RIPPA Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 The criminally underrated John Tenta. And it fucking sucks that Tenta is probably way down the list of "dead guys the WWE will put in the Hall of Fame" Fucking everything... especially cancer. http://youtu.be/V3-6ycBlclI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted February 10, 2014 Author Share Posted February 10, 2014 Oh and a reminder that we already covered the Koji Kitano shoot in Kitano's WOTD thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 I don't have the time to watch this but I'm sure it needs eyes on it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Man, I've got work today. Okay, okay. John Tenta is one of my top 50 favorite wrestlers of all time. He's also probably one of my top 50 best wrestlers of all time. Now, granted, I am not ENTIRELY sure that people wrestle in Japan. They might? I've heard rumors. But, he's on my list. In a lot of ways, Tenta was a prototype for Mark Henry. He's so good at knowing when to give and when to take. His stuff looks so great. There's probably no finisher I like more in the history of wrestling than the Shark Attack. It's a crazy Hart Attack clothesline done by a whomping giant dude. Holy crap. He's got the best elbow drop in wrestling. No one comes close. He's a guy who epitomizes less is more, because less for John Tenta is way more than what just about anyone else could manage. He's frankly a guy who suffered more than anyone else I can think of from the juniors/action bias that was in the sheets/internet/etc for years and years. He's a guy whose work has only been looked at fairly in the last couple of years. I honestly believe he has the best match in two different summerslams, both in 1990 (and that was such a well put together match. Rewatch it) and in 1992. Yes, I think the Disasters/Beverly Brothers match is better than Davey vs Bret. This is one of my favorite crazy team matches ever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDzFb-fbKJs Like I said, this is better than you'd think, by far. Guys working their gimmick really well within the confines of tag team structure and the Disasters knowing exactly how vulnerable to look to make the match work, which frankly, given a size mismatch like this with the faces being both the monsters and the champions, is really tricky. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5ue7a_beverly-brothers-vs-natural-disaste_sport?search_algo=1 There are 3-4 Bossman vs Earthquake matches from 90-91 and they're all quite good. I think this one has one of the really big feats of strength by quake: There's a Disasters Squash vs I think Horowitz and Boone that I can't find online that is just king sized. Most of their squashes were great, especially when they were faces, but this was above and beyond. Ah, here's another good one. Watch how well Tenta manages a super green Paul Wight: I'll admit that I'm half posting this for the Meng intro to the Dungeon of Doom BUT, there's a nice little 3 minute squash attached and it has two examples of the Shark Attack plus the mighty god king of all elbow drops: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS4IIJBeAgo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted February 10, 2014 Author Share Posted February 10, 2014 The other "big" WWE Earthquake angle I would say Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 I was cheering on Bad News Brown's sewer rats, so I'm fine with this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 He really still had a lot of the tank in 98 too. This is probably one of my favorite Jarrett matches. This is exactly what it sounds like. Haku vs Quake in Japan. So many awesome elbow drops. So many: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99-w9mZLPMU As is this, Ron Garvin vs Quake at MSG: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xe40mg_ron-garvin-vs-earthquake_sport?search_algo=1 He was also really good at working the crowd. I think a great example of that is the Survivor Series 90 match (which, if I'm not mistaken also has him catching Bossman again). It's long and tangential so I won't post it but by that point he'd spent months feuding with Hogan and was so good at working his parody of the Hogan poses into his act to piss off the fans. Skip the Control Center unless you want to listen to Bruti babble. Really simple, very effective squash of two guys. I love the double elbow drop, the sort of gingerly powerslam of one guy onto another (and Quake had the best powerslam in general, not here but this is fun too) and then the double earthquake splash. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf3RS4jlzYY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.T. Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 God rest Big John. Natural Disasters were my favorite monster heel tag-team in the WWE and Tenta was definitely the worker of the unit. Watch as The Rockers sell like pros for Mother Nature's orphan sons. I think this is the match that led to the Shawn Michaels heel turn and the rest is history. I cannot find the awesome Marcus Bagwell flip sell of a big Tenta clothesline on the YouTubes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted February 10, 2014 Author Share Posted February 10, 2014 God - I might just post the entire fucking string of Jumbo/Tenta tag matches http://youtu.be/q6L_sRr7X-o http://youtu.be/cfDqA1MaaEc 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool arrow Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Tenta as Golga, Corino as WWF jobber: Incidentally, what was Golga supposed to be, and why was he given a name that sounded so much like Goldust, who was around at the same time? