with injuries mounting, tazz began performing part-time commentary on "sunday night heat" in october 2000. he joined the "smackdown!" team in february 2001 after jerry lawler quit the company, after calling his first pay-per-view on no way out with jim ross, as well as becoming one of the trainers for the joint wwf/mtv produced reality series "tough enough". lawler returned to the company on november 19, 2001 and resumed his place as commentator, with tazz becoming both a wrestler and a commentator. in january 2002, he and spike dudley won the tag team championship, holding it for over a month before losing it to billy and chuck.