top guy in ECW. It was, me, Vince McMahon and Vince Russo. We talked about money, the deal, that took literally around 10 minutes and then we talked about an hour and a half about everything else. He knew me, and the character. He saw the FTW on my wrist, but he said that he doesn’t know we can do FTW, but that was the only thing. My concern was whether or not I can be me. I don’t want to say Vince McMahon lied to me, but he had a different vision for me once I was there.”
Taz was in good company as Chris Jericho comments about his own cursed debuts which often miss the mark as described in his books.
H/T to WrestlingINC for the transcribed quotes
Opinion:
While Taz may think this was the worst part of his career, there are many who would disagree. The illegal choke on Kurt Angle worked well against the persistent good guy persona of the Olympic Gold Medalist, and gave Taz a good gimmick within the company.
