Taz (wrestler)

Peter Senerchia
File:Pete senerca.jpg
Born	October 11, 1967 Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York, New York
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Kid Krush, The Tasmanian Devil, The Tazmaniac Taz, Tazz
Billed height	5 ft 7 in (170 cm)
Billed weight	248 lb (112 kg)
Trained by	Johnny Rodz
Debut	1987
Retired	2002

Peter Senerchia (born on October 11, 1967 in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn in New York City, New York), is an American former professional wrestler best known by his ring name Tazz (originally spelled Taz). He is also a part-time musician and has played drums in Michael Cole's band Cole.

Tazz is currently employed by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), and is the color commentator for their ECW brand alongside play-by-play announcer Joey Styles.

Career

Extreme Championship Wrestling

Peter Senerchia enjoyed considerable success from 1993 to 1999 in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), wrestling under the name of The Tazmaniac and later just as Taz. Over the course of several years, his undefeated streak and combination of technical mat maneuvers, submission holds gleaned from his judo background and a wide array of suplexes (which led him to be dubbed "The Human Suplex Machine") earned him a degree of infamy. His feud with Sabu, whom he defeated at the first televised ECW pay-per-view, Barely Legal 1997, is considered by some to be among the best of the 1990s. He went on to defeat wrestlers such as Dean Malenko, Chris Candido, Chris Jericho, Shane Douglas, Bam Bam Bigelow, Sabu, Rob Van Dam, Lance Storm, Jerry Lynn and Mikey Whipwreck.

At a Fort Lauderdale, Florida ECW show in 1995 during a tag team match pitting him and Eddie Guerrero against 2 Cold Scorpio and Dean Malenko, Senerchia, wrestling as The Tazmaniac, was the victim of a botched spike piledriver. As Senerchia explains it, he did not have time to adequately protect himself and landed on his forehead as a result - "The impact jacked my neck back and that was it." Senerchia remained on the ring apron for the remainder of the match, but was visibly injured and could not continue. After the match, Tommy Dreamer accompanied Taz to the hospital, where the doctors had a difficult time believing that Senerchia had walked into the hospital because, he had, in fact, broken his neck. Senerchia was sidelined for over nine months, and when he returned, the Tazmaniac gimmick was no more. Senerchia, now known simply as Taz (A play on then popular Mixed Martial Arts Fighter Kimo) and exhibiting a physically more intense in-ring style, went on to become one of ECW's most popular stars, capturing the ECW World Heavyweight Championship on two occasions.

Taz defeated Shane Douglas in three minutes to claim the ECW World Television Championship at Wrestlepalooza 1997, and later introduced his own title belt, the ECW FTW Heavyweight Championship, which he would defend against any challenger. On January 10, 1999, Senerchia defeated Shane Douglas to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, which he held for nine months, before losing to Mike Awesome in a three way dance which also included Masato Tanaka. Shortly after his reign ended, Senerchia left ECW and joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). At the Anarchy Rulz 1999 pay-per-view, in a show of respect and in full view of the fans, ECW owner Paul Heyman and most of the promotion's performers gave the departing Peter Senerchia an emotional sendoff.

The Mike Awesome Title Controversy

As a favor to Paul Heyman (who had been working in conjunction with the WWF for some time), Senerchia returned to ECW while under WWF contract in April 2000. He surprised the fans by appearing at an Indianapolis, Indiana ECW show and defeating Mike Awesome to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. Awesome had recently signed with the rival World Championship Wrestling (WCW) promotion, and although Awesome agreed to lose the title, in his reported words: "to anyone," it became known that WCW had given Awesome a large bonus to bring the ECW World Heavyweight Championship belt to WCW. Heyman would file a court injunction to prevent Awesome from bringing the belt to WCW and had him lose the belt to Senerchia. Senerchia would then return to the WWF and faced WWF World Heavyweight Champion Triple H in the first ever singles match between the ECW and WWF World Heavyweight Champions before making a final ECW appearance, losing the belt to Tommy Dreamer several weeks later. An interesting fact is that its the first and only time in history that a wrestler under a WCW contract (Mike Awesome) wrestled someone under a WWF contract (Tazz) for an ECW title.

World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment

Senerchia made his official WWF (now WWE) debut at the 2000 Royal Rumble as Tazz, and became the first man to defeat Kurt Angle. The next night on RAW, Tazz defeated the Mean Street Posse in a 3-on-1 handicap match. However, after the match, Kurt Angle came out to attack Tazz, which sparked their short feud that led to a match involving Tazz, Angle and The Rock. Tazz was able to defeat Kurt Angle one more time, before moving on to defeat the Big Boss Man at No Way Out 2000. Senerchia then entered a thirteen-man battle royal for the WWF Hardcore Championship at WrestleMania 2000 where he secured the title twice; once by pinning Crash Holly and once by pinning Pete Gas, but lost the title almost immediately on both occasions. Tazz won the ECW World Heavyweight Championship in April of 2000 and during the same month, he won the Hardcore Championship for the third time by pinning Perry Saturn, but lost the title to Crash Holly shortly thereafter.

