Last year, one of the most welcome surprise participants in WWE’s Cruiserweight Classic was none other than Yoshihiro Tajiri, who made his return to the company to participate in the tournament, and then stuck around afterward after signing a full-time contract. Just a month after signing that contract, he suffered a knee injury and went on the shelf for an extended amount of time, before returning to 205 Live. Now, it appears, he is gone again … for good.
In a series of three tweets on Saturday, Tajiri explained his situation and said he is heading back to Japan after departing WWE, and that he has no regrets about any part of his journey thus far. A combination of the injury and his age meant his WWE comeback lasted only four months, but his latest adventure is now over. He thanked Triple H and William Regal, his “mentor.”
Well, we certainly will miss the Japanese Buzzsaw, and it’s a bummer that he didn’t have more on-television interactions with his old boss and in-canon best friend Regal, but we can’t for an instant begrudge him his decision. After all, 2017 WWE has more bodies than ever before, and even with 205 Live in the mix, there’s only so much attention and screen time to go around. Tajiri is 46 years old, and it was already a pleasant enough surprise that we got him at the Cruiserweight Classic and for a bit afterward.
Best wishes, Tajiri. Hopefully we’ll see you again before too long.
