Taz’s debut in 2000 at the Royal Rumble looked to be the start of major things for the former ECW Champion. Defeating Kurt Angle, widely considered one of the company’s top stars, all signs pointed to Taz being a major player going forward.
Such things never happened though. Taz never really broke through and eventually found himself at the announce table after a neck injury put an end to his career. McMahon wound up stopping Taz’s push after complaints over Taz’s style, the low point being eliminated after just ten seconds in the 2001 Royal Rumble match, just a year after Taz’s electric debut.
The 2001 Rumble was the topic of the new Grilling JR, Taz’s quick elimination came up and it opened up to him revealing an interesting story that led to the fall of Taz’s push. Apparently several WWE Superstars had complained to Vince and him that Taz was reckless in the ring.
“People thought his suplexes were dangerous, all this other stuff. A lot of the talents get back to Vince and say, ‘You know, I don’t really want to work with this guy. He’s dangerous.’ So they’d tell me that, but they’d tell Vince that. He [Vince McMahon] heard it enough and he saw that a lot of top talents were uncomfortable in stepping in the ring with Tazz. He finally took it to heart.”
Taz wrestled for another year before going to the booth full time in 2002, except for a match against Jerry Lawler in 2006.
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