The man who currently sits behind the TNA announce desk was once a feared and respected hard-man. Well, in his own head at least and in the mind of a few fans who bought into his character in ECW. After breaking his neck in a match in ECW The Tazmaniac, as he was then known, decided he needed an image change when he returned from his layoff. Returning as Taz he shaved his head and adopted a new, serious approach to his matches throwing suplexes and using mat-based submission holds. Taz cultivated a big fight feel in the Philadelphia organisation and was really beaten. Behind the scenes, Taz apparently started believing his own hype and drew the ire of many of his co-workers. Taz accepted an offer to join the WWF in 1999 and famously debuted at the Royal Rumble in 2000 beating Kurt Angle by submission in a short but lively match. It was a great start for Taz (or Tazz as is now known) but things would very quickly get worse. Moving into feuds for the Intercontinental title and with colour commentator Jerry Lawler, Tazz's career began to fizzle out as he was jobbed out or not used. No longer a big fish in a small pond, Tazz was now a very little fish in the ocean that is the WWE. Tazz transitioned into commentating in 2001 and became a full time commentator with the Smackdown brand in 2002. He continued to commentate until his release in 2009 and then moved to TNA. Memories of the ECW Taz are long gone, replaced by an often confused, self-deprecating colour commentator.
