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Like to thank TNA Wrestling for the opportunity to apply my craft for past several years. Best wishes to them in the future.
— TAZ (@OfficialTAZ) April 15, 2015Taz's final TV appearance was this past Friday's episode of Impact Wrestling, which was filmed several weeks ago.
As I reported on Monday, PWInsider.com was told that Taz did not come to a planned voice-over session in Nashville, TN last Friday as scheduled to do commentary for several weeks of Impact Wrestling. Sources within TNA claim that pay issues led to Taz effectively refusing to get on his flight from New York. So, the same pay issues that we wrote about yesterday that have been frustrating TNA wrestlers for weeks was obviously a factor in Taz leaving the company.
Taz had been with TNA for five years, signing with them in 2009 after leaving WWE, He had been a regular fixture on Impact Wrestling TV and TNA PPVs and at one point, had been connected on screen with Samoa Joe. He also was utilized as a Judge in the TNA Gutcheck when that was a regular fixture of Impact Wrestling. TNA sources indicate Taz was under contract until sometime this summer.
Taz has been working as an announcer since 2002 when he officially retired from the ring after a 16-year career that saw him win every championship in Extreme Championship Wrestling as well as the WWE Hardcore and Tag Team championships. He had a long run as one of the voices of WWE's Smackdown brand before opting to leave the company.
Given his proximity to Connecticut (Taz lives in Long Island, NY), one could think that WWE would be interested in utilizing him in some form, especially since he'd be a fresh face with credibility that could be utilized on the WWE Network - and like current announcer Scott Stanford, he could very easily be used around his other broadcast responsibilities elsewhere - but it's too soon to know for sure.
As far as the question of Taz's TNA replacement, we are told that Al Snow received a tryout several weeks back as an announcer alongside Josh Mathews. Whether he ends up as Taz's replacement on Impact Wrestling remains to be seen. I believe Josh Mathews did voice-overs for this week's episode of Impact Wrestling solo, but that could change if TNA decides to add someone else to the booth as they have several days before the episode needs to be turned into Destination America.
As of this writing, Taz has not commented on why he's left TNA, but given his radio/podcast platform with CBS Radio and www.Play.it, one would suspect that sooner or later, he will be explaining his departure.
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