12 WWE Superstars You Forgot Debuted Under Different Names
4. Tatanka
Although Tatanka wrestled the majority of his WWE career under that name, he was actually first seen on WWF television using his real name. In vignettes announcing the WWF's newest arrival in early '92, Chris Chavis was the name given to the same character that eventually became known as Tatanka.
Even before the vignettes aired, Chavis wrestled multiple dark matches for the World Wrestling Federation in 1991 using the moniker "War Eagle". It was actually reported in several Wrestling Observer newsletters of the time that Chavis would be entering the promotion using the "War Eagle" ring name.
As it turned out, despite wrestling as "War Eagle" and being introduced as Chris Chavis in vignettes, the Native American Tatanka is the character name that WWE finally went with. Interestingly enough, Chavis had actually previously wrestled as "Tatanka" in 1990 as part of Larry Sharpe's Monster Factory - so even when Chavis left WWE, he was still able to compete as Tatanka.