"Because I'm Taz, The Human Suplex Machine!"
The name Tazz may generate some confusion depending on the generation. To younger fans, it brings to mind the George Constanza of commentators, a guy who pronounces the "w" in "sword" and obsesses over tiny details instead of the match in question.
To fans from the 1990's, however, the name Tazz evokes one of the most lethal wrestlers in the history of ECW. Born Peter Senerchia on October 11, 1967, Tazz began his wrestling career in 1987, wrestling for six years in Puerto Rico and the IWCCW promotion as well as in Smoky Mountain Wrestling and for the W*ING promotion in Japan, usually teaming with Kevin Sullivan. In 1993, however, he would debut in ECW as The Tazmaniac, and two years later, after success in the tag team division he would shed his caveman gimmick and be rechristened as Taz, and become known as "The Human Suplex Machine", using a wide arsenal of suplexes and introducing his Tazmission finisher, which, to the surprise of some younger viewers, was what introduced the tap out to North American Professional Wrestling.note
And now for the accolades: He is a former two time ECW World Heavyweight Champion
, a former two time NWA ECW/ECW World Television Champion, a former three time NWA ECW/ECW World Tag Team Champion, holding the belts twice with Kevin Sullivan and one time with Sabu, a one time WWE World Tag Team Champion with Spike Dudley and a three time WWE Hardcore Champion. He was also a second-degree black belt in Judo before becoming a professional wrestler.
Currently he's working in All Elite Wrestling, initially as a commentator. He also served as the manager and spokesman for Team Taz from July 2020 to August 2022. Members of Team Taz consisted of "The Machine" Brian Cage, "Absolute" Ricky Starks, and "Powerhouse" Will Hobbs, as well as Taz' own son Tyler, a trainee performing as "Hook".
"Who can stop the tropes of rage?!":
- Amazon Chaser: He was a vocal fan of Shaniqua and defended the Basham Brothers for licking her down when his broadcast partners Josh Matthews and Michael Cole were less approving of the action or of Shaniqua in general.
- Anti-Role Model: A self-described example: In a promo at ECW House Party 99, in re having won the ECW World Heavyweight Title six days earlier at Guilty As Charged, he talked about how people probably look at him as someone who "busted his ass" and "didn't kiss ass" to get where he is and that people might be looking at him "as some kind of role model.""No, I ain't your role model. I'm not what you want to be like. What I am is a mean, miserable and nasty man."
- Arch-Enemy: (In ECW): 2 Cold Scorpio, Sabu, Rob Van Dam; (in WWE): Jerry "The King" Lawler
- Badass Armfold: During his introductions in ECW.
- Badass Boast:
- See the caption underneath the page picture. That was his Character Catchphrase.
- To say nothing of the taunt the fans would use on Taz's vict — er, opponent for the night: Taz is gonna kill you!
- Also, his final ECW theme song, an instrumental knockoff of KISS's "War Machine", included the line "I don't need weapons, my hands are my weapons."
- "His size is irrelevant. We're all the same size on the mat". Said by Taz when claiming he would fight the 60 pound heavier Paul Varelans in a MMA bout.
- Badass Teacher: He and Mikey Whipwreck helped run ECW's wrestling school the House of Hardcore.
- Badasses Wear Bandanas: To signify his brief return to in ring action for ECW One Night Stand.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: In a promotion that distinguished itself by not barring the use of any "foreign" objects, Taz stood out by deciding he did not need any weapons besides his hands and feet.
- Bash Brothers: Kevin Sullivan (in SMW, ECW, W*ING), Sabu, 911, Eddie Guerreronote , Tommy Dreamer.
- Blood Upgrade: Taz has described it as a disturbing feeling but maintains that he feels motivated to fight harder when he realizes he is bleeding.
- Brooklyn Rage: From Red Hook.
