The Human Suplex Machine TAZ

Real Name:Pete Serinchia

Height:5'8 Weight:269

He was by Johnny Rodz in the late 80s, but before he mad his wrestling debut he spared with the Steiner brothers, honing his suplex skills to perfection, then took classes in the martial arts and shoot fighting, alongside John Kronus and Perry Saturn, the Eliminators.  After all of his training and concentration, he had become the perfect weapon.  But when he had his first match promoters were a little less concerned with his skills.  The NWA gave him the name, "Tasmaniac."  The name played on Taz's size (he is only around 5'8" at the most).  His small size and dark complexion gave them the idea to compare him to the Warner Bros. character, the Tasmanian Devil.  But as wrestling fans and wrestlers alike watched him in the ring, they realized that Taz was to be taken much more seriously than most wrestling promoters had alreay taken him. Taz debuted in the NWA after jumping around on the independents being Kevin Sullivans lacke and winning the IWCCW lightheaveweight title.  He fought several battles against Sabu.But he looked completely different than he does today.  Long hair, face paint, and bare feet.

Then, the NWA purchased ECW.  Since he transferred from the NWA, he maintained the guise of the Tasmaniac.  When he arrived there, he continued his feud with Sabu for a brief time.  Sooner than either man ever could have expected.  Taz then started a feud with the Pit Bulls.  But he could not handle them by himself.  He needed help, and manager Paul E. Dangerously was willing to help.  But what he had planned, Taz never saw coming.  Taz was aligned with Sabu in a match against the Pit Bulls.  It was astonishing that these two men who feuded for so long were made into a gret tag team.Around this time, Sabu ran into some trouble with the Public Enemy.  They had stolen his concept of putting people through tables, and he was none too pleased with this. so finally, in early 1995, a match was signed A Double Tables match.  The stipulations were simple: in order for one team to win, both members of the opposing team must be put through tables.  Midway through the match, Taz and Johnny Grunge simultaneously went through tables.  They were officially eliminated.  But Taz distracted the official while Sabu was put through a table.  Since the referee didn't see it, he couldn't call it.  Taz then aided Sabu as he put Rocco Rock through a table on the outside.  Taz had finally gained a major title.  But the fans and promoters seemed to give more credit to Sabu than to Taz for the victory. This was the roots for what would become one of the most hostile feuds in ECW history.

Shortly after they won the tag team titles, Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko, two thirds of Shane Douglas' Triple Threat, challenged Sabu and Taz to a match.  Sabu accepted the challenge, but TAZ wasnt that please to follow.It was a spectacular match to be sure.Taz took most of the punishment, including a lethal powerbomb/flying inverted bulldog combination.  Finally, Benoit took out Sabu with a top rope powerbomb.  The match was over, and new champions were crowned once again. Taz was PISSED.He had never got the credit he fully deserved.  Now the only title he ever had was no longer his.  He was fed up.  He confronted Paul E., threatening to leave ECW if he did not fire Sabu.  At the three way dance in 1995, Taz appeared in the ring in street clothes with Paul E. and his personal bodyguard, 911.  Paul E. publicly fired Sabu, and Taz went into battle with Rick Steiner against Benoit and Malenko and the Public Enemy.  He lost, but in another way, he won.  Because after that night, he laid the Tasmaniac to rest. Taz was born, the era of the most Miserable son of a bitch on the face of god s green earth had begun.

But the instant turn around would cost him.When he ran into trouble with 2 Cold Scorpio, where a missplaced moonsault leg drop took its toll and broke the native of the red hook section of Brooklyn New yourks neck.He was put out of action for several months.  He returned with the Steiners in tow.  He had been training with them, and he had perfected his suplex skills,The T-Bone suplex, and the Hardway suplex.  Were renamed , because in his mind, and in many other people's minds, he reinvented the suplex.  He renamed it the Tazplex.  He returned to action against Scorpio, but had little success.  At Heatwave 1995, he teamed with Eddy Guerrero to take on Scorpio and Dean Malenko.  They lost, only due to a biased move by Bill Alfonso.  Taz continued feuding with Scorpio for the rest of 1995 until he sustained a minor injury.  He was unable to wrestle at the November to Remember 1995, but he briefly refereed a match between Jason and Konnan.

