Former ECW Champion Taz got physical inside of a wrestling ring for the first time in years on this week’s AEW Dynamite. The “Human Suplex Machine” took to the ring following Powerhouse Hobbs’ win over Lee Johnson, stating he wouldn’t leave the ring until somebody from management came down and showed respect to the FTW Championship. Cody Rhodes, who has publicly mocked the FTW title in the past, came down and tried to cut Taz off.
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Rhodes then casually brushed Taz away, saying he would run his request “up the flag pole.” Taz refused to relent, so Rhodes came back down and asked why Taz’s son was training under him at the Nightmare Factory rather than train with his own father. Taz said that was taking things too far and teased leaving the ring, only to lock Rhodes in the Tazmission while his back was turned.
.@OfficialTAZ introduced @CodyRhodes to the Tazmission!
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) November 26, 2020
Watch #AEWDynamite NOW on @TNTDrama pic.twitter.com/pu87OqkH2E
The rest of the Nightmare Family hit the ring to make the save, but Taz got away. Last week’s AEW Dynamite saw Team Taz (Brian Cage and Ricky Starks) defeat Rhodes and Darby Allin in a main-event tag match. Hobbs ran down after the match to supposedly make the save, then turned heel by bashing Rhodes across the face with the FTW title.
Taz introduced the championship back in 1998 while he was feuding with Shane Douglas over the ECW World Championship. He revived the title during Cage’s feud with Jon Moxley and awarded it to “The Machine.”
“I don’t get it,” Rhodes said during a recent promo while wondering why he and Taz don’t get along given their similar tastes in wrestling. “If this was a mirror universe, maybe I would even be the FTW Champion,” he continued. “No, you know what, I wouldn’t be the FTW Champion. You know why? Because nobody cares about the FTW title. Respectfully. Maybe one other guy, and I know where sits in the building (Tony Khan), maybe one other guy cares about the FTW Championship. Respectfully, it belongs in a museum. It was something, it isn’t something now. It has nothing to do with the present and the future of professional wrestling.”
