Taz came out at AEW Double or Nothing during the Casino Ladder Match for a future shot at the AEW World Championship. He then introduced the debuting Brian Cage, who went on to win the match.
Cage made his AEW Dynamite debut the following Wednesday, once again with Taz by his side. After dispatching his opponent, Cage stood in the ring as Taz took the microphone and directed some comments toward Jon Moxley.
Taz dropped a promo on Cage and Moxley's upcoming fight for the AEW World Championship at Fyter Fest, something Tony Khan announced in his media interviews after Double or Nothing. Much like Jake "The Snake" Roberts and Lance Archer, it appears that Taz will officially be the manager and mouthpiece for Cage.
It is exciting to see AEW bringing back managers, with Tully Blanchard (Shawn Spears), Arn Anderson (Cody Rhodes), Allie (Butcher and the Blade), Roberts (Archer), and now Taz (Cage) serving in the roles. It is similar to what WWE did in the '80s and is something wrestling has been missing for a while now. With a manager, a wrestler with a great look and solid skill set but below-average promo skills has a much better chance of getting over.
The truth is that this is a role made for someone like Taz. In his early days in ECW, both as the Tazmaniac and as Taz, he often had a mouthpiece working for him, with guys like Paul Heyman or Bill Alfonso doing his talking. However, when Taz retired from WWE after several neck injuries, he proved that he never needed a mouthpiece and was one of the company's best color commentators.
However, with Taz's reputation as a tough guy and a no-nonsense wrestler, he seemed pitch-perfect for the manager role. Looking at how he dressed when he was working as a commentator and hearing his New York accent and take-no-guff attitude on commentary, it seemed he was tailor-made for the role. However, the problem is that WWE never put him into that role because by that time Vince McMahon had done away with managers.
When Taz retired, several wrestlers could have really used him as a mouthpiece to help push their careers forward. Imagine a big guy like Heidenreich if he had Taz doing the talking for him. Chris Kanyon and Chuck Palumbo were both on SmackDown at the time, and Taz could have fit in perfectly with both of them and offered them more of a chance to get some momentum -- which they didn't have thanks to their less-than-stellar mic skills.
There are so many cases of great wrestlers coming into WWE in the decade after Taz retired that could have used someone like him to get over with the crowd. Instead, they floundered and eventually left without ever making their mark. Taz tired of his role as a commentator with McMahon yelling in his ears all the time and also left WWE.
Now, 18 years after hanging up his boots, Taz is in a role where it seems he will thrive. When Taz signed a contract to join AEW, many fans wondered if he would make his way into a manager role. AEW used him as a commentator on AEW Dark and the PPV's pre-shows, but the company was just biding its time. When Brian Cage finally made his debut four months after secretly signing his contract, it was time to pull the trigger.
Taz is doing what he does best. He is talking and acting like the tough guy that he is. He also gave Cage his tag line, telling Moxley to "survive, if they let him." For Taz and Brian Cage, the best seems yet to come.