WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.100 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are opening 00:00:03.100 --> 00:00:07.599 up a file on a man who was, well, quite literally 00:00:07.599 --> 00:00:09.820 larger than life. Yeah, larger than life is, 00:00:09.880 --> 00:00:12.099 it's usually just a cliche, right? Yeah. But 00:00:12.099 --> 00:00:14.339 here it fits perfectly. It really does. I mean, 00:00:14.339 --> 00:00:16.300 from the moment he took his first breath until 00:00:16.300 --> 00:00:20.039 the moment he left us, he was this... physical 00:00:20.039 --> 00:00:23.079 anomaly. He defied almost every medical and athletic 00:00:23.079 --> 00:00:25.920 standard we have. Right. And anomaly is the perfect 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:28.620 word for him. Because usually when we talk about 00:00:28.620 --> 00:00:30.760 elite athletes, we focus on their training, their 00:00:30.760 --> 00:00:33.340 diet. Discipline. Exactly. And we'll get to all 00:00:33.340 --> 00:00:35.600 of that. But with this particular subject, you 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:37.920 really have to start with biology. Yeah. This 00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:40.460 is a story about a man who's just built differently 00:00:40.460 --> 00:00:43.500 at a genetic level. And it's about how he tried 00:00:43.500 --> 00:00:46.659 to fit that massive frame. into a world that 00:00:46.659 --> 00:00:48.880 honestly just wasn't designed for him. And we 00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:51.320 are, of course, talking about John Tenta, who 00:00:51.320 --> 00:00:53.640 most of you probably know better as Earthquake. 00:00:53.659 --> 00:00:56.799 The guy who absolutely terrorized the WWF in 00:00:56.799 --> 00:00:59.640 the early 90s. Right. But looking through the 00:00:59.640 --> 00:01:01.579 stack of research we have today, the wrestling 00:01:01.579 --> 00:01:04.599 character is, I mean, it's actually the least 00:01:04.599 --> 00:01:07.299 interesting part of his story. It really is just 00:01:07.299 --> 00:01:09.099 the team of the iceberg. I mean, did you see 00:01:09.099 --> 00:01:11.299 the birth records in that first folder? Oh, it's 00:01:11.299 --> 00:01:13.379 the very first thing that jumps out at you. June 00:01:13.379 --> 00:01:18.739 22nd, 1963. Surrey, British Columbia. Yep. John 00:01:18.739 --> 00:01:23.219 Tenta is born weighing 11 pounds, 3 ounces. 11 00:01:23.219 --> 00:01:25.439 pounds. I mean, that is effectively a toddler. 00:01:25.719 --> 00:01:27.799 That's massive. Most parents panic when they 00:01:27.799 --> 00:01:29.920 hear their baby is going to be 8 or 9 pounds. 00:01:30.439 --> 00:01:33.840 Tenta arrived. basically ready to play linebacker. 00:01:33.879 --> 00:01:35.959 And that really set the trajectory for his entire 00:01:35.959 --> 00:01:37.700 life. Yeah. You know, he was never going to be 00:01:37.700 --> 00:01:39.140 normal. He was always going to be the biggest 00:01:39.140 --> 00:01:42.060 person in any room he walked into. Yeah. But 00:01:42.060 --> 00:01:43.900 the fascinating thing about Tenta and really 00:01:43.900 --> 00:01:45.819 what our mission is for this deep dive today 00:01:45.819 --> 00:01:48.519 is that he wasn't just big. Far from it. He was 00:01:48.519 --> 00:01:51.579 elite. We are talking about a man who holds a 00:01:51.579 --> 00:01:54.159 record in professional sumo that is statistically 00:01:54.159 --> 00:01:57.439 almost impossible, especially for a Westerner. 00:01:57.540 --> 00:02:00.239 A record that actually still stands today. Undefeated. 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:03.799 24 and 0. Right, but we're getting a bit ahead 00:02:03.799 --> 00:02:06.219 of ourselves. The reason we are pulling this 00:02:06.219 --> 00:02:08.939 specific file right now is that it's finally 00:02:08.939 --> 00:02:12.689 happening. John Tenta is posthumously being inducted 00:02:12.689 --> 00:02:15.870 into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2025. Which 00:02:15.870 --> 00:02:18.430 is just so long overdue. Oh, absolutely. He's 00:02:18.430 --> 00:02:20.810 going in alongside his partner Fred Ottman, who 00:02:20.810 --> 00:02:22.990 wrestled his typhoon in the natural disasters. 00:02:23.129 --> 00:02:26.310 Right. But we really want to look past the gimmick 00:02:26.310 --> 00:02:28.810 today. We want to understand the man who allowed 00:02:28.810 --> 00:02:31.870 a spider to be shaved into his head. Who turned 00:02:31.870 --> 00:02:35.469 a tiger tattoo into a shark. Yes. And who arguably 00:02:35.469 --> 00:02:38.310 had the most legitimate, terrifying, athletic 00:02:38.310 --> 00:02:40.909 back. ground of anyone in that entire cartoon 00:02:40.909 --> 00:02:43.569 era of wrestling. So let's back up to British 00:02:43.569 --> 00:02:45.750 Columbia, because usually when you hear about 00:02:45.750 --> 00:02:48.909 a kid who is that big, 11 pounds at birth, huge 00:02:48.909 --> 00:02:50.729 throughout elementary school. You assume they're 00:02:50.729 --> 00:02:52.370 clumsy. Exactly. You assume they're just the 00:02:52.370 --> 00:02:54.370 fat kid who gets pushed around or trips over 00:02:54.370 --> 00:02:56.710 his own feet. But that is the very first misconception 00:02:56.710 --> 00:02:59.889 we need to shatter about Tenta. He wasn't clumsy 00:02:59.889 --> 00:03:02.810 at all. He was a genuine prodigy. He started 00:03:02.810 --> 00:03:05.509 amateur wrestling, and we mean freestyle, actual 00:03:05.509 --> 00:03:08.400 collegiate style wrestling, at age six. Just 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:10.699 a massive six -year -old on the mats. Right. 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:13.479 He was inspired by local Canadian legends like 00:03:13.479 --> 00:03:16.300 Gene Koniski and Don Leo Jonathan. And by the 00:03:16.300 --> 00:03:18.560 time he hit high school at North Surrey Secondary, 00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:21.139 he was an absolute force of nature. Yeah, looking 00:03:21.139 --> 00:03:24.020 at his stats from 1981, he wins the Canadian 00:03:24.020 --> 00:03:26.099 Junior Championship. Which is impressive enough 00:03:26.099 --> 00:03:28.900 on its own. But the real jaw -dropper is what 00:03:28.900 --> 00:03:31.639 happened shortly after he turned 18. He travels 00:03:31.639 --> 00:03:33.340 to the World Junior Wrestling Championships. 00:03:33.900 --> 00:03:36.939 Now keep in mind, this is a global stage. These 00:03:36.939 --> 00:03:39.780 are the best young wrestlers on planet Earth. 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:42.840 The elite of the elite. And Tenta, at just 18 00:03:42.840 --> 00:03:46.560 years old, finishes sixth in the super heavyweight 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:49.080 category. Which is just absurd. It completely 00:03:49.080 --> 00:03:52.759 defies conventional sports science. Heavyweights 00:03:52.759 --> 00:03:55.460 usually peak much later in life because that 00:03:55.460 --> 00:03:57.780 raw man strength takes years to fully develop. 