Originally from the
Red Hook section of
Brooklyn, NY, Pete Senerca originally entered
ECW as the
Tazmaniac, with a costume somewhat resembling a loincloth, and a huge
afro. After being teamed for a while with
Sabu, he
turned heel, cut his hair, and shortened his name to just Taz. He also changed from the wildman character and started to go with what he knew.
Drawing from his background in
judo and
jiu-jitsu, he switch to a style of grappling, suplexes and
submission moves, as well as a new
bad ass attitude, and it went over very well with the fans. He became known as the
Human Wrecking Machine and the
Path of Rage, as he went on a very long undefeated streak, often defeating opponents in less than 2 minutes. This is the point in time when he coined his
catch phrase, "Beat me if you can, survive if I let you." While he was best known for his
finisher, the "
Tazmission", a modified form of the
Kata Ha Jime, he became well known for his ability to toss pretty much anyone around in a very well developed repetiore of
suplexes. He was so well recognized for his ability with suplexes that the ECW announcer,
Joey Styles, started to call it a "Tazplex" when executed by Taz.
After several years in ECW, he signed on with the much larger, and surely more
lucrative WWF, where the tradition of calling a suplex executed by Taz a "Tazplex" continues, though in a much more limited manner. Since moving to the WWF, Taz has been dropped to
mid-card status for the most part, a move considered
unfortunate by his fans who recognize his
wealth of talent. This is more than likely a result of the fact that Taz is
on the short side for a wrestler, and the WWF does not like to
script wins for someone who is so much smaller in
stature than their much larger core talent pool.