Tajiri Allegedly Pretended Not to Understand English to Avoid Tasks in WWE

Tajiri was one of the mainstays during WWE’s Attitude Era and he never failed to entertain fans with his mist attacks. While he rarely cut promos in the company, it appears Tajiri allegedly pretended not to know English on purpose during his time in WWE.

While speaking on Small Talk, Jonathan Coachman talked about his first pay-per-view match against Tajiri. After flying back to Stanford, Coachman almost missed his flight. When they arrived at the training building, he was with Dean Malenko and Tajiri. He was worried about wrestling for 12 minutes and didn’t know how he would manage. To break the tension, Coachman talked to Tajiri, who pretended not to speak English.

“So, when I had my first pay-per-view match against Tajiri, I’ll never forget it. We all flew back to Stanford, and I damn near missed my flight. We’re down at the building where we would train, and it was Dean Malenko, me, and Tajiri. I’m thinking, ’12 minutes? How the hell am I going to wrestle for 12 minutes?’ And I’ll never forget that I walked up to kind of break the ice, and I said it to Jerry, who to this day acted like he didn’t speak English.”

Hornswoggle chimed in, stating that Tajiri was really good at pretending not to speak English. He shared how William Regal used to tell stories about Tajiri acting like he didn’t understand English when he didn’t want to do something, but when Tajiri was excited, his English was perfect, almost like he was speaking like William Shakespeare.

“He was the worst faker in the world. Regal would tell me stories all the time about how, if he didn’t want to do something, he didn’t know a lick of English. But if he was all for it, he’d speak like William Shakespeare—exactly, and that’s exactly who he was.”

In an attempt to get comfortable with Tajiri, Coachman told Tajiri that as long as he got to get in some offense during the match, they would be fine. It turned into a game of puns and Dean Malenko joined in and even Tajiri laughed at the end, which confused Coachman as Tajiri, who supposedly didn’t understand English, could respond to the joke.

“So, I said to Tajiri, ‘As long as I get my s*** in, we’re going to be fine. No issues.’ And he looks back at me and goes, ‘You have s***?’ And Dean Malenko says, ‘No, he is the s****. He is the s****.’ And we all popped, because you know how Dean is. He’s the drizzling s****. And Tajiri also popped, and I was like, ‘Wait a second—if you don’t understand what we’re saying, how are you laughing at that?'”

Tajiri parted ways with WWE several years ago and is currently competing at Kyushu Pro in Japan and is enjoying his time there. Fans are surprised to learn that Tajiri used to pretend not to know English, as it reveals a different side of him.

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