00:03:57.960 --> 00:03:59.680 Right. You usually see heavyweights peaking in 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:02.599 their late 20s or early 30s. Exactly. So for 00:04:02.599 --> 00:04:04.960 an 18 -year -old kid to hold his own against 00:04:04.960 --> 00:04:07.300 the strongest, most developed juniors in the 00:04:07.300 --> 00:04:09.740 world, it proves he wasn't just winning because 00:04:09.740 --> 00:04:12.400 he was heavy. He was winning because he had the 00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:14.860 leverage, the technique, and the agility to match 00:04:14.860 --> 00:04:18.199 the size. And that unique agility got him a ticket 00:04:18.199 --> 00:04:21.350 to the American South. He gets a full athletic 00:04:21.350 --> 00:04:23.949 scholarship to Louisiana State University. Good 00:04:23.949 --> 00:04:27.209 old LSU. Which, by the way, is a massive cultural 00:04:27.209 --> 00:04:30.470 leap. Oh, entirely. You're this giant kid from 00:04:30.470 --> 00:04:32.509 British Columbia, and suddenly you are down in 00:04:32.509 --> 00:04:35.269 Baton Rouge. They nicknamed him Big John Tenta 00:04:35.269 --> 00:04:37.370 down there, and he makes the varsity wrestling 00:04:37.370 --> 00:04:40.050 team immediately. He's right on the path to becoming 00:04:40.050 --> 00:04:43.449 an NCAA heavyweight champion. But then, um, politics 00:04:43.449 --> 00:04:47.180 intervenes. Or rather... A policy shift. Title 00:04:47.180 --> 00:04:50.220 IX. Right. And to be totally clear for you listening, 00:04:50.500 --> 00:04:53.000 Title IX is a very crucial piece of legislation 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:56.600 for gender equality in sports. It did a lot of 00:04:56.600 --> 00:04:58.899 necessary good. But the on -the -ground implementation 00:04:58.899 --> 00:05:01.439 often meant that universities had to abruptly 00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:04.579 cut men's programs just to balance their scholarship 00:05:04.579 --> 00:05:07.300 numbers. And unfortunately for Tenta, in 1985, 00:05:07.779 --> 00:05:10.620 LSU dropped varsity wrestling entirely. Just 00:05:10.620 --> 00:05:13.019 imagine that moment for him. You are down there 00:05:13.019 --> 00:05:14.920 on a scholarship. It's your ticket. It's your 00:05:14.920 --> 00:05:17.259 entire identity at that school. And suddenly 00:05:17.259 --> 00:05:20.899 the program just dissolves. Poof. Gone. Most 00:05:20.899 --> 00:05:22.920 athletes in that position would immediately transfer 00:05:22.920 --> 00:05:26.040 to another school or maybe just drop out. But 00:05:26.040 --> 00:05:30.160 Tanta, he literally walked across the street 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:32.319 to the football stadium. This is the part that 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:34.279 just blows my mind. He just wanders on to an 00:05:34.279 --> 00:05:36.560 SEC football team. He walked on as a defensive 00:05:36.560 --> 00:05:39.079 tackle. And he didn't just stand on the sidelines 00:05:39.079 --> 00:05:41.620 holding a clipboard. He actually played in junior 00:05:41.620 --> 00:05:44.879 varsity contests for LSU. SEC football is no 00:05:44.879 --> 00:05:48.420 joke, even at the JV level. Not at all. But if 00:05:48.420 --> 00:05:50.920 you really want to understand John Tenta's freakish 00:05:50.920 --> 00:05:53.600 athleticism, look at the other sport he picked 00:05:53.600 --> 00:05:57.339 up while he was at LSU. Rugby. Rugby Union. Now, 00:05:57.339 --> 00:05:59.800 I want you to picture a man who is roughly 6 00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:03.040 '6 and pushing 400 pounds running around a rugby 00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:06.019 pitch. It's terrifying. Rugby is 80 minutes of 00:06:06.019 --> 00:06:08.759 continuous motion. It is sprinting, tackling, 00:06:09.040 --> 00:06:11.819 rucking. You cannot hide out there. No. If you 00:06:11.819 --> 00:06:14.180 are just dead weight, you are an immediate liability 00:06:14.180 --> 00:06:16.660 to your team. The fact that he played rugby at 00:06:16.660 --> 00:06:18.459 a collegiate level tells you everything you need 00:06:18.459 --> 00:06:20.399 to know about his cardio and his footwork. It 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:22.240 reminds me of those nature documentaries where 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:24.600 you see a hippopotamus running underwater. Yes. 00:06:24.779 --> 00:06:26.779 It completely defies physics. You look at the 00:06:26.779 --> 00:06:28.899 frame of the animal and your brain says slow, 00:06:29.079 --> 00:06:32.600 but the muscle twitch just says fast. Exactly. 00:06:32.779 --> 00:06:34.959 He had the low center of gravity of a defensive 00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:37.850 tackle, but the feet of a dancer. And while he 00:06:37.850 --> 00:06:40.089 was doing all of this, the football, the rugby, 00:06:40.269 --> 00:06:43.629 he was also working as a bouncer at a local college 00:06:43.629 --> 00:06:47.069 bar called the Bengal. The Silent Giant. That 00:06:47.069 --> 00:06:49.689 was his nickname there, the Silent Giant. And 00:06:49.689 --> 00:06:52.009 that really speaks to his personality, which 00:06:52.009 --> 00:06:54.850 we will see becomes a recurring theme throughout 00:06:54.850 --> 00:06:57.250 his life. Right. He didn't need to shout at people. 00:06:57.410 --> 00:06:59.490 He didn't need to be aggressive or puff out his 00:06:59.490 --> 00:07:02.769 chest. He just stood by the door, 400 pounds 00:07:02.769 --> 00:07:05.310 of silent capability, and the trouble just magically 00:07:05.310 --> 00:07:07.649 stopped. Because who? is gonna argue with that 00:07:07.649 --> 00:07:11.209 nobody so he's at lsu football is a secondary 00:07:11.209 --> 00:07:14.110 pursuit his wrestling program is gone he's looking 00:07:14.110 --> 00:07:18.850 for a future and in october 1985 his future arrives 00:07:18.850 --> 00:07:21.990 in the form of a former yokozuna this is where 00:07:21.990 --> 00:07:24.689 his story takes a very sharp left turn into the 00:07:24.689 --> 00:07:27.629 surreal a former grand champion of suno happens 00:07:27.629 --> 00:07:30.410 to spot tenta while he's back visiting vancouver 00:07:30.410 --> 00:07:33.110 and this guy takes one look at him he sees the 00:07:33.110 --> 00:07:36.040 build the massive tree trunk legs, the incredibly 00:07:36.040 --> 00:07:39.319 low center of gravity. And he sees a future sumo 00:07:39.319 --> 00:07:41.939 champion. So he recruits Tenta to move across 00:07:41.939 --> 00:07:44.939 the world and join the Zadogatek stable in Japan. 00:07:45.220 --> 00:07:47.819 I think we really need to pause here and contextualize 00:07:47.819 --> 00:07:51.079 what a move like that meant back in 1985. It 00:07:51.079 --> 00:07:54.220 was a different universe. Today we have the internet. 00:07:54.699 --> 00:07:57.519 global connectivity translation apps moving to 00:07:57.519 --> 00:08:00.939 a traditional sumo stable in japan in 1985 was 00:08:00.939 --> 00:08:04.279 basically like moving to mars it truly was tenta 00:08:04.279 --> 00:08:06.620 was only the third westerner ever to enter the 00:08:06.620 --> 00:08:08.920 sport of sumo professionally the third in history 00:08:08.920 --> 00:08:11.889 and he was starting at age 22. which in the sumo 00:08:11.889 --> 00:08:13.949 world is practically geriatric. Because most 00:08:13.949 --> 00:08:15.949 recruits start when they're teenagers, right? 00:08:16.069 --> 00:08:18.389 Right, usually 15 or 16. They essentially grow 00:08:18.389 --> 00:08:20.670 up inside the stable. Their bodies mold to it. 00:08:21.269 --> 00:08:23.569 Tenta was a fully grown man, an elite Western 00:08:23.569 --> 00:08:26.170 athlete, being thrown into a foreign culture 00:08:26.170 --> 00:08:29.870 built on a rigid, almost feudal hierarchy. Let's 00:08:29.870 --> 00:08:31.990 delve into that lifestyle for a minute, because 00:08:31.990 --> 00:08:34.090 the research notes describe it as brutal, but 00:08:34.090 --> 00:08:35.649 I want to know what that actually looks like 00:08:35.649 --> 00:08:38.110 on a daily basis for a guy like Tenta. Well, 00:08:38.169 --> 00:08:41.299 it's total servitude. It does not matter that 00:08:41.299 --> 00:08:44.259 you played SEC football at LSU. It doesn't matter 00:08:44.259 --> 00:08:46.759 that you were a world -class junior wrestler 00:08:46.759 --> 00:08:49.200 in Canada. You're still at the absolute bottom 00:08:49.200 --> 00:08:52.580 of the ladder. Exactly. In the stable, you are 00:08:52.580 --> 00:08:54.840 a novice. You wake up at 4 or 5 in the morning. 