STW - Earthquake [Show Notes] (Patreon)

John Tenta

John Tenta was born on June 22nd, 1963 in Surrey, British Columbia.

When did you first meet John Tenta?

He was a fan of pro wrestling growing up, specifically Don Leo Jonathon and Gene Kiniski, and they inspired him at a young age to want to become a pro wrestler. He decided to become an amateur wrestler, and he was very successful.

He learned freestyle wrestling at North Surrey Secondary, becoming a Canadian junior champion in 1981. Shortly after his 18th birthday, he finished sixth in the super-heavyweight category at the World Junior Wrestling Championships in Vancouver. 

In 1983, John won the World teenage championship when he got the only takedown in a match against future wrestler, the late Gary Albright.

Tenta won an athletic scholarship to Louisiana State University, where he competed in NCAA collegiate wrestling. At LSU he was nicknamed "Big John" Tenta, lettering on the Tiger varsity wrestling team and participating on the football team. LSU dropped varsity wrestling to comply with Title 9 in 1985, forcing Tenta to choose a new sport. Tenta then walked on to the LSU football team, where he played in some junior varsity games as a defensive lineman. He was also known as a "quiet giant" while employed as a bouncer at an LSU college bar, The Bengal. Tenta also played rugby union for the LSU Rugby Club. 

After leaving LSU, Tenta went to Japan to train as a sumo wrestler, after being recruited by a former yokozuna, who met Tenta on a trip to Vancouver. In October 1985, he joined a sumo stable, Sadogatake, run by former yokozuna Kotozakura Masakatsu. Following tradition, John took the shikona name of Kototenta Toshikatsu (Koto + Tenta), surname translated as Tenta the Harp.

Did John ever talk to you about his early days in Japan?

At this time, John was 6'6”, 422 lbs

John caught on to it very quickly. In fact, he won all of his 25 matches when he stopped being a sumo wrestler in July of 1986. He was later renamed Kototenzan Toshimitsu surname meaning Heavenly Mountain Harp. The novelty of being a rare Westerner Rikishi in the mid-1980s, and the third-ever Caucasian, garnered him press coverage, and he earned the additional nickname of the "Canadian Comet" 

Despite his great success as a sumo wrestler, John decided that the sport wasn't what he wanted to continue to do. He said "Nothing I have ever done – not football, not college wrestling – compares with the kind of physical abuse you inflict on your body in sumo." 

Also, the sumo world frowned on the large tattoo of a tiger on his left biceps and, though he covered it during matches, would have required him to remove it via skin graft before moving up to the higher-level competitions. In Japan, tattoos are associated with gangsters, and public display is widely prohibited 

After leaving sumo, he decided to become a pro wrestler. He signed with puroreso (Japanese pro wrestling) under the tutelage of Shohei "Giant" Baba. It was a big deal in Japan when Baba signed him, because John was a celebrity from being a sumo wrestler

John lost a good bit of weight from his sumo days. He was around 380 lbs when he had his first pro wrestling match. He made his professional wrestling debut with All Japan Pro Wrestling on May 1st, 1987, teaming with Giant Baba and defeating Rusher Kimura and Goro Tsurumi.

Tenta wrestled in Japan for 18 months, teaming with popular Japanese wrestlers Giant Baba, Jumbo Tsuruta, and The Great Kabuki. During his time there, he worked with Terry Funk and John was only 24 at the time, and he still had a few years of college eligibility left, and Terry tried to convince John to go back to college at West Texas State University and play on the offensive line because he was so big and so athletic for a man of his size. 

John started to put back on weight and got back to over 400 lbs and Giant Baba asked him to lose weight, but John didn't and when his 2nd contract expired, Baba didn't renew him for a 3rd one.

before getting the attention of American pro-wrestling promoters, as well as making tours in Vancouver for Al Tomko's NWA All Star Wrestling where he first competed as a babyface, but later turned heel when he began being managed by "Gentleman" Jonathan Sayers. 

When did John first catch the eye of the WWF and when did they decide that they wanted to bring him in?

