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. Within just a few years, Yatsu became a regular headliner for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, before joining Riki Choshu, when he left the promotion for All Japan Pro Wrestling at the end of 1984. In All Japan Yatsu and Choshu formed a tag team, which would go on to win the NWA International Tag Team Championship. While Yatsu was training for his Olympic dream, Choshu left All Japan and returned to New Japan. Upon his return to professional wrestling, Yatsu decided not to join his tag team partner in New Japan, but to stay in All Japan. Afterwards, All Japan broke up the tag team of Genichiro Tenryu and Jumbo Tsuruta and made Tsuruta Yatsu's new tag team partner. 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. In 1990 the team broke up when Yatsu jumped to Super World of Sports. In 1991, while working for the promotion, Yatsu unsuccessfully challenged Hulk Hogan for the WWF Championship. When Super World of Sports folded in 1992, Yatsu formed his own promotion Social Pro Wrestling Federation, but would wrestle himself only semi-regularly. In 1994 he returned to New Japan to take part in the G1 Climax tournament. In recent years, Yatsu has been the president of a transportation company. On November 30, 2010, he returned to the professional wrestling ring to wrestle his retirement match. 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. In September 2015, Yatsu came out of retirement and began competing for smaller promotions. In April 2019, he debuted for Dramatic Dream Team, but after a show on June 2, Yatsu's career may have ended a second time.
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. On October 31, 2000, Yatsu faced Gary Goodridge in Osaka. Yatsu, who hadn't had any stand-up training at all and hadn't wrestled in 13 years, was defeated at 8:58 in the first round. 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. The two were booked in a rematch on September 24, 2001. Goodridge again dominated the fight, got Yatsu in a guillotine choke and asked for his corner to throw in the towel, which they did. 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 necrotic.
Championships and accomplishments
Amateur wrestling
1976 Japanese Olympic Trials - First place, 198 pounds
