Photograph of Tazz.
Tazz

Overview

Peter Senerchia (born October 11 1967), is a retired American professional wrestler best known by his ring name Tazz, (originally Tazmaniac and later shortened to simply Taz). He is currently under contract to World Wrestling Entertainment where he works as a color commentator on their ECW brand.

From his wrestling career he is probably best remembered from his tenure in Extreme Championship Wrestling, where he held the World Heavyweight, Television, and Tag Team championships, as well as — in kayfabe — created the FTW Championship. His World Wrestling Entertainment career came to an early halt in 2002 when mounting injuries forced him to retire from in-ring action and take up his current position as commentator, first for the SmackDown! brand, then ECW.

Career

Senerchia debuted in professional wrestling in Puerto Rico in 1987 after being trained by Johnny Rodz. He wrestled as Kid Krush before moving on to the name Tasmaniac, which he would use variations on for the rest of his career. In the early 1990s, as The Tasmaniac, he wrestled for International World Class Championship Wrestling and held the IWCCW Light Heavyweight Championship for six months in 1991.
Extreme Championship Wrestling
In October 1993, he and Jack Chetti debuted in the Philadelphia-based Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW)— just prior to its name change to Extreme Championship Wrestling — as the tag team The Tazmaniacs. When that team broke up he was put into one with Kevin Sullivan, with whom he won the ECW Tag Team Championship twice; the Tazmaniac becoming a double champion during their second reign when he also held the ECW Television Championship for one night in March of 1994. For most of the rest of the year he floated around the tag ranks, teaming with different partners. He held the title once more, this time with Sabu, until Sabu was (legitimately) fired by ECW owner Paul Heyman for no showing an event in favor of appearing at another event in Japan.

Tazmanic was put out of action by a (legitimate) injury for much of 1995. During a tag team match 2 Cold Scorpio and Dean Malenko delivered a spike piledriver to him, and though he knew it was coming, he didn't have time to properly protect himself. As he explained on the DVD documentary The Rise and Fall of ECW, "The impact jacked my neck back and that was it." The neck injury was so bad that, according to Tommy Dreamer, hospital staff couldn't believe he'd walked into the hospital where he sought help after the match. Though he was unable to wrestle, Paul Heyman continued to pay him per their oral agreement, forging a loyalty between the men.

When he returned, he did so with a revamped gimmick and used the shortened name Taz. The new character had him clad in a black singlet and exhibiting a more physically intense in-ring style, focusing his offense on suplexes — which announcer Joey Styles called "Tazplexes" — earning him the nickname "Human Suplex Machine". He also debuted his Tazmission finishing maneuver, causing opponents to tap out to signal their submission as in mixed martial arts instead of nodding their head or vocally saying "yes". This quirk was soon picked up by other companies throughout the country. After feuds with 2 Cold Scorpio, Jason, and Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran Paul Varelans, Taz and his former partner Sabu were put into a angle stemming from the firing incident years earlier. The two chased each other throughout 1996 and 1997, including having an altercation on Monday Night RAW, the flagship show of their "competition", during a working agreement between the two companies. The feud was all designed to lead to ECW's first pay-per-view, Barely Legal, where Taz defeated Sabu with his Tazmission, only to have his manager, Bill Alfonso, turn on him and join Sabu and his partner Rob Van Dam. Two months later, at Wrestlepalooza, Taz took the Television Championship from Shane Douglas to begin his second reign, starting a feud with Bam Bam Bigelow over it and eventually losing it to him.