In March of 89, John came in and wrestled two matches under his real name

Any memories of those and the thoughts about him at the time?

Back in these days, Hulk Hogan was being fed monster heels for several years. When you guys saw John, did you immediately think that he'd be an opponent for Hulk?

John joined the WWF full-time in September 1989. In his first match after signing on, a dark match on September 21, 1989, he wrestled as a lumberjack character named Earthquake Evans and was billed as being from the "Northern Yukon Territory" He was managed by Slick, and defeated Paul Roma. 

Talk about what gimmick ideas were considered for John before we saw him debut on TV. What did Vince want to do with him?

John made his WWF television debut on the November 11th 1989 edition of Superstars, during an in ring segment with Dino Bravo and Intercontinental Champion, The Ultimate Warrior. John was seated in the front row, and was randomly chosen by Bravo’s manager, Jimmy Hart, to sit on Bravo’s back during his pushup contest with the Warrior. 

Tenta came down into the ring, identified himself as "John from West Virginia" and proceeded to sit on Bravo's back as he did a set of push-ups. During the Ultimate Warrior's set, however, Tenta leapt down onto the prone Ultimate Warrior using a seated senton, which would become his signature move. Bravo and Tenta then beat and unleashed multiple splashes on the Warrior.

From there, Tenta would become known as the Canadian Earthquake, and managed by Jimmy Hart

Why was it decided to put Jimmy with him?

We never really see an angle between Earthquake and Warrior after John's debut. Why not? Was that ever planned?

Earthquake's first PPV appearance was when he replaced Barry Windham on Randy Savage's team at the 1989 Survivor Series. Earthquake eliminated Hercules and survived the match, along with Savage and Dino Bravo.

Around this time, the Canadian was dropped from his name, and he'd be known as Earthquake. Was there ever consideration into having him and Dino Bravo be a tag team?

He made his WrestleMania debut at WrestleMania 6, defeating Hercules

From there, Earthquake got the biggest break of his career up to that point when he started a feud with Hulk Hogan

The feud started in May 1990, when Earthquake attacked Hogan from behind on a show that you might've heard of Bruce, The Brother Love show. Earthquake  hit Hulk several times with his Earthquake splash. 

This put Hulk out of action for several months. In reality, Hulk needed time off to film Suburban Commando. You were right there when this happened on your show, what's your memories of that?

During Hulk's time away, you guys did a Get Well Hulk promotion, where fans would send letters into the company for Hulk.

Hulk returned and had a match with Earthquake at SummerSlam 1990.

Hulk Hogan beat Earthquake via count out in 13:09. Hogan appeared to be around 270 pounds and at that weight looked small next to Earthquake (who is also deceptively tall at 6-6h compared to Hogan’s 6-5). Given the two guys in the ring, the match was booked and worked smart. Not a good match, but not a bad one either and actually very predictable all the way through. 

Quake did Earthquakes but Hogan kicked out and did the superman comeback, foot to face, bodyslam (failed to slam him twice earlier) and legdrop. Jimmy Hart interfered and they both wound up outside the ring. Hogan ducked so Hart hit Earthquake with the megaphone and slammed him on the table and jumped in to beat the count. 

After the bout Earthquake was choking Hogan and Big Bossman (who Piper called “Big Bosomed Man” throughout the show) hit Quake hard three times in the back with a chair before Quake would sell the chair moves and Quake’s back was pretty cut up from the chair. Good spot there. After the match Hogan did an interview which basically guaranteed he would wrestle (and more likely than not beat) Warrior at Wrestlemania. **1/4

This match ending in a countout instead of a decisive Hogan victory seemed to plant the seeds for a rematch between Earthquake and Hulk, but that never happened again in a singles match on pay per view. Why not? Was that the plan when this finish was booked?

