Taz, Hook and AEW's return to Arthur Ashe Stadium
AEW announcer Taz Credit: AEW
All Elite Wrestling’s return to Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens this Wednesday comes amid one of the most challenging stretches in the young company’s life.
But AEW announcer and Massapequa resident Taz won’t let that ruin his excitement for the second annual “Grand Slam” event.
“It’s rare in wrestling that you do a stadium show. Stadium shows are no joke,” Taz said of the event, which will be headlined by Bryan Danielson taking on Jon Moxley for the vacant AEW world championship. “You put those two cats in the ring for the AEW world title—sign me up. I’m blessed that, as a commentator, I’m able to call it.”
The title vacancy follows a bizarre series of events at AEW’s last major event, All Out, in Chicago on September 4. CM Punk won the title from Moxley that night, but later ended up in a very real backstage brawl with fellow AEW wrestlers and executive vice presidents Kenny Omega, Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson. All four men were suspended, pending an internal investigation.
Despite the negative attention the incident attracted, Taz said the AEW locker room’s spirits remain high.
“Anything that happened two weeks ago, last week, or last night, that’s in the rearview mirror. And we’re onward and upward. That’s how it’s been, no matter what,” said Taz, who has worked in the pro wrestling for more than 30 years, as both an announcer and wrestler. “The pro wrestling business is a train, and the train is going to keep on rolling.”
The “Human Suplex Machine,” as he was known during his days in Extreme Championship Wrestling, is also especially interested in another match on the card — Angelo Parker and Matt Menard, collectively known as 2point0, vs. Queens-based hip hop artist Action Bronson and AEW rookie sensation Hook, who also happens to be Taz’s 23-year-old son.
“As a dad, I’m extremely proud of him . . . I glow as he competes, no matter if it’s, maybe at a smaller venue in the Midwest, or a massive stadium like Arthur Ashe in Queens. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart,” Taz said of his son, whose real name is Tyler Senerchia. “Just to see him do what he really enjoys doing, and that he’s only in this thing for a year-and-a-half, two years, whatever it is, and the connection he has with the audience. It’s very rare. It’s amazing to see and experience.”
Although Taz made a name for himself in large part through his work on the microphone, Hook has risen to AEW stardom despite rarely saying a word. Taz said he was “not shocked” that his son made it work.
“Anybody who knows him — who aren’t a lot of people because he’s very private and he has a mystique on him — knows that the Hook character is not much different than who he really is. He’s very cerebral. He’s extremely intelligent, and he only talks when he needs to,” Taz said. “Obviously, he’s completely different than me.”
Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.
