Tatanka

Chavis made his debut into the WWF in late 1991 under his given name. He took on the name Tatanka soon afterwards. During his WWF run, Tatanka was best known for accumulating a significant undefeated streak nearly two years long, defeating many major names such as Rick Martel and Shawn Michaels and winning the 1992 Bashed in the USA 40-man battle royal. Tatanka was also known for his war dance, the Lumbee tribal war cry that preceded his entrance to the ring, and a red stripe dyed in the middle of his hair.
On September 28, 1993 he suffered his first defeat in the WWF, losing to Ludvig Borga (Borga had hit Tatanka in the back with a steel chair while Mr. Fuji distracted the referee). After the match, he was attacked by WWF Champion Yokozuna, and was subsequently out of action for three months. When he returned, he received his only WWF Championship match, losing to Yokozuna.
Tatanka was honored by previous Native American professional wrestlers Chief Jay Strongbow and Chief Wahoo McDaniel and Lumbee tribesman Ray Littleturtle on an edition of Raw. Littleturtle presented him with a full length Lumbee tribe Chief Headdress. Tatanka engaged in a storyline feud with Irwin R. Schyster, who insisted he pay a gift tax on the item, while Tatanka insisted his Lumbee heritage afforded him tax deductible privileges. Strongbow briefly served as Tatanka's mentor and manager during the duration of the feud.
During the summer of 1994 Tatanka accused fellow face Lex Luger of selling out to Ted DiBiase. This resulted in a match between the two at of the of which DiBiase entered the ring with a red, white and blue bag full of money. Luger kicked the bag out of DiBiase's hands resulting in Tatanka attacking him turning him heel at SummerSlam 1994, joining Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation. He spent the remainder of the year feuding with Luger which topped off in a cage match on RAW which saw Luger as the victor. In 1995 Tatanka went back to the midcard and jobbed to the likes of Jake Roberts.
Tatanka left the WWF in the summer of 1995, citing family and spiritual issues. Since the WWF workload at the time topped 300 shows a year, Chavis had little time for his family. At the time, the WWF and major rival World Championship Wrestling (WCW) were in a major talent war, and WCW President Eric Bischoff offered him a lucrative deal, but Chavis declined. He continued to appear for independent promotions, which allowed him to continue to wrestle while maintaining a lighter schedule. He also made a one-night WWF return to appear in the 1996 Royal Rumble.
On August 1, 2005 Chavis returned to Raw as a face once again which was intended to be a special one-time appearance to face Eugene in the "Eugene Invitational", a 3-minute match with Kurt Angle's Olympic gold medal on the line. Tatanka lost the match when Angle attacked Eugene with 27 seconds remaining, causing a disqualification. He mentioned on his website afterward that he loved being back in a WWE ring and hoped someday to return.
Chavis returned to a full-time schedule for World Wrestling Entertainment as "Tatanka" at the tail end of 2005, debuting at a December 27 house show, teaming with then-babyface, Shelton Benjamin in a win over Carlito and Jonathan Coachman. He returned to television in the Royal Rumble match at the January 2006 event, where he was eliminated by Joey Mercury and Johnny Nitro. The next month he began appearing on Velocity before being moved full time to the SmackDown! brand.
As a face, Chavis teamed with then-babyface, Matt Hardy to defeat MNM, the then-Tag Team Champions, in a non title match at No Way Out. They were granted a title shot on the next edition of SmackDown!, but lost.
On the April 28 SmackDown! a vignette played announcing that "a new warrior would soon be forged in Tatanka." Over the next three weeks footage aired of Tatanka being (legitimately) adopted into the Oglala Sioux Tribe(Lakota), which is considered a huge honor. When he returned to wrestling Tatanka defeated Simon Dean with his new finisher, "Wakinyan" (from the Lakota word for "Thunder").
Tatanka engaged in a mini-feud with Sylvain Grenier, trading victories with him, before he was moved into an angle where he entered into a losing streak due to, what he perceived to be, bad decision-making by referees during his matches. This escalated until the October 27 SmackDown! when Tatanka, alongside partner Bobby Lashley, lost a match to William Regal and Dave Taylor when Regal pinned Tatanka by illegally using the ropes. After the match Tatanka argued the decision again, then he turned heel by attacking the referee, then Lashley when he tried to calm him down. The next week he appeared on SmackDown! with a new style of warpaint, covering the top of his face in black and the bottom in white, and cut a promo on Lashley saying he owed neither him nor the crowd an explanation for his actions. He compared his recent losing streak to the years of persecution that his people had suffered over the years and said that he "called upon his forefathers to unleash a new warrior in [him]".
He asked for and was released from his WWE contract in January 2007, but not before ending his losing streak by defeating Jimmy Wang Yang, his first victory in months. WWE.com noted this event with these parting words: "Tatanka is an accomplished veteran of the squared circle. The Native American made a splash upon his entrance to the WWE in the early 90s, remaining undefeated for 2-years." Tatanka stated on his official website that he requested to be released and mentioned he was not done with WWE as he would like to return someday. WWE included him in part of the major budget cut of released talent.