At Survivor Series 1990, Earthquake captained a team consisting of Dino Bravo, Barbarian & Haku against Hogan's team, consisting of Tugboat, Big Boss Man & Jim Duggan. During the match, Earthquake eliminated Boss Man and Quake was eliminated when he and Tugboat were both counted out of the ring

They next met up in the Royal Rumble match when they were the last 2 in, and Hulk eliminated Earthquake

Why was it decided to abruptly end the Earthquake/Hogan feud

Over the next few months, Earthquake wouldn't really be involved in any angles. He defeated Greg Valentine at WrestleMania 7

Earthquake was in a feud with the biggest star in wrestling and then right after, you guys didn't really seem to know what to do with him. What was going on at the time?

Was Earthquake ever talked about for a World Title run?

On April 1, 1991, WWF held a joint show in Kobe with Japanese promotion Super World of Sports called SWS Wrestle Dream. 

How did that show get set up? It drew 64,168 to the Tokyo Dome

Earthquake wrestled Koji Kitao, in a battle of two former sumo wrestlers. 

Big John Tenta (The Earthquake) pinned Koji Kitao with an elbow drop and an Earthquake splash in 6:10. Believe it or not, this match got the most heat of the night. From a crowd standpoint, this was the best match on the card, but not from a wrestling standpoint. Both of these guys were very famous in Japan as sumo wrestlers before they got into wrestling, and Kitao still hasn’t been able to shake his “bad-boy” image with the general public. 

While some of the hardcore fans are beginning to cut him some slack, when he works before a crowd which is largely not wrestling fans, he became the most over heel on the card. In turn, Tenta was the most over face on the card and everything both men did got reaction. The work itself was described as sluggish, but not awful, with Tenta dominating most of the way to the big pops. **1/2

2 nights later, they were supposed to have a rematch. Kitao wouldn't work with John when they got into the ring. Kitao got into a fighting pose with his fingers pointed out, symbolizing that he would attack John's eyes. John got visibly upset, and dared Kitao to make a move, which he didn't. Not long after, Kitao legitimately kicked the ref, and got DQ'ed. 

Kitao then took the mic and told the fans that wrestling was fake, and that he refused to lose to him a 2nd time as was scripted. The plug was quickly pulled on his mic. Kitao was soon fired from the company for this.

Did you ever talk to John about that?

From there, Earthquake was in a brief feud with Jake Roberts

They had a match against each other on Superstars. The match ended with Earthquake tying Roberts in the rope and splashing a bag which allegedly contained Roberts’ snake, Damian 

Did you guys get any complaints from the fans or Peta, or anything like that?

It's been said that the bag actually contained pantyhose, stuffed with hamburger, and a small motor to simulate a l snake.

When the match aired on Superstars, footage of Earthquake landing on Damien was interrupted with cutaway shots to that show's "Events Center,"

The incident aired uninterrupted and uncensored during Prime Time Wrestling the following week. Later in the show, Earthquake cooked "Quakeburgers" on a grill and served them to co-hosts Vince McMahon, Bobby The Brain Heenan, and Lord Alfred Hayes; later, Earthquake revealed that the meat was ground from Damien's carcass. 

Heenan had already eaten three or four of the Burgers and Hayes was curious about the meat. Earthquake mentioned the animal from which the meat was taken rhymed with quake and Hayes said they were snake burgers. Hayes got sick and nearly threw up. Vince was angry over this and knocked the tray out of Earthquake's hands which knocked all the burgers onto the floor. Roberts and Earthquake feuded throughout most of late-spring and into the summer. 

During this time, Andre the Giant returned and he got involved in this feud.We a series of skits on television where various managers were trying to recruit Andre. The skits ended with Jimmy Hart announcing Andre as the newest member of his group, only to have Andre turn him down. Earthquake then clipped Andre’s knee, and after that, Andre started using crutches when he was on TV. Andre appeared in Jake’s corner for his last series of matches with Earthquake in the summer of 1991, the finish usually coming when The Giant struck Earthquake with one of his metal crutches. 

Why was Andre involved in this? Were you guys hoping to get an Andre the Giant vs Earthquake match?

Later in 1991, Tugboat turned heel and changed his name to Typhoon and joined Jimmy Hart's group. He and Earthquake formed a team called The Natural Disasters. 

