10 Biggest Wrestling Hometown Pops EVER

As the first man to instigate a tap-out in wrestling, the creator of the Extreme Championship Wrestling logo and a wrestler of lesser stature in the era of giants, Tazz truly has left his mark on the business. It’s these things, and his long-serving loyalty to Paul Heyman’s counterculture that made his debut elsewhere such a big deal.

Tazz began his career in ECW before it was extreme, under the original banner of Eastern Championship Wrestling. Over the course of 13 years he became a fixture of the show, rising to the top of the card before finally looking for greener pastures at the turn of the millennium.

In December 1999, teases of Tazz’s incoming to WWE were dropped through his trademark orange lighting and his logo appearing on the 'tron. As such, fans figured out fast that if he was coming it was in his home city. Royal Rumble in 2000 emanated from Madison Square Garden, just 30 minutes away from his home of Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Here, he filled the unannounced opponent slot for the oblivious heel Kurt Angle, to a roaring crowd that got even louder when he tore the towel off his head to stare down the Olympic Gold Medalist. The match was short, viscous and shocking as the Human Suplex Machine ended Angle’s thus far undefeated streak in front of an elated home crowd.