- Brutal Honesty: In the late 90s, when Jerry Seinfeld was at the height of his fame, American Express (for who Jerry was a spokesperson) floated the idea of a commercial where Jerry was in a wrestling match...for some reason? According to Mick Foley, the audition was "a cattle call" and every pro wrestler or self-proclaimed tough guy within a hundred miles showed up to be interviewed. Mick admittedly lied through his teeth about how well he could protect Jerry (nothing ever came of it, because the commercial was never filmed), but when he and several other wrestlers were talking about this a few weeks later, Taz revealed what he'd said."Hey, I told 'em I couldn't guarantee nothing. I told 'em if Jerry gets in there with me, he's kinda taking his chances."
- Bullying a Dragon: When Taz and Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Paul Varelans were rehearsing their upcoming match, the latter proved to be so obnoxious and untalented that Taz reportedly got angry, went to Paul Heyman and told him to make the match a shoot. Though Hayman vetoed the idea for being too dangerous, everybody's impression was that Taz would have genuinely capable to tap Varelans out in a fight.
- Captain Obvious: His nickname for Michael Cole.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Not to the degree of Jerry Lawler, but Tazz isn't above talking up women's sex appeal.
- Choke Holds: Playing on his Judo background, His Finishing Move, the Tazmission, a Kata Ha Jime (Single Wing Choke) with body scissors. Hilariously enough, anyone familiar with Judo can only laugh, as the Kata-ha-jime is a Gi choke requiring a Lapel to grip and pull across the carotid artery to actually form the blood choke. The choking half nelson suplex is generally called the Tazplex when anyone else does it but this does not apply to Tazz himself, oddly.
- Cuckoolander Commentator:
- uses the term "Vertical Base" 500 times during match
- When Tazz isn't spouting cliche one liners, giving insight into a happening or praising the misdoings of the roster's miscreants, he's saying something that has nothing to do with anything.
- He has a fondness for Daffney because she reminds him of past girlfriends he's had: Pale girls who don't talk much and laid stock still. This implies one of two things about Tazz, neither very reassuring.
- When The Beautiful People came on, he started talking lovingly about "finely-sculpted midsections and piston-like thighs" — sure, fella. The best part of the Knockouts, actually, is listening to Tazz describe what's milling about in his head.
- Mike Tenay often has to tell him to get his mind back on the match when Tazz starts going on about his personal hobbies, interests, things he's seen that day and the like. Tazz was much less scatterbrained as a wrestler.
- Cluster F-Bomb: In his ECW days. There was also one of the two favorite crowd songs the Mutants used whenever they watched Taz wrestle: F*** him up Taz, f*** him up! clap-clap-clapclapclap!
- Crossover: After ECW World Heavyweight Champion Mike Awesome made his surprise WCW debut on the April 10, 2000 episode of WCW Monday Nitro, Paul Heyman filed a court injunction to prevent Awesome from appearing on WCW TV with the belt. This led to ECW's April 13th show, which produced a true once-in-a-lifetime moment that can never be duplicated, as Tazz, a WWE-contracted wrestler, defeated Mike Awesome, a WCW-contracted wrestler, for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.note
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: His Tazmission move, known as kata-ha-jime in Judo, was billed as being banned in said art, but it is actually a perfectly legal technique in real life. It's unknown if this was a honest mistake or an artistic license to make Taz look more badass, but it remains a popular misconception among wrestling fans unfamiliar to judo.
- Deadpan Snarker: As a color commentator.
- Defeating the Undefeatable:
- Inverted. After his huge heel turn at ECW November to Remember 95, he went for over a year without getting pinned. He lost one match to Chris Jericho by disqualification at ECW Big Ass Extreme Bash on March 9, 1996, but was otherwise unstoppable until his Arch-Enemy Sabu pinned him when Taz had him in the Tazmission and effectively pinned himself in their match at ECW WrestlePalooza 97, June 7, 1997.
- At Royal Rumble 2000, Kurt Angle, who had been competing for WWE with a two-month long undefeated streak, issued an open challenge to anyone in the back to come face him. Tazz made his WWE debut by utterly curb stomping Angle, choking him unconscious with the Tazzmission.
