Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Taz: What Could Have Been

[héad.casé]

Just listened to an episode of the Steve Austin Show with Joey Styles where they were talking about the ECW Wrestlers. Joey said that he would have loved to have seen a competitive match between the two because their characters were pretty much the same.

Steve said "I don't think a programme between the two of us would have worked that well because when you have two people with the same hard nosed, badass persona, the crowd would have found it difficult to have sympathy for either one of us. I mean we did that deal where I schlacked him with the belt, which I felt bad about because I like Taz. I think we would have been a better tag team".

Thoughts on a Taz/Austin angle or alliance?

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Alliance Austin vs. a babyface Taz in 2001 would've probably been a pretty hot match. Austin sells like gangbusters and he works hard, and Taz could work a non-hardcore match. Might have actually - shock - made Taz into a bigger star.

[BayleyTiffyCodyCenaJudyHopps]

Taz's neck also made Austin's look downright healthy in comparison, so it wasn't just a character clash.

[Bad Moon]

I could definately see them in a Two Man Power Trip sort of angle that ends with a big blowout match between them.
Austin is the heel champion and has every babyface in the world after his ass, things are getting way too tough for him, even with him being the dirty backstabbing redneck snake that he is, he needs somebody to watch his back. Meanwhile Taz has been waiting in line for a title shot FOREVER and when he finally gets his turn one on one with Austin. They have a pretty even match, just as it looks like Austin is about to go for his by this time expected heel shenanigans, the Rock or whoever Austin was fighting last runs in and interferes. Taz goes nuts, chokes out the babyface, Austin appreciates it, shares a beer with him. Taz agrees to be Austin's personal monster on the condition that he gets another title match once they've taken care of business together. The following couple of weeks are going good for them, they f***ing destroy everybody , but there's an underlying tension. Austin keeps putting off their match week after week after week, Taz is beginning to suspect he's being played and in a heated moment he breaks his usual silence for once and throws Austin's "don't trust anybody" right back at him. Austin takes this as a the obvious threat that it is and doesn't want him to accompany him to the ring anymore. Austin loses the title, Taz comes out but it's too late, all this time working with him has gotten him nothing, so he takes out all his frustration on Austin leading to a grudge match between them.

[JTG Fan]

Austin made Tazz look like a total bitch verbally, Tazz snapping might have been good but he also may have been too far gone at that point.

[The Ichi]

If Austin wasn't injured, that could have been a good match for Wrestlemania 16. It sounds ridiculous now, but Taz had just debuted as the guy to end Kurt Angles undefeated streak and it initially looked like he was getting a huge push.

[Hit Girl]

Could have been a good feud, but for some reason WWE chose to book it as something from torture/slash fic

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Hmm, Steve Austin, a man whose head was held on by chewing gum versus the master of the clumsy ECW style suplexes? Thanks, but no thanks, It's a program that had recipe for disaster written all over it. Tazz wouldn't be able to perform half his moveset if the WWF cared about Austin's health, so what are you left with? An epic promo battle between one of the best mic workers in wrestling and Tazz, whose mic skills are just...

[Deleted]

Taz was my guy back in the late 90's, I loved watching him toss dudes every which way. I'm not sure that an Austin/Taz feud would have been all that great though.

[thegame415]

I think the real missed opportunity was Austin vs RVD. Tazz wasn't over enough at that point.

IMO, I think Tazz should've been a bigger (no pun intended) midcarder in WWF than he ended up being. He could've been a great addition to the Jericho, Angle, Benoit feud for the IC title in 2000. His return/heel turn in the Summer hurt him, IMO. His lost to Lawler is something that would've sent this board nuts.

[TheDieselTrain]

As a big tazz fan I was kinda miffled that their match before survivor series 2001 was a short at the most 3 min match after months of Austin making him look bad and abuse that was the blowoff.

[jp49er80]

As far as I know, Taz could barely wrestle at that stage because of his neck?

[molson5]

I don't think Tazz's gimmick worked so well on such a small guy in a company where even the comedy acts towered over him. Small guys can be over and have compelling characters, but usually they have to be booked as great technical wrestlers, or scrappy underdogs, not super-bad ass tough guys that destroy everybody. That just comes off as silly. Even watching Tazz trying to stare down and intimidate HHH before that Smackdown match, it just looked weird. They could have modified the character some to work better in the WWF, but there was always going to be a ceiling.

[ICBM]

WWE never booked Tazz well, but nobody really took to him either, so I really can't blame WWE. He wasn't going to be a huge deal in WWE based on the timing of his jump. By the time he came in there were too many badasses and it is hard to believe that somebody half the size of billy Gunn is a threat to big show, undertaker, Austin, Rock, HHH etc. He would have been outclassed by the acolytes if put in a situation where they were in ring at the same time. Now had he gone with lance storm to wcw I think Tazz is Taz. I forget, which was he in ecw, Taz or Tazz? They changed it when he went to WWE.

[Deleted]

Nov 22, 2013 17:25:42 GMT -5 molson5 said:

I don't think Tazz's gimmick worked so well on such a small guy in a company where even the comedy acts towered over him. Small guys can be over and have compelling characters, but usually they have to be booked as great technical wrestlers, or scrappy underdogs, not super-bad ass tough guys that destroy everybody. That just comes off as silly. Even watching Tazz trying to stare down and intimidate HHH before that Smackdown match, it just looked weird. They could have modified the character some to work better in the WWF, but there was always going to be a ceiling.

I disagree, Taz was over as all hell for his debut(granted that was in NYC, which is pretty much a home match for Taz and an ECW stronghold), but Taz was always like Mike Tyson for me, he was a short guy that was just mean as all hell and wouldn't think twice about hurting you. I think that it could have worked but a lot of different circumstances(Radicalz, injury, WWE philosophy) were working against him.

[The Beast Disincarnate]

Taz looked like a freakin wreckin machine in ECW. Then he arrived in WWE and we discovered he was a dwarf all along.

[percymania]

A tag team would have been badass, no question.