In 1988, Tanaka joined the American Wrestling Association alongside Paul Diamond, where they were known as Badd Company. In the AWA, they were given identical ring gear, and were accompanied by flamboyant manager Diamond Dallas Page, who always had a number of valets, known as the Diamond Dolls, with him.
The team's first feud was against the Midnight Rockers, whom they defeated for the AWA World Tag Team Championship on March 19, 1988. During their year-long title reign, Badd Company would feud heavily with Chavo and Mando Guerrero and the team known as the Top Guns (Ricky Rice and Derrick Dukes). They teamed with Madusa Miceli to face the team of the Top Guns and Wendi Richter at the only AWA pay-per-view, SuperClash III. Both Badd Company’s Tag Team Titles and Wendi Richter’s AWA World Women's Championship were on the line, but since Richter pinned Miceli, Badd Company remained the Tag Team Champions. Diamond and Tanaka’s reign ended on March 25, 1989, as they lost to the Olympians (Brad Rheingans and Ken Patera). Shortly after losing their titles, they split from Page, and had a short feud against each other before wrestling in singles competition until early 1990.
Tanaka signed with the World Wrestling Federation in 1990, where he formed another tag team called The Orient Express with Sato, managed by Mr. Fuji. The Orient Express kicked off a prolonged feud with The Rockers that started at WrestleMania VI, where Sato and Tanaka were victorious via countout, and continued off and on for well over a year. The Orient Express got involved in the Legion of Doom and Demolition feud, as Mr. Fuji managed Demolition as well. Demolition was being phased out and the Orient Express began taking on the Legion of Doom instead. The Legion of Doom and Orient Express feud was extremely one-sided due to the Legion of Doom’s massive size advantage.
After WrestleMania VI, Tanaka and Sato only made two pay-per-view appearances while in the WWF. First, at SummerSlam 1990, where the team were defeated by "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan and Nikolai Volkoff. At Survivor Series, they were then a part of the Sgt. Slaughter-led team The Mercenaries (which also included Boris Zhukov). Sato was pinned by Bushwhacker Butch, and Tanaka was pinned by Tito Santana only moments later.
When Sato decided leave the company in the latter days of 1990, the WWF decided to reunite the team known as Badd Company, only this time with Paul Diamond wearing a mask to hide the fact that he’s not Asian and using the name of Kato. During this time, the team had a match with their old enemies the Rockers at the 1991 Royal Rumble, and another against the New Foundation at the 1992 Royal Rumble, which were the only two pay-per-view appearances for the New Orient Express.
Sato briefly rejoined the team in 1991 to team with Tanaka and Kato for a series of six-man tag-team matches on WWF house shows, but Sato left the WWF after only a handful of matches together.
Tanaka would make several appearances for the WWF in late 1993 with a martial arts gimmick, losing to the likes of the 1-2-3 Kid, Marty Jannetty, and Razor Ramon. He then made a single appearance in November 1994, losing to Doink the Clown.
After Paul Diamond also left the WWF, the two reunited as Badd Company to work for Extreme Championship Wrestling in 1993. The team made their debut at ECW Bloodfest on October 1, 1993, where they beat the Bad Breed (Ian and Axl Rotten). Later in the night, Tanaka and Diamond got a shot at the ECW Tag Team Champions, Tony Stetson and Johnny Hotbody. However, Badd Company lost the match.
The next night at Bloodfest: Part 2, Badd Company came up against one of ECW's new arrivals, Public Enemy (Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge) in one of their very early matches. Later in the show, Badd Company and the Public Enemy would clash again, this time in a three way steel cage match that also included the Bad Breed; this time Public Enemy were victorious. At ECW's next big show Terror at Tabor on November 12, 1993, Badd Company beat the makeshift team of Don E. Allen and Mr. Hughes. After the match, Badd Company called out Public Enemy, resulting in an impromptu match between Paul Diamond and Rocco Rock, which Diamond won. Public Enemy quickly got revenge on Badd Company as they defeated the duo in a "South Philly hood" match the very next day at November to Remember. At Holiday Hell on December 26, 1993, Tanaka defeated Rocco Rock in a "Body Count" match.
In early 1994, Badd Company set their sights on ECW Tag Team Champions Kevin Sullivan and The Tazmaniac, defeating them twice in non-title matches. At The Night the Line was Crossed on February 5, 1994, Tanaka and his one night only partner The Sheik defeated Sullivan and Tazmaniac, but unfortunately the team had been stripped of the titles the night before. When Tanaka was rejoined by Diamond, the team lost once again to the Tag Team Champions when the gold was finally on the line. On March 27, 1994, Badd Company wrestled their last match for ECW, a house show victory over Rockin' Rebel and Pitbull #1.
By the time Badd Company wrestled their last match for ECW, Tanaka and Diamond had already signed with World Championship Wrestling. Tanaka had even made his on screen debut as Tanaka-San. Paul Diamond showed up with the Kato mask, using the name Haito only days after their last ECW match. The duo then reprised their "Orient Express" gimmick. The two men wrestled a couple of matches together, but they never achieved any notoriety in WCW. The Express finally split up for good by the end of 1994.
While Paul Diamond left WCW soon after, Tanaka would continue to appear on WCW programming (as Pat Tanaka) as a jobber to the stars.
In 1996, Tanaka made a few brief appearances as the masked El Gato, most notably against Konnan, who successfully defended the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship against El Gato at The Great American Bash on June 16, 1996.