Taz Says AEW All Out Drama Is ‘In Rearview Mirror’ Ahead of Grand Slam, Talks HOOK’s Success

Taz is looking forward to tonight’s AEW Grand Slam Dynamite, and says the drama that followed All Out is in the past. The AEW announcer spoke with Newsday for a new interview promoting tonight’s show and discussed his son HOOK’s rise in the company and more. You can check out a few highlights below:

On his excitement for tonight’s show: “It’s rare in wrestling that you do a stadium show. Stadium shows are no joke. You put those two cats in the ring for the AEW world title—sign me up. I’m blessed that, as a commentator, I’m able to call it.”

On the company moving past the All Out drama: “Anything that happened two weeks ago, last week, or last night, that’s in the rearview mirror. And we’re onward and upward. That’s how it’s been, no matter what. The pro wrestling business is a train, and the train is going to keep on rolling.”

On HOOK’s success in AEW to date: “As a dad, I’m extremely proud of him… I glow as he competes, no matter if it’s, maybe at a smaller venue in the Midwest, or a massive stadium like Arthur Ashe in Queens. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. Just to see him do what he really enjoys doing, and that he’s only in this thing for a year-and-a-half, two years, whatever it is, and the connection he has with the audience. It’s very rare. It’s amazing to see and experience.”

On HOOK’s character being similar to his real life persona: “Anybody who knows him — who aren’t a lot of people because he’s very private and he has a mystique on him — knows that the Hook character is not much different than who he really is. He’s very cerebral. He’s extremely intelligent, and he only talks when he needs to. Obviously, he’s completely different than me.”