New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2002–2007) With a sports background in
boxing and
jujutsu, Yamamoto passed an audition held by
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in September 2001 and began training
professional wrestling at the promotion's
dojo the following March. 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 chance at a match on NJPW's most prestigious show, the
January 4 Dome Show Wrestling World. Yamamoto participated in the 2004
Young Lion Cup where he defeated
Hirooki Goto,
Akiya Anzawa, and
Hiroshi Nagao to earn a total of six points, not enough to qualify for the finals. Yamamoto also participated in the 2005
Young Lion Cup where he only won one match, defeating
Yujiro. In 2006, Yamamoto participated in his first
G1 Climax tournament, losing all four matches. Yamamoto
teamed up with
Manabu Nakanishi to compete in the 2006
G1 Tag League, defeating
Giant Bernard and
Travis Tomko to earn their sole victory in the tournament. On January 8, 2006, Yamamoto and
Osamu Nishimura defeated
Toru Yano and a returning
Togi Makabe. 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. For the 2007
G1 Tag League Yamamoto teamed up with
Takashi Ilzuka, while they defeated three teams (Hirooki Goto and
Milano Collection A.T., Togi Makabe and Toru Yano, and Giant Bernard and Travis Tomko); the team ended up in last place. 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.
World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE (2007–2014) Florida Championship Wrestling (2007–2009) in 2009 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. He briefly teamed with
Sheamus O'Shaunessy under the team name The Movers and the Shakers. Later on, he changed his ring name to Yoshitatsu, before tweaking the spelling to Yoshi Tatsu. 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. On the December 22 episode of
ECW, Yoshi Tatsu defeated
Jack Swagger to earn a spot in the ECW Homecoming
battle royal, the winner of which would challenge Christian for the ECW title at the
Royal Rumble. On the January 12 episode of
ECW, however, Tatsu was not able to win the battle royal when he was eliminated by Kane. At the Royal Rumble, Tatsu competed in his first
Royal Rumble match, but was eliminated by
John Cena. Tatsu then formed a tag team with
Goldust and the duo became the number one contenders for the Unified
WWE Tag Team Championship but failed in capturing the titles on the final episode of
ECW. After the ECW brand was discontinued, Tatsu made his debut on the
Raw brand on the February 22, 2010 episode 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. Tatsu won a 26-man battle royal in the
dark match to open
WrestleMania XXVI by last eliminating Zack Ryder. In July 2010, Tatsu had a few backstage brawls with
The Nexus, trying to help John Cena get rid of them, which he did not. After months off WWE television, Tatsu returned on the November 11 episode of
Superstars, defeating Zack Ryder. On the November 29 episode of
Raw, Tatsu teamed with
Mark Henry to defeat WWE Tag Team Champions
Justin Gabriel and
Heath Slater, after a distraction by John Cena. The following week on
Raw, Tatsu and Henry received a shot at the titles in a
fatal four-way elimination tag team match, which also included
The Usos and
Santino Marella and
Vladimir Kozlov. They were the first team eliminated. On the February 14 episode of
Raw,
Maryse and Ted DiBiase were about to
kiss, but Maryse instead kissed Tatsu. On the February 24 episode of
Superstars, during the match between
Daniel Bryan and DiBiase, Tatsu came out and gave Maryse flowers, which Maryse hit DiBiase with, allowing Bryan to defeat DiBiase. Tatsu failed at a chance to earn a
World Heavyweight Championship shot in a 20-man number one contenders battle royal. On April 26, Tatsu was
drafted to the
SmackDown brand as part of the
2011 supplemental draft. He only had two matches on
SmackDown in 2011; a number one contenders battle royal for the World Heavyweight Championship and an "All I Want for Christmas" battle royal, the winner of which would receive one wish. They traded wins during their feud, and Tatsu reclaimed the leg by winning a
Necklace on a Pole match on the July 26 episode of
NXT. After the match, Kidd assaulted Tatsu's right leg, taking him off
NXT for over a month. However, over the next few weeks, the