But then, Sabu returned.  Paul E. pulled him out of WCW and back into the realm of the hardcores.  He successfully defeated Hack Meyers.  Sabu, the man who Taz hated so much that he threatened to leave ECW unless he was fired.  The man who for too long overshadowed Taz in a tag team simply because he enjoyed pain and put himself through tables.  For several months he had been out of the extreme spotlight.  And now he was back.  This obviously did not sit well with Taz. By now, one would think that nothing else would shock the fans of ECW.  But later on, Taz would do something that would not only shock the fans of ECW, but the wrestling world as well.  A special match was signed with referee Bill Alfonso and ECW Commissioner Tod Gordon.  The special referee was Beulah McGillicutty.  But midway through the match, Beulah was sandwiched and out of the match.  Taz, still in his referee gear came down to substitute.  Gordon pinned Alfonso, and Taz counted to two, then attacked Gordon.  He then dropped Alfonso on top of Gordon and counted to three.  He then gave a memorable interview in which he took Alphonso on as a trainer and basically turned his back on ECW.  The fans were shocked.  What would happen for the next year would be a verbal assault on his former partner Sabu which would be the begining of one hell of a year both for ECW and TAZ.

By the time 1996 started, Taz had completely changed his attitude. It was himself.  He now showed the rage that for years had been bottled up.  He had honed the Tazplex to absolute perfection.He was an established shoot fighter.  He added on the Northern Lights Tazplex and Head and Arm Tazplex to compliment the T-Bone Tazplex.  And he adopted a new finisher,a hold called the katahajime.  He simply called it the Tazmission.And this hold would guide him to many a victory in the next year.  He traveled with a whole crew of trainers from his dojo, a crew which Alphonso dubbed Team Taz. 1996 was an incredible year for Taz, victory always within his grasp.  He defeated Paul Varleans, a member of the UFC, in a shoot fight at Hardcore Heaven 1996.  He obtained revenge against 2 Cold Scorpio.  He choked out Bam Bam Bigelow.  He settled the score with 911.  His undefeated streak which began in 1996 still has yet to be broken by anyone in ECW, a fact which most men would have been proud of and brag about. But stil he wanted SABU.He called him out endlessly.

 It didn't take him long to start interfering with Sabu.  In his second match with Rob Van Dam, Sabu lost after being hit with a fisherman's buster from the top rope, a move that severely compacted his spine.  Taz had leaked information to Van Dam about the severity of Sabu's neck injury from 1994.  Sabu collapsed in the ring after Van Dam met up with Alphonso in the aisle.  Then later on, he helped Doug Furnas and Dan Kroffat when they faced Sabu and Van Dam. At the November to Remember 1996, Taz didn't wrestle, but he came out as the show began, claiming that Paul Heyman, now owner of ECW, was already working the match between him and Sabu.  Later on in the night, he attacked Rob Van Dam in a three-way dance between Sabu and Van Dam, the Eliminators and the Gangstas.  He caught Van Dam in the Tazmission, which caught Sabu's eye, leaving him clear for Total Elimination.  Later on in the night, Taz confronted 2 Cold Scorpio, who was bound for the WWF.  Taz simply said "Bye-bye, Flash.  Get the f*ck out of my house."  Then he continued his anti-Sabu tirade.  Tod Gordon came out to straighten things out, only to be caught in the Tazmission.  Then Paul Heyman made an attempt, but he too fell victim to the Tazmission.  Then the lights went out.  When they came back on, Sabu was in the ring... with Taz.  The two shared a tense silence... then charged... the lights went out... and when they came back on, both men were gone.

Months went by.  Finally, the match was signed.  Paul E. made the announcement in front of a live ECW Arena crowd that on Sunday night, April 13, Sabu and Taz would fight for the first time in Extreme Championship Wrestling history at a live show which would be broadcast live on pay per view.  And as the weeks went by, the feud just grew more and more volatile, including two encounters between the 2 on WWF Monday Night Raw while promoting the PPV Finally the night came. After suffering a broken nose, Sabu submitted to the Tazmission.  Taz grabbed the mic, and claimed that Sabu gave him the match of his life.  They embraced, then Taz was attacked by Rob Van Dam, who was joined by Sabu.  Then they turned to Alphonso, who took off his Taz shirt revealing a Sabu shirt.  A new alliance was formed, and Taz was left behind.  Alphonso was gone, Team Taz was gone.  But it made no difference to him.  He continued to reign terror on ECW.

