Bruce Prichard Defends Taz Losing to Triple H in WWE As ECW Champion

– During the latest Something to Wrestle With, Bruce Prichard’s comments about Taz losing on WWE television to Triple H when the former was ECW champion were brought up.

As a refresher, Taz won the ECW Championship as a WWE-contracted wrestler back in 2000 when he defeated Mike Awesome, who was the champion but had been contracted to WCW at the time. Taz would lose the title ten days later to Tommy Dreamer to put the title back on an ECW-contracted guy, but before then he faced Triple H on an episode of Smackdown and lost. On the Rise and Fall of ECW DVD, Vince McMahon said that he had some regret about making that booking decision.

You can see highlights from Prichard’s comments below:

On Triple H defeating Taz when Taz was ECW Champion: “It just made sense. Why would you have him go over? Why would you have Taz go over? Triple H was the champion, he was the WWF champion at the time. And it was just the way we were going. It wasn’t to s**t on ECW or anything like that. It’s just what it was.”

On why they booked the match at all: “Well, why not? Why not have it? It’s an attractive match, it’s one of those, kind of ‘What ifs?’ What’s gonna happen. It’s an interesting matchup, and any time you can get something where the fans can’t call the outcome, that’s good booking.”

On whether it disrespected or hurt ECW: “You put their champion on national television. On worldwide television! So you give their belt worldwide exposure. How does that hurt ’em? … The alternative is, don’t put ’em on at all as champion. So don’t give ’em any promotion, anything at all that we’re not gonna reap the rewards of.”

On why they didn’t have him booked against an ECW talent on WWE TV: “Again, we didn’t own ECW. So that wasn’t advantageous to us. [We paid ECW] so that our talent would have a place to go for developmental, so they would stay in business for talent to go in-between gigs.”

On whether it’s contradictory to feature the ECW Title on WWE TV, but have the champion lose: “No, I don’t. I see, by giving the belt exposure, that it helps their brand.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Something to Wrestle with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.