"Earthquake" John Tenta passes away

[pochorenella 0]

RIP Quake. Wasn't he undefeated at WM as well?

 

Yes, he was.

 

Never cared much for the guy, but RIP.

[Gary Floyd 0]

Damn, this really fucking sucks.

 

R.I.P. John

[k thx 0]

RIP

[NoCalMike 0]

Damn, he was only 42? You'd think he was a lot older, at least closer to 50, seeing as how long he's been around, and how old some of the current roster is.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

John P Tenta joined the WWF in November 1989, making his debut during a normal television performance. For his introduction, Tenta was planted in the audience as a normal spectator. During the show Dino Bravo, managed by Jimmy Hart, challenged then rival the Ultimate Warrior to a strength competition. In order to demonstrate, Bravo and Hart suggested that they pick a random audience member to come into the ring and sit on the back 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 very large Tenta who was sitting in the audience in casual clothing and appeared surprised. Tenta came down into the ring and proceeded to sit on Bravo's back as he did a set of push-ups, however during the Ultimate Warrior's set, Tenta jumped down onto the prone Ultimate Warrior using a seated senton that was adapted to be his signature move. The victorious Bravo and Tenta celebrated as the latter was inaugrated into the WWF as a heel with Hart as his manager.

 

Tenta's career peaked when he was pushed as The Canadian Earthquake — and later, simply Earthquake — a top heel, in 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.

 

After his feud with Hogan he was kept away from main eventing. Eventually he was teamed up with the wrestler Tugboat, who changed his name to Typhoon, creating the team the The Natural Disasters and were managed by Jimmy Hart. They wrestled as heels for a while before eventually turning face when Irwin R. Schyster accidently hit Typhoon with his briefcase. Jimmy Hart ended up leaving the pair to manage Schyster and Ted Dibiase. During their teaming the two of them would win the tag team titles from Dibiase and Schyster but would lose them quickly. A few months later, Tenta left the WWF in January of 1993.

 

He ended up making a return briefly in WWF in the spring of 1994, where he feudly briefly with Yokozuna, with whom he had a sumo match on RAW (the early days of Tenta's Sumo training were also revealed), Tenta left shortly after his feud ended.

 

He found himself later in 1994 wrestling in WCW under the name Avalanche and feuded with Sting, but that name was dropped for him when the WWF threatened to sue the WCW for the character being too close to Earthquake. His character name was changed to Shark, and he became a member of the Dungeon of Doom. He later left the Dungeon of Doom and feuded with them. After losing to The Giant (known today in the WWE as The Big Show), a member of the Dungeon, half of his head was shaved by Big Bubba Rogers, another Dungeon member. The two would go on to feud against one another with Rogers shaving half of Tenta's beard off as well. Ultimately, Tenta would win the feud.

 

After his feud with Rogers, Tenta left the WCW and resurfaced in the WWF in May 1998 under the name Golga. He wrestled under a mask as one of the Oddities. This was a short-lived gimmick, and the group disappeared in the beginning of 1999 with all the members released.

 

His most recent wrestling appearance was at WrestleMania X-Seven where he wrestled in the Gimmick Battle Royal as Earthquake.

 

Illness

 

Tenta found himself battling cancer where he was given a twenty percent chance to live, assuming he continued with his chemotherapy treatments. On November 18, 2005, Tenta announced, while being interviewed on Wrestlecrap Radio, that a recent radiation dosage did not go as planned and that aside from a tumor in his hip, he then had multiple tumors in his lungs.

 

According to his posts on the Wrestlecrap forum, John Tenta had been receiving chemotherapy treatments as recently as February. In the Wrestlecrap Radio interview months earlier, he stated that he would continue fighting the tumors as long as his body can withstand the treatments.

 

On June 4, 2006, a close friend of John's posted at the Wrestlecrap Forum that John was "not doing well". Out of respect of John's family, he would not go into details.

 

Death

 

Notice of Tenta's death was posted on WWE.com on June 7, 2006 at approximately 12:30 PM EDT.