After losing the TV championship, Taz was elevated into the World Heavyweight Championship picture. In May of 1998, with Shane Douglas injured and unable to wrestle, Taz was given an old Television Championship belt painted orange — his trademark color — and began cutting promos declaring himself the FTW Heavyweight Champion of the World. Though the championship was unsanctioned in kayfabe, it was defended at ECW shows until Douglas was healthy, at which time Taz defeated him for the ECW World Heavyweight title. Just before winning the World title, Taz "gave" the FTW title to long time foe Sabu in a match where he physically pulled Sabu on top of him to allow him to get the pin. Taz held the ECW World Championship for nine months before he signed with the World Wrestling Federation, losing the title as the first man eliminated in a three way dance at Anarchy Rulz. As he walked out of the ring, a large portion of the ECW locker room joined him on the entrance ramp to give him an emotional sendoff. After being off of ECW television for most of the fall, he wrestled one final match as an ECW performer at November to Remember, losing to Rob Van Dam via pinfall.
World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment
:
Wrestling
Taz debuted for the World Wrestling Federation — with the slightly modified ring name Tazz — at the January 2000 Royal Rumble in a win over the previously undefeated Kurt Angle. Just a few months after Tazz arrived in the WWF, Mike Awesome, the man he'd dropped the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to, signed with World Championship Wrestling. Legal wrangling by Paul Heyman prevented Awesome from taking the title belt with him, and in a piece of bizarre wrestling history, ECW and WWF officials agreed to have Tazz, a WWF wrestler, make a surprise appearance at an ECW show to defeat Awesome, a WCW wrestler, for the ECW Championship. Tazz held the belt for ten days before losing it to Tommy Dreamer, during which time he wore it on various WWF shows, including an episode of SmackDown! where he lost to the WWF Champion Triple H — a booking decision Vince McMahon later expressed some regret about.

After losing the ECW title, Tazz was placed into the WWF Intercontinental Championship picture, but never won the title. In the summer, after taking time off for an arm injury, he was turned heel and placed into a feud with color commentator Jerry "the King" Lawler. The feud included matches at SummerSlam and Unforgiven pay-per-views, which they split. Tazz was only able to pick up the Unforgiven win when he received help from a debuting Raven, however, and afterwards the duo formed a tag team that lasted until November.

When the Invasion angle began Tazz acted as "the voice of the WCW/ECW Alliance", sticking up for them and telling their side whenever possible. He eventually left the stable after Stone Cold Steve Austin criticized his decision to stay on commentary rather than help Alliance leader Stephanie McMahon.

Lawler returned to the company on November 19 2001 and resumed his place as commentator, with Tazz becoming both a wrestler and a commentator. In January he and Spike Dudley won the World Tag Team Championship, holding it for over a month before losing it to Billy and Chuck.

He still makes sporadic in-ring appearances, though they usually only last minutes and consist of him using a handful of moves before applying the Tazmission.
Commentating
His injuries mounting, Tazz began performing part time commentary on Sunday Night HEAT in October 2000. He joined the SmackDown! team in February after Jerry "the King" Lawler quit the company, as well as becoming one of the trainers for the joint WWF/MTV produced reality series Tough Enough.

When World Wrestling Entertainment split into two brands, Tazz was put on SmackDown!, where he again became color commentator. Not long after he retired from the ring, he became a full time broadcaster. He co-hosted SmackDown! for World Wrestling Entertainment until a third brand, ECW, was introduced, at which point he became the color commentator for that show. He is also the host of History of Extreme Championship Wrestling on WWE 24/7, a show that shows archived episodes of the original ECW television.

In February of 2006, Tazz and his SmackDown! broadcasting partner, Michael Cole, hosted a week long trial run of a show on Howard 101 on Sirius Satellite Radio, but the show was not picked up. He also hosted a talk show on 92.3 Free FM at sporadic intervals between late summer 2006 and early 2007, but it was not picked up and the station changed formats, replacing all post morning programming with music.

In wrestling

*Finishing and signature moves **Tazzmission / Tazmission / Kata-Ha-Jime (Half nelson choke with bodyscissors) **Concrete Crash (Alabama Slam) **Angry Man's Clothesline (Knock out clothesline) **Brooklyn Boot (Running big boot) **Kneebar **Juju-gitame **SuplexesTazz utilized a wide array of suplexes during his career, which were nicknamed "Taz-Plexes" by ECW play-by-play announcer Joey Styles. Among his most common used suplexes were: ***Tazmission (Half nelson choke suplex) ***Hardway (Modified side head and arm suplex) ***T-Bone (Exploder suplex) ***Overhead head and arm ***Top rope head and arm ***Capture ***Release German ***Release dragon ***Release tiger ***Northern Lights ***Wheelbarrow ***Pumphandle

*
'Managers ** Bill Alfonso ** Woman ** Paul Heyman

*
Nicknames **The Human Suplex/Wrecking Machine **The One Man Crime Spree **The Path of Rage **The Most Miserable Man/Son of a Bitch on the Planet