00:08:55.379 --> 00:08:58.659 You are tasked with cooking the chanko nabi, 00:08:58.740 --> 00:09:01.279 those massive calorie -dense stews that wrestlers 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:03.759 eat. And you're doing chores for the higher -ranking 00:09:03.759 --> 00:09:06.159 guys. You're literally scrubbing the backs of 00:09:06.159 --> 00:09:08.419 the senior wrestlers in the bath. You're cleaning 00:09:08.419 --> 00:09:11.570 the toilets. You are effectively a servant until 00:09:11.570 --> 00:09:13.789 you earn your rank in the ring. And physically, 00:09:13.970 --> 00:09:16.789 what is the toll on a 400 -pound body? Physically, 00:09:16.929 --> 00:09:19.570 it's an absolute meat grinder. Yeah. The ring 00:09:19.570 --> 00:09:21.950 itself, the dohyo, isn't like a wrestling canvas. 00:09:22.330 --> 00:09:25.669 It's clay. Oh, wow. Hard -packed clay with a 00:09:25.669 --> 00:09:28.610 very thin layer of sand spread on top. Tente 00:09:28.610 --> 00:09:30.549 himself later described it as being just like 00:09:30.549 --> 00:09:33.210 concrete. So every single time you go down... 00:09:33.419 --> 00:09:35.360 Every time you are thrown, every time you do 00:09:35.360 --> 00:09:37.480 those traditional Chico leg stomps to warm up, 00:09:37.580 --> 00:09:39.799 you are slamming your joints directly against 00:09:39.799 --> 00:09:42.200 the earth. That's brutal. Tenta later said, and 00:09:42.200 --> 00:09:45.200 this is a direct quote, Nothing I have ever done, 00:09:45.299 --> 00:09:48.139 not football, not college wrestling, compares 00:09:48.139 --> 00:09:50.500 with the kind of physical abuse you inflict on 00:09:50.500 --> 00:09:53.279 your body in sumo. But despite that incredible 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:55.960 abuse, and despite starting so late in life, 00:09:56.200 --> 00:09:59.240 he was good at it. Actually, good is a massive 00:09:59.240 --> 00:10:02.019 understatement. He was perfect. He was a phenomenon 00:10:02.019 --> 00:10:04.990 from day one. He took the fighting name Kodotenta, 00:10:05.169 --> 00:10:07.490 which translates to Tenda the Harp, and later 00:10:07.490 --> 00:10:10.909 they changed it to Kodotenzan, meaning Heavenly 00:10:10.909 --> 00:10:13.190 Mountain Harp. Heavenly Mountain Harp, what a 00:10:13.190 --> 00:10:15.289 name. And he lived up to every syllable of it. 00:10:15.370 --> 00:10:19.269 He fought 24 professional bouts, and he won all 00:10:19.269 --> 00:10:23.129 24 of them. 24 and 0. He won 21 consecutive matches 00:10:23.129 --> 00:10:26.250 just to clear the lower divisions. This is completely 00:10:26.250 --> 00:10:28.529 unheard of. Because usually rookies stumble. 00:10:28.940 --> 00:10:31.080 Right. Especially a foreigner still adjusting 00:10:31.080 --> 00:10:33.460 to the culture. Usually they'll get tripped up 00:10:33.460 --> 00:10:35.700 by a crafty veteran who just has slightly better 00:10:35.700 --> 00:10:38.860 technique or knows a trick. But Tenta just bulldozed 00:10:38.860 --> 00:10:42.340 them. He was simply too big, too strong. And 00:10:42.340 --> 00:10:44.879 thanks to his amateur wrestling background, he 00:10:44.879 --> 00:10:47.980 understood leverage much better than the young 00:10:47.980 --> 00:10:50.379 kids he was fighting against. The Japanese press 00:10:50.379 --> 00:10:53.080 started calling him the Canadian Comet. He was 00:10:53.080 --> 00:10:55.200 all over the news over there. He was on the absolute 00:10:55.200 --> 00:10:58.039 fast track to the top division. And then less 00:10:58.039 --> 00:11:00.000 than a year into his professional career. He 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:03.100 quit. He just walks away. And this is really 00:11:03.100 --> 00:11:05.899 the great tragedy and somewhat the mystery of 00:11:05.899 --> 00:11:09.360 his athletic career. Why leave when you are literally 00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:12.159 perfect at the sport? Well, diving into the research, 00:11:12.259 --> 00:11:14.419 it points to two main things. One is obviously 00:11:14.419 --> 00:11:17.480 the lifestyle we just talked about. He was deeply 00:11:17.480 --> 00:11:19.879 miserable being a 23 -year -old giant treated 00:11:19.879 --> 00:11:22.460 like a servant. But the other wildly. enough, 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:25.659 is a tattoo. The tiger tattoo. Oh, yeah. So on 00:11:25.659 --> 00:11:27.960 his left biceps, Tenta had a large, prominent 00:11:27.960 --> 00:11:30.519 tattoo of a tiger. Most likely it was an homage 00:11:30.519 --> 00:11:32.539 to his time as an LSU Tiger. Which is totally 00:11:32.539 --> 00:11:34.200 normal here. Right. In North America, that's 00:11:34.200 --> 00:11:36.960 just school spirit. That's harmless. But in Japan, 00:11:37.019 --> 00:11:40.399 in the mid -80s, large tattoos meant one thing 00:11:40.399 --> 00:11:44.480 and one thing only. The Yakuza. Organized crime. 00:11:44.759 --> 00:11:47.220 Exactly. So it wasn't just that they didn't like 00:11:47.220 --> 00:11:51.000 the aesthetic of the ink. It was deep. cultural 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:54.379 taboo. It was a massive stigma. Now, while he 00:11:54.379 --> 00:11:57.019 was down in the lower divisions, he could sort 00:11:57.019 --> 00:11:59.580 of get away with covering it up. He'd put tape 00:11:59.580 --> 00:12:02.240 or thick bandages over his biceps. But you can't 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:05.259 do that forever. No. Because as you climb the 00:12:05.259 --> 00:12:08.480 ranks in sumo, the rituals become far more sacred. 00:12:08.600 --> 00:12:12.059 The public scrutiny becomes intense. Right. The 00:12:12.059 --> 00:12:14.679 Japan Sumo Association basically pulled him aside 00:12:14.679 --> 00:12:16.740 and said, look, if you want to be a secretary 00:12:16.740 --> 00:12:20.559 salaried upper division wrestler, the tattoo 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:23.100 absolutely has to go. And we are talking about 00:12:23.100 --> 00:12:26.039 1986 here. We aren't talking about a quick laser 00:12:26.039 --> 00:12:28.240 removal session. Not at all. The technology for 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:29.779 that just wasn't there yet. We're talking about 00:12:29.779 --> 00:12:33.279 literal skin grafts. Ouch. Essentially, a surgeon. 00:12:33.450 --> 00:12:35.710 slicing the textured skin completely off his 00:12:35.710 --> 00:12:37.929 arm and patching it with skin from somewhere 00:12:37.929 --> 00:12:40.450 else on his body. Yeah, Tenta apparently looked 00:12:40.450 --> 00:12:43.549 at the prospect of undergoing major painful surgery, 00:12:43.769 --> 00:12:46.509 looked at the brutal lifestyle of waking up at 00:12:46.509 --> 00:12:48.889 dawn to scrub backs, and just decided it wasn't 00:12:48.889 --> 00:12:51.309 worth the trade -off. And the fallout from that 00:12:51.309 --> 00:12:54.250 decision must have been incredibly intense. You 00:12:54.250 --> 00:12:56.009 don't just walk away from a sumo stable without 00:12:56.009 --> 00:12:58.929 burning some major bridges. Oh, it was scorched 00:12:58.929 --> 00:13:01.950 earth. His stablemaster was completely furious. 00:13:02.129 --> 00:13:05.610 The head of the Japan Sumo Association, a legendary 00:13:05.610 --> 00:13:08.870 figure named Kasugano, publicly called Tenta 00:13:08.870 --> 00:13:12.009 arrogant. Wow. Yeah, he went to the press and 00:13:12.009 --> 00:13:14.529 said Tenta couldn't hack it mentally. Which is 00:13:14.529 --> 00:13:17.730 pretty rich. Right. When you look at his 24 -0 00:13:17.730 --> 00:13:20.889 record, that statement just feels like pure face 00:13:20.889 --> 00:13:23.809 -saving propaganda. The association lost their 00:13:23.809 --> 00:13:26.049 great white hope, so they felt they had to discredit 00:13:26.049 --> 00:13:28.610 him to save the honor of the sport. So there 00:13:28.610 --> 00:13:31.590 he is. He's in Japan. He's somewhat famous. He's 00:13:31.590 --> 00:13:34.549 officially unemployed. But he's also 6 '6 and 00:13:34.549 --> 00:13:37.570 400 pounds of solid athlete. I have to assume 00:13:37.570 --> 00:13:39.570 the pro wrestling promoters were basically waiting 00:13:39.570 --> 00:13:41.710 outside the stable door with open contracts. 