Why was that decision made?

Pretty quickly, they started a feud with the with the tag team champions, The Legion of Doom for the titles. They wrestled each other for the titles at the 1992 Royal Rumble pay per view

Natural Disasters beat Legion of Doom via count out so Doom keeps the WWF tag team titles in 9:27. This was actually the best match I've seen these four have, but says more about how bad the other matches have been. But it was okay until the cheap finish where everyone was brawling on the floor and Typhoon got in to beat the count. 

With all the time they spent on booking the rest of the card, they must have spent the time it takes between bites of a roast beef sandwich to come up with this finish. *1/2 

Was the plan originally for a long term feud between these two teams resulting in a match between them at WrestleMania 8?

Later, the Disasters turned face when Jimmy Hart turned on them and joined forces with Money Inc; Ted DiBiase and IRS; Money Inc. had just won the tag titles from the Legion of Doom

Why was it decided to turn the Natural Disasters babyface?

They immediately started a feud with Money Inc for the tag team titles, which culminated in a match between the two teams at WrestleMania 8 for the tag team titles

Natural Disasters beat Money Inc. via count out in 8:37 so Money Inc. keeps the WWF tag team titles. Oh, was this bad. Disasters aren't over as faces one lick and work so badly that the crowd didn't have a lick of interest in the match. Typhoon was far worse than usual, which is a mouthful. Typhoon splashed IRS and Jimmy Hart pulled him out of the ring and they walked back to the dressing room for the count out loss. The fans in the building, who no matter how many times they see this, have always in the past popped for the COR thinking the title changed hands, didn't care one iota. Horrible match and an even worse finish. -**

This was the first time in Earthquake's WWF run that he had been a babyface. How did he feel about it?

On July 20th, 1992 at a house show in Worcester, Ma; The Natural Disasters defeated Money Inc for the World Tag Team titles. If they were going to win the titles, why didn't it just happen at WrestleMania when these two teams met, instead of at a house show?

At SummerSlam, The Natural Disasters successfully defended the titles against The Beverly Brothers

Why do you think the Beverly Brothers, formerly The Destruction Crew in the AWA never had a run with the titles?

The Natural Disasters held the titles until October 13th, when they lost them back to Money Inc in Regina, SK

That takes us to the 1992 Survivor Series -

Natural Disasters & Nasty Boys beat Money Inc. & Beverly Brothers in an elimination tag match. The work itself was solid from start to finish except in spots where the Nasty Boys didn't seem used to doing babyface moves and Money Inc. had to walk themselves through the move. Earthquake pinned Beau Beverly with the Earthquake in 9:25 which gave the faces a 4-on-2 advantage.

Psychologically that is pretty hard to get a lot of crowd reaction when the heels are being pounded while being outmanned. IRS pinned Typhoon for the second fall in 6:20 after DiBiase tripped him. Third fall lasted :05 with Saggs pinning IRS with a schoolboy. *1/4 

The night after the Royal Rumble 1993, Earthquake lost to the Bam Bam Bigelow by countout, and he left the WWF.

What led to Earthquake leaving the company at this time?

After he left the WWF, John went back to Japan, for the WAR promotion. He also had a brief stint in CMLL in Mexico, in late 1993. 

At the Monday Night Raw taping on January 31st,  in Bushkill, PA. Earthquake showed up as a face making the save for Bret Hart as he was wrestling Shawn Michaels and Diesel kept interfering.

What led to Earthquake returning to the WWF here?

Upon returning, he started a feud with Bastion Booger, and worked several house shows with him, usually in resulting in Earthquake winning by pin.

Earthquake made his return to WrestleMania, at WrestleMania 10.

Earthquake pinned Adam Bomb in :35 with the Earthquake splash. Harvey Wippleman started making fun of Howard Finkel, with a new hairpiece (I was dreading the aspect of the show with Finkel's new hairpiece and even though it didn't get over at all live, it wasn't an embarrassment although Howard was sans hairpiece the next night in Poughkeepsie so what was the point?) and ripped his tux. Finkel shoved down Wippleman. Bomb then snatched Finkel but Quake made the save and won almost immediately.

