SmackDown and NXT (2011–present)
On April 26, Tatsu was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2011 Supplemental Draft.[27] His only appearances on SmackDown for 2011 were in the form of number one contenders battle royals for the World Heavyweight Championship and participation in the All I Want for Christmas battle royal where the winner would receive one wish.[26]
Tatsu was a WWE Pro for the fifth season of WWE NXT, also known as NXT Redemption, with his rookie being Byron Saxton. On the April 26 episode of WWE NXT, Tatsu was attacked by Saxton after Tatsu cost his match against Lucky Cannon. This would cause tension between the two until the May 17 episode of WWE NXT, where Tatsu would defeat Saxton. On the May 31 episode of WWE NXT, Saxton was the second rookie eliminated.
After Saxton's elimination, Tatsu began a feud with fellow NXT pro Tyson Kidd, whose rookie was also eliminated. Their feud stemmed from Kidd breaking Tatsu's toy figurine of himself and stealing one of the toy figurine's legs.[28] Both wrestlers would trade wins during their series of matches,[28][29] and Tatsu claimed back the stolen figurine leg by winning a Necklace on a Pole match on the July 26 episode of NXT.[30] After the match, Kidd brutally assaulted the right leg of Tatsu, causing Tatsu to be absent from NXT for more than a month. However, in the next few weeks, a mysterious Japanese symbol would appear on the TitanTron to distract Kidd during his matches. The symbol turned out to be the Kanji lettering for “pride” – a message from Tatsu. Tatsu returned on the September 6th episode of NXT, where he debuted black tights emblazoned with Kanji characters and the Japanese flag, had his small lock of blond hair dyed red and had half his face painted. Tatsu would go on to defeat Kidd on that episode to end the feud.[31] Tatsu later explained that his new look and wrestling style was due to him wanting to better portray Japanese culture, Japanese pride and the aggressive style of Japanese wrestling; he also explained that his face paint was a tribute to the Great Muta.[32] Tatsu stopped wearing his face paint to the ring by October 2011.[33]
Tatsu formed an alliance with Trent Barreta; from December 2011, they feuded with Curt Hawkins and Tyler Reks.[34] Both teams would play pranks on each other, with Tatsu being locked in a closet and Reks' hands being superglued onto an Xbox controller.[35] On January 18th Hawkins and Reks beat Barreta and Tatsu, culminating the feud.[26]
On January 24 Tatsu would team up with Santino Marella to form a comical, the pair could not decide what the tag team should be known as, Santino suggested "Santoshi" and Tatsu suggested "Yoshitino". The pair took on the WWE Tag Team Champions Primo & Epico in a losing effort.[26] On next weeks episode of SmackDown, Santino stated that the combination of the two was not suitable and therefore searched for another partner which would be Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Tatsu would then go on a losing streak against the likes of Jinder Mahal, Hunico, and Damien Sandow.[36][37][38][39]
On the September 7, 2012 episode of WWE Smackdown, he continued his losing streak against a returning Wade Barrett in a squash match.
On April 26, Tatsu was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2011 Supplemental Draft.[27] His only appearances on SmackDown for 2011 were in the form of number one contenders battle royals for the World Heavyweight Championship and participation in the All I Want for Christmas battle royal where the winner would receive one wish.[26]
Tatsu was a WWE Pro for the fifth season of WWE NXT, also known as NXT Redemption, with his rookie being Byron Saxton. On the April 26 episode of WWE NXT, Tatsu was attacked by Saxton after Tatsu cost his match against Lucky Cannon. This would cause tension between the two until the May 17 episode of WWE NXT, where Tatsu would defeat Saxton. On the May 31 episode of WWE NXT, Saxton was the second rookie eliminated.
After Saxton's elimination, Tatsu began a feud with fellow NXT pro Tyson Kidd, whose rookie was also eliminated. Their feud stemmed from Kidd breaking Tatsu's toy figurine of himself and stealing one of the toy figurine's legs.[28] Both wrestlers would trade wins during their series of matches,[28][29] and Tatsu claimed back the stolen figurine leg by winning a Necklace on a Pole match on the July 26 episode of NXT.[30] After the match, Kidd brutally assaulted the right leg of Tatsu, causing Tatsu to be absent from NXT for more than a month. However, in the next few weeks, a mysterious Japanese symbol would appear on the TitanTron to distract Kidd during his matches. The symbol turned out to be the Kanji lettering for “pride” – a message from Tatsu. Tatsu returned on the September 6th episode of NXT, where he debuted black tights emblazoned with Kanji characters and the Japanese flag, had his small lock of blond hair dyed red and had half his face painted. Tatsu would go on to defeat Kidd on that episode to end the feud.[31] Tatsu later explained that his new look and wrestling style was due to him wanting to better portray Japanese culture, Japanese pride and the aggressive style of Japanese wrestling; he also explained that his face paint was a tribute to the Great Muta.[32] Tatsu stopped wearing his face paint to the ring by October 2011.[33]
Tatsu formed an alliance with Trent Barreta; from December 2011, they feuded with Curt Hawkins and Tyler Reks.[34] Both teams would play pranks on each other, with Tatsu being locked in a closet and Reks' hands being superglued onto an Xbox controller.[35] On January 18th Hawkins and Reks beat Barreta and Tatsu, culminating the feud.[26]
On January 24 Tatsu would team up with Santino Marella to form a comical, the pair could not decide what the tag team should be known as, Santino suggested "Santoshi" and Tatsu suggested "Yoshitino". The pair took on the WWE Tag Team Champions Primo & Epico in a losing effort.[26] On next weeks episode of SmackDown, Santino stated that the combination of the two was not suitable and therefore searched for another partner which would be Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Tatsu would then go on a losing streak against the likes of Jinder Mahal, Hunico, and Damien Sandow.[36][37][38][39]
On the September 7, 2012 episode of WWE Smackdown, he continued his losing streak against a returning Wade Barrett in a squash match.