Do you remember back in 2003 when WWE had the tag team Kyo Dai? Members included Akio—who became Jimmy Wang Yang—and Sakoda.
During this period, they became involved with Tajiri. The goal was to create a yakuza-like group in the Cruiserweight division. Ultimo Dragon was also supposed to be involved.
This whole thing fell apart quickly as Tajiri didn’t want to be involved. From old internet wrestling community lore, there was fear on Tajiri’s part about the actual yakuza finding out about the storyline.
Yakuza Involvement in Wrestling
The concern makes sense on Tajiri’s part as the yakuza was extremely involved in pro wrestling and MMA in Japan. The main reason was that combat sports are prime for money laundering.
A prime example is Pride Fighting Champion’s parent company Dream Stage Entertainment and allegations of involvement with organized crime. Just that much bad press was enough for broadcasters to drop Pride FC events from their networks.
The effect was critical as Pride FC wouldn’t be able to stay afloat without broadcasting.
Having been in the business as long as they were at the time and seeing the Japanese wrestling industry at different levels, both Ultimo Dragon and Tajiri knew the worst-case scenario and both had family still overseas.
Could the WWE Cruiserweight Yakuza Angle Have Worked?
It was an interesting attempt to actually have a storyline in the cruiserweight division. Much like WCW’s cruiserweight division, it was mainly a series of rivalries and few actual feuds.
I don’t what could’ve been done with Tajiri, Ultimo Dragon, Akio, and Sakoda since a mouthpiece would’ve been necessary. Akio and Sakoda were basically the tag team muscle and wouldn’t need to speak.
Ultimo and Tajiri would be the focus here. Tajiri rarely talked and actually ribbed wrestlers by pretending not to know English when speaks three languages—as does Ultimo Dragon.
The question would be how good they would be on the mic before primarily English-speaking audiences. I’ve considered Funaki as the answer but that would result in Funaki being the focus since he’s doing the talking regardless of allegiance.
Also, putting Jamie Noble back under the mask as Jamie-San would’ve been problematic.
While it’s an angle I would’ve followed since I was a SmackDown fan at the time anyway, I don’t see how it could’ve worked.
A cruiserweight cartel storyline featuring Rey and Chavo Jr against the Mexicools would’ve worked better than the Kyo Dai idea.
Actually, I’m not even sure it would’ve worked if it was just a SmackDown midcard angle without weight class and Kenzo Suzuki was made the leader.
It was simply a weird angle for WWE attempt at the time and on that brand. Then again, WWE has tried weirder stuff such as Heidenreich and his disaster pieces or the Boogey Man.
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