Earthquake
Real Name
John Tenta
Birthday
June 22, 1963
Hometown
Vancouver, British Columbia
Height
6'7"
Weight
462 lbs (prime)
Marital Status
Married 17 years
Trained by
Giant Baba
Jumbo Tsuruta
Great Kabuki
Road Warriors
Terry Gordy
Dory Funk
Debut
1987
Previous Names
Kototenzan (Heavenly Mountain)
Canadian Earthquake (WWF)
Earthquake (WWF)
Avalanche (WCW)
Shark (WCW)
John Tenta (WCW)
Golga (WWF)
Finishing Move(s)
Earthquake Squash
Favorite Move(s)
Elbow Drop
Occassional Dropkick
Notable Feuds
Ultimate Warrior (WWF)
Hulk Hogan (WWF)
Jake Roberts (WWF)
Money Inc. (WWF)
Yokozuna (WWF)
Hulk Hogan (WCW)
Randy Savage (WCW)
Sting (WCW)
Big Bubba Rogers (WCW)
The Headbanger (WWF)
Title History
UWA (Vancouver) World Heavyweight title defeating Timothy Flowers (September ??, 1987);
UWA (Vancouver) Canadian Heavyweight title defeating J.R Bundy (November 28, 1987);
UWA (Vancouver) World Heavyweight title defeating Richie Magnet (????, 1988);
SWS (Japan) Tag Team titles w/Typhoon defeating Shunji Takano & George Takano (April 17, 1992);
WWF World Tag Team titles w/Typhoon defeating Irwin R. Schyster & Ted DiBiase (July 20, 1992);
After 2 years of a Sumo Wrestling career he moved into Pro Wrestling
Professional wrestling career
All-Japan Pro Wrestling (1987–1989)
After leaving sumo, he quickly signed up for puroresu (Japanese pro wrestling) under the tutelage of Shohei "Giant" Baba. He made his professional wrestling debut with All Japan Pro Wrestling on May 1, 1987, teaming with Giant Baba and defeating Rusher Kimura and Goro Tsurumi. Tenta had a solid 18 month career, teaming with popular Japanese wrestlers Giant Baba, Jumbo Tsuruta, and The Great Kabuki, 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.
World Wrestling Federation (1989–1993; 1994)
After making two dark match appearances under his real name in March 1989, Tenta joined the WWF full-time in September 1989. In his first match after signing on, a dark match on September 21, 1989, he was known as Earthquake Evans and managed by Slick. Tenta then made his WWF television debut on the November 11, 1989 edition of WWF Superstars of Wrestling, where he was planted in the audience as a normal spectator at the taping held in Wheeling, WV. During an in-ring interview with Gene Okerlund, Dino Bravo challenged The Ultimate Warrior to a strength competition. In order to demonstrate, Bravo and manager Jimmy Hart suggested that they pick a random audience member to come into the ring and sit on the backs of Bravo and the Ultimate Warrior as they did push-ups to see who could do the most. The Ultimate Warrior agreed, and Hart, after pretending to look around the audience, centered his attention on the very large Tenta who was sitting in the audience in casual clothing and appeared surprised. 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 jumped down onto the prone Ultimate Warrior using a seated senton that was adapted to be his signature move. Bravo and Tenta then beat and unleashed multiple big splashes on the prone Warrior. Both then celebrated as Tenta was inaugurated into the WWF as a heel with Hart as his manager. Tenta was pushed as The Canadian Earthquake — and by WrestleMania VI, simply Earthquake - an unstoppable monster heel who often sent his opponents out on a stretcher after repeatedly hitting them with his sitdown splash.
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. He made his WrestleMania debut at WrestleMania VI, defeating Hercules.
Tenta's career peaked when he entered a feud with Hulk Hogan. The feud exploded in May 1990, when Earthquake snuck up on Hogan from behind during a segment of The Brother Love Show (on WWF Superstars of Wrestling) and repeatedly crushed Hogan's ribs with his "Earthquake splash." Eventually, Hogan recovered and gained revenge on Earthquake and defeated him in a series of matches across the country, starting with Hogan's countout victory at SummerSlam 1990. Hogan and Earthquake were the final two participants in the 1991 Royal Rumble, with Hogan getting the victory.
