Post by Bobby23Skidoo on Jun 12, 2006 5:49:49 GMT -5
This appeared in the Globe & Mail (which is a national newspaper in Canada) this morning.
www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060612.OBTENTA12/TPStory/Obituaries#
JOHN TENTA, WRESTLER 1963-2006
Known to WWE enthusiasts as the fearsome, villainous Earthquake, the boy from B.C. had earlier been called Heavenly Mountain Harp by Japan's sumo wresting fraternity
TOM HAWTHORN
Special to The Globe and Mail
VICTORIA -- In the comic-book world of professional wrestling, John Tenta was a villain. Before that, he was a sweet-faced sumo wrestler and the first Canadian to succeed at the sport in Japan.
As a World Wrestling Entertainment grappler he brought to his heel's role a massive girth with which he recklessly squashed opponents, including in one notorious bout a rival's pet snake. Pro wrestling earned Mr. Tenta a measure of fame, if not fortune, among the pseudo sport's large and impressively dedicated audience. He was at his peak in 1990, when the magazine Pro Wrestling Illustrated presented him with an achievement award as Most Hated Wrestler.
Lost in the cartoon violence and two-dimensional villainy was Mr. Tenta's background as a legit wrestler. He won amateur championships as a youth in Surrey, B.C.; anchored a collegiate wrestling team in the United States; and succeeded as a novice sumo wrestler in Japan before abandoning the sport and the country in a huff. They knew him as Heavenly Mountain Harp, a lyrical name for someone whose livelihood would soon be earned through the unsporting delivery of an elbow drop.
He was most notorious as Earthquake, an ursine and hirsute bad guy whose physique was barely covered by a straining singlet. He had earlier wrestled as the Canadian Earthquake, his status as a foreigner enough to qualify for villainy among xenophobic American wrestling fans.
A later incarnation as Golga, in which he wore a leather mask while carrying about an Eric Cartman doll from the television cartoon show South Park, was so demented as to confuse fans. He also famously rejected the gimmick of wrestling as the Shark by declaring: "I'm not a fish. I'm a man."
A big man at 6 foot 6, his weight fluctuated wildly over the years. He was said to have weighed as much as 462 pounds, although it is unclear whether this number was inflated to promote ticket sales. By any measure, Mr. Tenta was a behemoth.
At birth, John Tenta gained his father's name but, happily for his future earnings, not his size. The elder John Tenta emigrated from Germany to flee nazism as a teenager, according to newspaper accounts, eventually settling in the Port Kells neighbourhood of Surrey, a suburb outside Vancouver. He worked at a sawmill and stood just 5 foot 7, an inch shorter than his wife Irene. Their son weighed a staggering 11 pounds, 3 ounces at birth.
The boy first dreamed of a life as a pro wrestler at 6, inspired by the eye-poking antics of Mean Gene Kiniski and Don Leo Jonathan. First, though, he would learn the rules and techniques of freestyle wrestling at North Surrey Secondary. The unbidden arrival of an athletic goliath such as young Mr. Tenta was a once-in-a-lifetime gift for coach Des Corry.
The teenager showed great promise, eventually becoming Canadian junior champion. In 1981, shortly after his 18th birthday, he finished sixth in the super-heavyweight category at the world junior wrestling championships at Vancouver. Later, he won a wrestling scholarship to Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge.
In 1983, he claimed the world espoir freestyle title by scoring the only takedown in a championship match against Gary Albright, an American, at Anaheim, Calif.
The sudden cancellation of the university's wrestling program in 1985 left Mr. Tenta at odds. He ended his amateur career after being recruited to sumo by former grand champion Oyakata Sadogatake, who met the wrestler while in the Vancouver area for an exhibition.
Mr. Tenta joined other novices in the master's stable at Nagoya in October of 1985. He was known as Kototenta, which roughly translates as Tenta the Harp. After some success, he was renamed Kototenzan, Heavenly Mountain Harp.
He was the first Canadian to become a sumo. The sport's traditions involve a cruel apprenticeship, including such indignities as being spanked with bamboo staves and having sand shoved in the face. Life for trainees is expected to be Spartan, with limited pleasures and endless chores. All of this is supposed to build a fighting spirit.
The Canadian newcomer enjoyed a few minor privileges to ease his transition from Western culture to the discipline of the stable. These earned him the resentment of his fellow beginners.
