taz made his next successful title defense against spike dudley in a falls count anywhere match on the june 25 episode of "hardcore tv". he would begin feuding with the members of steve corino's new rising stable, primarily yoshihiro tajiri. taz successfully defended the world heavyweight championship against tajiri at hostile city showdown, the heat wave pay-per-view and the september 3 episode of "ecw on tnn". during that time, taz signed with the world wrestling federation, losing the title as the first man eliminated in a three-way dance at anarchy rulz. this ended his eight-month reign at 252 days. as he walked out of the ring, a large portion of the ecw locker room joined him on the entrance ramp to give him an emotional sendoff. after being off of ecw television for most of the fall, he wrestled one final match as an ecw performer at november to remember, losing to rob van dam via pinfall. taz's final televised match in ecw aired on the november 13 episode of "hardcore tv", in which he received a rematch against mike awesome for the world heavyweight championship, which he lost. in the dvd "the rise and fall of ecw", taz said that he signed with the wwe because he was in the top of the company and he lost his passion.