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Tazz

Peter Senerchia (born on October 11, 1967), is a retired American professional wrestler best known by his ring name Tazz (originally Tazmaniac, later shortened to Taz). He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment working on the ECW brand as the color commentator.

Career

Tazz ECW #3 Action Figure-$12.99 USD

Peter Senerchia debuted in 1987. He was known as The Tasmanian Devil (later changed to The Tasmaniac) for Northeastern-based promotions such as the Joel Goodhart-run Tri-States Wrestling Alliance -- which specialized in "hardcore wrestling" -- and International World Class Championship Wrestling, where he held the IWCCW Light Heavyweight Championship for six months in 1991. After the demise of the Tri-States promotion, Senerchia moved on to its successor, Extreme Championship Wrestling.

Senerchia enjoyed considerable success between 1993 and 1999 in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) as The Tazmaniac. His career in the company started with a long undefeated streak, during which his combination of technical mat maneuvers, submission holds gleaned from his judo background, and a wide array of suplexes (which led him to the nickname "The Human Suplex Machine") earned him notoriety.

ECW 2007 Mini World Heavyweight Replica Belt-$35.00 USD

In 1995, during a tag team match at a Fort Lauderdale, Florida ECW show pitting The Tazmaniac and Eddie Guerrero against 2 Cold Scorpio and Dean Malenko, he became the victim of a botched spike piledriver. As he later explained in the WWE DVD The Rise and Fall of ECW, he did not have time to adequately protect himself and thus landed on his forehead - "The impact jacked my neck back and that was it." He remained on the ring apron for the rest of the match, but was visibly injured and could not continue, leaving the other three men to continue the match without him. After the match, Tommy Dreamer and Mikey Whipwreck along with Paul Heyman accompanied him to the hospital, where the doctors had difficulty believing he had walked into the hospital. He returned from his injury on September 16, 1995, and when he returned The Tazmaniac gimmick was no more. Instead he was now simply called Taz and began exhibiting a more physically intense in-ring style, becoming one of ECW's most popular stars. He went on to capture the ECW World Heavyweight Championship twice.

His feud with Sabu, whom he defeated at the first ECW pay-per-view, Barely Legal, is considered by some to be among the best of the 1990s. It is also notable that, after a botched Tazplex through a table, he joined Chris Benoit as a wrestler who legitimately broke Sabu's neck. He went on to defeat wrestlers such as Dean Malenko, Chris Candido, Chris Jericho, Shane Douglas, Bam Bam Bigelow, Sabu, Rob Van Dam, Lance Storm, Jerry Lynn and Mikey Whipwreck.

Taz defeated Shane Douglas in three minutes to claim the ECW World Television Championship at Wrestlepalooza 1997, and later created his own title belt, the ECW FTW Heavyweight Championship, which he would defend against any challenger. On January 10, 1999, Senerchia defeated Shane Douglas to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, which he held for nine months, before losing to Mike Awesome in a three way dance which also included Masato Tanaka. Shortly after his reign ended, Senerchia announced officially that he would leave ECW to join the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). At the Anarchy Rulz 1999 pay-per-view, in a show of respect and in full view of the fans, ECW owner Paul Heyman and most of the promotion's performers gave the departing Peter Senerchia an emotional sendoff. After being off television for most of the fall, he would wrestle one final match as an ECW performer against Rob Van Dam at that year's November to Remember Pay-Per-View, losing to Van Dam via pinfall.