[2000-01-23-WWF-Royal Rumble] Tazz vs Kurt Angle

[soup23]

Angle starts out raging on the Knicks and New York in general. The guy has it on the mic. Tazz music fires up and the crowd erupts. It is amazing that this is honestly the only time Tazz really felt this big during his WWF tenure. Angle takes a huge back drop bump to the outside to start things off as an ECW chant fires off. Angle gets a suplex on Tazz in the entry way which allows him to go on offense for a bit. I remember loving this Royal Rumble set at the time and it holds up as being one of my personal favorite in company history. Angle hits a really good belly to belly suplex and Angle actually has gotten more offense in than I remembered. Angle takes too long to climb to the top and Tazz gives him a belly to belly from the top. Angle barely escapes with his foot on the rope of the pin attempt. Tazz does a nuts overhead German and then goes through a ton of his suplex variations leading to the Tazzmission and the end of the undefeated streak. A great sprint and about as good a debut as you could ever ask for. ***

[Bigelow34]

Amazing debut. Watching that match you would have assumed Tazz was set for a monster push in the WWF, tapping out golden boy Angle in the blink of an eye after getting a mega pop. Awesome moment.

[Loss]

Tazz with a super-effective debut. Short match, but good and everything it needed to be. I liked how Angle heated up the crowd with his promo ahead of time to make everyone really want to see his ass kicked. Angle took an especially nasty bump on one suplex and then did a full stretcher job. Great way to put a new guy over for sure! We'll tackle the rest when we get there. ***

[Bierschwale]

Wrestling's first great "internet moment" where the people in the arena are in the know?

[Loss]

Either that or maybe Jericho's debut where people had signs ready for him to show up. This more so I think.

[GOTNW]

Angle's pre-match promo was pretty boring with long pauses inbetween sentences even before he'd switch to a different talking point, would fit right in on today's Raw.

 

I didn't like the match, it just felt pointless, they have a three minute match designed to get one guy over and they're doing a suplex on the floor to no reaction in the first minute. The narrative with Angle has been that excess ruined him a couple of years in but it's absolutely on display here. The last second rope breeak is also something that can be used as a great dramatic spot but was absolutely unfitting here, not to mention how idiotic it looked to have Angle get suplexed off the top rope and almost beat and then go back onto offence five-ten seconds later. Angle's crappy bridge on a German Suplex is also infuriating, due to his amateur excellence, but then you remember how much his neck must have hurt even at the time and it becomes more understandable, still it's absolutely something he should've dropped. They manage to get a bunch of suplexes in, which is better than watching them throw bad worked punches for three minutes I gues, but the whole thing just reeks of the Angle/Benoit mentality of "technical wrestling is chops and suplex spamming" that was so prevalent at the time. **

[Loss]

I think they were trying to showcase as much of Tazz's offense as possible while also keeping the match short to show that he could put away someone quickly. So they tried to balance the two goals and this is where they ended up.

[gordi]

Way to put over a new guy in his debut. He looked like a monster here, tossing an undefeated former gold medalist around the ring. I think what they should eventually do is job him out to Triple H and then stick him behind the announcer's desk. That seems like it would be the best way to build on this amazing debut.

I don't know, maybe that extra "z" they added to his name just weighed him down too much.

[Childs]

I actually didn't realize this was Tazz's debut. I don't think I was watching the WWF intently at this point, and I had not been an ECW fan in real time. Anyhow, it certainly was an effective way to bring him in, and Angle played a big part in that, between the promo, the way he bumped around and the fact he sold the choke as death. That said, Tazz was never destined for a big in-ring career in WWF. He was a limited worker, and Vince was never going to present him as a long-term monster the way Heyman did.

[GSR]

Angle cuts a pre-match promo and tells the people of MSG that for one night only he’s decided to be their champion, because if they waited for Patrick Ewing and the New York Knicks to bring home the title they’d probably be waiting forever! He knows that his unnamed opponent has to be pretty nervous coming out to face an undefeated American hero (the crowd are already chanting ‘We Want Tazz’) at this point, but wants him to take a deep breath, remember his three ‘i’s’, come out and give it his all.

 

Tazz’s music plays and he gets an almighty pop. Backdrop over the top rope to the floor on Angle by Tazz with Kurt taking a wild bump out of there. Tazz with an attempted suplex on the floor, but Kurt reverses it and hits one of his own. Overhead belly to belly from Angle and he climbs to the top. He’s too slow though and Tazz runs into the ropes causing him to lose his balance. Overhead suplex from the second turnbuckle by Tazz, and Kurt gets his foot over the rope just in time even though the referee at first counts the three. As Tazz is arguing that call, Kurt kicks him in the mid-section and small packages him for a two. German suplex from Angle and an overhead belly to back from Tazz that a man who’s suffered a broken neck should never be taking. Two more suplex variations and Tazz locks in the Tazzmission. Jerry Lawler calls it a choke and says that it’s illegal, while Jim Ross says that it’s just a version of the sleeper. ‘The King’ is adamant that it’s a choke, claiming Tazz has got his hand around Kurt’s throat, but Angle ends up passing out from the hold. Angle does a stretcher job and JR adopts his Owen heart voice saying ‘we’ve got a problem here’ and ‘this is not good’. He then speculates that it might have been more of a choke than a sleeper after all.

 

I remember enjoying this when I first saw it and nothing has change here. It’s fair to say that it was all downhill for Tazz in the WWF after this though. I winced seeing Angle take that belly to back suplex where he almost landed straight on his head. Excellent strong debut for Tazz and a great way to open the Royal Rumble. Could have done without JR going all Owen Hart on us at the end mind.

[Kronos]

New York City crowd hates Kurt Angle, even before he starts bad-mouthing the Knicks. He really was a fantastic heel in these early days. Was Tazz's appearance expected, or was it a surprise? The New York crowd obviously pops pretty hard for him.

 

Angle does a nice job selling for Tazz and giving him the win to establish T as a badass. That's really about all that happens here, as the match is only a few minutes long - more of a TV match than a pay-per-view match.

[Migs]

Did anyone else in wrestling history peak so clearly in their debut for the company? I'm struggling to remember any other moments for Tazz in WWE.

[klhare]

This is one of my favorite debuts ever. The pop when the music hits is etched in my memory. I love it still, and it makes me bummed to think that this was his peak. I thought the match was just ok, though. Not that much too it and the crowd was fairly quiet throughout. Still, Tazz looks like a beast and emerges as a real player.