Exactly How Good Was Taz?

Taz Vs Sabu was almost two years in the making, and brilliant in its blinding simplicity.

Taz had linked up with Alfonzo in an act of fury towards ECW management, fans and especially Sabu. Former partners, the 'Human Suplex Machine' was left high and dry by the 'Suicidal, Homicidal, Genocidal Maniac' earlier that year when he took a NJPW date over working a planned triangle tag team match. Paul Heyman fired and buried him on the show he missed, but brought him back as a returning hero later that year.

Understandably, Taz felt spurned by all of this, but making literal his "path of rage" ultimately provided Extreme Championship Wrestling with a headline attraction worthy of the pay-per-view they were chasing.

Between November 1995 and March 1997's Barely Legal, Taz battered his opponents and called out Sabu without reply. At the same time, ECW ran a Raven/Tommy Dreamer storyline revolving around them wrestling constantly provided equal foundation in the exact opposite fashion. Against the backdrop of WWE's New Generation and a pre-nWo WCW, there was suddenly no hotter promotion than the furnace operating out of Philadelphia.

A story that started with a shocking turn ended in one too - at Barely Legal, Alfonzo hatched a plan with Sabu and Rob Van Dam to double cross Taz. This was another tactical masterstroke from Paul Heyman, having seen how popular he'd become during a year's long chase.

He became a talismanic figure for the remainder of the his run, until a rampaging World Wrestling Federation came calling in 1999.

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