Jim Ross claims that some of the top talents in WWE convinced Vince McMahon that Taz was not a good hire.
Speaking about the 2001 Royal Rumble on his Grilling Jr Podcast, the AEW commentator was asked about Taz's ten-second appearance in the match and why he had seemingly fallen out of favor after a memorable debut just a year earlier where he handed Kurt Angle his first loss.
"Bottom line is that he fell out of favor, and a lot of the people that he could have drawn money working with believed that [them] selling a guy that's 5"8 didn't make any sense and people would not believe it. Even though Taz could probably whip their ass in a real shoot, but we weren't shooting, we were working. So I think that's where that was because nobody could have had a better debut.
People thought his suplexes were dangerous, all this other stuff. So a lot of the talents take it back to Vince and say, "you know, I don't really want to work this guy, he's dangerous." So they'd tell me that, but they'd [also] tell Vince that. He heard it enough, and Vince saw that a lot of the top talents were uncomfortable in stepping in the ring with Taz, he finally took it to heart."
Jim Ross would go on to clarify his phrasing of "a lot of talent," stating that he should have said "enough talent" instead.
Taz responded to the claim on Twitter.
Sure it’s not Superstar & couple his buddies? Lol, I’ve talked about this “Taz is dangerous” thing on my show many times for years. Those who heard it know the truth.
— taz (@OfficialTAZ) January 15, 2021
So @JRsBBQ was there list of names of guys in WWE I “injured” via a Suplex?
Was it 7 men, 3 or even 1?#zero https://t.co/hVXBwiYcAp
Taz currently works alongside Jim Ross at All Elite Wrestling. Not only is he an occasional commentator, but he serves as the mouthpiece for Team Taz, which includes Brian Cage, Ricky Starks, Will Hobbs, and his son, Hook.
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