00:13:42.009 --> 00:13:44.350 Essentially, yes. Yes. He didn't even have to 00:13:44.350 --> 00:13:46.710 book a flight back to Canada. He signed almost 00:13:46.710 --> 00:13:48.830 immediately with All Japan Pro Wrestling. Nice. 00:13:48.929 --> 00:13:52.009 And this is a really crucial developmental period 00:13:52.009 --> 00:13:54.049 for him because he signed directly with Giant 00:13:54.049 --> 00:13:57.330 Baba. Giant Baba was the owner. and the top star 00:13:57.330 --> 00:14:00.649 of all Japan. And as the name implies, he was 00:14:00.649 --> 00:14:03.710 also a massive giant. So Tenta basically enrolls 00:14:03.710 --> 00:14:06.809 in the giant baba finishing school for wrestling 00:14:06.809 --> 00:14:09.669 monsters. Correct. He spends about 18 months 00:14:09.669 --> 00:14:12.529 over there learning Puro Resu. Which is very 00:14:12.529 --> 00:14:14.110 different from what we see in the States, right? 00:14:14.230 --> 00:14:16.029 It's a completely different style than American 00:14:16.029 --> 00:14:18.919 sports entertainment. It is significantly stiffer, 00:14:19.019 --> 00:14:21.879 much more physical. The Japanese audience treats 00:14:21.879 --> 00:14:24.100 it much more like a legitimate combat sport. 00:14:24.299 --> 00:14:28.039 Under Baba, Tenta learned how to properly use 00:14:28.039 --> 00:14:30.820 his immense size to tell a story in the ring. 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:33.679 He learned how to register pain so the audience 00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:35.940 would actually believe he was in trouble, which 00:14:35.940 --> 00:14:38.100 is surprisingly hard to pull off convincingly 00:14:38.100 --> 00:14:39.940 when you are that much bigger than everyone else. 00:14:40.350 --> 00:14:43.009 But inevitably, if you are a massive, terrifying 00:14:43.009 --> 00:14:45.230 monster who happens to speak perfect English, 00:14:45.570 --> 00:14:48.509 Vince McMahon is going to find you. It was destiny. 00:14:49.129 --> 00:14:52.870 By 1989, the WWF came calling. And this brings 00:14:52.870 --> 00:14:54.970 us to what I think is one of the most brilliant, 00:14:55.110 --> 00:14:57.990 perfectly executed debuts in wrestling history. 00:14:58.330 --> 00:15:00.250 It's iconic. Usually when a company brings in 00:15:00.250 --> 00:15:03.529 a new monster heel, they run weeks of these scary, 00:15:03.690 --> 00:15:06.590 shadowy vignettes. Right. Lots of thunder and 00:15:06.590 --> 00:15:09.360 lightning, ominous music playing. The beast is 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:11.860 arriving next week, that kind of thing. Exactly. 00:15:11.860 --> 00:15:14.500 But with Tenta, they did the exact opposite. 00:15:14.559 --> 00:15:17.360 They hit him in plain sight. Ah. Let's break 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:19.840 down the Dino Bravo push -up contest. I love 00:15:19.840 --> 00:15:22.320 this segment so much. Set the scene for us. Okay, 00:15:22.360 --> 00:15:27.159 so it's late 1989. Dino Bravo is doing a gimmick 00:15:27.159 --> 00:15:29.340 where he's the world's strongest man, and he's 00:15:29.340 --> 00:15:31.700 managed by the legendary Jimmy Hart. The mouthpiece. 00:15:31.980 --> 00:15:34.779 Right. So Bravo is in the ring, and he's challenging 00:15:34.779 --> 00:15:36.960 the ultimate warrior to a fetus strength contest. 00:15:37.559 --> 00:15:39.240 He gets on the mic and says he's going to do 00:15:39.240 --> 00:15:41.779 push -ups with a fan sitting on his back. So 00:15:41.779 --> 00:15:44.000 he needs a volunteer. But not just any volunteer. 00:15:44.399 --> 00:15:46.980 Jimmy Hart says he needs the biggest, heaviest 00:15:46.980 --> 00:15:49.240 fan in the entire building. And Jimmy Hart leaves 00:15:49.240 --> 00:15:50.720 the ring and goes scouting through the crowd. 00:15:50.860 --> 00:15:53.419 And amazingly, he finds this absolute unit of 00:15:53.419 --> 00:15:56.399 a man sitting in the front rows. But, and this 00:15:56.399 --> 00:15:58.779 is the genius part of the setup. Tenta is dressed 00:15:58.779 --> 00:16:01.299 exactly like a lumberjack. He's in a plaid flannel 00:16:01.299 --> 00:16:04.340 shirt, blue jeans, super casual. He looks like 00:16:04.340 --> 00:16:07.679 a completely regular, albeit massive, guy who 00:16:07.679 --> 00:16:10.059 just happens to enjoy an unlimited buffet on 00:16:10.059 --> 00:16:13.059 the weekends. And he introduces himself as John 00:16:13.059 --> 00:16:15.039 from West Virginia. John from West Virginia. 00:16:15.320 --> 00:16:17.679 He plays the part perfectly. He's acting shy. 00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:19.720 He climbs into the ring looking a bit clumsy, 00:16:19.899 --> 00:16:22.539 waves awkwardly to the crowd like he's just happy 00:16:22.539 --> 00:16:25.220 to be on TV. It's Oscar -worthy stuff. He carefully 00:16:25.220 --> 00:16:28.399 sits on Dino Bravo's back. And Bravo does the 00:16:28.399 --> 00:16:32.279 push -ups. Very impressive. Then it's the ultimate 00:16:32.279 --> 00:16:34.799 warrior's turn. The warrior gets down on the 00:16:34.799 --> 00:16:38.340 mat to do his set, and John gingerly sits on 00:16:38.340 --> 00:16:40.799 the warrior's back. And then the greatest heel 00:16:40.799 --> 00:16:44.299 turn of 1989. Out of nowhere, he hits the seated 00:16:44.299 --> 00:16:46.799 sentence. He says, bam. He bounces his 400 -plus 00:16:46.799 --> 00:16:48.759 pounds directly onto the ultimate warrior's spine. 00:16:48.919 --> 00:16:50.639 And then he gets up and does it again. And the 00:16:50.639 --> 00:16:53.320 crowd reaction is incredible. They went dead 00:16:53.320 --> 00:16:55.539 silent because they truly thought it was a shoot. 00:16:56.059 --> 00:16:58.519 They legitimately thought an oversized fan had 00:16:58.519 --> 00:17:00.740 just gone rogue and snapped their heroes back 00:17:00.740 --> 00:17:03.240 on live television. That is the absolute magic 00:17:03.240 --> 00:17:06.900 of it. It felt so real. And in that split second, 00:17:07.119 --> 00:17:10.339 John from West Virginia is gone forever and the 00:17:10.339 --> 00:17:13.400 Canadian earthquake is born. Now, notice the 00:17:13.400 --> 00:17:16.579 biomechanics of that specific finishing move. 00:17:17.400 --> 00:17:19.599 The earthquake splash. Yeah, let's get into that. 00:17:19.700 --> 00:17:22.119 It looks absolutely devastating. He runs the 00:17:22.119 --> 00:17:24.460 ropes to build momentum, jumps high into the 00:17:24.460 --> 00:17:26.640 air, and lands in a seated position directly 00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:28.940 on his opponent's chest. It looks like he's caving 00:17:28.940 --> 00:17:31.380 their ribs in. But if you watch the tape closely 00:17:31.380 --> 00:17:33.819 in Sloan Ocean, he actually lands on his own 00:17:33.819 --> 00:17:36.759 thighs and his glutes. Yeah. He bridges his massive 00:17:36.759 --> 00:17:39.119 weight so he doesn't actually crush the guy underneath 00:17:39.119 --> 00:17:41.319 him. It's an illusion. It's a complete magic 00:17:41.319 --> 00:17:44.349 trick. But it requires an incredible amount of 00:17:44.349 --> 00:17:46.869 hip flexibility and bodily control to pull off. 00:17:47.029 --> 00:17:49.309 Yeah. If he messes up the spacing by even two 00:17:49.309 --> 00:17:51.589 inches, he literally breaks the guy's sternum. 00:17:51.609 --> 00:17:54.289 Wow. But he never messed up. Not once. Well, 00:17:54.390 --> 00:17:56.650 I mean, he did crush Hulk Hogan's ribs, but that 00:17:56.650 --> 00:17:58.670 was just a very lucrative story. That was his 00:17:58.670 --> 00:18:01.589 peak as a villain. Mid -1990. They were doing 00:18:01.589 --> 00:18:04.029 a segment on the Brother Love Show. Earthquake 00:18:04.029 --> 00:18:05.910 sneak attacks Hogan. And they sell it brilliantly. 