 

^ from Wikipedia

 

A fighter to the bitter end, who left us good memories even in the worst possible angles. Thanks for everything, Earthquake. We'll miss you.

[Papacita 0]

Coincidentally, about an hour or so ago, I was talking to somebody here at work about our favorite tag teams growing up, and I happened to mention the Natural Disasters and Money Inc. and how I wished I could get a copy of their Superstars match from 92 where Money Inc. regained the belts. I know it was a loss for 'Quake, but that match always stands out when I think of him, because at the time I just thought he and Typhoon were unbeatable.

 

Sad to hear that he's passed.

[Mole 0]

42? Damn, way too young.

[Darthtiki 0]

Thanks for the memories Quake.

[dubq 0]

WWE.com now has up a short bio, plus photos and the video of the entire WMX match where EQ kicks the shit out of Adam Bomb in under a minute.

 

http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/tenta

[dubq 0]

Double Post.

[Scroby 0]

R.I.P Earthquake, thank you.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

WWE.com now has up a short bio, plus photos and the video of the entire WMX match where EQ kicks the shit out of Adam Bomb in under a minute.

 

http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/tenta

 

Man, I forgot how well he could move for a big guy. He got down to the ring pretty quick.

 

RIP John.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

Disregard. Double post.

[Guest droptoehold]

no way would i of guessed he was 42.

well r.i.p.

 

any word on shockmaster/tugboat

whats he been up too

[Vampiro69 0]

At least the Quake won't be in pain anymore. I hope he has finally found peace.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

Thank you, John.

[death_by_burrito 0]

RIP Earthquake

[Guest Dolfan483]

I got the bad news on my cell today. Damn Shame.

 

R.I.P.

 

John "Earthquake" Tenta

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Coincidentally, about an hour or so ago, I was talking to somebody here at work about our favorite tag teams growing up, and I happened to mention the Natural Disasters and Money Inc. and how I wished I could get a copy of their Superstars match from 92 where Money Inc. regained the belts. I know it was a loss for 'Quake, but that match always stands out when I think of him, because at the time I just thought he and Typhoon were unbeatable.

 

Sad to hear that he's passed.

 

They aired that match on wwe.com Heat in April of this year (tax weekend w/ the matches all having a money theme), but they pulled it from the archives, dammit! That was a unique match since it actually ended w/ the Million Dollar Dream after Quake hit his head on the post thanks to the distraction from the Headshrinkers.

 

FWIW, the Nasty Boys made a face turn just before the match by accepting a payoff from Money Inc, then beating their brains in.

[yankovic fan 0]

He was a great big man in the ring, and a great human in life.

[Ced 0]

The guy was a great big man for his day. By seemingly all accounts he was one hell of a nice guy despite playing heel most of his career. And by far, he was the my favorite character in WrestleFest.

 

It's a real shame when cancer takes away the class acts. RIP John Tenta.

[The Robfather 0]

One of my all time favorite tag teams was Natural Disasters.

 

I remember being shocked... shocked when Tugboat turned on the Bushwackers and joined up with Jimmy Hart. I'm not shocked by anything in wrestling now that I am older.

 

RIP John

[King Cucaracha 0]

"Do you realise how far it is to England on a boat? Really far, that's why we took the plane!"

 

R.I.P Quake

[Guest messiahtype]

He was a great big man in the ring, and a great human in life.

R.I.P.

[Maztinho 0]

The guy was a great big man for his day.

 

For any day.

 

RIP Quake.

[Detox 0]

R.I.P Quake, you are respected brother

[Guest Arnold_OldSchool]

His attacks on Warrior and Hogan drove me to tears as a kid. He did his job well.

 

The pain is over for him.

[ryankeast 0]

Rest In Peace John Tenta.

 

Very suprised he was 42 also - thought he was at least8-10 years older than that.

[Guest LiveFastDieNever]

At least the cancer battle is over. Sad, sad news.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

"Do you realise how far it is to England on a boat? Really far, that's why we took the plane!"

 

R.I.P Quake

 

Huh?