After his stint with Hogan, Earthquake attained another WrestleMania victory, defeating former Hart stable mate Greg Valentine at WrestleMania VII.
After WrestleMania VII, Earthquake instigated a feud with Jake "the Snake" Roberts when, in their match that aired on WWF Superstars of Wrestling, he "squashed" Damien with his Earthquake splashes; Earthquake had tied up Roberts in the ropes before going on his rampage. In reality, Roberts' bag — one of two left at ringside for the match — contained pantyhose stuffed with hamburger, and a small motor to simulate a "live snake." When the match aired on WWF Superstars of Wrestling, footage of Earthquake landing on Damien was interrupted with cutaway shots to that show's "Events Center," although the incident aired uninterrupted and uncensored during WWF Prime Time Wrestling the following week. Later, Earthquake participated in a skit on WWF Prime Time Wrestling where he 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.
Later in 1991, Earthquake formed a tag team with Typhoon (Tenta's friend, Fred Ottman, who had previously wrestled as Tugboat before turning heel) called The Natural Disasters, managed by Jimmy Hart. Initially a heel tag team, the duo feuded with the Legion of Doom over the WWF World Tag Team Championship, but were unsuccessful. Later, the Disasters turned face when Jimmy Hart betrayed them and joined forces with Money Inc., a team composed of Irwin R. Schyster and Ted DiBiase; Money Inc. had just won the tag titles from the Legion of Doom. Although Earthquake and Typhoon eventually won the tag titles (and defeated the Beverly Brothers at the 1992 SummerSlam pay-per-view to retain the titles), it wasn't long before Money Inc. regained the belts.
Tenta left the WWF in January 1993 after losing to Bam Bam Bigelow the night after the Royal Rumble for a spell in Japan for WAR, but returned in January 1994 when he assisted Bret Hart in a match with Shawn Michaels by countering Diesel's interference. He defeated Adam Bomb in a quick squash match at WrestleMania X. He then engaged in a short feud with Yokozuna, with whom he had a sumo match on Raw (the early days of Tenta's Sumo training were also revealed). Tenta won the sumo match.
Earthquake was scheduled to face Owen Hart in a King of the Ring qualifying match. However, during a May 14, 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. He again disappeared from WWF thereafter and returned to Japan for WAR.
World Championship Wrestling (1994–1997)
Personal financial difficulties led Tenta to contact World Championship Wrestling. Hulk Hogan, a longtime friend, lobbied to have Tenta come in, and so Tenta broke his WWF contract to join WCW. Before joining WCW, Tenta worked a tour of Japan for UWF International, where he teamed up with Super Vader.
Tenta was introduced as Avalanche and was a member of Kevin Sullivan's 3 Faces of Fear. He later aligned with Big Bubba Rogers and feuded with Sting and Randy Savage, but the character name was dropped after WWF threatened legal action over similarities to the Earthquake character. He then joined the Dungeon of Doom faction as The Shark. Tenta believed this could be the beginning of a long term gimmick and even changed the tattoo on his arm of an LSU Tiger to that of a shark, a process that took 24 hours. Rumors were that WCW management forced him to do that, but in reality, it was John himself that brought the idea up. At Clash of the Champions XXIX, Avalanche, The Butcher and Kevin Sullivan faced Hulk Hogan, Sting and Dave Sullivan in a Six-Man Tag Team match with Mr. T as the special referee but lost the match. At Starrcade 1994, Avalanche lost to Sting by disqualification. at SuperBrawl V, Avalanche and Big Bubba Rogers faced Sting and Randy Savage but lost when Sting pinned Avalanche. At Uncensored 1995, Avalanche faced Randy Savage but lost by disqualification. Tenta returned under the ringname The Shark and at Fall Brawl 1995: War Games Tenta teamed with other members of The Dungeon of Doom (Kamala, The Zodiac and Meng with The Taskmaster) to face The Hulkamaniacs (Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Lex Luger and Sting) in a WarGames match where they lost. on the October 9, 1995 edition of Monday Nitro, Shark faced Sting for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship but failed to win the title. Shark competed in the WCW World War 3 (60 Man Battle Royal in Three Rings) for the vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship which was won by Randy Savage, He eventually left the Dungeon of Doom and wrestled under his real name after delivering a scathing promo about the many other names and gimmicks he'd been forced into in the past, including the memorable line "I'm not the Shark. I'm not a fish. I'm not an Avalanche. I'm a man". At The Great American Bash 1996, Tenta defeated Big Bubba Rogers, after the match Tenta cut Rogers' goatee off with a pair of scissors. At Bash at the Beach 1996, Tenta defeated Big Bubba in a Carson City Silver Dollar match. On the July 1, 1996 edition of Nitro, Tenta got a shot at the WCW World Heavyweight Championship against The Giant but failed to win the title.