00:18:06.089 --> 00:18:08.450 They pitch it as a potential career -ending injury. 00:18:09.380 --> 00:18:12.400 Tugboat goes on television looking super distraught, 00:18:12.500 --> 00:18:14.680 begging all the little kids watching at home 00:18:14.680 --> 00:18:16.960 to write get -well letters to the Hulkster. And 00:18:16.960 --> 00:18:19.579 it worked. Thousands and thousands of letters 00:18:19.579 --> 00:18:22.740 poured into WWF headquarters. It instantly made 00:18:22.740 --> 00:18:24.740 Earthquake the single most hated man in the world. 00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:28.420 He was the absolute perfect foil for Hogan because... 00:18:28.700 --> 00:18:31.339 For once, the villain was physically much bigger 00:18:31.339 --> 00:18:33.059 than Hogan. Right, Hogan couldn't just easily 00:18:33.059 --> 00:18:35.140 scoop him up and body slam him. No, Hogan had 00:18:35.140 --> 00:18:37.380 to actually survive him. It built massive tension 00:18:37.380 --> 00:18:41.319 for SummerSlam 1990 and eventually the 1991 Royal 00:18:41.319 --> 00:18:43.319 Rumble, where they were the final two guys in 00:18:43.319 --> 00:18:45.779 the ring. But while we're on the topic of his 00:18:45.779 --> 00:18:47.900 incredible control in the ring, we absolutely 00:18:47.900 --> 00:18:50.160 have to discuss the incident where things went 00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:53.759 completely off the rails. The SWS show in Kobe, 00:18:53.960 --> 00:18:57.109 Japan. Oh, man. This is such a fascinating piece 00:18:57.109 --> 00:18:58.769 of wrestling history. This is one of those rare 00:18:58.769 --> 00:19:01.509 moments where the curtain gets completely pulled 00:19:01.509 --> 00:19:04.829 back for the audience. So SWS was a Japanese 00:19:04.829 --> 00:19:07.170 wrestling promotion that had a working partnership 00:19:07.170 --> 00:19:10.490 with the WWF at the time. Earthquake goes over 00:19:10.490 --> 00:19:14.109 to Japan to wrestle Koji Kitau. Now, Kitau was 00:19:14.109 --> 00:19:17.150 also a former sumo wrestler, right? Yes, but 00:19:17.150 --> 00:19:19.930 with a very different reputation. Kitau was a 00:19:19.930 --> 00:19:22.619 disgraced sumo. Okay. He had actually reached 00:19:22.619 --> 00:19:25.460 the rank of Yokozuna, which is the very highest 00:19:25.460 --> 00:19:27.960 rank in the sport. But he was permanently kicked 00:19:27.960 --> 00:19:30.400 out for physically striking a member of the support 00:19:30.400 --> 00:19:32.960 staff. So he's got a temper. A massive temper 00:19:32.960 --> 00:19:36.559 and an even bigger ego. So going into this match, 00:19:36.660 --> 00:19:39.039 you have Tenta, the guy with the perfect undefeated 00:19:39.039 --> 00:19:42.559 sumo record, going up against Kitau, the disgraced 00:19:42.559 --> 00:19:44.839 former grand champion. The tension must have 00:19:44.839 --> 00:19:47.609 been thick. It was. The bell rings, the match 00:19:47.609 --> 00:19:49.970 starts, and almost immediately, Kitau decides 00:19:49.970 --> 00:19:52.029 he just isn't going to play along with the script. 00:19:52.230 --> 00:19:55.289 He stops selling. Completely. And in pro wrestling, 00:19:55.450 --> 00:19:57.769 selling is the entire art form. It's the act 00:19:57.769 --> 00:20:00.089 of reacting to a move so it looks real. If I 00:20:00.089 --> 00:20:02.190 punch you, you have to snap your head back. Otherwise, 00:20:02.289 --> 00:20:04.579 I look incredibly weak. Right. But Kitao just 00:20:04.579 --> 00:20:06.799 stood there, completely no -selling Tenta's offense, 00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:09.299 and then he started shooting. Meaning he started 00:20:09.299 --> 00:20:12.059 actually fighting for real. Throwing legitimate 00:20:12.059 --> 00:20:15.480 stiff kicks, literally gouging at Tenta's eyes. 00:20:15.700 --> 00:20:18.319 He was clearly trying to embarrass Tenta in front 00:20:18.319 --> 00:20:20.720 of the Japanese crowd, or maybe goad him into 00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:23.559 a real unscripted street fight. Now you really 00:20:23.559 --> 00:20:25.640 have to put yourself in John Tenta's boots in 00:20:25.640 --> 00:20:28.180 that exact moment. It's terrifying. You are a 00:20:28.180 --> 00:20:31.519 legit shooter yourself. You went 24 -0 in sumo. 00:20:32.039 --> 00:20:35.279 You outweigh this guy by 100 pounds. The pure 00:20:35.279 --> 00:20:38.160 human instinct to just drop the act and absolutely 00:20:38.160 --> 00:20:40.839 destroy him must have been overwhelming. It had 00:20:40.839 --> 00:20:44.220 to be. Tanta could have severely hurt him. He 00:20:44.220 --> 00:20:46.019 could have easily taken Kitau to the ground, 00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:49.160 used his amateur wrestling leverage, and broken 00:20:49.160 --> 00:20:51.380 his arm before anyone could intervene. But he 00:20:51.380 --> 00:20:53.640 didn't. He didn't. He kept trying to work the 00:20:53.640 --> 00:20:55.160 match as planned. He kept looking over at the 00:20:55.160 --> 00:20:57.859 referee with this expression like, are you seeing 00:20:57.859 --> 00:21:00.880 this? Do your job. And finally, what happens? 00:21:01.099 --> 00:21:03.339 Finally, Kitau deliberately kicks the referee 00:21:03.339 --> 00:21:06.160 and gets himself disqualified. And then Kitau 00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:08.200 grabs the live microphone. And he just starts 00:21:08.200 --> 00:21:11.099 screaming to the arena, Wrestling is fake! This 00:21:11.099 --> 00:21:13.380 guy can't really beat me! It was the ultimate 00:21:13.380 --> 00:21:15.720 betrayal of the business. He tried to ruin the 00:21:15.720 --> 00:21:17.829 illusion for everyone. But looking back at that 00:21:17.829 --> 00:21:20.190 footage now, it just perfectly proves Tenta's 00:21:20.190 --> 00:21:22.650 character. Absolutely. He was a consummate professional. 00:21:22.849 --> 00:21:27.210 He completely refused to let his own ego turn 00:21:27.210 --> 00:21:30.250 a wrestling match into a public bloodbath, even 00:21:30.250 --> 00:21:32.390 though he had every physical right and ability 00:21:32.390 --> 00:21:34.769 to do so. He protected the wrestling business, 00:21:34.970 --> 00:21:37.430 even in a moment where the business was completely 00:21:37.430 --> 00:21:40.490 failing to protect him. And honestly, that rock 00:21:40.490 --> 00:21:43.150 solid professionalism is probably exactly why 00:21:43.150 --> 00:21:46.029 Vince McMahon trusted him with some of the wild. 00:21:46.190 --> 00:21:48.690 oldest, most out there storylines of that entire 00:21:48.690 --> 00:21:50.670 era. Oh, without a doubt. I mean, we can't talk 00:21:50.670 --> 00:21:52.150 about Earthquake without talking about the snake. 00:21:52.509 --> 00:21:56.170 The Quakeburgers. It is arguably the most infamous, 00:21:56.250 --> 00:21:59.410 memorable moment of his entire career. He's in 00:21:59.410 --> 00:22:02.690 this heated feud with Jake the Snake Roberts. 00:22:03.250 --> 00:22:06.230 He beats Jake down, ties him up in the ring rope 00:22:06.230 --> 00:22:08.660 so he can't move. And he goes for the bag. He 00:22:08.660 --> 00:22:11.559 grabs the canvas bag that contains Damien, Jake's 00:22:11.559 --> 00:22:15.079 massive pet python. He drops the bag in the middle 00:22:15.079 --> 00:22:17.839 of the ring, and he performs the earthquake splash, 00:22:18.019 --> 00:22:21.579 his 400 -pound finisher directly onto the bag. 00:22:21.779 --> 00:22:23.880 And the sound effect the production truck played 00:22:23.880 --> 00:22:27.220 over the speakers, that wet, crunching squish 00:22:27.220 --> 00:22:30.680 sound. It legitimately traumatized an entire 00:22:30.680 --> 00:22:33.019 generation of children watching at home. It was 00:22:33.019 --> 00:22:35.059 horrifying, but they didn't even stop there. 