RIPPA Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Oh some levels I wonder how it is only Sept 1 And then on others I am all HOLY FUCK! IT IS ALREADY SEPTEMBER! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurningBeard Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 *insert Green Day related joke* I'm kinda gutted I missed out on the Taz(z) talk in the last thread. Him coming into WWF was one of the biggest disappointments of my young fandom - I'd hyped him up as the ultimate badass to my mates as I was the only one who'd seen ECW. One awesome debut later and I was forever the butt of their jokes. I still believed in him and was waiting for them to do something with him (marked out like mad when he stepped up to Austin during the Alliance) until the Lawler fued where I finally gave up. Monsiuer Brian Fowler said: The Radicalz coming in is what killed Tazz. Once they had the other, significantly better sawed off every dude that throws suplexes, what do they need Tazz for? But I don't remember the time period between the two - what was Tazz doing when the Radicalz came in? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 He went from being in a three way mini feud with Angle and Rock to challenging Bossman at the next PPV? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Comedian Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 They debuted in WWF one week after Tazz did, so if they stayed in WCW then he probably would've gotten to be a bigger deal short term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurningBeard Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Ah man that sucks. I always preferred him to Benoit too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 This is obviously why they wanted Sting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zakk_Sabbath Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 *insert Green Day related joke* I'm kinda gutted I missed out on the Taz(z) talk in the last thread. Him coming into WWF was one of the biggest disappointments of my young fandom - I'd hyped him up as the ultimate badass to my mates as I was the only one who'd seen ECW. One awesome debut later and I was forever the butt of their jokes. I still believed in him and was waiting for them to do something with him (marked out like mad when he stepped up to Austin during the Alliance) until the Lawler fued where I finally gave up. Monsiuer Brian Fowler said: The Radicalz coming in is what killed Tazz. Once they had the other, significantly better sawed off every dude that throws suplexes, what do they need Tazz for? But I don't remember the time period between the two - what was Tazz doing when the Radicalz came in? He had pretty much just debuted IIRC, and was still four months away from taking the ECW title from Awesome after he showed up on Nitro. I always thought that, in terms of blown opportunities, Rhino and Taz (and later, Awesome himself) could have been huge for the WWF if booked properly. Of course, I was a big late-period ECW fan, so my opinion on that is probably colored a little bit. But the fact that they went from world champions to mid-level spots in the Alliance in under a year blows my mind. This is obviously why they wanted Sting. I liked Booker's little allusion to the "Hulk Hogan, we comin' for you, nigga" line: "BOOKER: It’s one of those great blooper moments that will be immortalized due to YouTube, such as one of my moments. It’ll be here forever." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwoy2j Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Even though Tazz was about 3ft tall, he definitely did a fantastic job of projecting himself as the baddest ass dude on the planet. I showed my stepkids a couple of his ECW matches and his debut against Angle and even they bought into how badass he looked. They were asking me if he ever fought Brock Lesnar and would he win if they ever did fight. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brisco Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 That match would be short and very disappointing after Lesnar punts Tazz into the second row. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zakk_Sabbath Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Even though Tazz was about 3ft tall, he definitely did a fantastic job of projecting himself as the baddest ass dude on the planet. I showed my stepkids a couple of his ECW matches and his debut against Angle and even they bought into how badass he looked. They were asking me if he ever fought Brock Lesnar and would he win if they ever did fight. That's an interesting question: how much of Taz' believability as a badass was just Heyman being really, really adept at protecting guys and playing to their strengths? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vincey Greene Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Even though Tazz was about 3ft tall, he definitely did a fantastic job of projecting himself as the baddest ass dude on the planet. I showed my stepkids a couple of his ECW matches and his debut against Angle and even they bought into how badass he looked. They were asking me if he ever fought Brock Lesnar and would he win if they ever did fight. That's an interesting question: how much of Taz' believability as a badass was just Heyman being really, really adept at protecting guys and playing to their strengths? 95%. He also threw a nice suplex and sounded sufficiently Brooklynish. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawful Metal Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 That's an interesting question: how much of Taz' believability as a badass was just Heyman being really, really adept at protecting guys and playing to their strengths? More important question: why doesn't the WWE protect guys and play to their strengths? 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petey Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Give credit to both. Taz had the perfect voice and overall charisma for the role. Yeah, he was a manlet like I am, but at least in ECW, he looked bad ass. The look was a little less of a strength in the WWF where it became overwhelmingly clear that he was a super manlet, but it still could have worked. Heyman knew how to book him and was all in with the character. The thing about dominating forces who are basically unbeatable like ECW Taz, Goldberg, Rhino, etc, is that you have to be all in on those characters. They don't really work as well in "traditional" roles. They're either a focal point or it doesn't work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dre013 Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Punk losing his mind on Twitter as his wedding picture was stolen from AJ's Instagram. Would post the now deleted tweets but I'm on mobile. Gist of it was..."if you post this picture you're blocked. It's in place of me punching your fucking face. Pigs." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Even though Tazz was about 3ft tall, he definitely did a fantastic job of projecting himself as the baddest ass dude on the planet. I showed my stepkids a couple of his ECW matches and his debut against Angle and even they bought into how badass he looked. They were asking me if he ever fought Brock Lesnar and would he win if they ever did fight. That's an interesting question: how much of Taz' believability as a badass was just Heyman being really, really adept at protecting guys and playing to their strengths? It was more Taz than people realize as I never really watched ECW and completely bought him as a badass his first few years in WWE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivpvideos Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Even though Tazz was about 3ft tall, he definitely did a fantastic job of projecting himself as the baddest ass dude on the planet. I showed my stepkids a couple of his ECW matches and his debut against Angle and even they bought into how badass he looked. They were asking me if he ever fought Brock Lesnar and would he win if they ever did fight. I remember reading old results and seeing in a dark match Tazz & Spike Dudley defended the tag team titles against the team of Batista & Brock. I can't even imagine how ridiculous that had to look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Looked very believable. Bites to the ankle can be quite painful, don'tcha know? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Even though Tazz was about 3ft tall, he definitely did a fantastic job of projecting himself as the baddest ass dude on the planet. I showed my stepkids a couple of his ECW matches and his debut against Angle and even they bought into how badass he looked. They were asking me if he ever fought Brock Lesnar and would he win if they ever did fight. That's an interesting question: how much of Taz' believability as a badass was just Heyman being really, really adept at protecting guys and playing to their strengths? I think it might have to do with camera angles a little bit, too. I always feel like ECW shot up a little bit, rather than straight across which gave Taz and Rhyno an illusion of being massive guys. I remember when Rhyno showed up in WWE and people were joking "Hey, who shrunk the Rhyno?" because he looked tiny next to Edge etc. when ECW had given the impression that he was a MONSTER. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dre013 Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 I doubt Taz would've gotten over anywhere if he stuck with his original, self-created gimmick of the Tazmaniac. Heyman convinced him to get rid of the fur, the hair, and the mascara to become more of a shooter because his matches with Malenko were well thought of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zakk_Sabbath Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Even though Tazz was about 3ft tall, he definitely did a fantastic job of projecting himself as the baddest ass dude on the planet. I showed my stepkids a couple of his ECW matches and his debut against Angle and even they bought into how badass he looked. They were asking me if he ever fought Brock Lesnar and would he win if they ever did fight. That's an interesting question: how much of Taz' believability as a badass was just Heyman being really, really adept at protecting guys and playing to their strengths? 95%. He also threw a nice suplex and sounded sufficiently Brooklynish. So you think that anyone else could have worked in that role? Give credit to both. Taz had the perfect voice and overall charisma for the role. Yeah, he was a manlet like I am, but at least in ECW, he looked bad ass. The look was a little less of a strength in the WWF where it became overwhelmingly clear that he was a super manlet, but it still could have worked. Heyman knew how to book him and was all in with the character. The thing about dominating forces who are basically unbeatable like ECW Taz, Goldberg, Rhino, etc, is that you have to be all in on those characters. They don't really work as well in "traditional" roles. They're either a focal point or it doesn't work. I'm on the same page as you. Once you break down the "aura" of that type of character, there's no getting it back. Goldberg is another great example of that (though with his size and star power, it might have been less of an uphill battle than with Taz). But if you put anyone else in Taz' ECW role, I don't know that it would've worked quite as well. They came close with Awesome and Rhino, but Awesome was regularly going on mid-card before RVD main events (and had Jeff Jones doing his promos) and Rhino was more of an enforcer/muscle type role with the Network, so he was a little more protected as a strong, slient heel. On the flip side, when you'd have Taz closing out ECW TV, doing the close-up promos in a dark room-- I don't think anyone else could have shown that type of intensity with that aspect of the character without it coming off as kind of hokey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Taz is one of the best Heyman Creations, along with The Public Enemy in that he fooled folks into thinking they were something special when they were really just average, at best, once they went from performing in front of die-hard smarks in 1,000 seat arenas to 25,000 seat PPV crowds w/ a ton more type of fans. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Tazz and Spike's commentary on their Royal Rumble match with the Dudleys was fun. Especially when Tazz complains about Stacy Kiebler throwing a punch a foot above his head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwoy2j Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Even though Tazz was about 3ft tall, he definitely did a fantastic job of projecting himself as the baddest ass dude on the planet. I showed my stepkids a couple of his ECW matches and his debut against Angle and even they bought into how badass he looked. They were asking me if he ever fought Brock Lesnar and would he win if they ever did fight. I remember reading old results and seeing in a dark match Tazz & Spike Dudley defended the tag team titles against the team of Batista & Brock. I can't even imagine how ridiculous that had to look. I'd love to see that match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwoy2j Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 That's an interesting question: how much of Taz' believability as a badass was just Heyman being really, really adept at protecting guys and playing to their strengths? More important question: why doesn't the WWE protect guys and play to their strengths? That's the thing I don't get either. It seems they go out of their way to make guys look like idiots. I remember when they put The Hart Dynasty on commentary and it was cringe worthy. On the one hand, yes, The HD should learn to talk better and sell themselves better but on the other hand, they clearly weren't ready for that sort of thing and were awful talkers, so why even put them in that position in the first place? Why not give them a manager or a valet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tromatagon Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 They had one. She sucks on the mic too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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