What did you think of Tatanka?

[Guest papacita]

Back when I was little, Tatanka used to be one of my favorite wrestlers, and I was just curious as to what smarks thought of him. Well...

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

He sucked, but I hated Luger more (at least after Summerslam 1993, I liked the Narcissisist). He was an okay midcarder, but the heel turn completely killed his career.

[Guest dreamer420]

I was never a big fan of Tatanka. His in ring work wasn't anything special and his gimmick was lame. But of course it gave Bobby Heenan endless material during his WWF stint.

[Guest bob_barron]

As a mark I liked him but he was a pretty bad worker

[Guest MaskedDanger]

I live fifteen miles away from the town where Tatanka (nee Chris Chavis) was born, a little nub of a place named Pembroke, NC. The town has a HUGE indian population, and there (as one might expect for it being such a small town) he's still a freakin' hero. You can go up to practically anyone in town, ask them about Tatanka, and they'll start railing off all this info about him, where he lived growing up, where he used to eat, who his "people" (local colloquialism for family) were, where he used to work out, how many times has he come back since "making it big," all this crap. They even still believe the whole "longest ever win streak in the WWF" crap. It's wild. And not one person I've spoken to in this town (not being a fan of the guy's, I find the devotion fascinating, and asking people in that town about him has become kind of a funny little quirk of mine), indian or not, was offended by his gimmick. I guess they're somewhat biased though. I mean, try going to Harlem and asking people how they feel about Samba Simba and see how they react.

 

Oh, and personally, I wasn't a big fan of him, as I mentioned before. I was more of a Million Dollar Man kid, myself.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

I marked for him when I was younger. I liked his heel turn too, mostly cause I hated Luger...looking back now though, I know he sucked

[Guest treble charged]

Yeah, I was a huge Tatanka mark back in the day, and when he lost to Ludvig Borga... well, words cannot describe how upset I was. I haven't really seen any of his older matches recently, though, so I can't honestly say how I feel (felt) about his ring work, though.

[Guest WrestlingDeacon]

I've got a few matches on tape of Tatanka wrestling Rick Martel circa 1993 and you can see Martel slamming his head against a brick wall trying to get a good match out of the guy. I was never a big fan of his as I was drifting into the sneaky heels like Razor Ramon and the Repo Man.

[Guest Choken One]

I never realized he was undefeated until Like years later.

 

Nothing Special...Like his Hollering though.

[Guest cabbageboy]

Tatanka was one of my favorites back in the day, along with Bulldog and Bret. In fact I was pissed when they made fun of him on the Raw anniversary show. I was like "Hey, the guy was one of the most over faces you had from 1992-94."

 

I don't recall too much about his actual ringwork since he mostly squashed jobbers on TV. I do remember being shocked when reading results in PWI that he lost a few house show matches to Martel when he was supposed to be undefeated. I found myself wondering why they would book something stupid like that if the guy was supposed to be undefeated.

[Guest bob_barron]

I think he lost by countout to Martel- not sure though.

 

I agree with TC- him losing to Ludvig in 1993 was one of the most traumatic events of my childhood

[Guest WrestlingDeacon]

Tatanaka had tons of draws, dq's and count out wins and losses until being squashed by Borga. At the first King of the Ring he even went to a time limit draw with Lex Luger. When was the last time you saw a time limit draw? He was also put in six man tags and such where his team would lose, but he wouldn't take the pin.

[Guest Choken One]

I never realized he WAS undefeated until months after the first lost.

 

I never was fond of Tatanka but Like his hollering.

[Guest RepoMan]

I was a huge Tatanka mark and pissed off as hell when he turned to the Million Dollar Corperation.

[Guest Slingshot Suplex]

I can't think of a time I liked him. Not even when he turned.

[cawthon777 0]

He was alright, kinda bland though. But it's true, Heenan got a lot of material out of that character.

 

Ludvig Borga was hella cooler than Tatanka anyway. Although, in retrospect, I too was crushed by his humiliating pinfall loss.

 

BTW, he was only undefeated on TV before the Borga match. During 92, he lost some bouts to Martel at house shows (I know house shows "don't count" but it's an interesting tidbit).

[Guest Downhome]

I was always a huge fan, always will be.

[Guest nl5xsk1]

It's funny, but a "Tatanka" gimmick now would most likely be a heel - the fans would hate someone so proud of their heritage.

 

Actually, it could work as a heel, with all sorts of sinister edges rather than the cartoonish stereotypes that Tatanka had in the old-school mentality.