Kanji word for "
pride" appeared on the
TitanTron to distract Kidd during his matches – a message from Tatsu. He returned on the September 6 episode of
NXT, where he debuted black tights emblazoned with Kanji characters and the Japanese flag, his small lock of blond hair dyed red and half his face painted. He defeated Kidd on that episode to end the feud. Tatsu later explained that his new look and wrestling style were because he wanted to better portray
Japanese culture, Japanese pride and the aggressive style of
Japanese wrestling. He said his
face paint was a tribute to
The Great Muta. Tatsu stopped wearing his face paint to the ring by October 2011. From December 2011, Tatsu formed an alliance with
Trent Barreta to feud with
Curt Hawkins and
Tyler Reks. Both teams played pranks on each other; Tatsu was locked in a closet and Reks' hands were
superglued to an
Xbox controller. The feud ended when Hawkins and Reks defeated Barreta and Tatsu on the January 18 episode of
NXT. On the February 9, 2012 episode of
Superstars, Tatsu defeated
Johnny Curtis. This would be his last televised victory in WWE, as he lost the rest of his televised matches in 2012 and 2013, even on
NXT, which in August 2012 had become WWE's re-branded developmental territory. On the January 23, 2013 episode of
NXT, Tatsu and
Percy Watson entered the
NXT Tag Team Championship Tournament to crown the inaugural champions, but were defeated by
The Wyatt Family (
Luke Harper and Erick Rowan) in the first round. Tatsu continued sporadically wrestling on
NXT throughout the rest of 2013 and 2014, but lost all his matches. In his final WWE pay-per-view appearance, Tatsu unsuccessfully competed in the
Andre the Giant Memorial battle royal at
WrestleMania XXX in April 2014. On June 12, 2014, Yamamoto was released from his WWE contract, along with ten other talents.
Independent circuit (2014) On July 29, 2014, Yamamoto made his first post-WWE match at BELIEVE 77. At BELIEVE 79, Yamamoto defeated Aaron Epic to win the SCW Florida Heavyweight Championship, his first professional wrestling title (which he
vacated on March 28, 2015 due to his
neck injury). On September 20, 2014, Yamamoto made his debut for
Chikara, losing to
Ashley Remington via
disqualification, following outside interference from Juan Francisco de Coronado.
Return to NJPW (2014–2017) On October 13, 2014, at
King of Pro-Wrestling, Yamamoto, billed as Yoshitatsu, returned to New Japan, attacking
Jeff Jarrett when he interfered in the main event match and, in doing so, helped Hiroshi Tanahashi defeat
A.J. Styles for the
IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Yamamoto did not return to working under his real name due to being known better under the name Yoshi Tatsu, but he also could not continue working under his WWE name because of trademark issues, which led to the name's tweaked spelling. He was given the new
gimmick of a "
Bullet Club hunter", which saw him state that he had grown sick of seeing WWE and NXT employees wearing Bullet Club shirts and was now looking to eliminate the villainous stable from professional wrestling, starting with A.J. Styles. On November 14, Yoshitatsu and Hiroshi Tanahashi announced they were forming a new tag team named "The World". The World was scheduled to take part in the
2014 World Tag League, but after their opening match on November 22, Yoshitatsu was forced to pull out of the tournament with a neck injury. On November 25, Yamamoto announced he had two broken bones in his neck, suffered presumably in his match with Styles when he botched the
Styles Clash. Yamamoto had a
halo installed in his skull, which he wore for the next three months. In May 2015, Yamamoto started training for a comeback at the Team Vision Gym in Orlando, Florida. On January 4, 2016, Yoshitatsu returned as part of the English announcing team at
Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome. On March 22, NJPW announced that Yoshitatsu would wrestle his NJPW return match on April 10 at
Invasion Attack 2016, where he, Hiroshi Tanahashi and
Michael Elgin defeated Bullet Club's
The Elite (
Kenny Omega and
The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson)) to win the
NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. Afterwards, Yoshitatsu announced he was forming a new stable named "Hunter Club" to oppose Bullet Club. However, neither Elgin nor Tanahashi accepted Yoshitatsu's invitation to join the stable, which led to