00:22:35.119 --> 00:22:37.539 They did a follow -up segment the next week on 00:22:37.539 --> 00:22:39.599 primetime wrestling. This is where it goes from 00:22:39.599 --> 00:22:43.720 violent to just bizarrely comedic. Tenta is standing 00:22:43.720 --> 00:22:46.180 behind a grill dressed as a chef. He's happily 00:22:46.180 --> 00:22:48.640 grilling up these thick burger patties, and he 00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:51.200 serves them on a silver platter to Vince McMahon, 00:22:51.579 --> 00:22:54.359 Bobby Heenan, and Lord Alfred Hayes. And Bobby 00:22:54.359 --> 00:22:56.869 Heenan being the... absolute comedic genius he 00:22:56.869 --> 00:23:00.009 always was, is just chowing down on this burger. 00:23:00.109 --> 00:23:02.250 Just loving it. It's going, these are great earthquake. 00:23:02.349 --> 00:23:05.029 What's the secret spice? And then Tenta leans 00:23:05.029 --> 00:23:07.470 in and drops the line. The meat comes from an 00:23:07.470 --> 00:23:10.490 animal that rhymes with quake. And you just watch 00:23:10.490 --> 00:23:15.329 the slow, horrifying realization dawn on Lord 00:23:15.329 --> 00:23:19.460 Alfred Hayes' face. He stammers out, snake! You 00:23:19.460 --> 00:23:22.140 served us snake burgers. And Hayes starts violently 00:23:22.140 --> 00:23:25.160 gagging into his napkin. Vince gets disgusted 00:23:25.160 --> 00:23:27.339 and knocks the entire tray over. It is absolute 00:23:27.339 --> 00:23:30.519 peak camp. It is totally ridiculous. But Tenta 00:23:30.519 --> 00:23:33.079 played it with this huge, sadistic grin that 00:23:33.079 --> 00:23:35.319 made the whole thing work perfectly. He wasn't 00:23:35.319 --> 00:23:36.839 winking at the camera to let you know it was 00:23:36.839 --> 00:23:40.039 a joke. In the context of the show, he was a 00:23:40.039 --> 00:23:43.200 genuine monster who literally murdered and ate 00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:46.160 your beloved pets. It completely solidified him 00:23:46.160 --> 00:23:47.819 as the top heel in the company. But you know 00:23:47.819 --> 00:23:49.640 the old wrestling rule. You can't be a terrifying 00:23:49.640 --> 00:23:52.400 monster forever. Right. Eventually, the sheer 00:23:52.400 --> 00:23:54.859 size and spectacle of a guy like that makes the 00:23:54.859 --> 00:23:57.140 fans actually want to cheer for him. And that 00:23:57.140 --> 00:23:59.740 ushered in the natural disasters phase. Management 00:23:59.740 --> 00:24:01.680 pairs him up with Fred Ottman, who had dropped 00:24:01.680 --> 00:24:04.019 the tugboat gimmick and rebranded as Typhoon. 00:24:04.299 --> 00:24:07.140 Just two incredibly massive human beings forming 00:24:07.140 --> 00:24:09.200 a tag team. Combined weight pushing right up 00:24:09.200 --> 00:24:12.079 against 850 pounds. And originally they were 00:24:12.079 --> 00:24:15.559 bad guys managed by Jimmy Hart. But then Jimmy 00:24:15.559 --> 00:24:18.500 turns on them and joins up with Money, Inc., 00:24:18.500 --> 00:24:22.039 Ted Tobias and IRS. And that betrayal turns the 00:24:22.039 --> 00:24:25.160 natural disasters into baby faces. Good guys. 00:24:25.359 --> 00:24:28.420 Which Tenta just absolutely relished. At least 00:24:28.420 --> 00:24:30.299 a completely different side of him on camera. 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:33.059 He got to be super high energy. He'd stomp his 00:24:33.059 --> 00:24:34.819 massive feet around the ring and get the entire 00:24:34.819 --> 00:24:36.960 crowd clapping in unison. They ended up winning 00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:38.859 the tag team titles together. It was a highly 00:24:38.859 --> 00:24:42.500 successful run. But by late 1992 and into 1993, 00:24:43.059 --> 00:24:45.500 the writing was clearly on the wall for guys 00:24:45.500 --> 00:24:48.000 of his size. Because the entire industry was 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:51.619 shifting rapidly. Drastically. The federal steroid 00:24:51.619 --> 00:24:54.019 trials were heating up. The government was aggressively 00:24:54.019 --> 00:24:56.500 investigating the WWF. So Vince McMahon had to 00:24:56.500 --> 00:24:59.079 pivot the company's image. Right. He had to quickly 00:24:59.079 --> 00:25:01.660 move away from the massive steroid era monsters 00:25:01.660 --> 00:25:04.940 and pivot towards smaller, more athletic technical 00:25:04.940 --> 00:25:07.480 wrestlers. Guys like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels 00:25:07.480 --> 00:25:09.579 became the face of the company. So the giant 00:25:09.579 --> 00:25:13.019 dinosaurs literally and metaphorically were quickly 00:25:13.019 --> 00:25:16.119 being phased out of the main event picture. Exactly. 00:25:16.539 --> 00:25:20.339 Tenta left the company in January 1993. He came 00:25:20.339 --> 00:25:23.220 back briefly in 1994 for a sumo match against 00:25:23.220 --> 00:25:25.859 Yokozuna, but he just never regained that top 00:25:25.859 --> 00:25:28.539 main event spot. And this inevitably leads us 00:25:28.539 --> 00:25:31.799 to the WCW years. And frankly, going through 00:25:31.799 --> 00:25:33.720 the sources, this is the part of the story that 00:25:33.720 --> 00:25:35.980 breaks my heart a little bit. It's tough. This 00:25:35.980 --> 00:25:37.940 is really where we see the overarching theme 00:25:37.940 --> 00:25:40.700 of dignity versus the business. He jumped ship 00:25:40.700 --> 00:25:44.599 to WCW in 1994, largely because his old friend 00:25:44.599 --> 00:25:46.839 Hulk Hogan brings him in. He's having some financial 00:25:46.839 --> 00:25:49.109 difficulties, so he needs the work. But when 00:25:49.109 --> 00:25:51.210 he gets there, he enters what you could only 00:25:51.210 --> 00:25:53.750 call the gimmick treadmill. First, they dub him 00:25:53.750 --> 00:25:56.589 Avalanche. Which was incredibly lazy. It's just 00:25:56.589 --> 00:25:59.029 a blatant knockoff of the Earthquake character. 00:25:59.410 --> 00:26:02.170 He wore similar gear, did similar moves. And 00:26:02.170 --> 00:26:04.809 the WWF immediately threatened to sue them over 00:26:04.809 --> 00:26:07.509 the copyright. Naturally. So WCW had to abruptly 00:26:07.509 --> 00:26:09.710 drop the Avalanche name. And then they stick 00:26:09.710 --> 00:26:11.490 him in a villainous faction called the Dungeon 00:26:11.490 --> 00:26:13.869 of Doom. Oh boy. And they rename him, wait for 00:26:13.869 --> 00:26:16.549 it, The Shark. The Shark. His promo literally 00:26:16.549 --> 00:26:19.869 included the line, I am not a man. I am a fish. 00:26:20.069 --> 00:26:22.150 Yeah. That was the creative vibe we were dealing 00:26:22.150 --> 00:26:23.970 with here. But this is where we find a story 00:26:23.970 --> 00:26:26.650 that truly shows you exactly who John Tento was 00:26:26.650 --> 00:26:30.170 as a professional. He is handed this completely 00:26:30.170 --> 00:26:33.430 terrible cartoonish gimmick that everyone knew 00:26:33.430 --> 00:26:36.069 was dead on arrival. Most veteran wrestlers in 00:26:36.069 --> 00:26:38.410 his position would completely phone it in, just 00:26:38.410 --> 00:26:40.410 collect the paycheck and do the bare minimum. 00:26:40.549 --> 00:26:42.809 But what does Tento do? He goes to a local tattoo 00:26:42.809 --> 00:26:45.200 parlor. We are back to the tattoos. Remember 00:26:45.200 --> 00:26:48.819 that beloved LSU tiger tattoo on his arm? The 00:26:48.819 --> 00:26:51.740 exact same one that literally cost him his undefeated 00:26:51.740 --> 00:26:54.940 sumo career in Japan? Right. He decides that 00:26:54.940 --> 00:26:57.299 in order to truly make the shark character work 00:26:57.299 --> 00:27:00.460 on TV, he needs to permanently change that tiger 00:27:00.460 --> 00:27:03.740 into a shark. He alters his own body for a WCW 00:27:03.740 --> 00:27:06.700 gimmick. Yes. He sat in that tattoo chair for 00:27:06.700 --> 00:27:10.319 24 straight hours. 