taz finally defeated shane douglas for the world heavyweight championship at guilty as charged, thus ending douglas' year-long reign. taz was supposed to defend the title against chris candido in his first televised title defense at house party but douglas attacked candido before the match and took his place, whom taz defeated to retain the title in his first successful title defense. he would then begin a feud with sabu over taz's world heavyweight championship and sabu's ftw heavyweight championship. the rivalry culminated in a title unification match at the living dangerously pay-per-view, where taz defeated sabu to unify the ftw heavyweight championship into the world heavyweight championship. he would begin his next rivalry with chris candido, whom he defeated to retain the title at cyberslam. the two were scheduled to a rematch at hardcore heaven, which taz quickly won. however, he was attacked by dudley boyz after the match, leading to a title defense against buh buh ray dudley in a falls count anywhere match in the main event later that night, which taz won to retain the title. taz then successfully defended the title against candido on the june 4 episode of "hardcore tv" to end the rivalry.