Captain New Japan stepping up as the first member of the new group. Yoshitatsu then debuted a new gimmick, where he began mimicking
Triple H, which included him adopting the
Pedigree as his finishing move. Yoshitatsu, Elgin and Tanahashi made their first successful title defense on April 23 against the Bullet Club trio of
Bad Luck Fale, Kenny Omega and
Yujiro Takahashi. On May 3 at
Wrestling Dontaku 2016, they lost the title back to Omega and The Young Bucks. On September 12, Yoshitatsu, upset with Captain New Japan's poor performances, announced a Twitter poll that would decide whether he would get to stay in Hunter Club. On September 25 at
Destruction in Kobe, Yoshitatsu revealed the result of the poll and agreed to remove Captain New Japan from Hunter Club. This led to Captain attacking Yoshitatsu and aligning himself with Bullet Club. After starting a feud with Captain New Japan, now renamed "Bone Soldier", Yoshitatsu announced on November 5 that he had recruited
Billy Gunn as his new Hunter Club partner for the
2016 World Tag League. Yoshitatsu and Gunn finished the tournament on December 8 with a record of three wins and four losses, failing to advance from their block, though Yoshitatsu managed to pin Bone Soldier in their final round-robin match. In April 2017, Yoshitatsu joined the
Taguchi Japan stable.
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (2017) In February 2017, NJPW sent Yoshitatsu to their Mexican partner promotion
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) for a tour. He debuted for the promotion on February 17.
All Japan Pro Wrestling (2017–2023) On September 12, 2017, Yoshitatsu made his debut for
All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), entering the annual
Ōdō Tournament and defeating
Tajiri in his first round match. Six days later, he was eliminated from the tournament in the second round by
Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Kento Miyahara. On November 9, Yoshitatsu unsuccessfully challenged
Joe Doering for the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship. He entered the
2017 Real World Tag League with Miyahara and had a good showing, winning five matches, but was one short of a finals berth. On February 3, 2018, Yoshitatsu and Miyahara defeated
Shuji Ishikawa and
Suwama to win the
World Tag Team Championship. Calling themselves Yoshiken, their reign lasted only 22 days, as they lost the belts to
The Big Guns on February 25. In April, he entered his first
Champion Carnival, posting three wins to finish fifth in block B. Challenging Ishikawa and Suwama for the World Tag Team Championship for a second time, Yoshiken were defeated on August 18. On May 27, 2019, Yoshitatsu defeated Tajiri to win the
Gaora TV Championship. Tatsu signed full time with All Japan on January 1, 2020, with the contract being announced at their first show of the year on January 2. After nine successful title defences and a record breaking 587 days as champion, Yoshitatsu lost the Gaora TV Championship to
Jun Kasai in a
tables, ladders and chairs match on January 3, 2021. Yoshitatsu would compete in a series "Different Style Fights", innovated by
Antonio Inoki, these worked matches pit professional wrestlers against martial artists and have a focus on a more realistic style of pro-wrestling. His most notable match came on June 26 where he defeated former
Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation champion boxer turned mixed martial artist
Yōsuke Nishijima. On July 22, he won the
AJPW TV Six-Man Tag Team Championship with Carbell Ito and Seigo Tachibana from Tajiri,
Yusuke Kodama and
Hokuto Omori. They were forced to vacate the title after Carbell Ito suffered a fractured wrist on September 28 but Yoshitatsu and Tachibana would regain the titles on October 16 with
Takayuki Ueki. On December 31, 2023, at #ajpwMANIAx2023, he announced he was leaving AJPW.
DDT Pro-Wrestling (2024) On January 3, 2024, Yoshi Tatsu made an appearance at the start of the
D-Oh Grand Prix 2023 Final event where it was announced he would tour with
DDT Pro-Wrestling starting January 5.
Pro Wrestling NOAH (2024–Present) Yoshitatsu debuted on Noah on September 30 under a mask and weeks later created the stable
Team 2000X with Jack Morris and Daga. == Other media ==