Tanaka had a long successful run with the WWF in the 1960's, including being number one contender to WWF Champion Bruno Sammartino. In their first Madison Square Garden meeting, Tanaka was disqualified for throwing salt. He was pinned by Sammartino in a rematch six months later. Tanaka also main evented the Garden in tag matches, twice with Gorilla Monsoon against Sammartino and Spyros Arion (Tanaka and his partner winning the first via disqualification; losing the second in a Texas Death Match); a year later with Monsoon against Sammartino and Victor Rivera. Monsoon and Tanaka had other Garden matches, including victories over Al Costello and Dr. Bill Miller; and Bobo Brazil and Earl Maynard.
Tanaka subsequently teamed with Mitsu Arakawa in the WWF, acquiring the International Tag Team Championship; losing it at Madison Square Garden to Tony Marino and Victor Rivera. The team of Tanaka and Mr. Fuji won three WWWF World Tag Team Championships, with Freddie Blassie as manager for the third reign and The Grand Wizard as manager for the first two. They first won the belts from Sonny King and Chief Jay Strongbow on June 27, 1972 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at a house show. They lost the belts to Haystacks Calhoun and Tony Garea on May 30, 1973, again at a Hamburg house show, but regained them on September 11, 1973 in Philadelphia, PA before losing them again to Tony Garea and Dean Ho on November 14, 1973, again in Hamburg. Their third win came on September 27, 1977 at a Philadelphia house show when they defeated Tony Garea and Larry Zbyszko in a tournament final for the vacant belts, holding them until March 14, 1978 when they lost the titles to Dino Bravo and Dominic DeNucci in Philadelphia.
On August 22, 2000, Tanaka passed away.
In 2019, Tanaka was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of its Legacy wing.