With a career lasting from 1987 to 2004, it’s likely that older fans know at least a couple of things about pro wrestler John Tenta. As Earthquake, his sitting senton splash threatened to end the career of Hulk Hogan in 1990, he continued to oppose Hulkamania as Avalanche and The Shark in WCW and returned to WWE in the Attitude Era as the masked Eric Cartman fan Golga in The Oddities.
That certainly covers the big moments, but there are also a bunch of aspects of John Tenta’s career that have gone forgotten. Let’s take a look at 10 of those, starting from his beginnings and going all the way to his unfortunate early retirement.
10 Started Out In Sumo
Beyond being one of many Hogan-opposing monster heels, Tenta’s a notable figure for his origins. After competing in wrestling and football in college, John Tenta was recruited to become a sumo wrestler in the 1980s. Starting at age 22, Tenta -- wrestling under the name Kototenzan Toshimitsu -- was the third-ever caucasian sumo wrestler, and undefeated in all of his matches. However, he left the sport fairly early because the sumo lifestyle was so rough on his body.
9 His AJPW Run
After departing sumo, Tenta moved on to pro wrestling, where he was trained by the legendary Giant Baba and spent 1987 through 1989 performing for All Japan Pro Wrestling under his real name. While never winning any championships, he took part in two Real World Tag League tournaments -- tagging with Great Kabuki in 1987 and Suji Takano in 1988 -- and wrestled notable names like Dustin Rhodes, Stan Hansen, Jumbo Tsuruta, Genichiro Tenryu, and Toshiaki Kawada.
8 Earthquake Evans
Tenta signed to WWE in 1989, making his in-ring debut in a dark match at a Wrestling Challenge taping, defeating Paul Roma. Despite working under the name Earthquake Evans, he wasn’t quite yet the Earthquake that fans know. In fact, he had a completely different gimmick.
Rather than the Natural Disaster themed monster heel, the British Columbia-born Tenta wrestled as a Canadian lumberjack clad in plaid. This gimmick, of course, would not stick around once he actually debuted on-screen.
7 His Official Introduction
Earthquake’s introduction in WWE was not as an actual member of the roster, but as someone in the audience during a Superstars taping. Chosen from the crowd to sit on The Ultimate Warrior and Dino Bravo’s respective backs during a push-up competition, the gigantic audience member would attack Warrior, establishing himself as a bad guy. Earthquake would make his official televised in-ring debut at Survivor Series 1989 as part of the team King’s Court in one of the event’s elimination matches.
6 The SWS Wrestle Dream Incident
In the early 1990s, WWE had a working relationship with the short-lived Japanese promotion Super World of Sports, which meant that various WWE stars would work events overseas. In one instance, John Tenta took on Koji Kitao in a match based on their similar backgrounds as former sumos. However, Kitao was banished from both sumo wrestling and fired from New Japan for poor behavior, which continued at SWS in a surprising kayfabe-breaking incident. At first, Kitao refused to sell for Tenta and then shot on his opponent before getting himself intentionally DQ’d. On his way out, Kitao took the microphone to say that wrestling is fake and that Tenta couldn’t possibly beat him for real.
5 Feud With Big Bubba Rogers
When Tenta jumped ship to WCW in 1994, he teamed with his former WWE rival Big Boss Man, now working as Big Bubba Rogers, but by 1996 they would become enemies yet again. Their first big encounter would be at The Great American Bash ‘96, where Tenta would cut off Rogers’ facial hair in the post-match. Bubba would retaliate by having half of Tenta’s head, leading to a big match at Bash at the Beach that year -- a Carson City Silver Dollar Match, which is basically a “sock full of coins on a pole” match.
4 His WCW World Title Shots
Over the course of his career, John Tenta enjoyed a few title reigns, including a WWE World Tag Team Championship and SWS Tag Team Championship -- both with Typhoon -- but never held a major singles belt, even in Japan. In fact, his only televised singles title bout was in 1995, taking on Sting for the US belt on Nitro. In 1996, however, he got two unsuccessful shots at The Giant’s WCW World Title: once as The Shark and once under his real name.
3 Joining Piper’s Family
Tenta’s WCW run is best remembered for working as Avalanche until WWE threatened to sue over the similarity to Earthquake, and then becoming The Shark in Kevin Sullivan’s Dungeon of Doom before simply wrestling under his real name. After that, he’d find a brief role as part of another group.
In 1997, Roddy Piper had entered a feud with Hollywood Hogan and took part in a bizarre segment where he wrestled random guys, choosing a few to be his “family” to combat the nWo. One of those was Tenta, but Piper would immediately and unceremoniously dump the whole group once The Four Horsemen offered their help.
2 His Returns To Earthquake
Following his WCW run, John Tenta returned to WWE not as Earthquake, but as the aforementioned Golga of the not-fondly-remembered comedy stable The Oddities. He departed the company in 1999 but would make a couple of returns under the Earthquake gimmick, the first return being as part of the Gimmick Battle Royal at WrestleMania X-Seven. Later that year, Earthquake would make one more appearance -- in a dark match against Tank Meloche on an episode of Sunday Night Heat.
1 Post-WWE In AJPW
In 2002, John Tenta returned to the promotion where he started his career, All Japan Pro Wrestling. He was no slouch there either, forming a tag team with Genichiro Tenryu and competing in the Real World Tag League Tournament as well as taking part in the 2003 Champion Carnival. He even had a couple of title shots, challenging for the All Asia Tag Team Title as well as taking on Satoshi Kojima for the MLW World Heavyweight Title. However, a bladder cancer diagnosis would force Tenta to retire from in-ring competition in 2004.