Taz on His Radio Show and WWE Network, the Brand Extension and WWE NXT, More

Former WWE, ECW and TNA star Taz recently spoke with Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard site to promote The Taz Show. The full interview is at this link. Below are highlights:

The WWE Brand Extension:

“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.”

“I think they’ll do NXT from 8pm-9pm on the USA Network, which is a perfect lead-in to Raw. Raw at three hours is too long–it’s tough for creative, tough for the announcers and a three-hour wrestling show is a lot for wrestling fans to watch. The NXT idea brings more awareness to another brand, and you still keep those five hours of weekly content. Then they can be part of the draft, too.”

The Taz Show with CBS Radio:

“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.”

The Taz Show and WWE Network:

“People tell me every week that ‘The Taz Show’ would be great on the WWE Network. They had interest in it and we did have talks with them. The talks didn’t go far, but you have to understand that my bosses [at CBS Radio] are not going to allow my content to be tweaked or tainted with, and the show is not the show with me having a filter. The show is the show because it’s unfiltered. I’m speaking from the heart and giving my true opinion. That doesn’t mean I’m right–I’m just giving my opinion built on three decades of experience in every facet of the wrestling business. My opinion is formed off experience, and I don’t think WWE wants that, at least not to that degree.

“I criticize their booking a lot, but I also praise their booking a lot. I sometimes promote their brand better than their announcers do. The WWE Network is an online, video-streaming network, and that is exactly what I am on with CBS. I don’t need to be on WWE’s network. It would be awesome to bring ‘The Taz Show’ there, but I don’t fall in line. I’ve never fell in line, and Vince knows that. I wouldn’t bash their content if I was on their network, but I would critique it. I don’t think they want that, but that’s exactly what their network needs. Someone on their show sometimes takes a shot at the internet hardcore fan, but that’s who is paying for the WWE Network–the internet wrestling fan. So why not give them a real unfiltered show? So it’s one of those things where we talked a couple of times, but it never really took off. Maybe it eventually will.”

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