10 WWE Tag-Teams That Shouldn't Have Worked (But Did)
6. William Regal & Tajiri
Sincere credit must be given to William Regal for turning his career around from the year 2000 onwards. Once struggling to overcome various drug and alcohol addictions, Regal was a hoot as the on screen WWF Commissioner, mixing genuinely brilliant comedy timing with an at times overlooked ability inside the ring.
Looking to add more humour to the mix, management elected to introduce former ECW star Tajiri as the authority figure's sidekick in 2001. Instantly, the chemistry was obvious, and both men complemented one another sweetly. It wasn't until 2005 that Regal and Tajiri captured the World Tag-Team Titles, which is quite remarkable when considering they were on fire as a double act years earlier.
Vastly different styles between the ropes should probably have clashed, but Regal's more old-school approach surprisingly melded well with Tajiri's buzzsaw-like kicks and obvious Japanese influence. Even though they couldn't have been more diverse, Regal and Tajiri were a crowd-pleaser even as comedic villains.
So well-worked was Tajiri's link to Regal that the Japanese star even briefly returned in 2008 for some house show appearances alongside his old tag partner.