| Naofumi Yamamoto | |
|---|---|
| Ring name(s) | Naofumi Yamamoto[1] Mr. Yamamoto[1] Yamamoto[2] Yoshitatsu[1] Yoshi Tatsu[2] |
| Billed height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)[3] |
| Billed weight | 100 kg (220 lb)[3] |
| Born | July 1, 1977 [3] Gifu, Japan[2] |
| Trained by | Yuji Nagata[2] New Japan Dojo[1] Florida Championship Wrestling[1] |
| Debut | October 12, 2002[3] |
Naofumi Yamamoto (山本 尚史) (born July 1, 1977) is a Japanese professional wrestler and boxer.[1] He is currently works for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where he wrestles under the ring name Yoshi Tatsu on its Raw brand. He was trained in the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) Dojo and worked for NJPW from 2002 until 2008 when he signed with WWE.
Contents |
Yamamoto trained for his professional wrestling career in the New Japan Pro Wrestling Dojo before making his professional wrestling debut on October 12, 2002.[3]
Yamamoto lost to Wataru Inoue in his debut match in the first match of a show in the Korakuen Hall.[4] Initially Yamamoto worked low card matches for NJPW, normally on the losing side to gain ring experience. On December 27, 2003, Yamamoto lost to Ryusuke Taguchi in a match where the winner would get a match on NJPW's most prestigious show, their January 4 Dome Show Wrestling World.[5] Yamamoto participated in the 2004 Young Lion Cup where he defeated Hirooki Goto, Aikya Anzawa and Hiroshi Nagao to earn a total of six points, not enough to qualify for the finals.[6][7][8] Yamamoto also participated in the 2005 Young Lion Cup where he only won one match, defeating Yujiro.[9] In 2006 Yamamoto participated in his first G1 Climax tournament, losing all four matches.[10] Yamamoto teamed up with Manabu Nakanishi to compete in the 2006 G1 Climax Tag League, defeating Giant Bernard and Travis Tomko to earn their sole victory in the tournament.[11] On January 8, 2006, Yamamoto and Osamu Nishimura defated Toru Yano and a returning Togi Makabe.[12] Over the summer of 2007 Yamamoto began teaming regularly with Hiroshi Tanahashi forming a team called "New Japan Dragons", earning a match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship against the then champions, Bernard and Tomko, albeit in a losing effort.[13] for the 2007 G1 Climax Tag League Yamamoto teamed up with Takashi Ilzuka, while they defeated three teams (Hirooki Goto and Milano Collection AT, Togi Makabe and Toru Yano and Giant Bernard and Travis Tomko, the team ended up in last place.[14] On November 2, 2007 Yamamoto wrestled his last match for NJPW, teaming with his mentor Yuji Nagata in a losing effort against Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano.[15]
In late 2007 Yamamoto was signed by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) to a full time contract, which meant that he had to relocate to the United States. He immediately was assigned to WWE's developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), to undergo assessment and training in the "WWE Style" of wrestling. Initially he wrestled as Mr. Yamamoto, then simply as Yamamoto.[16] He briefly teamed with Sheamus O'Shaunessy under the team name "the Movers and the Shakers".[17] Later on he changed his ring name to Yoshitatsu, before tweaking the spelling to Yoshi Tatsu, the name he currently works under.[16]
On June 30, 2009, Yamamoto joined the ECW brand under the ring name Yoshi Tatsu. He had his first match that night, defeating Shelton Benjamin, although he lost a rematch to Benjamin on the July 9 episode of ECW.[18][19] On the October 20 episode of ECW, Tatsu defeated Zack Ryder to become number one contender for the ECW Championship, although he failed to win the championship the following week against Christian.[20] On the December 22 edition of ECW Yoshi Tatsu defeated Jack Swagger to earn a spot in the ECW Homecoming battle royal where the winner would challenge Christian for the ECW title at Royal Rumble.[21] On the January 12 edition of ECW, however, Tatsu wasn't able to win the battle royal when he was eliminated by Kane. At Royal Rumble Tatsu competed in his first Royal Rumble match, but was eliminated by John Cena.[22] Tatsu then formed a tag team with Goldust [23] and the duo have become the number one contenders for the Unified WWE Tag Team Championships [24] but failed in capturing the titles on the final episode of ECW on Syfy.[25]
After the ECW brand was discontinued, Tatsu made his debut on the Raw brand on the February 22, 2010 edition of Raw, where he teamed up with Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston to defeat The Legacy (Randy Orton, Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes), after Orton turned on his partners.[26]
|
|
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
