Former ECW World Heavyweight Champion Taz was the most recent guest on the ‘Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast.’ You can listen to the entire interview at this link. Below are a few highlights:
On Why He Doesn’t Appear on Other Podcasts:
I’ve been asked a few times, I try to keep myself kind of like, if I don’t have to do it, I won’t do it. It’s no disrespect to the fans—but I believe in some things get oversaturated, and I don’t want to be part of that oversaturation, that’s number one. I think for your branding you want to keep yourself number one and exclusive, and also from a podcast perspective and being a guest on some people’s show, I do a plethora of programming. I’m on the air 10 hours a week so it’s like I don’t want to go on other people’s show and talk about wrestling when I can do it on my show.
On the Hardy Boys No Longer Being in TNA:
I watch some of it. Whenever this drops, the Hardy’s will be gone. It’s a heavy subject, and I go into it more on my show, but the point with the Hardy’s, to be frank, the Hardy’s were the only reason why I would watch Impact. I loved the #Broken gimmick. I watched TNA when they were doing big stuff with them, and only because my audience wants to hear about WWE stuff—my particular audience. I do stuff sometimes with Ring of Honor and other independence, a little bit here and there. I have a segment I have three different Independent wrestling women on the show. They do something called ‘In the Indy’s.’ These girls come on and update us on what is going on in the Indy’s. I give them that platform, so people can hear about wrestling from someone else. We have Mike Johnson from PWInsider, he comes on the show every week and gives us a scoop report. I’m not a Reporter, I don’t consider myself part of the media of the industry because I was in the game—as a former Champion and Broadcaster.
On Putting Pressure on Himself As ECW World Champion:
I want to say that I was happiest in ECW even though it was the toughest time for me because I really put a lot of pressure on myself at the time, and I was getting a really strong push and took me a lot of years to get that push. Once I got that push, even before ECW, it took me a lot of years, and once I got it I didn’t want to lose it. I got very immature at times because I didn’t know how to handle the push, and I kind of pushed others out of my world in that locker room for the most part. I had a couple of guys that I confided in, but everyone else I was at times a little bit of a douche, and some guys brought that up to me. One of the first things I did when I got my show with CBS, I apologized to the whole locker room of ECW because I was kind of immature since I put a lot of pressure on myself. As much as it was the best time of my career as a wrestler, it was stressful.
On ECW Having a Competitive Locker Room:
I’ve seen guys, especially in ECW get into fist fights in the locker room and then go out there and protect each other. It’s the code of the business. It’s the code of the boys. I’ve had problems with guys too and then go out there and do business. That’s part of the game, part of the code you can’t isolate yourself from. It was my fault, we’re going back 95. I was nervous that I’m on top of the mountain and I know people are trying to pull me down—in a competitive way, not a negative way, and I don’t want anyone to take my spot. That is how it should be, that is why we had a very competitive locker room. Everyone thought it was rainbows and butterflies—don’t get me wrong, it was a great place, but it was also very ultra-competitive locker room. I know a lot of guys liked to have a good time; it was wild, and a frat-feel, but I kind of stayed to myself. It wasn’t a knock on anybody, but I’m not sure if some people didn’t trust me because I wasn’t doing some of the things that some of the guys were doing. I wasn’t begrudging some of the guys for what they did, nor do I want them to begrudge me for some of the stuff that I did. I live my life and stay private. Sometimes it doesn’t have to do with the money. When you aren’t making seven figures and you’re making six or whatever the figure is, it’s about being competitive. If I’m going out there I’m trying to outperform Sabu, trying to outperform Rob Van Dam. Raven is trying to outperform me; Sandman is trying to outperform Raven. Tommy Dreamer is trying to outperform the Eliminators—it’s just something that you want. Paul [Heyman] didn’t say to us to go out there and compete, he just let us go out there and be animals, and every one of us was so competitive—more than I believe people talk about. It wasn’t cut-throat, however. None of us was trying to stab the other in the back. I can’t say that about anyone. I don’t know if anyone in ECW every tried to stab be in the back, and I know I have never stabbed anyone in the back—maybe someone will tell you something different but that’s not me. I think it was all fair war games. I’ll tell you what—try and go follow up to a Rob Van Dam match, it wasn’t easy.
