10 WWE Big Men Who Were Surprisingly Good Wrestlers
7. Earthquake
Earthquake and his Natural Disasters partner Typhoon enjoyed some pretty terrible creative direction throughout their careers (Golga, The Shockmaster, Tugboat… ugh), but ‘Quake was a particularly underrated wrestler. Coming to the business with a background in Japanese sumo wrestling, he entered pro-wrestling through AJPW in 1987 and debuted in WWE two years later.
He had the size of a sumo wrestler, but Earthquake was shockingly technical and agile. His sumo experience gave him a perfect base to build-on, and Earthquake’s unique skillset saw him regularly pull-off running leg drops, dropkicks, and corner splashes. Weighing in at 468lbs, you can only imagine how Earthquake’s pancaked opponents felt after receiving one of those moves.
It’s an old wrestling cliche, but Earthquake legitimately moved around like a man a fraction of his size. His skills and look made him a perfect villain to battle Hulk Hogan, and he famously engaged in a sumo match with Yokozuna on an early episode of Raw.
Moving to WCW in 1994 saw his career derailed by a series of typically questionable gimmicks, and his abilities had diminished significantly upon his 1998 WWE return, but Earthquake remains one of WWE’s all-time great spectacle athletes.