WWE Superstar Injured, Off Show Tonight
Just a few weeks after returning to WWE on a full-time basis, Tajiri is on the injured list.
WWE announced on Tuesday that Tajiri suffered a right knee injury at a recent NXT taping and "is not medically cleared to compete."
Tajiri made his return to WWE last summer as part of the 32-man field for the Cruiserweight Classic, where he advanced to the second round before getting eliminated by the eventual runner-up, Gran Metalik. After the tournament, Tajiri and the company came to terms on a full-time return. He appeared on the past two episodes of 205 Live, quickly entering a program with Brian Kendrick. Tajiri also teamed with Akira Tozawa to challenge Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa for the NXT Tag Titles at an NXT event in Osaka; that match aired on a special two-hour episode of NXT last month.
The only match he worked at the most recent NXT taping was likely a dark match where he teamed with Shinsuke Nakamura to face Samoa Joe and Bobby Roode. This immediately preceded the return of Chris Hero, once again with the moniker of Kassius Ohno, to the NXT world, where Ohno made a surprise appearance and patted Nakamura's title belt, signifying that he had his sights set on the current champ.
Dubbed the Japanese Buzzsaw, Tajiri made his reputation in America in ECW, where he held both the ECW TV Title and the tag titles with Mikey Whipwreck. He also had a highly-regarded series of matches with Super Crazy. After ECW folded, Tajiri made his way to WWE, where he had seven total championship reigns — including runs as a tag champion with William Regal and Eddy Guerrero as his partners, respectively. Tajiri left the company at the end of 2005, expressing a desire to spend more time with his wife in Japan, although he returned for the ECW One Night Stand pay-per-view in 2006, where he and Super Crazy joined forces against the Full Blooded Italians.
Tajiri continued to wrestle upon returning to his home country and ran two promotions: SMASH and WNC. The latter folded in 2014.
