Former ECW / WWE star Taz recently spoke with Justin Barrasso for Sports Illustrated Extra Mustard’s Week In Wrestling.
Taz, who currently hosts The Taz Show on CBS Radio, talks about the WWE brand split, including what other plans might be in store, who might be running RAW and Smackdown, how much he prepared for a career in broadcasting, and more. You can read some highlights below:
Taz comments on the WWE brand split announcement:
“It’s a layup to me. They’re doing a brand split, which I humbly say that I predicted three or four months ago on my show. I know how they book and I know what works. They’re actually a little late on the brand split, frankly, but the brand split works.”
Taz comments on who will be running RAW and Smackdown, balancing each show’s running times:
“Stephanie and Shane have a kind of sibling rivalry, so Stephanie will run Smackdown and Shane will run Raw. Stephanie will ask, ‘Why do you get three hours on your brand and I only get two on mine?’ Then Vince can come out and settle the argument between his kids by making it plain and simple–‘Raw and Smackdown will both be two hours.’ When someone asks what happens to that third hour, then boom–you play Triple H’s music and you give NXT to Triple H.”
Related: Taz Predicts NXT Move To USA Network
Taz offers another prediction that Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins will be on separate shows:
“Roman Reigns has the ability to work, he definitely has the awareness now and popularity,” explained Taz. “I don’t know if he has the promo skills yet, and he needs to keep working on that, but they’ve put a lot of money behind him–millions–and they can’t give up on him and they won’t. They’ll build around Roman Reigns on one show, and they’re going to build around Seth Rollins. I do not think Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns will be on Raw together or Smackdown together. I would change one of their looks a little bit and some branding around the guys, but those are the two guys they’re going to run with.”
Taz talks about all of the work he put into becoming a broadcaster, finding the right format for his show:
“This is my legacy and my history. This is something I’ve been trying to do for a decade, and that’s something people don’t know. If you sat down with Michael Cole and you asked him, ‘Are you surprised that Taz is doing a radio show that’s working so well?’ He’d said, ‘No, not at all.’ He knew how passionate and driven I was about radio ten years ago. It’s very, very hard to do. Anybody can stream a show or go on YouTube, but I’m proud to say that the platform I have–with a corporation as big as it is at this level with CBS Radio–this was ten years in the making. I look at this as my life’s work.”
“It works, but you’ve got to have the chops. While I was doing Smackdown as a broadcaster, I was studying and listening to radio, replaying stuff, going online and studying. This is something I had a passion for, and I worked and practiced on my own. I would record myself on my iPhone and practice by doing shows that no one even heard. I didn’t want to just do an interview format–there are a bunch of shows out there like that. Initially, I started that way and did the same thing as everyone else for the first two months. Then I said to CBS, ‘I want to do a topic-driven show, as opposed to an interview-driven show.’ Then it just took on a life of its own.”
