John Tenta

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John Anthony Tenta
John Tenta (right)

John Tenta (right)

Data
Ring name Kotenzan ( sumo )
Canadian Earthquake
Earthquake
Avalanche
Shark
Big John Tenta
Golga
height 198 cm
Fighting weight 178 kg - 213 kg
birth Surrey June 22, 1963
death June 7, 2006
Friendswood , Texas
Trained by Giant Baba
Terry Gordy
Road Warriors
debut 1987
retirement 2004

John Anthony Tenta (born June 22, 1963 in Surrey , British Columbia , Canada , † June 7, 2006 in Friendswood , Texas ) was a Canadian wrestler who was known under the ring name Earthquake (German earthquake) . During his active time he was employed by the largest wrestling organizations worldwide. Before his wrestling career he was active as a sumo wrestler in Japan. In 2006 he died after developing bladder cancer .

Life

Wrestling career

Tenta started wrestling at a young age , earning a scholarship from Louisiana State University. In 1985 the wrestling program was abandoned and Tenta was forced to choose another sport. He was brought to Japan by a yokozuna and became a sumo wrestler under the Shikona Kototenzan . Despite his success, however, after less than a year he stopped again with sumo, as the corresponding lifestyle did not suit him and began in May 1988 at Shōhei Babas All Japan Pro Wrestling as a wrestler. As early as November 1989 he was able to conclude a contract with the World Wrestling Federation and was assigned to the established wrestler Dino Bravo as Canadian Earthquake (later the country name Canadian was left out) . Tenta denied in the following years feud programs against the Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan . Another well-known feud took place in 1991 against Jake "The Snake" Roberts .

Later that year, Typhoon was partnered with the Natural Disasters tag team . The almost 400 kg team received the WWF Tag Team Champion title in July 1992 with a victory over Money Inc. , which they held until October of that year. In 1993 the team separated again and Tenta took on a commitment to the Japanese promotion WAR . In January 1994 he came back briefly to WWF to fight a sumo feud with yokozuna . He left the WWF again for Japan in May 1994 and came to World Championship Wrestling as Avalanche (Eng. Avalanche) at the end of the year , where he worked again in a program with Hulk Hogan. As part of this, he was made a little later as Shark to a member of the group Dungeon of Doom . After he was taken out of the group in 1996, he appeared under his real name and played a program with Big Bubba Rogers .

After he was only used in more insignificant matches, he left the WCW and appeared again in May 1998 masked as part of the Oddities group under the name Golga in the WWF. After he left the WWF in early 1999, he opened a wrestling school and promoted independent events. His last major WWF appearance was at Wrestlemania 17 in a Gimmick Battle Royal in 2001 , and in December of the same year he appeared in a non-broadcast match on the Smackdown show .

illness

John Tenta contracted bladder cancer in 2004 and publicly announced that he only had about two years to live. Later a tumor was found in his lungs and in 2005 another tumor was found in his hip that did not respond to chemotherapy .

He passed away in Friendswood , Texas on the morning of June 7, 2006 . He left a wife and three children.

successes

  • All star wrestling
  • 2 × UWA Heavyweight Championship (Vancouver version)
  • NWA All-Star Wrestling
  • 1 × NWA Canadian Heavyweight Championship (Vancouver version)
  • Great World of Sports
  • 1 × SWS Tag Team Championship - with Typhoon

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Article about John Tenta on northamericansumo.com
  2. [1]  ( Page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Wrestling Babylon: Piledriving Tales of Drugs, Sex, Death, and Scandal by Irv Muchnick@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / kindle.amazon.com  
  3. Ex-Wrestling Champ Tenta Enters Soumo Tenta as Kototenzan on info-sumo.net