On the latest episode of his Grill JR podcast, AEW senior advisor and commentator Jim Ross spoke about ECW legend Taz’s short in-ring run in the WWE, and even recalls a night in 2000 where he was buried by Triple H. Highlights are below.
On Triple H beating Taz on an episode of SmackDown in 5 minutes:
It didn’t do it any favors, killed might have been a strong word. It didn’t help anybody except Hunter got a nice win in Philadelphia. Taz was so underutilized when we hired him in WWE. For whatever reason, he was never in political favor. Hunter is 6’4, Taz is under 6 foot. The perception was, even though Taz could snuff out on 99% of the guys on the roster, that he’s not convincing. Well, if you watch any of the ECW stuff, Taz got over and people believed he was the human suplex machine. I was very excited when we were able to hire him. That was a big get for me, I was a big mark for his work in ECW, [Paul] Heyman knew how to book him.
On Vince initially liking Taz but being convinced he was too small:
There again you get these egos involved, ‘Okay he’s too short’ says who? Who the f*** are you, Lou Thesz? Another thing was ‘If guys have been in too many real fights, they’ve never had their ass beat by guys shorter than them’, happens all the time on earth. Taz got a bad hand coming in, him getting that big win over Angle in the Garden, I think a lot of people would’ve liked that. Vince in the beginning was very much a Taz proponent, but he got unconvinced over time by the other opinions on the other side of the isle.
On Taz’s work in AEW:
Taz is not Mr.Congeniality all the time. He’s a product of his environment so he’s very aggressive and demanding in a lot of ways. He was a hell of a coach, he does a good job for AEW now when we have T.V.s and everybody is there. He does a good job of coaching these kids up which is good for us.
You can find the full episode here. (H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.
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