TAZZ Real Name: Pete Senerchia Also Known As: Taz, The Human Suplex Machine Date of Birth: October 11, 1967 From: Brooklyn, New York Height: 5'7" Weight: 269 pounds Finishing Move: The Tazzmission Famous Quote: "The mood is about to change." Tazz was trained by Johnny Rodz in the late 80s, but before he made his wrestling debut he sparred with the Steiner brothers, honing his suplex skills to perfection, then took classes in the martial arts and shoot fighting, alongside John Kronus and Perry Saturn, known as the Eliminators. After all of his training and concentration, he had become the perfect weapon. But when he had his first match promoters were a little less concerned with his skills. The NWA gave him the name, "Tasmaniac." The name played on Taz's size (he is only around 5'8" at the most). His small size and dark complexion gave them the idea to compare him to the Warner Bros. character, the Tasmanian Devil. But as wrestling fans and wrestlers alike watched him in the ring, they realized that Taz was to be taken much more seriously than most wrestling promoters had already taken him. Taz debuted in the NWA after jumping around on the independents being Kevin Sullivan's lackey and winning the IWCCW light heavyweight title. He fought several battles against Sabu. But he looked completely different than he does today. Long hair, face paint, and bare feet. Then, the NWA purchased ECW. Since he transferred from the NWA, he maintained the guise of the Tasmaniac. When he arrived there, he continued his feud with Sabu for a brief time, sooner than either man ever could have expected. Taz then started a feud with the Pit Bulls. But he could not handle them by himself. He needed help, and manager Paul E. Dangerously was willing to help. But what he had planned, Taz never saw coming. Taz was alligned with Sabu in a match against the Pit Bulls. It was astonishing that these two men who feuded for so long were made into a great tag team. Around this time, Sabu ran into some trouble with the Public Enemy. They had stolen his concept of putting people through tables, and he was none too pleased with this. So finally, in early 1995, a match was signed, a "Double Tables" match. The stipulations were simple: in order for one team to win, both members of the opposing team must be put through tables. Midway through the match, Taz and Johnny Grunge simultaneously went through tables. They were officially eliminated. But Taz distracted the official while Sabu was put through a table. Since the referee didn't see it, he couldn't call it. Taz then aided Sabu as he put Rocco Rock through a table on the outside. Taz had finally gained a major title. But the fans and promoters seemed to give more credit to Sabu than to Taz for the victory. This was the roots for what would become one of the most hostile feuds in ECW history. Shortly after they won the tag team titles, Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko, two thirds of Shane Douglas' Triple Threat, challenged Sabu and Taz to a match. Sabu accepted the challenge, but Taz wasn't that please to follow. It was a spectacular match to be sure.Taz took most of the punishment, including a lethal powerbomb/flying inverted bulldog combination. Finally, Benoit took out Sabu with a top rope powerbomb. The match was over, and new champions were crowned once again. Taz was PISSED. He had never gotten the credit he fully deserved. Now the only title he ever had was no longer his. He was fed up. He confronted Paul E., threatening to leave ECW if he did not fire Sabu. At the three way dance in 1995, Taz appeared in the ring in street clothes with Paul E. and his personal bodyguard, 911. Paul E. fired Sabu, and Taz went into battle with Rick Steiner against Benoit and Malenko and the Public Enemy. He lost, but in another way, he won. Because after that night, he laid the Tasmaniac to rest. Taz was born, the era of the most miserable son of a b*tch on the face of God's green earth had begun. But the instant turn around would cost him. When he ran into trouble with 2 Cold Scorpio, where a misplaced moonsault leg drop took its toll and broke the native of the red hook section of Brooklyn, New York's neck. He was put out of action for several months. He returned with the Steiners in tow. He had been training with them, and he had perfected his suplex skills. The T-Bone suplex, and the Hardway suplex were renamed , because in his mind, and in many other people's minds, he reinvented the suplex. He renamed it the Tazplex. He returned to action against Scorpio, but had little success. At Heatwave 1995, he teamed with Eddy Guerrero to take on Scorpio and