- Determinator: Claimed on the Rise & Fall of ECW DVD to have walked himself to the hospital after suffering a broken neck due to a botched spike piledriver at the hands of Dean Malenko and 2 Cold Scorpio during a tag match in Florida in 1995.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: He got up from 911's Chokeslam and choked him out to send him out of ECW.
- Easily-Distracted Referee: Done on purpose since Taz was a heel referee.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His time in AEW has shown that he has not mellowed out in age but he's absolutely proud of his son Hook (not that Hook reciprocates those feelings) and has a kind of fatherly aura to the rest of Team Taz.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Despite his being a heel commentator, Tazz tended to favour the old-school veterans (like Kurt Angle and The Undertaker) even when they were faces due to what he saw as the disrespect of the new generation. Listening to his commentary on the Undertaker/John Cena match from Vengeance 2003 one would be forgiven for thinking he and the face Michael Cole had swapped roles for the match due to Tazz favouring 'Taker and Cole rooting for Cena.
- Evil Mentor: To Samoa Joe in TNA during Joe's "nation of violence gimmick". As if a traitorous, violence worshiping, head biting, sling blade using Wild Samoan was not evil enough already.
- Expy: Samoa Joe seemed to take a lot from him, particularly the chokehold finisher, the towel he carries around with him, and the "Joe is gonna kill you!" song. (though the fans started the song on their own. Joe playfully tried to shush them when they began singing it during a match with Apocalypse at ROH)
- Face–Heel Turn
- At ECW November to Remember 95, November 18, 1995. Taz had walked to the ring wearing a referee's shirt before Joey Styles' in-ring introductions for the Konnan vs. Jason match. Taz told Joey that ECW had made him a referee for the night because they said he was an "insurance risk." Jason got in Taz's face. Taz asked both guys if they were ready, and decked Jason, leading to Konnan powerbombing and pinning him in 14 seconds. Everything looks to be on the up and up, right? Not quite, of course.
- Later that night, there was a match, such as it was, between Commissioner Tod Gordon and evil referee Bill Alfonso. Beulah McGillicutty, then a heel as Raven's girlfriend, is supposed to be the referee, but Fonzie attacks her and throws her out of the match. They sort-of brawl for a while, complete with Fonzie blading, with no referee. Taz comes down while Tod is attempting a pin, starts to count, then stops, beats up Tod, puts Alfonso on top and counts the pin, this turning himself heel. The crowd is shocked, and Taz explains that he did it because none of the fans called or wrote or made any attempt to contact him after his injury and that Alfonso was the only person who seemed to care about him. He also rips on the fans for being happy to see Sabu, who had returned earlier that night after seven months in self-imposed exile in WCW, New Japan Pro-Wrestling and the indies,note , Paul E. and whatever and whoever else comes to mind, finally saying to the fans, "I DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOU!"
- Facial Markings: As the Tazmaniac.
- Favoritism Flip Flop: He is always in favor of whoever the fans don't like in TNA. That is unless the fans happen to be behind Samoa Joe, and they usually are. Usually this is portrayed as a form of kissing-up or simply admiring heel qualities (as long as they're not over the line), but notably in the case of the Aces And Eights he was actually part of the gang.
- Freudian Slip: An Impact tag team match pitting Mickie James and Velvet Sky against Tara and Madison Rayne featured a shout out to Marilyn Monroe but Tazz accidentally said Marilyn Chambers. To his credit, Sky and Rayne came into the company with porn star gimmicks.
- Game-Breaking Injury: His mounting neck injuries were what caused his retirement from active wrestling in 2002.
- Gangbangers: A self proclaimed thug.
- The Ghost/Noodle Incident: As part of his Brooklyn street thug gimmick in WWE, Tazz would occasionally refer to someone named "Joey Numbers." If this character was supposed to exist or was ever going to be introduced, he never was.
- Hidden Depths/Real Men Wear Pink: According to "Surfer" Ray Odyssey, who rode with Tommy Dreamer and The Tazmaniac in their ICW/IWCCW (New England) days, Taz would force them to be quiet when Extreme's "More Than Words" came on the radio.
