Yoshitatsu

Yoshitatsu in November 2017

###

Gifu, Japan

**Naofumi Yamamoto** (山本 尚史, *Yamamoto Naofumi*, born August 1, 1977) is a Japanese professional wrestler and former boxer currently signed to DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT).

Yamamoto started his professional wrestling career under his real name in October 2002 with New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), where he remained until 2007, when he signed with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). In 2009, Yamamoto left WWE's developmental territory to join the promotion's main roster under the ring name **Yoshi Tatsu**. After his June 2014 release from WWE, Yamamoto returned to NJPW the following October, performing under the tweaked ring name **Yoshitatsu** (ヨシタツ, *Yoshitatsu*). Following his departure from NJPW in late 2017, he became a freelancer and started working most notably for All Japan Pro Wrestling.

## Professional wrestling career

### 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. During his training, Yamamoto also travelled to Los Angeles to train at the local NJPW dojo. Yamamoto made his in-ring debut on October 12, 2002, facing Wataru Inoue in Korakuen Hall.

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.

### 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. Yoshitatsu wrestled his return match on November 8 at Power Struggle, where he was defeated by Styles, following outside interference from Jarrett. Styles won after performing with his signature finisher, the *Styles Clash*. While performing the move, Yoshitatsu moved his head down before the point of impact with the mat. Instead of having his face slammed into the mat he took his weight, Styles' weight, and all of the force onto his neck. After the match, Jarrett hit Yoshitatsu with a guitar. 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 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. However, on September 25 at Destruction in Kobe, Captain New Japan turned on Yoshitatsu and jumped to 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. Yoshitatsu left Taguchi Japan in May 2017. This followed up, his profile being quietly removed from NJPW's roster page, signaling his departure from the promotion, which he later confirmed on Twitter.

### 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 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. Following his departure from NJPW, Yoshitatsu returned to his old gimmick and also he changed his style. He then challenged Joe Doering for a match for his Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship. Afterwards, Yoshitatsu debuted a new finishing move the *Yoshitatsu Lock I* and returned to use the Backdrop and before the title match, he defeated former Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Jun Akiyama. On November 9, Yoshitatsu unsuccessfully challenged Joe Doering for the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship. In December Yoshitatsu took part of the 2017 World's Strongest Tag Determination League alongside Kento Miyahara finishing the tournament with a record of five wins and four losses, failing to advance to the finals after losing to Suwama and Shuji Ishikawa in their head-to-head match. Afterwards, the two formed a team named YoshiKen which led to defeat Suwama and Ishikawa to win the World Tag Team Champions on February 3, 2018. They lost the title to The Bodyguard and Zeus on February 25. On May 27, Yoshitatsu defeated Tajiri to win the Gaora TV Championship. In September 2020, Yoshitatsu took part of the 2020 Champion Carnival, finishing the tournament with a record of one win and three losses, failling to advance to the finals of the tournament. Following the tournament, Yoshitatsu formed his own stable named Yoshitatsu Kingdom with Ryoji Sai, Yusuke Okada, Seigo Tachibana and Chikara. From November 22 until December 7, Yoshitatsu and Sai took part in the 2020 World's Strongest Tag Determination League, finishing the tournament, with a record of three wins and four losses, failling to win the tournament.

On January 3, 2021, Yoshitatsu lost the Gaora TV Championship to Jun Kasai. On July 22, Yoshitatsu, Seigo Tachibana and Carbell Ito defeated Yusuke Kodama, TAJIRI and Hokuto Omori to win the AJPW TV 6-Man Tag Team Championship. They vacated the titles after Ito fractured his wrist on September 28. On October 16, Yoshitatsu, Taichibana and with their new Yoshitatsu Kingdom stablemate Takayuki Ueki defeated Raimu Imai, Takao Omori and TAMURA to regain the titles. At the end of the year, Ueki, Tachibana, and Yoshitatsu Kingdom newest member Baliyan Akki, began plotting a coup d'etat against Yoshitatsu. This led to a one-on-three handicap match on January 23, 2022, where to win Yoshitatsu had to defeat all of them. The match ended in a no contest, when Kazma Sakamoto made an surprise appearance for the promotion, attacking Yoshitatsu, before the rest of the stable turned on him and joined Sakamoto. In April, Yoshitatsu took part in the 2022 Champion Carnival, finishing the tournament with a record of two wins and three losses, failling to advance to the finals of the tournament. On October 30, Yoshitatsu and TAJIRI defeated Dan Tamura and Hikaru Sato to win the All Asia Tag Team Championship. On November 27, Yoshitatsu and TAJIRI lost the All Asia Tag Team Championships to Yusuke Kodama and Masao Hanahata.