The two met a second time, at WrestlePalooza 1997.  But this time, when put in the Tazmission, he rolled on his back, pinning Taz, breaking a winning streak which had been in effect for more than a year.  But Taz refused to let him go.  Finally, he released Sabu, only to be assaulted verbally by Shane Douglas, who was watching from the announce position.  Taz then challenged Douglas to a match for the TV Title, Douglas upped the ante to the TV Title for Taz's career.  Taz accepted and increased the ante to a match with a two minute and thirty second time limit.  Douglas came down to the ring, and with a few seconds remaining in the match,submitted to the Tazmission.Taz defended the title against all comers.  He defeated Chris Candido at Hardcore Heaven 1997.  He fought a few more matches with Sabu, all of which ended with time limit draws.  He developed a rivalry with former Hype Central correspondent turned pro-WWF aficionado.  He slapped him in the Tazmission, and later on, Tazplexed him through a table.  He then feuded with the Pit Bulls, who had joined Wright, and went on to defeat Pit Bull #2 at November to Remember 1997.  He was then confronted with the mammoth Brakus, Wright's personal bodyguard, who interfered in Taz's matches until he tapped out at Cyberslam 1998.  He even shared a match with former rival 2 Cold Scorpio at House Party 1998.  He then feuded with former rival Bam Bam Bigelow, and dropped the TV Title to him at Living Dangerously when the two plunged through the ring.

But losing to bigelow sent him on a mission but injuries prevented TAZ from going back after the belt, so Bammer lost the belt to RVD, this took his cance at revenge and the #1 contendership for the ECW belt held by Douglas, so what does TAZ do,he breaks Douglas elbow,and beats the hell out of Bigelow at Heatwave 98 that seen the 2 go through the runway ramp in a ECW death match.

This cleared the path straight to douglas, or so it seemed.When the Triple Threat started a fued with the tag champs, Sabu and RVD for both the tag team starps but RVD s TV belt, things got drastic.So Taz done the 1 thing that he didnt want to do and thats team with RVD and his old enemy SABU, they went into the November to Remember PPV to face the triple threat, Taz had shane ready to tap, when SABU comes off the top rope with the arabian face buster for the pin. Yet again SABU had stolen Taz s thunder and got the credit.

So TAZ went on yet another fit of rage injuring people left and right until Shane Douglas played with Taz mind, conning him into injuing SABU so he wouldnt be able to challenge douglas for his belt at Guilty as Charged, Taz fell for it or so shane though when he Dragon Tazplexed Sabu though a table in the ECW arena only to roll sabu over him and let him win .2 weeks later TAZ took Sabus spot in the title match, although the match seen a ton of interference by Sabu and Chris Candido, Taz slapped the katahajame on Douglas and made him tap,now TAZ was the new ECW world heavyweight champion and the Path of Rage was about to get wider and more intense than ever.TAZ took on all challengers and destroyed most of them, not even that challenge of his worst enemy SABU couldnt take the belt off him.At LIving Dangerously 99 TAZ and SABU went at it in there usual try to kill each other fashion, beating the hell out of each other.After nearly 30 minutes of brawling he caught SABU in the TAZMISSION and made him tap.After the match in a rare sight the 2 shook hands.The next challenge for TAZ was the returning Chris Candido.Candido returned to ECW at cyberslam 99 and aligned himself with the king of old school and the new pain in TAZ's ass,Steve Corino.But not even the attack of Corino,Candido and Tammy Sytch could stop the one man crime spree.Candido would continue to screw with TAZ on a regular basis and finally made the human suplex machine snap when he attacked him from behind and treid to break his arm in TAZ's home town, Queens NY.TAZ was pissed and the match was signed for Hardcore Heaven 99 ,Candido stormed the ring at the PPV claiming he wanted TAZ right then cause he was assured victory.We soon found out he had a insurance policy in The Dudley Boyz.TAZ hit the ring ang proceded to make the shortest ECW world title defense in the history of the company and for that matter wrestling in under 45 seconds he suplexed Candido out of his boots slapped on the Tazmission and won.But Candidos insuracne policy came into affect when they attacked TAZ after the match and hit 3d.Nearly sending him to the hospital but being as pissed as he was TAZ shrugged it off and got his revenge.In a wild bloody brawl that seen TAZ get busted open so bad that blood ran into his eyes and mouth that he was blinded most of the match,he beat both dudleys to retain the belt.

