Taz recently made an appearance on Bill Apter’s The Apter Chat podcast to talk about various topics. Here are the highlights (H/T to Michael McClead of WrestleZone).



Coming Up With The Taz Name:



“The initial thought of it came from the Tasmanian Devil because back then gimmicks were popular. Everywhere everybody had gimmicks. Everybody had a different reptile or bird or dog walking into 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, so I always had a nickname where I was shorter and thicker, stocky, and I was a darker complexion. When I was younger a lot of guys would say, ‘Taz,’ and I had a Tasmanian Devil stuffed animal in my car and I was like, ‘You know what, this might be a good gimmick.’ I didn’t want to be comical. I figured, I didn’t want to get sued by Warner Brothers. I was nobody, like Warner Brothers is going to serve a cease and desist to a guy making $40 a match. I kinda said let me make it the Tasmaniac, which is a little different.”



His Early Influences:



“It was a hybrid to be honest with you of The Missing Link, The Wild Samoans, and The Steiner Brothers when The Steiners first started out with doing different suplexes like really early Steiners, very early.”



Loyalty to Paul Heyman:



“I broke my neck in 1995 in Fort Lauderdale. It was me and Eddie Guerrero, the late great Eddie Guerrero, against Too Cold Scorpio and Dean Malenko. I was out nine months and that’s when during that time I was sitting home stewing. Paul was like my psychiatrist on the phone and he paid me every week that he was supposed to pay me, if I was wrestling. That’s why I was so loyal for so long because he paid me. I just got married. I come home from my honeymoon and I break my neck. It sucked.”