*
Entrance theme<b> **"Keep It In The Family" by Anthrax **"Breed" by Nirvana (ECW) **"Path of Rage" by Harry Slash & The Slashtones **"Survive! (If I Let You)" by Harry Slash & The Slashtones (ECW/WWE) **"War Machine" by KISS (ECW) **"If You Dare" by Jim Johnston (WWE) **"Just Another Victim" by Cypress Hill (WWE) **"13" by Jim Johnston (WWE)

Championships and accomplishments

*</b>Amateur Wrestling **Empire States Heavyweight Championship *Century Wrestling Alliance **CWA Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *Extreme Championship Wrestling **ECW FTW Heavyweight Championship (2 times) **ECW Television/ECW World Television Championship (2 times) **ECW World Heavyweight Championship (2 times) **ECW World Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Kevin Sullivan (2) and Sabu (1) *International World Class Championship Wrestling **IWCCW Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *World Wrestling Federation **WWF Hardcore Championship (3 times) **WWF World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Spike Dudley *Pro Wrestling Illustrated **PWI ranked him # 10 of the 500 best singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1999. **PWI ranked him # 147<b> of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the PWI Years in 2003.

Personal life

Tazz currently resides in Massapequa, New York with his wife and son. He is good friends with wrestler Chris Chetti.

Tazz was trained in Judo and holds a 3rd dan black belt. He attended C.W. Post on Long Island for four years and played on the football team. He started his wrestling career when he was in college.

He has a tattoo of the Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil on his upper left biceps accompanied by the legend </b>TAZ'''. His action figure produced by Jakks Pacific does not include the character, but does include the name. He also has a self designed tattoo on his left lower biceps.

References and notes

Who is Tazz connected to?
Add a Connection

This biography says:

...When the Invasion angle began Tazz acted as "the voice of the WCW/ECW Alliance", sticking up for them and telling their side whenever possible. He eventually left the stable after Stone Cold Steve Austin criticized his decision to stay on commentary rather than help Alliance leader Stephanie McMahon....

That biography says:

...Moretti returned to WWF television on the August 6 episode of RAW, joining The Alliance, forming a faction with former WCW wrestlers Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keibler after helping them defeat Jacqueline in a handicap match. After turning against Wilson after she defected to the WWF, Ivory helped Keibler and Tazz defeat Wilson and her kayfabe boyfriend Tajiri in a tag team match. She later went on to manage The Hurricane, assisting him in his feud with Matt Hardy...
How is Tazz connected to Scott Steiner? Tell the world.

That biography says:

...The feud between the APA and RTC continued throughout early-2001 and culminated in a match at WrestleMania X-Seven on April 1, which pitted R.T.C. (Bull Buchanan, The Goodfather, and Val Venis) against The APA and Tazz. In the early stages of the match, Jacqueline DDT'ed Steven Richards, the leader of RTC who had accompanied them to ringside...
How is Tazz connected to Sabu (wrestler)? Tell the world.

This biography says:

...Tazmanic was put out of action by a (legitimate) injury for much of 1995. During a tag team match 2 Cold Scorpio and Dean Malenko delivered a spike piledriver to him, and though he knew it was coming, he didn't have time to properly protect himself...
How is Tazz connected to Chris Benoit? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Brimstone (wrestler)? Tell the world.

That biography says:

...The DVD is a reissue of the out-of-print André The Giant VHS made by Coliseum Video in 1985, with commentary by Michael Cole and Tazz replacing Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura's commentary on his WrestleMania battle with Big John Studd, with an option to hear no commentary at all...

This biography says:

...He eventually left the stable after Stone Cold Steve Austin criticized his decision to stay on commentary rather than help Alliance leader Stephanie McMahon....

This biography says:

...The feud was all designed to lead to ECW's first pay-per-view, Barely Legal, where Taz defeated Sabu with his Tazmission, only to have his manager, Bill Alfonso, turn on him and join Sabu and his partner Rob Van Dam. Two months later, at Wrestlepalooza, Taz took the Television Championship from Shane Douglas to begin his second reign, starting a feud with Bam Bam Bigelow over it and eventually losing it to him...

