One of the nicest men ever to come out of our favorite sport, John Tenta was a gentle giant who had a sense of humor as large as his massive frame. A scholarship wrestler from LSU, Tenta had a successful sumo wrestling career in Japan before moving on to professional wrestling. Standing at 6'4 and weighing well over 400 lbs., Tenta was a natural fit for the crazy world of professional wrestling and was tutored by the legendary Giant Baba in NJPW. He soon moved on to the WWF where he became a monster heel and main evented Summerslam 1990 against Hulk Hogan. After a feud with Jake Roberts, Earthquake moved to the tag ranks and captured the WWF Tag titles as a member of the Natural Disasters with his partner Typhoon. Due to his size, Earthquake was always seen as a threat in the ring no matter how he was booked or which matches he lost. Tenta moved on to WCW and joined the infamous Dungeon of Doom as Shark, a heel who promised to eat all the little children in the audience. Due to the group's awful gimmick, Tenta never really found traction in WCW and left in 1997 after wrestling under his real name. He returned to the WWF for one last run as a member of the Oddities, adopting the gimmick of Golga, a masked wrestler who loved the cartoon South Park. The group mainly served as comedy relief and worked opening matches during the Attitude Era. Tenta was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2004 and given a 20% chance of surviving. Throughout his disease, he maintained the good nature and positive attitude that he had carried with him throughout his career. Unfortunately, John Tenta died from his disease in 2006 at the age of 42.
