World Famous
Naofumi Yamamoto (born August 1, 1977) is a Japanese professional wrestler and boxer, better known under the ring name of Yoshi Tatsu (or Yoshitatsu as it's been spelled outside the WWE main roster). Yamamoto began his wrestling career through New Japan Pro-Wrestling under his real name from 2002-2007 before being signed to WWE and joining the FCW developmental roster, first using his real last name before eventually changing it to the Yoshitatsu name. He made his official WWE TV debut in 2009 when he defeated Shelton Benjamin in a match on ECW. Since then, Tatsu has remained a lower-card face on WWE, but his career was never really able to take off before he was released and headed back to New Japan.Trope Hunter:
- Arch-Enemy:
- With Tyson Kidd on NXT.
- Bullet Club in NJPW
- Bullying a Dragon: Apparently, Sheamus used to make racist jokes on Tatsu back when they, along with Ted Dibiase Jr, were roommates in FCW. One day, Sheamus used a protein mixer that belonged to Tatsu, so the other two had enough of his crap and confronted him along. A physical fight started between Sheamus and Tatsu, and the latter, being a real life amateur wrestler, boxer and jujutsuka, supposedly beat the former so bad that Sheamus was on the verge of crying at the end.
- Demoted to Extra: On ECW he was a number one contender for the title. Once that show was over he became a jobber.
- Didn't See That Coming: After being released by WWE, Naofumi works the indies for a while and a report comes in he may head back to Japan, no big deal. The Big Deal comes when he appears in the main event of New Japan Pro-Wrestling's King of Pro Wrestling event he appears out of nowhere and attacks Jeff Jarrett, stopping him from interfering in the World Title Match and thus helping to ensure Hiroshi Tanahashi's victory over AJ Styles.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After being released by WWE he returned to New Japan, but suffered a neck injury in his first match back. He was put on the shelf and went through over a year's worth of therapy and surgery but announced his intention to return to the ring and on his first match back, won the NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Championship with Hiroshi Tanahashi and Michael Elgin, defeating the Bullet Club to do so.
- Gratuitous English: Goldust decided to try and teach him better English in exchange for Yoshi teaching him better Japanese.
- Shout-Out: Abraham Washington told him "Don't nobody understand the words that are coming out of your mouth man!"
- Japanese Politeness: Thank You!
- Keet: Until Tyson Kidd broke his action figure, making him pouty.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Him and Goldust.
- Made of Iron: The WWE came down on Goldust after The Pryme Players did a double team
- Mask of Power: Averted. He has changed his look
◊...but he's still essentially a Jobber and a guy that only sees TV time when a match or promo (e.g. Lumberjack or locker-room-clearing brawl) calls for a lot of bodies. - Meaningful Rename: Yoshitatsu is his father's given name.
- One-Hit KO: His roundhouse kick had this effect on Shelton Benjamin on his debut ECW match.
- Power Trio: In his early New Japan run, he had Noke Kekki-gun, with Shinsuke Nakamura and Ryuske Takaguchi.
- Red Baron: World Famous and The Bullet Club Hunter
- Say My Name: Yoshi Tatsu yelled out "TAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIISOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!" when the latter broke the leg of the former's action figure in their 2011 NXT feud.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Compare the always-chipper and unabashedly honorable card-carrying Face of his earlier fare to the guy rolling his eyes and remarking "So what?" on commentary about all the talk of mutual respect between Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles prior to their Intercontinental Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 10.
- Squash Match: In his WWECW debut he beat Shelton Benjamin with one kick to the head.
- Underestimating Badassery: Shelton spent over a minute mocking his Japanese Politeness and Keet demeanor, not even taking him remotely seriously until that kick to the head.
- Stock Foreign Name: Well, Yoshi and Tatsu are alone, together not so much (it roughly translates to pretty dragon).
- The WWECW fans would make signs playing with this name. The camera once zoomed in on a kid with a pretty good illustration of a Super Mario World joke.
- Tag Team:
- The New Japan Dragons, with Hiroshi Tanahashi. Ended up reuniting briefly to combat the Bullet Club takeover shortly after his WWE exodus.
- In WWE's FCW developmental program he had Movers and Shakers, with Sheamus O'Shaunessy.
