In 1986 Yatsu took a hiatus from professional wrestling in order to one last time chase his Olympic dream. However, after winning a Japanese National Championship in the super heavyweight division in 1986 and while training for the 1987 Asian Wrestling Championships, the International Olympic Committee declared that Yatsu was a professional athlete and banned him from not only that competition, but also from the 1988 Summer Olympics.[2] The decision stunned many people, but Yatsu didn't file an appeal.[2]
Return
In July 2023, Yatsu, at nearly 67 years old, competed in the first-ever Adult Championships for the newly-formed Japan Para-Wrestling Federation. He lost to Yosuke Kamochi in the first round of the tournament.[3]
Professional wrestling career
In 1980, after Japan decided not to send their athletes to take part in the Summer Olympics in Moscow, Yatsu garnered a great deal of national attention, when he announced his intention of becoming a professional wrestler.[2] Yatsu worked for the World Wrestling Federation as the Great Yatsu from 1980 to 1981. Within just a few years, Yatsu became a regular headliner for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), before joining Riki Choshu, when he left the promotion for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) at the end of 1984.[2] In All Japan Yatsu and Choshu formed a tag team, which would go on to win the NWA International Tag Team Championship.[2]
While Yatsu was training for his Olympic dream, Choshu left All Japan and returned to New Japan.[2] Upon his return to professional wrestling, Yatsu decided not to join his tag team partner in New Japan, but to stay in All Japan.[2] Afterwards, All Japan broke up the tag team of Genichiro Tenryu and Jumbo Tsuruta and made Tsuruta Yatsu's new tag team partner.[2] The tag team, known as "The Olympics", would go on to win the World Tag Team Championship five times, the PWF World Tag Team Championship once and in 1987 the team also won the World's Strongest Tag Determination League.[2] In 1990 the team broke up when Yatsu jumped to Super World of Sports.[2] In 1991, while working for the promotion, Yatsu unsuccessfully challenged Hulk Hogan for the WWF Championship.[2] When Super World of Sports folded in 1992, Yatsu formed his own promotion Social Pro Wrestling Federation (SPWF), but would wrestle himself only semi-regularly.[2] In 1994 he returned to New Japan to take part in the G1 Climax tournament.[2] He retired from wrestling in 2003.
In recent years, Yatsu has been the president of a transportation company.[2] On November 30, 2010, he returned to the professional wrestling ring to wrestle his retirement match.[2] The match took place in front of 500 fans at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo, and saw Yatsu and Koji Ishinriki losing to Tatsumi Fujinami and Tiger Mask, when Yatsu submitted to Fujinami.[2]
In September 2015, Yatsu came out of retirement to team with his son Teriyaki Yatsu and began competing for smaller promotions. In April 2019, he debuted for Dramatic Dream Team (DDT).
After spending multiple years out of the spotlight, Yatsu, aged 44, received a big money offer to fight for mixed martial arts promotion Pride Fighting Championships.[2] On October 31, 2000, Yatsu faced Gary Goodridge in Osaka.[2] Yatsu, who hadn't had any stand-up training at all and hadn't competed outside of professional wrestling in 13 years, was defeated at 8:58 in the first round.[2] Despite being dominated, Yatsu received a standing ovation from the crowd due to the amount of damage he absorbed without quitting, even trying a leglock at a point.[2] The two were booked in a rematch on September 24, 2001.[2] Goodridge again dominated the fight, got Yatsu in a guillotine choke and asked for his corner to throw in the towel, which they did.[2]
In December 2015, he became a supervisor for DEEP.
Personal life
In 1991, at the age of 35, Yatsu was diagnosed with diabetes. On June 25, 2019, Yatsu underwent an operation to amputate his right leg below the knee, as bacteria had entered his bloodstream and his right toe was progressively neurotic.[4]