From April 8 and May 7, 2023, Yoshitatsu took part in the 2023 Champion Carnival, finishing the tournament with a record of one wins and six losses, failing to advance to the finals of the tournament. On December 31, Yoshitatsu made his last match for AJPW in a winning effort teaming with Yuma Aoyagi in a winning effort against Shuji Ishikawa and Ren Ayabe.

### DDT Pro-Wrestling (2024–Present)

On January 3, 2024, Yoshitatsu made his debut in DDT Pro-Wrestling, announcing that he would starting working in the promotion, with the appearances of wrestlers such as Chris Jericho and Konosuke Takeshita, making him want to work for DDT.

## Other media

As Tatsu, Yamamoto is featured as a playable superstar for the WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011, WWE '12 and WWE '13 (as DLC) video games. He was previously featured in King of Colosseum II and Wrestle Kingdom 2 under his real name.

## Personal life

Yamamoto is a graduate from Kokushikan University with a degree in political science. Yamamoto is also married and has a child.

## In Wrestling

* **Finishing moves**
	+ **As Naofumi Yamamoto**
		- *Satsujin Backdrop* (High-angle belly-to-back suplex)
	+ **As Yoshitatsu**
		- *Backdrop Hold* (High-angle belly-to-back suplex) – 2017–Present
		- *Codebreaker from Jericho* (Double knee facebreaker) – 2018–Present; parodied from Chris Jericho
		- Diving spinning heel kick
		- *Land of Rising Knee* (Hip toss dropped into a knee lift)
		- *Pedigree* (Double underhook facebuster) – 2016–2017; parodied from Triple H
		- *Yoshitatsu Lock I* (Triangle Choke) – 2017–Present
		- *Yoshitatsu Fantasy* (Modified Gogoplata) – 2018–Present
		- *Yoshitatsu Pandemic* (Stepover toehold ankle lock)
		- Roundhouse kick
		- *Yoshitatsu Rhapsody* (Diving Double Knee Facebreaker)
* **Signature moves**
	+ Belly-to-back suplex
	+ Cloverleaf
	+ Cross armbreaker
	+ Discus elbow smash
	+ Diving crossbody
	+ Diving overhead chop
	+ Double knee strike
	+ Japanese arm drag
	+ Knife-edge chop
	+ Multiple kick variations
		- Back
		- Big boot
		- Shining Wizard
		- Shoot to the opponent's chest, sometimes preceded by a rolling snapmare
		- Spinning wheel
	+ Northern Lights suplex
	+ Octopus stretch
	+ Twisting elbow drop
* **Nicknames**
	+ **"World Famous"**
	+ **"**Bullet Club Hunter**"**
* **Entrance themes**
	+ "Naofumi Yamamoto Theme Song" by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW)
	+ **"World Famous"** by Yonosuke Kitamura (AJPW/NJPW)

## Championships and accomplishments

* **All Japan Pro Wrestling**
	+ AJPW TV 6-Man Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Seigo Tachibana and Carbell Ito (1) and Seigo Tachibana and Takayuki Ueki (1)
	+ All Asia Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with TAJIRI (1) and Atsushi Onita (1)
	+ World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Kento Miyahara
	+ Gaora TV Championship (1 time)
* **I Believe in Wrestling**
	+ SCW Florida Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
* **New Japan Pro Wrestling**
	+ NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Hiroshi Tanahashi and Michael Elgin
* ***Pro Wrestling Illustrated***
	+ PWI ranked him #**78** of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2010
	+ PWI ranked him #**270** of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2016
	+ PWI ranked him #**225** of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2017
* **Pro Wrestling Riot**
	+ PWR Championship (1 time)