Exclusive: Taz On Signing With AEW, Team Taz, Long Island, Create A Pro, The LIRR & More

AEW is a new professional wrestling league headlined by Cody, Chris Jericho, The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson), Kenny Omega, Hangman Page, Jon Moxley, Mr. Brodie Lee, Matt Hardy, MJF, Nyla Rose, Hikaru Shida and Brandi Rhodes. For the first time in many years, AEW is offering an alternative to mainstream wrestling, with a growing roster of world-class male and female wrestlers that is injecting new spirit, freshness and energy to the industry. The inaugural event under the AEW banner was the sold-out Double Or Nothing PPV in Las Vegas’s MGM Grand Garden Arena in May 2019.

One of the performers who regularly gets a big reaction from the AEW audience is Taz. The former world champion has 2 major roles within AEW, serving as both a commentator on AEW Dark and the leader of the Team Taz faction; Team Taz is a charismatic stable featuring FTW Champion Brian Cage, “Absolute” Ricky Starks and “Powerhouse” Will Hobbs. On last night’s Winter Is Coming special for AEW, wrestling icon Sting made his unexpected AEW debut as part of a segment which included Team Taz. In turn, Taz is one of the few performers within the wrestling world who can legitimately claim to have been part of memorable main event matters in the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and also the 2020s.

I had the pleasure — and I do mean “the pleasure” — of speaking with Taz via Zoom on December 3, 2020, as embedded below. We not only discussed his current trajectory within AEW, but also the decades of living that led him there. We also touched upon his musical preferences, his New York roots, his son “Hook” getting into wrestling, and how Long Island’s Create A Pro Wrestling is truly changing things for the better. More on Taz is online at www.twitter.com/OfficialTAZ, while more on AEW can be found via www.allelitewrestling.com and www.twitter.com/AEWrestling.

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Tags: AEW, All Elite Wrestling, LIRR, Long Island, New York, Taz, Team Taz

About the Author

Darren Paltrowitz Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."