Yoshi Tatsu

On June 30, 2009, Tatsu joined World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)'s *ECW* brand. He had his first match that night, defeating Shelton Benjamin, although he lost a rematch to Benjamin on the July 9 episode of *ECW*. 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, 2010 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 was unsuccessful in doing.

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 DiBiase were about to kiss, but Maryse instead kissed Tatsu. On the February 24 episode of *Superstars*, during the match between Daniel Bryan and Ted 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, 2011, 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.

Tatsu was a WWE Pro for the fifth season of *NXT*, also known as *NXT Redemption*, and his Rookie was Byron Saxton. On the April 26 episode of *NXT*, Tatsu was attacked by Saxton after Tatsu cost his match against Lucky Cannon. This caused tension between the two until the May 17 episode of *NXT*, when Tatsu defeated Saxton. On the May 31 episode of *NXT*, Saxton was the second rookie eliminated.

Tatsu then began a feud with fellow *NXT* Pro Tyson Kidd, whose rookie was also eliminated, when Kidd broke Tatsu's toy figure of himself and stole one of its legs. 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 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, 2012 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, Tatsu was released from his WWE contract.