Block 2:

Speaking about the promo segment between Asuka and Ember Moon, Taz thought the physicality was great but the verbal interaction before hand was not good at all. He thought the interaction between these two women came off as fake, bad acting. He doesn’t think there was any need for a promo between these women because they can effectively tell their story with physicality.

There are parts of Ember Moon’s presentation that still come off as inexperienced to Taz, but her in-ring growth has been substantial. Taz still thinks she deserves to be in the Title match at Takeover:Brooklyn, and if he had his way she’d actually emerge victorious from this match because he thinks it’s time for Asuka to move on from NXT.

A listener calls into the show and asks Taz if he trained in MMA before beginning his career as a professional wrestler. Taz says he dipped his toe into one or two of the martial arts, but there wasn’t really any MMA at that time. Guys like Ken Shamrock eventually came into the business, and brought the legitimacy of professional wrestling to another level.

Nowadays, it seems like MMA is everywhere in professional wrestling. Every performer has combat shorts or Tapout gloves on, and all the announcers love utilizing sophisticated MMA terminology.

He says the physical interaction between Aleister Black and Hideo Itami was very well done. He likes the new, heel side of Itami, and he did a tremendous job of selling Black’s spinning heel kick.