24 hours of agonizing needlework 00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:12.299 to cover up a tiger and turn it into a great 00:27:12.299 --> 00:27:14.539 white shark. That is just... He told people later 00:27:14.539 --> 00:27:17.019 he did it because he desperately wanted to show 00:27:17.019 --> 00:27:19.500 the office he was fully committed. He thought, 00:27:19.579 --> 00:27:21.759 if I go to these extreme lengths, maybe they'll 00:27:21.759 --> 00:27:24.380 actually push me to the top again. That is tragic 00:27:24.380 --> 00:27:28.079 dedication to your craft. He's permanently altering 00:27:28.079 --> 00:27:30.720 his skin for a character that ended up lasting, 00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:33.019 what, maybe six or eight months. Barely a year. 00:27:33.500 --> 00:27:35.960 And when he finally convinced them to let him 00:27:35.960 --> 00:27:38.619 drop the shark gimmick, he went out on live TV 00:27:38.619 --> 00:27:42.500 and cut a promo that felt very real, very unscripted. 00:27:42.559 --> 00:27:44.200 What did he say? He looked right at the camera 00:27:44.200 --> 00:27:47.440 and said, I'm not a fish. I'm not an avalanche. 00:27:47.619 --> 00:27:51.240 I'm a man. I'm John Tenta. You can feel the frustration 00:27:51.240 --> 00:27:54.579 bleeding through. But unfortunately, the indignities 00:27:54.579 --> 00:27:57.680 in WCW weren't quite over for him. Shortly after 00:27:57.680 --> 00:28:00.039 that, he gets into a mid -card feud with Big 00:28:00.039 --> 00:28:02.319 Bubba Rogers. And the ultimate payoff for this 00:28:02.319 --> 00:28:04.619 feud is a haircut match. And of course, Tentus 00:28:04.619 --> 00:28:06.920 is booked to lose. And the specific stipulation 00:28:06.920 --> 00:28:09.420 wasn't just getting your head shaved bald. The 00:28:09.420 --> 00:28:11.440 stipulation was that only half of his head gets 00:28:11.440 --> 00:28:14.200 shaved. Right down the middle. One side long 00:28:14.200 --> 00:28:17.059 hair, one side completely bald to the scalp. 00:28:17.420 --> 00:28:20.259 Which looks insane. And again, a normal, rational 00:28:20.259 --> 00:28:22.420 person would just take a razor and shave the 00:28:22.420 --> 00:28:24.740 rest off the second they got to their hotel room, 00:28:24.880 --> 00:28:27.059 just so they didn't look completely unhinged 00:28:27.059 --> 00:28:29.240 waiting in line at the grocery store. But Tenta 00:28:29.240 --> 00:28:31.619 didn't do that. He kept it. He kept the half 00:28:31.619 --> 00:28:35.819 -shave for months. He said in interviews that 00:28:35.819 --> 00:28:37.839 when he woke up, looked in the bathroom mirror, 00:28:37.940 --> 00:28:40.460 and felt that deep flush of embarrassment, it 00:28:40.460 --> 00:28:42.279 actually helped him stay in character for the 00:28:42.279 --> 00:28:45.940 feud. That is wild. He openly talked about walking 00:28:45.940 --> 00:28:47.700 down the driveway to get his mail and having 00:28:47.700 --> 00:28:49.559 his own neighbors point and laugh at him. And 00:28:49.559 --> 00:28:51.859 he just took it. He absorbed all of that personal 00:28:51.859 --> 00:28:54.299 humiliation purely because he thought it was, 00:28:54.380 --> 00:28:57.039 quote, good for business. That is a level of 00:28:57.039 --> 00:28:59.799 personal sacrifice that goes way beyond taking 00:28:59.799 --> 00:29:02.259 physical bumps in a wrestling ring. That is sacrificing 00:29:02.259 --> 00:29:05.079 your actual dignity as a human being just for 00:29:05.079 --> 00:29:07.660 the sake of the show. And that theme perfectly 00:29:07.660 --> 00:29:10.900 transitions us to the final major chapter of 00:29:10.900 --> 00:29:14.440 his national TV career. In 1998, he makes his 00:29:14.440 --> 00:29:17.799 return to the WWF. But he is an earthquake. No, 00:29:17.839 --> 00:29:20.599 he debuts as a character named Golga. Part of 00:29:20.599 --> 00:29:22.619 the faction known as the Oddities. Which was 00:29:22.619 --> 00:29:24.940 basically framed as a group of circus freaks. 00:29:25.779 --> 00:29:28.359 Tenta comes out to the ring wearing this bizarre, 00:29:28.400 --> 00:29:31.960 dirty leather mask that covers his entire head 00:29:31.960 --> 00:29:35.240 and face. And he's carrying a plush doll of Eric 00:29:35.240 --> 00:29:38.099 Cartman from the cartoon South Park. It was incredibly 00:29:38.099 --> 00:29:41.059 strange. But why put a mask on him? Everyone 00:29:41.059 --> 00:29:43.740 in the arena knew it was John Tenta. You can't 00:29:43.740 --> 00:29:46.200 successfully hide a man of his unique proportions. 00:29:46.539 --> 00:29:49.299 Well... Actually, you could at that point. And 00:29:49.299 --> 00:29:51.920 that's the genuinely sad reality behind the mask. 00:29:52.140 --> 00:29:54.640 Yeah. Tenta had lost a very significant amount 00:29:54.640 --> 00:29:57.880 of weight by 1998. Oh, really? Yeah. He wasn't 00:29:57.880 --> 00:30:01.359 the hulking 460 -pound monster anymore. He had 00:30:01.359 --> 00:30:03.559 slimmed down considerably. So he didn't look 00:30:03.559 --> 00:30:06.460 like Earthquake anymore. Exactly. WWF management 00:30:06.460 --> 00:30:08.380 felt that if he walked out through the curtain 00:30:08.380 --> 00:30:10.519 looking like a much smaller version of Earthquake, 00:30:10.539 --> 00:30:12.619 the fans would be disappointed. They would say, 00:30:12.660 --> 00:30:14.910 oh, he looks deflated. They couldn't market him 00:30:14.910 --> 00:30:17.750 as a terrifying force of nature anymore. So instead 00:30:17.750 --> 00:30:19.710 of letting him just be a veteran wrestler, they 00:30:19.710 --> 00:30:22.130 covered his face, stuck him in an oversized shirt, 00:30:22.210 --> 00:30:25.589 and made him a lower -card comedy act. It's weirdly 00:30:25.589 --> 00:30:29.049 poetic in a very depressing way. He started his 00:30:29.049 --> 00:30:32.049 athletic career walking away from sumo because 00:30:32.049 --> 00:30:34.190 he completely refused to change his skin for 00:30:34.190 --> 00:30:37.009 the sport. And he ended his mainstream career 00:30:37.009 --> 00:30:39.569 actively covering his face in a leather mask 00:30:39.569 --> 00:30:43.190 because his body no longer fit their monster 00:30:43.190 --> 00:30:45.900 mold. It really is a full circle tragedy. But, 00:30:45.900 --> 00:30:48.059 you know, despite all the weird masks, the awful 00:30:48.059 --> 00:30:50.779 shark tattoos and the half shaved heads, the 00:30:50.779 --> 00:30:53.140 one single thing that remained completely constant 00:30:53.140 --> 00:30:56.140 was his reputation backstage among his peers. 00:30:56.380 --> 00:30:58.960 This brings us to segment seven in our research 00:30:58.960 --> 00:31:01.660 stack, and it is absolutely my favorite part 00:31:01.660 --> 00:31:04.680 of his story. the man behind the mountain. In 00:31:04.680 --> 00:31:06.579 the wrestling business, you can usually judge 00:31:06.579 --> 00:31:09.079 the true measure of a performer or what their 00:31:09.079 --> 00:31:10.799 opponents say about them when the cameras are 00:31:10.799 --> 00:31:13.220 off. And nobody, literally nobody we could find 00:31:13.220 --> 00:31:15.720 has a bad word to say about John Tenta. Bret 00:31:15.720 --> 00:31:18.299 Hart, who we all know is notoriously critical 00:31:18.299 --> 00:31:21.079 of other wrestlers, wrote about Tenta in his 00:31:21.079 --> 00:31:24.400 book. He called him a quiet, demure, gentle giant. 00:31:24.680 --> 00:31:26.519 Bright even mentioned that Tenta called everyone 00:31:26.519 --> 00:31:29.279 in the locker room sir and ma 'am. Even the local 00:31:29.279 --> 00:31:32.140 enhancement guys, the jobbers he was paid to 00:31:32.140 --> 00:31:34.900 completely squash in two minutes. He treated 00:31:34.900 --> 00:31:37.299 them with absolute respect. And the detail that 00:31:37.299 --> 00:31:39.799 really got me is how much he genuinely loved 00:31:39.799 --> 00:31:42.759 children. He was a devoted father himself, so 00:31:42.759 --> 00:31:45.480 he had a huge soft spot for kids. But for almost 00:31:45.480 --> 00:31:47.819 the entirety of his career, his job was to be 00:31:47.819 --> 00:31:51.230 this terrifying pet -eating monster. Right. And 00:31:51.230 --> 00:31:53.670 he hated that aspect of it. He would walk through 00:31:53.670 --> 00:31:56.250 airports trying to get to his next town and little 00:31:56.250 --> 00:31:59.009 coddlers would see him and instantly start screaming. 