Tatanka (wrestler)
Chris Chavis is an American retired professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, under a legends contract. He is citizen of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. He is best known for his tenures in the World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment under the ring name Tatanka from 1991 to 1996 and from 2005 to 2007. His ring name is a Lakota word, which means "bison".
Bodybuilding and football careers
Chavis started competing in powerlifting. He competed in his first bodybuilding contest, Mr. Virginia Beach, placing second. He won many competitions during his time in bodybuilding, but decided against competing on the national level and possibly turning pro. From 1985 to 1990 he worked for Bally's Health and Tennis Corporation, becoming a divisional manager.Chavis went to the open try outs during the 1987 NFL player strike for the Miami Dolphins and made the cut, but he turned it down due to the lucrative money he was already making selling memberships at Bally's. In 1989, Chavis left Bally's to pursue an accounting career.
Professional wrestling career
Early career (1989–1990)
In 1989, Chavis met "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers in Florida at a video store while looking for wrestling tapes. Rogers had Chavis call Larry Sharpe, who ran Monster Factory in South Jersey. He had his first match, as "Tatanka", against Joe Thunder in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 13, 1990.Rogers introduced Chavis to George Scott, the booker for the World Wrestling Federation during the 1980s. Scott was starting his own promotion called the North American Wrestling Association. Chavis wrestled under the name "War Eagle" Chris Chavis and was voted third runner up for PWI Rookie of the Year in Pro Wrestling Illustrated for 1990. Also in 1990, he became the South Atlantic Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Champion by beating Vince Torelli. Not long after, he was signed to a WWF contract.
World Wrestling Federation (1991–1996)
Undefeated streak (1991–1994)
Chavis received his first try-out match with the WWF on January 8, 1991, as War Eagle against Dale Wolfe at a WWF Wrestling Challenge taping in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He received a second try-out on February 18, 1991, against the Brooklyn Brawler at a WWF Superstars taping in Orlando, Florida. Wrestling as the War Eagle, Chavis was victorious. He followed it up with another win against Dale Wolfe the next day at a Wrestling Challenge taping. On October 21 he received what was likely another tryout match at a Superstars taping, this time defeating Skinner. In November Chavis began wrestling on house shows under his given name. Soon after, he took on the ring name "Tatanka". After wrestling in try-out matches at house shows, Tatanka made his television debut as a fan favorite on the February 1, 1992, episode of WWF Superstars, defeating Pat Tanaka in his debut match. As Tatanka, Chavis performed a war dance to the Lumbee tribal war cry that preceded his entrance to the ring, and had a red stripe dyed in the middle of his hair in a mohawk style.Tatanka was pushed as undefeated on WWF television; he did not suffer any defeat by pinfall or submission, but he lost several matches at house shows, the first being a countout loss to Rick Martel on June 4, 1992, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Tatanka's earliest rivalry on television was against Martel; it culminated in Tatanka's pay-per-view debut at WrestleMania VIII with Tatanka winning the match. On May 18, 1992, Tatanka reached the peak of his success by winning the 40-man Bashed in the USA battle royal. He renewed his "feud" with Martel, who had stolen sacred eagle feathers from him to add to his wardrobe, going on to defeat Martel again at Survivor Series to reclaim the feathers.
At WrestleMania IX, Tatanka received his first televised title shot in the WWF, against Shawn Michaels for the WWF Intercontinental Championship. Tatanka won the match by disqualification. Since a title could not change hands on a disqualification, Michaels retained the title. On the October 30, 1993, edition of Superstars, Tatanka suffered his first televised defeat in the WWF, losing to Ludvig Borga. After the match, he was attacked by WWF Champion Yokozuna and was subsequently out of action for three months.
Tatanka returned to the WWF in the beginning of 1994. He was scheduled to face Borga in a rematch at the Royal Rumble, but Borga injured his ankle just days before the event. Borga was replaced by Bam Bam Bigelow, who Tatanka defeated. Bigelow, however, would go on to eliminate Tatanka from the 30-man Royal Rumble match. On the March 7 episode of Raw, Tatanka was honored by retired professional wrestlers Chief Jay Strongbow and Chief Wahoo McDaniel and by Lumbee tribesman Ray Littleturtle. Littleturtle presented him with a full-length Lumbee tribe chief headdress. Throughout mid-1994, Tatanka engaged in a storyline feud with Irwin R. Schyster, who insisted he pay a gift tax on the item. Strongbow briefly served as Tatanka's mentor and manager during the duration of the feud.