Following a match with the Dungeon of Doom's Giant, Big Bubba Rogers, who had just joined the Dungeon, shaved half of Tenta's head. Tenta said he wouldn't shave off the other half because he looked in the mirror and relive the embarrassment. He would get the mail and his neighbors were laughing. The two went on to feud against one another, with Rogers shaving off Tenta's beard as well after Tenta lost another match to The Giant. In the spring of 1997, John Tenta joined Roddy Piper as a member of his "family." The angle was quickly dropped and Piper instead joined forces with the Four Horsemen, dropping the members of his "family."
Tenta Left WCW in early 1997.
Return to WWF (1998–1999; 2001)
After his feud with Rogers, Tenta left WCW and resurfaced in the WWF on the May 25, 1998 episode of Raw is War under the name Golga. He wrestled under a mask as one of the Oddities and the character had a fascination with Eric Cartman from the TV series South Park. The gimmick was given to Tenta because he lost a considerable amount of weight, so much so that the WWF thought it wouldn't be believable for Tenta to reprise the Earthquake gimmick with the weight loss. at SummerSlam (1998), The Oddities defeated Kaientai (Taka Michinoku, Dick Togo, Mens Teioh and Sho Funaki) in a Handicap match, on September 5 edition of Saturday Night Raw, The Oddities defeated the L.O.D and Droz in a six man tag team match, on the September 12 edition of Raw Saturday Night, The Oddities faced The Disciples of Apocalypse which ended in a No Conest when the top ring rope fell off, on the October 4 edition of Heat, The Oddities defeated The Headbangers, on the October 17 edition of Shotgun Saturday Night, Golga & Kurrgan defeated Too Much, on the October 18 edition of Heat, The Oddities defeated Los Boricuas (Jose Estrada, Miguel Pérez, Jr. and Jesus Castillo) on October 25 edition of Heat, Golga faced Jeff Jarrett in a losing effort, on the October 26 edition of Raw, The Oddities and ICP faced Kaientai in a 8 man tag team match but lost by DQ when ICP shoved the referee, on November 16 edition of Raw, The Oddities faced DX (New Age Outlaws and X Pac) In a losing effort, on the November 23 edition of Raw, The Oddities were defeated by The Headbangers when The Insane Clown Posse turned on them, at Rock Bottom: In Your House, The Oddities (Golga and Kurrgan) faced The Headbangers (Mosh and Thrasher) in a losing effort, at the Royal Rumble, Golga competed in the 30-wrestler Royal Rumble match entering number 3 but got quickly eliminated by Steve Austin, the Oddities disappeared in the beginning of 1999 with all the members released.
He did however return to the WWF one last time in 2001 with the Earthquake gimmick, where he was one of the participants of the 20 Man Gimmick Battle Royal match at WrestleMania X-Seven, being eliminated by Kamala. In December of the same year he also worked a tryout dark match against John "Tank" Meloche[23] before an episode of SmackDown.