"Some of them give me dirty looks," he told The Globe's Thomas Walkom. "When they bother me, I just wait until practice and give them a smack in the face."
In his first tournament, Mr. Tenta took the championship in the jonokuchi division by winning all seven of his matches in the lowest of sumo's six levels. He was both older and heavier than his opponents, many of whom were teenagers.
He would record 21 consecutive victories as he began the arduous climb through sumo's ranks. While celebrated by some, others were suspicious of an outsider seen to be an interloper in their venerable sport. He was ordered to undergo skin grafts to cover the tiger tattoo on his left bicep. He was also told to add pounds to his already gargantuan frame, from which he at first lost weight as he became accustomed to a Japanese diet. After practice, a trainee was expected to provide services for veteran wrestlers. Mr. Tenta had to bathe and dry a champion named Kotogaume, after which he helped him don his underwear.
Within nine months, Mr. Tenta had quit. "I really want an ordinary life, one where I can be free and on my own," he said. "I still love Japan very much, but I don't love sumo."
He made his pro wrestling debut in Japan in May of 1987, trading one form of ritualized theatre in sumo for another in the staged choreography of pro rasslin'. His introduction to the World Wrestling Federation came in November of 1987. He was planted in the audience in street clothes before being invited to enter the ring. He did so in great style, delivering a butt drop on the Ultimate Warrior.
A long-running feud with Hulk Hogan helped cement the villainous reputation of Mr. Tenta, by now known as Earthquake or simply Quake. Any doubt as to his status as an evildoer was erased in a 1991 battle with rival Jake (The Snake) Roberts. The wrestler was tied up in the ropes by Mr. Tenta, who then proceeded to deliver his signature move -- the Earthquake Squash -- on his rival's pet snake, Damien. (Some accounts describe the snake as having been replaced by a length of pantyhose into which had been stuffed hamburger meat.) He fought as Avalanche on the rival World Championship Wrestling circuit, earning a threat of legal action from the WWF for reprising his Earthquake character, and remained a crowd pleaser as a rogue at Wrestlemanias VI, VII, VIII, X, and X-Seven.
He lived in Sanford, Fla., near Orlando, where he operated John Tenta's School of Professional Wrestling and Intense Florida Wrestling. In 2004, he announced his struggle with bladder cancer on WrestleCrap.com, an on-line site to which he often contributed.
www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060612.OBTENTA12/TPStory/Obituaries#
JOHN TENTA, WRESTLER 1963-2006
Known to WWE enthusiasts as the fearsome, villainous Earthquake, the boy from B.C. had earlier been called Heavenly Mountain Harp by Japan's sumo wresting fraternity
TOM HAWTHORN
Special to The Globe and Mail
VICTORIA -- In the comic-book world of professional wrestling, John Tenta was a villain. Before that, he was a sweet-faced sumo wrestler and the first Canadian to succeed at the sport in Japan.
As a World Wrestling Entertainment grappler he brought to his heel's role a massive girth with which he recklessly squashed opponents, including in one notorious bout a rival's pet snake. Pro wrestling earned Mr. Tenta a measure of fame, if not fortune, among the pseudo sport's large and impressively dedicated audience. He was at his peak in 1990, when the magazine Pro Wrestling Illustrated presented him with an achievement award as Most Hated Wrestler.
Lost in the cartoon violence and two-dimensional villainy was Mr. Tenta's background as a legit wrestler. He won amateur championships as a youth in Surrey, B.C.; anchored a collegiate wrestling team in the United States; and succeeded as a novice sumo wrestler in Japan before abandoning the sport and the country in a huff. They knew him as Heavenly Mountain Harp, a lyrical name for someone whose livelihood would soon be earned through the unsporting delivery of an elbow drop.
He was most notorious as Earthquake, an ursine and hirsute bad guy whose physique was barely covered by a straining singlet. He had earlier wrestled as the Canadian Earthquake, his status as a foreigner enough to qualify for villainy among xenophobic American wrestling fans.
A later incarnation as Golga, in which he wore a leather mask while carrying about an Eric Cartman doll from the television cartoon show South Park, was so demented as to confuse fans. He also famously rejected the gimmick of wrestling as the Shark by declaring: "I'm not a fish. I'm a man."
A big man at 6 foot 6, his weight fluctuated wildly over the years. He was said to have weighed as much as 462 pounds, although it is unclear whether this number was inflated to promote ticket sales. By any measure, Mr. Tenta was a behemoth.