Million Dollar Corporation (1994–1996)
During the summer of 1994, Tatanka accused Lex Luger of selling out to Ted DiBiase, which resulted in a match between the two. Afterward, DiBiase entered the ring with a red, white and blue bag full of money. Luger kicked the bag out of DiBiase's hands resulting in Tatanka attacking him and turning him into a villain at SummerSlam, joining DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation. He spent the remainder of the year feuding with Luger which topped off in a cage match on Raw that saw Luger come out the victor. According to Tatanka, that the original plan was to have Barry Windham return to the WWF and form the "New Money Inc." with Irwin R. Schyster and managed by DiBiase and have a long feud with Luger and Tatanka, however Windham suffered a knee injury from Ric Flair at Slamboree and the WWF couldn't reach a deal with him and Luger suggested that his next feud be with Tatanka instead and WWF agreed.In spring 1995, Tatanka had another feud with Bam Bam Bigelow, who just turned face. As a result, he teamed with Sycho Sid at the King of the Ring pay-per-view to lose to Bigelow and Diesel.
Tatanka was suspended on August 30, reportedly as a preemptive measure for being named in a lawsuit to be filed by a woman stemming from an incident in Anaheim, California, following a WWF event in late 1994. According to sources, the woman was said to have been drugged, sodomized and her head shaved on only one side. Kevin Nash reiterated this story in an interview with Kayfabe Commentaries. The woman was having drinks with him and Undertaker the night prior. When the wrestlers were leaving the hotel the following morning, Nash noticed that she was seated in between two police officers. The hallway was smeared in blood. She had half her head shaven as she was crying, reporting the incident to the officers. In the interview, however, Nash presumed the person who did this was Jimmy Del Ray because of similar stories of Del Ray. During representation by Tatanka's attorney the facts showed that Tatanka was not involved in the incident at all and Del Ray was fired from the company; Tatanka's suspension was lifted and he returned with full-pay to the active WWF roster. As Nash noted in his interview, he knew that Tatanka was not involved at all, but he had been around Del Ray that night, which caused Tatanka to also be named and unfairly suspended.
Following this hiatus at the end of August 1995, Tatanka returned to the WWF to compete in the Royal Rumble event, where he was eliminated by Diesel.
On March 18, 1996, Tatanka wrestled his final televised match in the WWF, losing to the WWF champion Bret Hart in a non-title match where he got a face pop for accidentally hitting The 1-2-3 Kid when Kid grabbed Bret, and Tatanka was supposed to hit Bret but Bret ducked out of the way and Tatanka ended up hitting Kid by accident instead. Tatanka left the WWF in the spring of 1996, citing family and spiritual issues. He continued to appear for independent promotions, which allowed him to continue to wrestle while maintaining a lighter schedule.
Independent circuit and international promotions (1996–2003)
After WWF, Tatanka worked in the independents. He lost to his former tag partner Bam Bam Bigelow on September 28, 1996 at EWA/USWF show in New York City. In 1997, Chavis wrestled for the independent New York-based promotion Ultimate Championship Wrestling, where he wrestled Bruce Hart of the Hart wrestling family, King Kong Bundy, Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart and Marty Jannetty. He went from playing the role of a face to a heel when he turned on Falcon Coperis and Tommy Cairo to align himself with the likes of the UWF faction of the organization which included Neidhart, Hart, and eventually Jannetty. Chavis captured the UCW Heavyweight Championship title and handed then-champion Falcon Coperis his first championship defeat. Chavis remained champion until the organization folded its professional wrestling division in 1998.He won the Stampede Wrestling North American Heavyweight Championship on April 8, 1998, defeating Sid Vicious in a fictitious tournament final. During the reign, he would feud with Jim Neidhart and his cousin Jason Neidhart in 1999. That year he vacated the title as he left Stampede. He would work for Florida's Future Of Wrestling from 1998 to 2000.
In 2000, he won the i-Generation Wrestling Australasian Championship defeating the One Man Gang in Australia. A few days later he dropped the title back to the One Man Gang. In 2001, he worked in England and in 2002 worked in Canada and Ireland. In 2003, he made an appearance for Combat Zone Wrestling. Tatanka then took a hiatus from wrestling and was not seen in the public eye for over two years.