Steve Corino had decided that he would be the next one to try to take the belt.Knowing that TAZ would kill him if he ever got the chance he took every chance he could to get to him.He sent his new compainon the man monster RHINO after TAZ in june of 99 but to no avail the 6'4 300 pound monster couldnt handle the human suplex machine.ECW decided that since there was no competiton for TAZ they decided to let him pick his own opponent for Heat Wave 99,TAZ picked Tajiri seeing that he was beating everyone in his path.But when Steve Corino payed Tajiri to jump TAZ in Queens 2 weekd before the PPV all hell broke loose.The match was signed.It was the human suplex machine vs the japanese buzzsaw.The match was spectacular,After TAZ saved Tommy Dreamer from a attack from Corino and co he tore in to Tajiri,he didnt pin Tajiri or make him tap the matche went to a no contest when he got pissed went to the ECW sign on the runway tore off a strand of barbed wire jammed it in his mouth and hooked on the tazmission nearly strangleing Tajiri.They numerous rematches the last one seen TAZ beat Tajiri in under a minute on the first offical episode of ECW on TNN.ECW then signed a deal with the FMW promotion in japan to bring in its champion Masato Tanaka for Anarchy Rulz in a Title vs Title Match.But before the match took place all hell broke loose between TAZ and ECW management.a disaggrement between TAZ and ECW Owner and Executive Producer Paul Heyman led to TAZ looking for work else where while he was still champion.The WWF offered him a major big money contract and he took it.The deal set ECW ablaze , workers were pissed and so where the fans.Including yours truely but i understand what the man was going through he wasnt sure if he was gonna have a job in ECW or not and he had just had a new son (congrats to him by the way) and he had to do something to support his family its all cool with me now i dont know about the rest of the selfish fans out there.At Anarchy Rulz TAZ went in thinking he was gonna defend the title against just Tanaka, but didnt bargin for Mike Awesome to follow Tanaka over from Japan to get revenge.The match was turned into a 3 way dance after TAZ not only verbally assaulted both awesome and Paul Heyman.It wasnt long before the match started, TAZ tried to take the easy route and let Awesome and Tanaka take each other out.That wouldnt work they both charged at him,TAZ defended himself well T bone Tazplexing Awesome out of his boots and hitting the stiffest clotheslines on Tanaka i have ever seen.But 2 on one became too much for TAZ as after Awesome hit the Awesome Bomb and Tanaka hit the roaring elbow, Awesome hit the AWESOME and i do mean Awesome splash and both men pinned TAZ at one time to eliminate him and take the world title away,Mike Awesome went on to defeat Tanaka in what is proably one of the greatest matches in ECW history.TAZ who by now was crying because he knew this was the begining of the end of his ECW carrer awarded the belt to Awesome and began his final matches with ECW.

The end of the TAZ era started when he and SABU met for the last time on TNN.The match was probably the best of the fued so far.But in the end SABU put TAZ through 2 tables to win the match.But when the impact players jumped SABU at the end of the match, Rob Van Dam came to SABUs rescue.While SABU and RVd had there usual squabble TAZ hit the tazzmission on RVD from behing setting up Taz's last match in ECW at The November To Remember 99.RVD was the only man that TAZ hadnt beaten or destroyed in his 6 year tenure with ECW.He was on a mission to take The Whole Fn Show out .Coming in to the PPV he had a major chip on his shoulder.In response to a comment that Joey Styles made the night that TAZ jumped RVD saying that hooking the TAZMISSION from behind was cowardly.At the begining for the PPV he confronted Joey about the remark and bullied him into a apologie then just for the hell of it and at Cyrus's suggestion he slaped it on Joel Gertner and choked him out ,sending a message to RVD that he was in for the fight of his life.The match was a classic seening him take it too RVD.But finally RVD found a way around the Tazmisson and won the match.2 months later at The Royal Rumble 2000 TAZZ debuted for the WWF by ending Kurt Angles winning streak.