00:31:59.170 --> 00:32:01.650 They would cry and physically run away from him 00:32:01.650 --> 00:32:03.630 in terror. That must have just eaten him up inside. 00:32:03.930 --> 00:32:06.839 Bret Hart said it deeply bothered him. Tenta 00:32:06.839 --> 00:32:09.059 just wanted to say hello and be friendly. And 00:32:09.059 --> 00:32:11.500 that's exactly why, when the natural disasters 00:32:11.500 --> 00:32:14.319 finally turned face in 1992, when he finally 00:32:14.319 --> 00:32:16.099 got to walk down the aisle and high -five the 00:32:16.099 --> 00:32:18.539 kids in the front row, his smile in those matches 00:32:18.539 --> 00:32:21.859 was so incredibly genuine. It wasn't him acting 00:32:21.859 --> 00:32:24.099 like a good guy. He was finally allowed to just 00:32:24.099 --> 00:32:26.480 be the nice, warm guy he actually was in real 00:32:26.480 --> 00:32:28.720 life. Which really makes the end of his personal 00:32:28.720 --> 00:32:31.779 story so difficult to talk about. He quietly 00:32:31.779 --> 00:32:34.740 retired from the ring in 2004. He was still so 00:32:34.740 --> 00:32:39.000 young. Barely 40 years old. But he revealed publicly 00:32:39.000 --> 00:32:42.140 that he was battling bladder cancer. And true 00:32:42.140 --> 00:32:45.099 to form, he was incredibly brave and transparent 00:32:45.099 --> 00:32:47.980 about his fight. He actually went on to wrestling 00:32:47.980 --> 00:32:51.500 internet forums, specifically a site called WrestleCrap, 00:32:51.680 --> 00:32:54.299 which usually made fun of bad gimmicks like the 00:32:54.299 --> 00:32:56.779 shark. And he started giving medical updates 00:32:56.779 --> 00:32:59.299 to the fans directly. He didn't sugarcoat anything 00:32:59.299 --> 00:33:02.009 for them either. No. From the start, the doctors 00:33:02.009 --> 00:33:05.130 had given him only a 20 % chance to live. I remember 00:33:05.130 --> 00:33:08.029 reading those specific forum updates at the time. 00:33:08.049 --> 00:33:10.609 There was one he posted in late November 2005 00:33:10.609 --> 00:33:13.569 that just crushed the entire wrestling community. 00:33:13.910 --> 00:33:15.809 He logged on and wrote that the heavy radiation 00:33:15.809 --> 00:33:18.910 treatments had failed. The tumors had aggressively 00:33:18.910 --> 00:33:21.430 spread from his bladder into his lungs. He knew 00:33:21.430 --> 00:33:22.910 at that point he wasn't going to make it. He 00:33:22.910 --> 00:33:25.599 did. And yet he spent his remaining energy on 00:33:25.599 --> 00:33:28.240 that forum thanking the fans, thanking them for 00:33:28.240 --> 00:33:30.359 cheering him, for booing him, for just remembering 00:33:30.359 --> 00:33:33.900 him. He passed away on June 7, 2006. He was only 00:33:33.900 --> 00:33:37.119 42 years old. 42. That is no age at all to leave 00:33:37.119 --> 00:33:39.640 this world. It's an absolute tragedy. He left 00:33:39.640 --> 00:33:42.339 behind a loving wife and three kids who absolutely 00:33:42.339 --> 00:33:45.180 adored him. But his legacy didn't fade away. 00:33:45.359 --> 00:33:48.839 It didn't end in 2006. And that brings us right 00:33:48.839 --> 00:33:50.559 back to where we started this whole conversation, 00:33:50.880 --> 00:33:55.099 the 2025 WWE Hall of Fame. It is the ultimate 00:33:55.099 --> 00:33:58.299 validation of his life's work. His daughter Joanna 00:33:58.299 --> 00:34:01.359 and his son John Jr. are stepping up to accept 00:34:01.359 --> 00:34:04.039 the award on his behalf. It's the industry finally 00:34:04.039 --> 00:34:07.180 officially saying thank you. Thank you for sitting 00:34:07.180 --> 00:34:09.739 through the 24 hour shark tattoo. Thank you for 00:34:09.739 --> 00:34:11.380 walking down your driveway with a half shaved 00:34:11.380 --> 00:34:13.659 head. Thank you for being the incredibly safe, 00:34:13.719 --> 00:34:16.159 reliable foundation that we built the booming 00:34:16.159 --> 00:34:19.539 90s wrestling era on top of. And honestly, he 00:34:19.539 --> 00:34:22.000 lives on digitally for entirely new generations, 00:34:22.179 --> 00:34:24.320 too. Oh, absolutely. He's been featured heavily 00:34:24.320 --> 00:34:27.920 in the modern WWE 2K video game series. And I 00:34:27.920 --> 00:34:30.139 personally still fire up the old WrestleFest 00:34:30.139 --> 00:34:32.420 arcade machine sometimes just to play as Earthquake. 00:34:32.500 --> 00:34:35.039 He's immortalized in those pixels. He really 00:34:35.039 --> 00:34:37.269 is. And, you know, as we wrap up this file today, 00:34:37.349 --> 00:34:39.429 I want to leave you, the listeners, with a final 00:34:39.429 --> 00:34:42.030 thought experiment, a bit of a historical what 00:34:42.030 --> 00:34:44.630 if. I love these. Let's hear it. Think back to 00:34:44.630 --> 00:34:47.170 the very beginning of his athletic journey. We 00:34:47.170 --> 00:34:49.849 talked at length about his unbelievable professional 00:34:49.849 --> 00:34:54.869 sumo record. 24 wins. Zero losses. Right. And 00:34:54.869 --> 00:34:57.150 he walked away because the rigid Japanese culture 00:34:57.150 --> 00:35:00.389 of 1986 just couldn't accept a Westerner with 00:35:00.389 --> 00:35:02.389 a tiger tattoo. They demanded he surgically alter 00:35:02.389 --> 00:35:05.030 his body, and he said no. But just imagine, for 00:35:05.030 --> 00:35:07.949 a second, if the Japan Sumo Association had been 00:35:07.949 --> 00:35:11.630 even 10 % more flexible back then. Okay. Imagine 00:35:11.630 --> 00:35:13.849 if Kasugano had stepped in and said, you know 00:35:13.849 --> 00:35:16.250 what, just wear a heavy compression sleeve, cover 00:35:16.250 --> 00:35:18.110 the tattoo up during the bouts, and we'll look 00:35:18.110 --> 00:35:20.070 the other way. Just stay in the stable. So he 00:35:20.070 --> 00:35:22.750 stays in Japan. He never meets Giant Baba. He 00:35:22.750 --> 00:35:26.510 never goes to the WWF. Exactly. If he stays with 00:35:26.510 --> 00:35:29.230 that size, that leverage, and that undefeated 00:35:29.230 --> 00:35:32.909 momentum, he very likely becomes the first ever 00:35:32.909 --> 00:35:36.210 foreign -born Yokozuna. Years before Akebono 00:35:36.210 --> 00:35:38.969 actually broke that barrier in the 90s. Precisely. 00:35:38.969 --> 00:35:42.050 If that one cultural roadblock hadn't been there... 00:35:42.139 --> 00:35:43.940 We might be sitting here today talking about 00:35:43.940 --> 00:35:46.159 John Tenta, not as a legendary pro wrestling 00:35:46.159 --> 00:35:49.380 villain, but as arguably the greatest, most dominant 00:35:49.380 --> 00:35:52.000 sumo wrestler of the modern era. It's such a 00:35:52.000 --> 00:35:55.300 fascinating what if, because he absolutely had 00:35:55.300 --> 00:35:58.860 the raw talent for it. He had the body, the speed, 00:35:58.880 --> 00:36:00.920 the wrestling pedigree, just didn't have the 00:36:00.920 --> 00:36:03.980 timing. It's the story of a man caught entirely 00:36:03.980 --> 00:36:06.380 between cultures, between completely different 00:36:06.380 --> 00:36:09.099 sports, and between being a terrifying monster 00:36:09.099 --> 00:36:12.260 on television and a true gentleman in real life. 00:36:12.460 --> 00:36:15.059 John Tenta. The earthquake. An absolute legend 00:36:15.059 --> 00:36:17.380 of the squared circle. An anomaly in the best 00:36:17.380 --> 00:36:19.980 possible way. Thank you all so much for listening 00:36:19.980 --> 00:36:22.679 to this deep dive. We will catch you on the next 00:36:22.679 --> 00:36:22.900 one.