The Taz Show Recap – Reigns Attached to Steroid Trial, Negatives of WWE’s Performance Center, Roode Wins United States Title, More!

Taz opens today’s show by speaking about the United States Title tournament on Smackdown Live. He says  he had no issue with Bobby Roode winning the tournament at all, and he feels that Roode is finally getting universally respected by fans and people within the business.

One thing that Taz noticed was that both Roode and Jinder Mahal wore blue ring gear during the finals of the tournament. He says that this is an issue, and the fault lies on the match’s agent. There’s often a note written in big, bold letters on a whiteboard in the Gorilla position, reminding talents to never wear the same ring gear.

Unfortunately for the wrestlers, you often dress is a different place than your opponent and you don’t see your opponent until you meet in Gorilla before the match. By that point it’s too late to change. Taz points out that in this case, the wrestlers have a very different appearance so the colour of their ring gear didn’t matter as much.

Taz congratulates Ricochet, Candice LeRae, and War Machine for signing WWE developmental contracts. He admits that it bothers him when WWE brings in talented performers who have been very successful on the indies for multiple years, and then sends them to the Performance Center and treats them like rookies.

He thinks that diversity of performers is what makes wrestling great and entertaining. When he was coming up in the business, everyone was trained by different trainers and had their own work style. This made for a wide range of in-ring work and character development. Nowadays, WWE has monopolized the business and their Performance Center is cranking out cookie-cutter wrestlers who all work the exact same way.

Taz says he really enjoyed running his own wrestling finishing school. He was working in TNA at the time and he didn’t have as much time as he would have liked to devote to it, but he really did love it. He would take performers who had a few years of experience and would polish them up as best he could, showing them what it took to get to the next level.

This was long before WWE came up with the concept for their Performance Center, but WWE runs that Center with the same idea in mind that Taz had a decade ago. He adds that he hates when Triple H takes pictures with every incoming talent. He doesn’t think this helps the talent by giving them a “rub”, he actually thinks it hurts the talent because they look inferior standing next to Triple H.

Roman Reigns’ name was mentioned in a steroid trial this past week, and Reigns issued a statement saying that he doesn’t even know who these people are. Taz points out that until Reigns is proven guilty we need to believe his statement. In these situations, guilty parties love to drop high profile names in order to draw attention away from themselves, and Taz points out that this might be what’s happening here.

Getting into his analysis of NXT, Taz thought Heavy Machinary had a good match with Sabbatelli and Moss. He likes Otis and Tucker, and he thinks they both work well in this interesting, entertaining tag team. He can’t believe the physiques of Sabbatelli and Moss, and he points out that these guys look like they’re chiseled out of stone.

Taz points out that Otis appears to have more charisma than Tucker, and this could eventually lead to the team being broken up. Taz thinks it would be hilarious if Otis was revealed as the long lost Hardy brother, because he thinks Otis would thrive in the ‘Woken’ Hardy Universe.

During the match between Aliyah and Lacey Evans, Taz noticed one clunky spot that was actually edited by WWE in post production. Evans was in the middle of the ring and Aliyah went into the corner. As she began turning to face Evans on the turnbuckles, she struggled to gain her footing and it looked bad. Taz noticed that WWE cut to the hard camera, and when they cut back Aliyah was already jumping. He points out that WWE is usually great with these edits, but this one stuck out to him like a sore thumb.

Taz is a big fan of the Authors of Pain. He admits that he didn’t think the pairing with Paul Ellering would last as long as it has. He gives Triple H credit for sticking to his guns on this pairing because it has turned out to be great.

That sums up today’s episode of The Taz Show. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya tomorrow for another recap!