- Hostile Show Take Over: Attempted to take over Sunday Night Heat.
- I Know Karate: Subverted. He was not explicit about his background, but he used Judo moves, like the very Tazzmision choke. In real life, the man is a trained judoka, as well as an amateur wrestler.
- Important Haircut: As part of his transition from the Tazmaniac to Taz.
- Insistent Terminology
- In spite of (or because of) being the human suplex machine, in ECW all of his suplexes were called tazplexes (eg, "Fisherman Tazplex", "Belly to Back Tazplex", etc).
- There are no small packages in Knockouts matches, only inside packages
- I've Never Seen Anything Like This Before: No matter how outlandish the personalities got on Smackdown got, Tazz could usually recall someone at least vaguely similar in the deep history of pro wrestling if pressed. Then he saw Boogeyman and had nothing.
- Last of His Kind/Four Is Death: He was the fourth, and last, wrestler (after Johnny Hot Body, Sabu and Mikey Whipwreck) to have held the NWA ECW/ECW World Heavyweight Title, the NWA ECW/ECW World Television Title and the NWA ECW/ECW World Tag Team Titles during the promotion's 1992-2001 existence.
- Leotard of Power: Wore an orange and black colored one during his prime in ECW.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: Hook is a Pretty Boy with an athletic build and a very light skin tone; effectively the complete opposite of his father. Were it not for the fact that their familial connection is frequently mentioned as part of his role in Team Taz, you would likely never guess that the two are related.
- Made of Iron: After Taz botched a piledriver and injured himself he went to a hospital to get checked out and the staff expressed disbelief he was still able to walk.
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: An example that applies even within kayfabe. The difference between Taz the wrestler and Taz the commentator is night and day.
- Nightmare Fetishist: While commentating in TNA, in particular calling Daffney Unger "zombie hot" and questioning his tastes whenever she appears.
- No-Sell: More in ECW, due to creative leeway, than in WWE.
- Odd Friendship
- With the card carrying villains Kaientai in the WWF/E, Tazz took a liking to them after they betrayed Too Cool. It did not last though, as he was burying them on commentary before too long.
- With Judas Mesías in TNA, apparently it had something to do with a happening after Tazz's pro debut (which happened in Puerto Rico) Its especially odd, as Tazz is willingly admitted to scamming Mesías on a camera yet insists they're still friends.
- Of Corsets Sexy: Tazz disagreed, or so he thought, not even really knowing what one was till Candice Michelle wore one on WWECW.
- Parts Unknown: (as The Tazmaniac in ICW/IWCCW): "Redrum Inc."
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse:
- At a relative scale. By pro wrestling standards, 5'9 and 240 pounds meant he was tiny compared to half the rest of the roster, much like his former partner Kevin Sullivan. Led to much Underestimating Badassery on their part. Taz was able to Tazplex 300 plus pound monsters such as 911, Bam Bam Bigelow and Buh Buh Ray and Big Dick Dudley with ease.
- From the 2004 Thanksgiving Episode of SmackDown!, following the release of the Rise & Fall of ECW DVD:
The Big Show: Easy, Tazz. I know the ECW DVD is out in stores. I don't want you to have a flashback, come into the ring, and suplex me through the pumpkin pie or something. - Power Stable:
- (in ICW/IWCCW): The Brotherhood, led by Tony Rumble
- (in SMW): Cornette's Criminals
- (in WWE): The Alliance
- (in TNA): Aces And Eights
- Pun: His unofficial FTW Championship is pronounced as the "Fuck The World Championship". This was clearly meant as a dig against the ECW World Heavyweight Championship (which Taz had been repeatedly been denied shots at).
- Put On The Commentators Table: Due to mounting neck injuries, Taz has mostly been relegated to being a commentator.
- Red Baron: "The Human Suplex Machine," "The Path of Rage," "The Orange and Black Attack," "The One Man Human Crime Spree."