Dean Malenko. They lost, only due to a biased move by Bill Alfonso. Taz continued feuding with Scorpio for the rest of 1995 until he sustained a minor injury. He was unable to wrestle at November to Remember 1995, but he briefly referee'd a match between Jason and Konnan. But then, Sabu returned. Paul E. pulled him out of WCW and back into the realm of the hardcores. He successfully defeated Hack Myers. Sabu, the man who Taz hated so much that he threatened to leave ECW unless he was fired; the man who for too long overshadowed Taz in a tag team simply because he enjoyed pain and put himself through tables; the man who had been out of the extreme spotlight for several months; was now back. This obviously did not sit well with Taz. By now, one would think that nothing else would shock the fans of ECW. But later on, Taz would do something that would not only shock the fans of ECW, but the wrestling world as well. A special match was signed with referee Bill Alfonso and ECW Commissioner Todd Gordon. The special referee was Beulah McGillicutty. But midway through the match, Beulah was sandwiched and out of the match. Taz, still in his referee gear came down to substitute. Gordon pinned Alfonso, and Taz counted to two, then attacked Gordon. He then dropped Alfonso on top of Gordon and counted to three. He then gave a memorable interview in which he took Alphonso on as a trainer and basically turned his back on ECW. The fans were shocked. What would happen for the next year would be a verbal assault on his former partner Sabu which would be the beginning of one hell of a year both for ECW and Taz. By the time 1996 started, Taz had completely changed his attitude. It was himself. He now showed the rage that for years had been bottled up. He had honed the Tazplex to absolute perfection. He was an established shoot fighter. He added on the Northern Lights Tazplex and Head and Arm Tazplex to compliment the T-Bone Tazplex. And he adopted a new finisher, a hold called the katahajime. He simply called it the Tazmission. And this hold would guide him to many a victory in the next year. He traveled with a whole crew of trainers from his dojo, a crew which Alphonso dubbed Team Taz. 1996 was an incredible year for Taz, victory always within his grasp. He defeated Paul Varleans, a member of the UFC, in a shoot fight at Hardcore Heaven 1996. He obtained revenge against 2 Cold Scorpio. He choked out Bam Bam Bigelow. He settled the score with 911. His undefeated streak which began in 1996 still had yet to be broken by anyone in ECW, a fact which most men would have been proud of and bragged about. But still he wanted Sabu. He called him out endlessly. It didn't take him long to start interfering with Sabu. In his second match with Rob Van Dam, Sabu lost after being hit with a fisherman's buster from the top rope, a move that severely compacted his spine. Taz had leaked information to Van Dam about the severity of Sabu's neck injury from 1994. Sabu collapsed in the ring after Van Dam met up with Alphonso in the aisle. Then later on, he helped Doug Furnas and Dan Kroffat when they faced Sabu and Van Dam. At the November to Remember 1996, Taz didn't wrestle, but he came out as the show began, claiming that Paul Heyman, now owner of ECW, was already working the match between him and Sabu. Later on in the night, he attacked Rob Van Dam in a three-way dance between Sabu and Van Dam, the Eliminators and the Gangstas. He caught Van Dam in the Tazmission, which caught Sabu's eye, leaving him clear for Total Elimination. Later on in the night, Taz confronted 2 Cold Scorpio, who was bound for the WWF. Taz simply said "Bye-bye, Flash. Get the f*ck out of my house." Then he continued his anti-Sabu tirade. Todd Gordon came out to straighten things out, only to be caught in the Tazmission. Then Paul Heyman made an attempt, but he too fell victim to the Tazmission. Then the lights went out. When they came back on, Sabu was in the ring... with Taz. The two shared a tense silence... then charged... the lights went out... and when they came back on, both men were gone. Months went by. Finally, the match was signed. Paul E. made the announcement in front of a live ECW Arena crowd that on Sunday night, April 13, 1997, Sabu and Taz would fight for the first time in Extreme Championship Wrestling history at a live show which would be broadcast live on pay per view. And as the weeks went by, the feud just grew more and more volatile, including two encounters between the two on WWF Monday Night Raw while promoting the PPV. Finally the night came. After suffering a broken nose, Sabu submitted to the Tazmission. Taz grabbed