That Time Triple H Buried ECW In Philadelphia
A skim through the WhatCulture podcast feed will land you on an superb interview with 'The Human Suplex Machine' himself. Taz shares tales of his time in ECW, WWE and beyond, including the story that brought him back to the 'Land Of Extreme' four months after he'd made his debut in New York. As the saviour of ECW's Championship that night, he was a hero to the relatively small crowd. At the Royal Rumble, he'd been a hero to Vince McMahon's masses.
The roar from WWE's hometown crowd was deafening when weeks of orange and black interjections were paid off with the march of a North East icon. Taz(z) shot out of the blocks and nearly threw Kurt Angle out of his boots in an emphatic display that brought the Olympian's undefeated streak to a halt.
Was he fired up? Was he f*ck.
Wise to the weird realities of the wrestling industry and the multi-layered politics within it, Tazz knew he was already too popular for his own good. As he put it to WhatCulture.com's Adam Wilbourn; "It was the highlight of my career. It was epic, it was amazing. But...when I was walking down the aisle and place was popping like crazy, I had an epiphany that I might be in trouble here. I knew that pop was loud...this pop wasn't made by anything WWE did for this character. I had a feeling that I might be doomed".
Sure enough, by the time he reached WrestleMania, he was bundled into a Hardcore Title match with such luminaries as The Mean Street Posse, Viscera and Funaki.
He suddenly a long way from home, until, bizarrely, he wasn't.
CONT'D...