- Relative Button: Not the usual example of gloating about something horrible a person has done to someone's relative, but when Cody came out to interrupt a ranting promo Taz was cutting on AEW management, he foolishly pressed Taz's button when he asked him why Taz's son Hook was training to wrestle with CODY rather than his father? Taz was so furious that he jumped Cody as soon as he turned his back and put him in the Tazmission.
- Revenge by Proxy: Repeatedly beat up Rob Van Dam in order to anger his tag team partner Sabu, whom Taz wanted to have more matches with.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He eventually walked out on WWECW, he stuck around for Smackdown a little while longer before leaving the company completely though.
- Separated by a Common Language: On TNA, he used to try and speak in more English English and explain the different meaning of things in the UK but eventually gave up by the time Magnus was champion.
- Start My Own: His frustration with getting passed over for shots at "The Franchise" Shane Douglas' ECW World Heavyweight Title while he had been the ECW World Television Champion in 1998 led to him introducing his own belt, the unofficial ECW FTW (Fuck the World) Heavyweight Title. He brought it back into service 2 decades later to award it to his client Brian Cage in AEW.
- Sunglasses at Night: As a color commentator.
- Suplex Finisher: Much of his arsenal consisted of a wide variety of suplexes. A particularly noteworthy example would be the Tazmissionplex, where he locked his opponent in a half nelson choke, before throwing them through the air onto their shoulders and head. If he hit you with this, you were done. At ECW House Party 99, he defeated Shane Douglas with this, marking his first pinfall victory, as opposed to submission, in some three years.
- Tag Team: The Tazmaniacs
- Take That, Audience!: As if his heel turn wasn't enough, he cranked this up with his "shoot fight" with Paul Varelans at ECW Hardcore Heaven 1996 on June 22nd. As if manager Bill Alfonso's ranting before the match wasn't enough of an indication that it wasn't actually a shoot, Perry Saturn coming off the top with a dropkick to set up the finish drove it home. Taz then told the fans that they were stupid for expecting an actual shoot.
- 13 Is Unlucky: His WWE theme was called "13," which Tazz explained as representing how many years it had taken him to get to WWE.
- Took a Level in Badass: The change from the Tazmaniac gimmick to Taz was a HUGE improvement.
- Villain Decay: He quickly went back to being a commentator after his initial TNA impact leaving Samoa Joe to his own devices (because Joe turned heel by joining the Main Event Mafia, making Taz's role as his corrupter redundant).
- Villain Song: He began working on one for Ivelisse Vélez, his "ace in the hole", before doing something like ensuring she would have long term membership in the group. Unlike most Tazzisms, this made a moderate amount of sense. He had recruited Vélez for the purpose of defeating Mickie James, who is a country music singer. One can at least see his path to it.
- Unstoppable Rage: The driving force behind the Tazzmission. Vocal submissions were not accepted, only tap outs, which now happens to be par the course for professional wrestling.
- The Voiceless: As the Tazmaniac.
- Wrestling Family: Held the ICW/IWCCW Tag Team Titles with his cousin Joe Chetti as the Tazmaniacs, Noga and Mako. Taz later trained Joe's younger brother Chris, who started as an anonymous member of heel Taz's entourage of trainees Team Taz (which included the guys who would go on to become the last-ever ECW World Tag Team Champions "Dastardly" Danny Doring and "The Angry Amish Warrior" Roadkill) and wrestled as G.Q. "Gorgeous" Quartermaine of the tag team the Erotic Experience before finding success in the mid-card as a tag team competitor. His son "Hook" is also a young wrestler in AEW, initially just assisting his father's hit squad whenever he could, but finally making his in-ring debut on the 10th December episode of Rampage.
- Writing Around Trademarks: His original name, the Tazmaniac and his following one of Taz were changed to Tazz when he debuted in WWE. He was able to get away with it in ECW due to ECW being too low-key for Warner Bros. to notice. After joining AEW, which airs Dynamite on the Warner-owned TNT, he went back to being known as Taz.
