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 tryout matches at house shows, Tatanka made his television debut as a fan favorite on the February 1, 1992 episode of 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. 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 countout. Since a title could not change hands on a countout, 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 (Borga had hit Tatanka in the back with a steel chair while Mr. Fuji distracted the referee). 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. Million Dollar Corporation (1994–1996) Tatanka was honored by retired professional wrestlers Chief Jay Strongbow and Chief Wahoo McDaniel and by Lumbee tribesman Ray