One of the most exciting things about the Attitude Era was when wrestlers would jump from one company to another, and fans had high hopes for Taz when the former ECW World Champion made the jump to WWE.
Taz had a big debut at Madison Square Garden which saw him defeat Kurt Angle, but it wasn’t long before Taz started to fall down the card.
Jim Ross recently talked about Taz’s run with WWE during an episode of Grilling JR, and he noted that Taz fell out of favor after some talents convinced Vince McMahon that the Human Suplex Machine was dangerous.
“Vince trusted my judgment, but then he got unconvinced. I don’t know if it was after meeting Taz or what. I have no idea. But the bottom line is, he fell out of favor. A lot of the people he could’ve drawn money working with believed that them selling a guy that was 5-8 didn’t make any sense and people would not believe it, even though Taz could probably whip their ass in a real shoot. But we weren’t shooting, we were working. I think that’s where that was. Nobody could have had a better debut at Madison Square Garden – a guy from Red Hook, Brooklyn, all that shit – than Taz got. And he beat Kurt Angle by submission. He choked his ass out.
“People thought his suplexes were dangerous and all this other stuff. So, a lot of the talents went back to Vince and said, ‘I don’t want to work with this guy. Too dangerous.’ They didn’t tell me that, but they told Vince that. He heard it enough, and Vince saw that a lot of the top talents were uncomfortable to step in the ring with Taz. He finally took it to heart. Taz got hurt and tore his bicep or tricep, and I think Bruce [Prichard] and I were talking to him after that show. He was very worried about getting cut because he had to have surgery. I just think enough of the top talents convinced Vince that Taz was not a good hire and was limited on what he could do and that his suplexes were dangerous. So, he fell out of favor and eventually became a broadcaster.”
H/T 411Mania.com
