John Tenta
(June 22, 1963 - June 7, 2006)
Real Name: John Tenta
Aliases: Avalanche, The Shark, John Tenta
Height/Weight: 6'6", 400 lbs.
Finishing Maneuver: Vertical Splash
Titles Held:
Feuds: Sting, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, "Big" Bubba Rogers
John Tenta's unique combination of size and mobility made him a valuable player in the early 90's for the World Wrestling Federation, and when his run ended there he found a home in World Championship Wrestling reprising a similar role. With Hulk Hogan having retired Ric Flair at the 1994 Halloween Havoc, the "Hulkster" found his next challenge in the form of the "Three Faces of Fear", a group consisting of Kevin Sullivan, The Butcher (Ed Leslie), and Avalanche (Tenta). Sullivan formed this group, who would eventually evolve into the larger "Dungeon of Doom", in order to finally destroy both Hogan and his new friends in WCW. However, like the many that tried before, The Three Faces of Fear were met head on by the Hulkster and defeated.
Tenta, now called "Avalanche", would find little success against the top stars of WCW. At the November '94 Clash of the Champions, the Three Faces of Fear were defeated by the "Hulkamaniac" team of Hogan, Sting, & Dave Sullivan. A month later at Starrcade '94, Avalanche was disqualified against Sting. Sting would wind up finally defeating Avalanche by submission at the January '95 Clash of the Champions, putting the large man in the "Scorpion Deathlock". At SuperBrawl V, Sting & "Macho Man" Randy Savage teamed to defeat Avalanche & new partner "Big" Bubba Rogers. Avalanche would continue his lack of success one month later with a disqualification loss to Savage at Uncensored '95. Avalanche's place in WCW was seemingly to put over the top babyfaces who surrounded Hulk Hogan.
Sullivan regrouped his troops, including The Butcher (now called The Zodiac), Kamala, Meng, The Barbarian, The One Man Gang, The Giant, and Avalanche, into a super-group called "The Dungeon of Doom" that would look to end Hogan's WCW run and career once and for all. The group, aside from The Giant, was pretty laughable, losing nearly all their matches to Hogan and his circle of allies. Avalanche changed his name to "The Shark", as seemingly every member of the group had "The" in their name and a ridiculous gimmick afterwards. He faired no better as "The Shark" in September '95, competing on the worst "War Game" team ever along with The Zodiac, Kamala, & Meng to lose to The Hulkamaniac team of Hogan, Savage, Sting, & Lex Luger.
The next months would see Shark stuggled on television against newcomer Scott "Flash" Norton, as well as drop out of the Dungeon of Doom and lose to WCW World Champion The Giant cleanly on Nitro. Furious about the way his career had been handled since becoming a member of the Dungeon, he lashed out on a Nitro interview, claiming he wasn't an "Avalanche" or a "Shark", he was just John Tenta. Tenta was attacked by former teammate and newest Dungeon member "Big" Bubba Rogers on Nitro, with Rogers shaving half of Tenta's head & beard in the process, making him look ridiculous. Tenta actually kept that look for several weeks, as a "reminder" of what Rogers did to him leading up their "Carson City Silver Dollar" match at the 1996 Bash at the Beach. While the match was by no means memorable, Tenta did score a PPV victory at a very popular time in professional wrestling. Tenta set his sights once again on The Giant and the WCW World Title, but was once again defeated on the July 1st edition of Nitro. Tenta would disappear from television shortly after. His one big reappearence happened in March of 1997, when Tenta tried out to be a part of Roddy Piper's "Uncensored" team for the main event. Piper accepted Tenta onto his teams, with the fans giving a lukewarm reaction to the entire "tryout" segment. WCW Executives were not happy with the storyline, and immediately cancelled the involvement of Piper's hand-picked team, replacing them with Chris Benoit, Jeff Jarrett, & Steve McMichael of the Four Horsemen.
Tenta would some success in the World Wrestling Federation as the masked "Golga" from 1998-99 before retiring from active competition to spend time with his family and a wrestling school he ran in Florida. In 2004, Tenta revealed on the internet that he was suffering from bladder cancer.
John Tenta passed away on June 7, 2006 from bladder cancer, with multiple tumors in his lungs and thighs.
AP Article from ESPN.com
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Former LSU wrestler John Tenta, known professionally as "Earthquake" while competing in the World Wrestling Federation, has died at the age of 42, the school said Thursday.
Tenta, who lettered for the Tigers in the early 1980s when wrestling was a nationally renowned varsity sport at LSU, died after a lengthy battle with bladder cancer. "Big John," as he was known at LSU, also participated in football for the Tigers. Born in Surrey, British Columbia, he weighed 11 pounds, 3 ounces at birth. Recently he measured 6-foot-6 and weighed in at over 400 pounds, LSU said.
After leaving LSU, Tenta briefly took up sumo wrestling in Japan before going into pro wrestling. He joined the World Wrestling Federation in 1989 and gained fame as "Earthquake" as he feuded with Hulk Hogan. Tenta performed for both World Wrestling Entertainment and World Championship Wrestling throughout the 1990s.
In recent years he had lived in Florida. He is survived by his wife and three children.