Puroresu Central

Yoshiaki Yatsu

Birthdate: July 19th, 1956
Debut: December 29th, 1980
Background: Olympic Freestyle Wrestling
Promotions Worked For: All Japan, New Japan, SWS, and SPWF
Major Puroresu Titles Held: All Japan Tag Team Championship (5 times), NWA International Tag Team Championship, PWF World Tag team Championship, IWA World Tag Team Championship, and the SWS Tag Team Championship (2 times)

Signature Moves:
- Bulldog
- Diving Headbutt to a Standing Opponent
- German Suplex Hold
- Jailhouse Lock
- Palm Strikes
- Piledriver
- Powerbomb
- Powerslam

A veteran wrestler who has been active for almost 30 years, Yatsu was originally an olympic freestyle wrestler who took part to the Montreal olympic games. After retiring, Yatsu immediately joined the New Japan Dojo and debuted in USA in the WWF. A couple of years later Yatsu finally had his Japanese debut, as a Riki Choshu protégé. In 1984 Yatsu left New Japan for All Japan, where he had a huge push, capturing the NWA International Tag Team Title when he teamed with Riki Choshu. In 1998/1999 Yatsu formed a successful tag team with Jumbo Tsuruta and they would win the All Japan Tag Team Championship 5 times. Following this success, Yatsu even had a title shot for the Triple Crown, but was defeated by Tenryu. In 1990 Yatsu joined SWS and when the promotion closed its doors in 1992, his career started to decline. He founded SPWF (Social Pro Wrestling Federation), which has never encountered a great deal of success. In the following years Yatsu wrestled outside of SPWF only a few times, and his promotion collapsed following his agreement to join Riki Choshu’s World Japan even though Yatsu would never wrestle in World Japan due to booking issues. Yatsu tried to make a comeback in MMA in 2000, when he was 44 years old, but he ended up defeated 2 times. Yoshiaki Yatsu has not officially retired yet and in 2008, at the age of 52, is still wrestling in Hiroshi Hatanaka Asian Sports Promotion.

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