Earthquake then started putting over Yokozuna on house shows.

On the May 16th Raw, Earthquake took on Yokozuna in a sumo wrestling match on Raw. Earthquake won the match by pushing Yokozuna out of the ring. The match did a 3.5 rating.

What's your memories of that match?

Pretty much right after this, Earthquake quit the WWF.

Earthquake was scheduled to face Owen Hart in a King of the Ring qualifying match. During a May 14th, 1994 house show in San Jose, California, Earthquake had been injured by Yokozuna and Crush. Footage of Yokozuna hitting a Banzai Drop at the show was televised before the qualifying match to explain his absence in which Doink the Clown was his replacement. 

Meltzer reported - Doink replaced Earthquake who apparently quit the promotion because they really did a burial number on him in the commentary claiming an injury in Anaheim on 5/14 (despite him wrestling after that date). Quake was really upset in Anaheim about having to do the clean job for Yokozuna. 

What's the story with that?

After he left the WWF, John returned to Japan to once again work for the WAR promotion.

In 1994, John went to WCW.  Were you surprised to see him show up in WCW, or was it pretty much expected? This is not long after Hogan went to WCW and some names from the WWF started showing up not long after.

John would stay in WCW until 1997. During his time there, he worked as Avalanche, Shark in the Dungeon of Doom and then under his real name John Tenta, before leaving WCW in early 1997.

Did you see any of John's work in WCW?

On the May 25th, 1998 episode of Raw, John returned to the WWF. However, he was wearing a mask and named Golga. He joined the group The Oddities.

Golga was a big fan of Cartman from South Park, and carried a toy of him to the ring. Where did this idea come from and how did John feel about it?

John was noticeably lighter as Golga than he was during his previous WWF stints as Earthquake.

At SummerSlam 98, The Oddities defeated Kaientai (Taka Michinoku, Dick Togo, Mens Teioh and Sho Funaki) in a Handicap match 

The Oddities were defeated by The Headbangers when the Insane Clown Posse turned on them, at the In Your House Rock Bottom pay per view, which took place in Tenta's hometown of Vancouver

The Oddities (Golga and Kurrgan) lost to The Headbangers at the 1999 Royal Rumble. Golga then was in the Royal Rumble match entering 3rd, but got quickly eliminated by Steve Austin. 

John was released in April of 1999

John later opened the John Tenta School of Professional Wrestling, and would promote shows with himself and his students under the name of Intense Florida Wrestling.

In 2001, John returned to the WWF for 2 appearances, as Earthquake. He was in the 20 Man Gimmick Battle Royal match at WrestleMania 17, and in December he defeated Tank Meloche in a dark match, prior to a taping of SmackDown. 

Was there any consideration into bringing John back full time at this point?

John retired from wrestling in 2004 after it was revealed that he had developed bladder cancer, and was told he was given a 20% chance to live, assuming he continued with his chemotherapy treatments. 

In August of 2004, John wrote I've never been kicked in the balls as hard as I was this past Wednesday. Thinking I was licking this thing, I met with my chemo doctor ready to Quake the cancer. Well, I now have a new tumor in my left lung, and two lymph nodes are enlarged in my heart. I go in for chemo tomorrow for a four-day session. I've been given 13-18 months to live. I'm not giving up, and hope to, of course, live longer. But that is what I've been told, and that it is incurable. I don't really know what else to say. It really caught me off guard. I'll try to keep you posted, but no guarantees, folks. Thank you for all your kind support and may God bless you all. 

During his November 18th , 2005 interview on WrestleCrap Radio, John announced that a recent radiation dosage did not go as planned, and had no effect on the tumor. He also announced that multiple tumors had spread to his lungs. 

Sadly, John Tenta passed away on June 7th, 2006.

Do you think John should be in the WWE Hall of Fame?

What do you think is John Tenta's legacy in professional wrestling?