UPDATE: 2024/04/18 11:00 EST BY BENJAMIN VIEIRA
UPDATE: 2024/04/18 11:00 EST BY BENJAMIN VIEIRA
John Tenta was an important part of WWE’s Golden Era. He was presented as one of the major threats to the reigning WWE Champion at the time, Hulk Hogan. His career took him to many places, such as WWE, AJPW, and WCW. He portrayed numerous characters, but his most well-known is Earthquake. As a member of The Natural Disasters, along with Typhoon, he captured WWE Tag Team Title gold. Earthquake was a tremendous big man in WWE’s history and one that will always have an important place in WWE history.
Wrestling history is littered with big men. After all, part of the attraction of the business is seeing impressive physical specimens, not to mention that, for a long time, a wrestler’s size and strength were indicative of their credibility as kayfabe combat athletes. Among this field of larger performers, only a few could aptly be described as giants or super heavyweights. Billed at 6’7” and 487 pounds, John “Earthquake” Tenta was among them.
More than just a supersized human being, though, Tenta was an athlete. As longtime WWE executive Bruce Prichard explained on his Something to Wrestle podcast, Tenta was an incredibly powerful athlete. Anyone who watched his matches could readily see he was much more athletic and physically dynamic than fans would expect from a man his size. He left behind quite a legacy in pro wrestling before sadly passing in 2006.
10 Things Wrestling Fans Should Know About WWE’s Earthquake
There are several things that wrestling fans should know about WWE’s Earthquake as a character.
Earthquake’s Epic WWE Run During The Golden Era
Earthquake Feuded With Hulk Hogan
- Earthquake debuted in the WWE as a heel.
- Earthquake faced Hulk Hogan at SummerSlam 1990.
- Earthquake and Typhoon teamed as The Natural Disasters.
After a career in sumo wrestling and getting his start in the pro wrestling endeavor in Japan, John Tenta signed with WWE in 1989. He turned out to be one of the most valuable signings of the late Golden Era years. In particular, by virtue of his size, he quickly filled a void left behind by Andre the Giant as the Eighth Wonder of the World’s body gave out on him. Earthquake wasn’t quite as large, but being a fresh face to fans and moving with startling speed for his size, he was immediately established as a main event level threat.
Earthquake debuted with an attack on The Ultimate Warrior and went on to become a heavily pushed heel, en route to assaulting Hulk Hogan on the set of The Brother Love Show. His signature sit-down splash put The Hulkster out of action (in storyline) for months, leading up to a showdown between the two at SummerSlam 1990. Though Hogan body slammed and defeated Earthquake there, it’s worth noting WWE protected the big man in defeat, suffering the loss via count out. They’d go on to captain feuding teams at Survivor Series that year, then blow things off with Hogan last eliminating Earthquake to win the 1991 Royal Rumble.
10 Things Fans Forget About John Tenta’s Wrestling Career
John Tenta was most famous as Earthquake in WWE. He’s also gone under various names in WCW. Let’s learn more about this legendary wrestler!
Though Earthquake peaked with the Hogan feud, he’d remain relevant for the years to follow, mostly in the tag team division. Teamed with Typhoon as The Natural Disasters, the heel duo were credible rivals to The Legion of Doom before embarking on a less successful babyface run. The Natural Disasters were successful together, winning the WWE Tag Team Championships from Money Inc.
The Latter Stages Of John Tenta’s Wrestling Career
John Tenta Became The Shark In WCW And Golga In WWE
- John Tenta was renamed as The Shark in WCW.
- John Tenta returned to WWE as Golga and joined The Oddities.
- The Earthquake character returned to the WrestleMania 17 Gimmick Battle Royal.
There tends to be a shelf life on giants in wrestling as their bodies wear down more rapidly than the average wrestler’s. To John Tenta’s credit, he remained a capable in-ring performer past his first WWE run, into a several-year stint with WCW, where his efforts included a forgotten gem of a bout against Sting at Starrcade 1994. Tenta joined a cast of WCW stars hurt by gimmick changes as he transformed from Avalanche to The Shark to wrestling under his legal name, all to diminishing returns.
Hulk Hogan Vs. Earthquake: 10 Things Most Fans Don’t Realize About Their Rivalry, 30 Years Later
Hulk Hogan and Earthquake had a notable feud in the early 1990s. Fans remember it but there are things they might have overlooked.
Tenta would work for WWE again as well, most notably as Golga, a masked big man who wore a South Park t-shirt. On Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard, it came up that Tenta was disillusioned with WCW at that point, and the idea was to fit him into a faction of giants with The Oddities. Prichard explained the choice for him to wrestle in a mask largely came down to rebooting the character—not wanting to bring Earthquake back in the Attitude Era—and presenting him as a character who had been deformed, thus the need for the mask. Tenta would reprise the Earthquake character one last time for the WrestleMania 17 Gimmick Battle Royal.
The Death Of John “Earthquake” Tenta
John Tenta Passed Away On June 7, 2006
- Prior to his death, John Tenta worked on the independent scene and around the world.
- John Tenta made appearances for All-Japan Pro Wrestling.
- John Tenta passed away due to bladder cancer at 42 years old.
John Tenta quietly staged a final chapter of his wrestling career on smaller, international stages, including working indies in the US, Canada, and the UK, and working with All-Japan Pro Wrestling for a number of storylines in his final years. As recounted by Wrestler Deaths, though, he revealed in 2005 interviews with WrestleCrap that he was suffering from bladder cancer. He was given only a twenty percent chance of survival, and later revealed that radiation treatments had failed and tumors had spread to his lungs.
Tenta passed in 2006, when he had only reached the age of 42. Particularly in more modern wrestling, when it’s not at all uncommon for heavily featured wrestlers to work full-time schedules well into their forties, it’s sad to reflect on how young the legendary big man was when he passed.
For fans who grew up in the Golden Era, Earthquake looms large as one of the most memorable figures, particularly for his heel run feuding with Hulk Hogan. His size called back to Andre the Giant, and his wrestling style foretold the coming of Yokozuna as an agile super heavyweight. In the end, though, John Tenta was his own man with a legacy well worth celebrating.