At birth, John Tenta gained his father's name but, happily for his future earnings, not his size. The elder John Tenta emigrated from Germany to flee nazism as a teenager, according to newspaper accounts, eventually settling in the Port Kells neighbourhood of Surrey, a suburb outside Vancouver. He worked at a sawmill and stood just 5 foot 7, an inch shorter than his wife Irene. Their son weighed a staggering 11 pounds, 3 ounces at birth.
The boy first dreamed of a life as a pro wrestler at 6, inspired by the eye-poking antics of Mean Gene Kiniski and Don Leo Jonathan. First, though, he would learn the rules and techniques of freestyle wrestling at North Surrey Secondary. The unbidden arrival of an athletic goliath such as young Mr. Tenta was a once-in-a-lifetime gift for coach Des Corry.
The teenager showed great promise, eventually becoming Canadian junior champion. In 1981, shortly after his 18th birthday, he finished sixth in the super-heavyweight category at the world junior wrestling championships at Vancouver. Later, he won a wrestling scholarship to Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge.
In 1983, he claimed the world espoir freestyle title by scoring the only takedown in a championship match against Gary Albright, an American, at Anaheim, Calif.
The sudden cancellation of the university's wrestling program in 1985 left Mr. Tenta at odds. He ended his amateur career after being recruited to sumo by former grand champion Oyakata Sadogatake, who met the wrestler while in the Vancouver area for an exhibition.
Mr. Tenta joined other novices in the master's stable at Nagoya in October of 1985. He was known as Kototenta, which roughly translates as Tenta the Harp. After some success, he was renamed Kototenzan, Heavenly Mountain Harp.
He was the first Canadian to become a sumo. The sport's traditions involve a cruel apprenticeship, including such indignities as being spanked with bamboo staves and having sand shoved in the face. Life for trainees is expected to be Spartan, with limited pleasures and endless chores. All of this is supposed to build a fighting spirit.
The Canadian newcomer enjoyed a few minor privileges to ease his transition from Western culture to the discipline of the stable. These earned him the resentment of his fellow beginners.
"Some of them give me dirty looks," he told The Globe's Thomas Walkom. "When they bother me, I just wait until practice and give them a smack in the face."
In his first tournament, Mr. Tenta took the championship in the jonokuchi division by winning all seven of his matches in the lowest of sumo's six levels. He was both older and heavier than his opponents, many of whom were teenagers.
He would record 21 consecutive victories as he began the arduous climb through sumo's ranks. While celebrated by some, others were suspicious of an outsider seen to be an interloper in their venerable sport. He was ordered to undergo skin grafts to cover the tiger tattoo on his left bicep. He was also told to add pounds to his already gargantuan frame, from which he at first lost weight as he became accustomed to a Japanese diet. After practice, a trainee was expected to provide services for veteran wrestlers. Mr. Tenta had to bathe and dry a champion named Kotogaume, after which he helped him don his underwear.
Within nine months, Mr. Tenta had quit. "I really want an ordinary life, one where I can be free and on my own," he said. "I still love Japan very much, but I don't love sumo."
He made his pro wrestling debut in Japan in May of 1987, trading one form of ritualized theatre in sumo for another in the staged choreography of pro rasslin'. His introduction to the World Wrestling Federation came in November of 1987. He was planted in the audience in street clothes before being invited to enter the ring. He did so in great style, delivering a butt drop on the Ultimate Warrior.
A long-running feud with Hulk Hogan helped cement the villainous reputation of Mr. Tenta, by now known as Earthquake or simply Quake. Any doubt as to his status as an evildoer was erased in a 1991 battle with rival Jake (The Snake) Roberts. The wrestler was tied up in the ropes by Mr. Tenta, who then proceeded to deliver his signature move -- the Earthquake Squash -- on his rival's pet snake, Damien. (Some accounts describe the snake as having been replaced by a length of pantyhose into which had been stuffed hamburger meat.) He fought as Avalanche on the rival World Championship Wrestling circuit, earning a threat of legal action from the WWF for reprising his Earthquake character, and remained a crowd pleaser as a rogue at Wrestlemanias VI, VII, VIII, X, and X-Seven.
He lived in Sanford, Fla., near Orlando, where he operated John Tenta's School of Professional Wrestling and Intense Florida Wrestling. In 2004, he announced his struggle with bladder cancer on WrestleCrap.com, an on-line site to which he often contributed.