Actually ECW and WCW were still around when Taz went to WWE. I remember cause ECW borrowed Taz for one night to defeat Mike Awesome for the ECW title. Awesome had appeared on WCW while he was still ECW champ at that time and was about to sign with them. From what I remember Taz had a bad back or neck and just decided to hang it up cause of his injuries.... but this goes back to what I said in another post, how WWE doesn't know how to handle most small guys...Taz in WWE should have never happened IMO.