A month or so later, Senerchia was involved in the WWF Intercontinental Championship hunt, but was unable to defeat Chris Benoit for the title on two occasions (even though he defeated Chris Benoit in a non-title match by DQ earlier in their series of bouts). He was then sidelined with an arm injury. Upon his return, Senerchia turned heel by knocking out Rikishi with a cam corder and later defeated Al Snow at Fully Loaded 2000 then began feuding with commentators Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. He lost to Lawler at SummerSlam 2000, but defeated him in a strap match at Unforgiven 2000 with the help of the debuting Raven. Senerchia and Raven teamed together for several weeks before going their separate ways and eventually feuding with one win a piece. On the August 6th, 2000 episode of Sunday Night Heat, Tazz defeated Eddie Guerrero with the Tazzmission and marked what would become a continued undefeated streak on that show.

By 2001 Senerchia turned face again and was more focused on commentating than wrestling. He wrestled at WrestleMania X-Seven defeating the Right To Censor, which he considers the highlight of his career. Paul Heyman then reformed ECW within the WWF during the Invasion storyline, which saw Senerchia turn heel again by joining The Alliance before he was thrown out of the faction by then Alliance Leader and then heel, Stone Cold Steve Austin due to his mistrust and questioning of authority (Austin coined his "What?" catchphrase during this segment). This made him a face once again.

In 2002 Senerchia defeated the Dudley Boyz for the WWF World Tag Team Championships with Spike Dudley as his partner. They lost the titles to Billy and Chuck shortly before Senerca announced his retirement as a result of chronic neck problems. In his final match on RAW, Senerchia defeated Mr. Perfect in which at the end of the match, he cut a short promo -- "It looks like the perfect pick became just another victim!" There was some speculation that he would undergo surgery similar to that performed on Kurt Angle by Dr. Hae-Dong Jho, which would involve "shaving" down affected vertebrae and disks in his neck rather than fusing them, which would likely have ended his career.

Although his injuries have forced him out of the ring, Senerca has contributed in other ways besides broadcasting. On February 3, 2006 it was announced that he and Michael Cole were starting a radio show on Howard Stern's "Howard 101" radio station on Sirius satellite radio, airing Thursday to Sunday at 8pm.

While in a non-WWE competitor role Tazz would also be a trainer for the WWE Tough Enough series, and would still make non wrestling appearances in the ring often applying a Tazzmission to the joy of the crowd. These WWE in-ring confrontations have seen Tazz choke out Matt Striker, Doug Basham, and John Cena.

During 2005, Senerchia made an appearance at the WWE promoted ECW reunion show, ECW One Night Stand 2005, in 2005, where he joined in a brawl between ECW and WWE wrestlers, choking out Kurt Angle with his Tazmission. This however would not be his last ECW appearance.

WWE's ECW

With the redevelopment of the ECW brand in WWE during 2006, Tazz would soon leave the SmackDown! brand to join with fellow ECW members but not before challenging, and then defeating RAW announcer Jerry "The King" Lawler, who had been making insults about ECW in weeks previous, in a match at ECW One Night Stand 2006; choking Lawler out in only 38 seconds with help from a distraction from Joey Styles.

Tazz would go on to become the color commentator for the ECW brand alongside play-by-play announcer Joey Styles.

Wrestling facts

• Finishing and signature moves

• Tazmission (Katahajime)
• Tazmissionplex (Katahajime suplex)
• Head And Arm Tazplex (Overhead head and arm suplex)
• Super Head and Arm Tazplex (Top rope head and arm suplex)
• Tazplex (Modified side head and arm suplex)
• Capture Tazplex (Capture suplex)
• T-Bone Tazplex (Exploder suplex)
• Release German Tazplex (Release German suplex)
• Release Dragon Tazplex (Release dragon suplex)
• Release Tiger Tazplex (Release tiger suplex)
• Release Northern Lights Tazplex (Release northern lights suplex)
• Wheelbarrow Tazplex (Wheelbarrow suplex)
• The Brooklyn Boot (Running big boot)
• The Angry Man's Clothesline (Clothesline)

• Managers

• Bill Alfonso
• Billy the P
• Richard Lee
• Tony Rumble
• Woman

• Nicknames

• The Human Suplex Machine
• The Human Wrecking Machine
• The Most Miserable Person on the face of the Earth
• The Most Miserable Son-of-a-Bitch in wrestling
• The Most Miserable Son-of-a-Bitch on the Planet
• The One Man Crime Spree
• The Orange and Black Attack
• The Path of Rage
• The Street Thug
• The Brooklyn Judge

Personal life

Senerchia is married with one son.

Senerchia has a tattoo of the original spelling of his wrestling name, "TAZ" on his upper bicep above his tattoo of the cartoon character of the same name. Since leaving ECW and debuting to the WWE, his name now has an extra z, but he did not add the letter to his existing tattoo.

Senerchia holds a 2nd degree black belt in judo.

Taz has a tattoo of the Tasmanian Devil from the Looney Tunes since he is Taz, however, the figure Jakks Pacific made out does not include that tattoo for legal issues.

His first cousin is fellow wrestler Chris Chetti

Championships and accomplishments

• Century Wrestling Alliance

• 1-time CWA Light Heavyweight Champion (first)

• Extreme Championship Wrestling

• 2-time ECW FTW World Heavyweight Champion
• 3-time ECW Tag Team Champion (2-time with Kevin Sullivan, 1-time with Sabu)
• 2-time ECW World Heavyweight Champion
• 2-time ECW World Television Champion
• Fourth winner of the ECW Triple Crown

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI ranked him # 147 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI Years (2003)

• World Wrestling Federation

• 3-time WWF Hardcore Champion
• 1-time WWF Tag Team Champion (with Spike Dudley)

References

• Tazz at ObsessedWithWrestling.com

External links

• WWE Profile
• Tazz at IMDb