On the latest episode of “Something To Wrestle”, Bruce Prichard revealed that it was Vince Russo that was responsible for bringing Taz to the WWE. Here are the highlights:
On Russo Being Responsible For Bringing Taz To The WWE:
Oh boy. It’s a convoluted story, and kind of a convoluted deal because [Vince] Russo had contacted Taz unbeknownst to Jim Ross and myself, and Jim was the head of talent relations. And Jim was pissed that Russo was contacting talent and agreeing to terms and deals and things that that was JR’s job and informing JR after the fact. And here Jim is, he’s gotta deal with contracts. Jim’s got to deal with the budget and managing the department, and this guy’s over here making side deals. So, that was Taz. That was a side deal, and we were just kind of told, ‘Make the deal with Taz,’ which became problematic at times because Russo had no idea what the hell he was doing in contract negotiations and would say, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’ and the guys would take that as it’s a done deal. Well, it’s not a done deal until you get a contract. And Jim and Vince were the ones at the time deciding who’s getting paid what and what the contract terms were. So, I also had to deal with Taz’s agent or attorney or whatever, who’s not one of my favorite people. [Conrad asks if it was Barry Bloom.] No, I think it was Brad Smalls at the time. Barry wasn’t one of my favorite people at the time either. I didn’t like agents as a whole.
On Why Taz Didn’t Debut Until The 2000 Royal Rumble:
I recall the, ‘Hey. We’ve got Taz now, and this is when he’s going to start. That’s about it. There wasn’t a whole lot to discuss at that point other than, this is where we, make it work, and move on. It wasn’t this big huge deal. He was coming in as ‘Tazz’ and next. It was Paul had expressed that he had had him under contract, never produced a contract, or never produced anything that would make us go back and say, ‘We can’t do this.’ So, it was done, and Taz was set to join the roster.
On Why They Added A Z To His Name:
We add a ‘Z’ and trademark it. The name Taz, T-A-Z, was attributed to the Tasmanian Devil and owned by Warner Bros, I believe. I don’t think that Warner Bros. or anybody from Warner Bros. cared that ECW was using it.
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Credit: Something To Wrestle. H/T 411Mania.
