10 ECW Flops In WWE That Should Have Been Huge
2. Tazz
Former ECW Champion Tazz made an incredible start to life as a WWE superstar. Debuting at the 2000 Royal Rumble, he choked-out the previously undefeated Kurt Angle, and while ‘The Olympic Hero’ tried to have the outcome overturned afterwards, it looked like Tazz was set for a major push.
ECW “borrowed” him to win their Heavyweight Championship shortly afterwards, and he wore it on his way to the ring to wrestle Triple H on an episode of SmackDown. Tazz fell to ‘The Game,’ but sharing the ring with one of the company’s biggest stars at least suggested WWE had plans for him, and he chased the Intercontinental Title afterwards.
Tazz’s downturn was just around the corner. He took some time off to heal an arm injury that summer, and entered an atrocious feud with Jerry Lawler shortly after. He gradually drifted into a non-wrestling role, starting with a part-time stint as a Sunday Night Heat commentator, before retiring from the ring completely in 2002.
He stayed with the company until 2009, but Tazz was woefully handled as a WWE wrestler. An absolute force of nature in ECW, he cooled-off from his white-hot WWE debut in remarkably quick time, and never looked like a threat after losing to Triple H.