the mic, and claimed that Sabu gave him the match of his life. They embraced, then Taz was attacked by Rob Van Dam, who was joined by Sabu. Then they turned to Alphonso, who took off his Taz shirt revealing a Sabu shirt. A new alliance was formed, and Taz was left behind. Alphonso was gone, Team Taz was gone. But it made no difference to him. He continued to reign terror on ECW. The two met a second time, at WrestlePalooza 1997. But this time, when put in the Tazmission, he rolled on his back, pinning Taz, breaking a winning streak which had been in effect for more than a year. But Taz refused to let him go. Finally, he released Sabu, only to be assaulted verbally by Shane Douglas, who was watching from the announce position. Taz then challenged Douglas to a match for the TV Title. Douglas upped the ante to the TV Title for Taz's career. Taz accepted and increased the ante to a match with a two minute and thirty second time limit. Douglas came down to the ring, and with a few seconds remaining in the match,submitted to the Tazmission. Taz defended the title against all comers. He defeated Chris Candido at Hardcore Heaven 1997. He fought a few more matches with Sabu, all of which ended with time limit draws. He developed a rivalry with former Hype Central correspondent turned pro-WWF aficionado. He slapped him in the Tazmission, and later on, Tazplexed him through a table. He then feuded with the Pit Bulls, who had joined Wright, and went on to defeat Pit Bull #2 at November to Remember 1997. He was then confronted with the mammoth Brakus, Wright's personal bodyguard, who interfered in Taz's matches until he tapped out at Cyberslam 1998. He even shared a match with former rival 2 Cold Scorpio at House Party 1998. He then feuded with former rival Bam Bam Bigelow, and dropped the TV Title to him at Living Dangerously when the two plunged through the ring. Losing to Bigelow sent him on a mission, but injuries prevented Taz from going back after the belt, so Bammer lost the belt to RVD; this took his chance at revenge and the #1 contendership for the ECW belt held by Douglas, so what does Taz do, he breaks Douglas' elbow, and beats the hell out of Bigelow at Heatwave 98 that saw the two go through the runway ramp in an ECW death match. This cleared the path straight to Douglas, or so it seemed. When the Triple Threat started a feud with the tag champs, Sabu and RVD, for the tag team straps, things got drastic. So Taz did the one thing that he didn't want to do and that's team with RVD and his old enemy Sabu. They went into the November to Remember PPV to face the triple threat. Taz had Shane ready to tap, when Sabu came off the top rope with the Arabian face buster for the pin. Yet again Sabu had stolen Taz's thunder and gotten the credit. So Taz went on yet another fit of rage injuring people left and right until Shane Douglas played with Taz's mind, conning him into injuring Sabu so he wouldn't be able to challenge Douglas for his belt at Guilty as Charged. Taz fell for it or so Shane thought when he Dragon Tazplexed Sabu through a table only to roll Sabu over him and let him win. Two weeks later Taz took Sabu's spot in the title match, and although the match saw a ton of interference by Sabu and Chris Candido, Taz slapped the Tazmission on Douglas and made him tap, so now Taz was the new ECW world heavyweight champion. Taz dominated the world title scene for several months until it was discovered in the Fall of 1999 that he was leaving ECW to sign with the WWF. When the news was announced, ECW founds felt cheated and chants of "You sold out" followed Taz. On September 19, 1999 at the ECW Anarchy Rulz PPV, Taz was scheduled to defend his title against Masato Tanaka. In a shocking turn of events, the match turned into a three way match with Mike Awesome joining the match. Awesome and Tanaka immediately double-teamed Taz and surprisingly eliminated him within a matter of seconds. Although Taz would wrestle a few more matches in ECW, this was considered his fond farewell from the company, and it was a tearful good-bye for him in front of the entire ECW roster. On January 1, 2000, Taz (now spelled Tazz to avoid copyright infringement)'s WWF contract began. The bad ass of the wrestling world is now a part of the biggest wrestling organization in the world. He still dons the orange and black, not to mention the blend of suplex wrestling and pure fighting skill that has made him famous. Tazz has finally become a superstar recognized the world over. Major Titles Won: ECW World Championship ECW Television Championship (2) ECW Tag Team Championship (3) WWF World Hardcore Championship (3)