Taz Reveals Why Wrestlers Didn’t Like His Human Suplex Machine Character

Taz recently appeared on The Apter Chat (via Wrestling Inc), and spoke about why others didn’t like his “Human Suplex Machine” character…

On His Tazmaniac Gimmick: “The Tazmaniac gimmick came from the Tasmanian devil because back then gimmicks were popular,” Taz said. “Everywhere, everybody had gimmicks. Everybody had a different reptile, or bird, or a dog walking to the ring. So I didn’t want to do that. I figured I needed a gimmick and being that I was an undersized guy, being like 5’9, I figured I needed something. I always had a nickname, cause I was shorter, thicker, stockier and I had a dark complexion, guys would always call me, when I was younger, Taz. “I had a Tasmanian devil stuffed animal in my car and I was like ‘you know what this might be a good gimmick’, but I didn’t want to be comical. I changed it, because I figured I don’t want to get sued by Warner Brothers, I was a nobody, like Warner Brothers going to send a cease and desist to a guy that’s making forty bucks a match. I said ‘let me make it the Tazmaniac’, which is a little different. So basically the gimmick in my imagination, in my mindset, I’ve always been a pretty creative guy, it was The Missing Link, between the wild Samoans and the Steiner Brothers when the Steiners first started out doing different suplexes.”

On Why Wrestlers Didn’t Like His Human Suplex Machine Character: “That’s why they hated me for the most part because I acted that character, the Human Suplex Machine, I would show up to the arena three hours before the show and I was the Human Suplex Machine,” Taz said. “I couldn’t break that in my mind. I wasn’t trying to work anyone, but to portray that character, I had to live that gimmick. No one could ever say to me that I was playing wrestler. I believed I was Taz. I believed I was the Human Suplex Machine. I was the Tazmaniac. That’s who I was and that’s important to succeed as a wrestler even to this day today, in 2018, it don’t matter.”