That biography says:

...At SummerSlam 2000, The King wrestled Tazz in defense of his commentating partner Jim Ross. With the creation of the XFL in 2001, Lawler was given the job as an announcer for the new football league...

That biography says:

At One Night Stand 2006, Layfield announced that he would take Tazz's place as the new color commentator for SmackDown!. He made his debut as a heelish color commentator on the June 16, 2006 edition of SmackDown!...

This biography says:

...Tazz held the belt for ten days before losing it to Tommy Dreamer, during which time he wore it on various WWF shows, including an episode of SmackDown! where he lost to the WWF Champion Triple H — a booking decision Vince McMahon later expressed some regret about....

This biography says:

Taz debuted for the World Wrestling Federation — with the slightly modified ring name Tazz — at the January 2000 Royal Rumble in a win over the previously undefeated Kurt Angle. Just a few months after Tazz arrived in the WWF, Mike Awesome, the man he'd dropped the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to, signed with World Championship Wrestling...

That biography says:

...After several weeks of vignettes, Angle made his in-ring debut on November 14 1999 at the Survivor Series, defeating Shawn Stasiak. In his initial push, he remained undefeated for several weeks, eventually losing to the debuting Tazz at the Royal Rumble. Angle was booked to win both the WWF European Championship and WWF Intercontinental Championship in February 2000, billing himself as the "Eurocontinental Champion"...

That biography says:

...After Sable got the bigger applause, Torrie removed another layer of clothing, and Special Guest Referee Tazz declared Torrie the winner. After the match, Torrie went up to Sable and kissed her before exiting the ring...

That biography says:

...In February 2002, Billy & Chuck defeated Spike Dudley and Tazz to win the Tag Titles for the first time as a team. After winning the titles, Billy & Chuck found a "Personal Stylist" in the ambiguously flamboyant Rico...
How is Tazz connected to Chris Jericho? Tell the world.

That biography says:

...The video game WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain is named after the quote commentator Tazz attributes to Lesnar, "Here comes the Pain". Other video games Lesnar has also appeared in include WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth, WWE WrestleMania XIX, WWE Crush Hour, Madden NFL 06, and the PlayStation 2 version of Wrestle Kingdom...

That biography says:

...Stemming from Venis' attack at King of the Ring, Rikishi faced Val Venis on July 6, and lost his title after Tazz hit him with a television camera. Rikishi faced Val Venis in a Steel Cage rematch at Fully Loaded. In the course of the match, Rikishi ascended the cage and, in a move reminiscent of his uncle Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, leapt from the top, splashing Venis...

That biography says:

...His feuds and alliances with his two older brothers, Bubba Ray and D-Von often took center stage, but he would go on to form short lived tag teams with The Big Show (nicknamed The Little Show), Bubba Ray, and Tazz with whom he won the Tag Team titles from the Dudley Boyz with in 2002. In that same year he won the European and Hardcore championships...
How is Tazz connected to Tony Chimel? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Paul Heyman? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Theodore Long? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Nancy Benoit? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Marty Wright? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Scott Levy? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Bam Bam Bigelow? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Ed Farhat? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Kevin Fertig? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Dean Malenko? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Rick Steiner? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Pat Tanaka? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Joey Styles? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Mikey Whipwreck? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Tommy Dreamer? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Mark LoMonaco? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Chuck Palumbo? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Elijah Burke? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Perry Saturn? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Kevin Sullivan (wrestler)? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Gregory Helms? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Eddie Fatu? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Dylan Postl? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Chavo Guerrero, Jr.? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Ashley Massaro? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Bob Holly? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Barbie Blank? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Maven Huffman? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Darren Matthews? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Torrie Wilson? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Shelton Benjamin? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Nelson Frazier, Jr.? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Vince McMahon? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Jeff Hardy? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Cypress Hill? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to The Network? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Brian Mailhot? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Joe Malenko? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to 911 (wrestler)? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Mike Awesome? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Michael Depoli? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Josh Lomberger? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Danny Doring? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Tom Brandi? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Michael Cole? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to Hack Meyers? Tell the world.
How is Tazz connected to The Highlanders (professional wrestling)? Tell the world.