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Story goes that Vince wanted to bring him back as Quake to wrestle Austin in 98 (during that period where he was scrambling and failing to find guys to bring in to wrestle Austin like Doctor Death and Regal) but Quake had lost too much weight and just wouldn't look right in the role. I'm convinced there's a really good Golga match out there, btw, but probably not on TV. Most of what we have is made up of 2/3rds entrances and 1/3rd match in a ten minute window. WWF TV in 99 was such crap. We have it so good right now it's not even funny. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Tenta also had one of the best fat guy dropkicks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted February 10, 2014 Author Share Posted February 10, 2014 I don't have the time to watch this but I'm sure it needs eyes on it. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra Commander Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Story goes that Vince wanted to bring him back as Quake to wrestle Austin in 98 (during that period where he was scrambling and failing to find guys to bring in to wrestle Austin like Doctor Death and Regal) but Quake had lost too much weight and just wouldn't look right in the role. I'm convinced there's a really good Golga match out there, btw, but probably not on TV. Most of what we have is made up of 2/3rds entrances and 1/3rd match in a ten minute window. WWF TV in 99 was such crap. We have it so good right now it's not even funny. so it's eerily similar to how One Man Gang and Typhoon were also too small to use their previous gimmicks, hence the Gimmick Battle Royal had One Man Gang instead of Akeem and Tugboat instead of Typhoon? although if they had more than a weeks notice (of buying WCW), they could have had him show up at WM17 for the Gimmick Battle Royal as the Shockmaster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Story goes that Vince wanted to bring him back as Quake to wrestle Austin in 98 (during that period where he was scrambling and failing to find guys to bring in to wrestle Austin like Doctor Death and Regal) but Quake had lost too much weight and just wouldn't look right in the role. I'm convinced there's a really good Golga match out there, btw, but probably not on TV. Most of what we have is made up of 2/3rds entrances and 1/3rd match in a ten minute window. WWF TV in 99 was such crap. We have it so good right now it's not even funny. As horrific as the Oddities/Kaientai SummerSlam match was, Golga did do a perfect Ricky Morton rolling hot tag. The only good part of that match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Ray Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 The horrified Sean Mooney in the event center cut is magnificent. I kind of wish WWE would use it for everything they can't show on tv. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianS81177 Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 I wish Tenta had done a shoot interview before he died. The stories that guy must have had... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 He was pretty active on the wrestlecrap forum, I think, so you might be able to find some interesting stuff there. If you try, more power to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tystates Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Another guy I also really liked a lot. The Earthquake was just awesome. Also made this comp on him in Japan. JOHN TENTA IN ALL JAPAN VOL. 1: 1987Running Time: 2:05 5/2/87 John Tenta, Giant Baba vs. Rusher Kimura, Goro Tsurumi5/9/87 John Tenta vs. Masanobu Kurisu5/16/87 John Tenta vs. Brady Boone5/23/87 John Tenta, Tatsumi Kitahara vs. Ashura Hara, Jason the Terrible5/30/87 John Tenta, Genichiro Tenryu vs. Rusher Kimura, Goro Tsurumi6/5/87 John Tenta vs. Karl Von Steiger6/8/87 John Tenta, Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Road Warriors6/27/87 John Tenta vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu10/17/87 John Tenta, Giant Baba vs. Tiger Jeet Singh, George Weingroff10/24/87 John Tenta, Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Road Warriors10/31/87 John Tenta, Isao Takagi vs. Genichiro Tenryu, Ashura Hara11/7/87 Battle Royal (hlts.)11/21/87 John Tenta, Great Kabuki vs. Terry, Dory Funk Jr. (clip)11/28/87 John Tenta, Great Kabuki vs. Abdullah the Butcher, TNT12/11/87 John Tenta, Great Kabuki vs. Tom Zenk, Terminator JOHN TENTA IN ALL JAPAN VOL. 2: 1988Running Time: 1:55 1/2/88 Super Heavyweight Battle Royal1/9/88 John Tenta, Giant Baba vs. Rusher Kimura, Goro Tsurumi2/6/88 John Tenta, Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Abdullah the Butcher, TNT2/13/88 John Tenta, Isao Takagi vs. Genichiro Tenryu, Ashura Hara2/29/88 John Tenta, Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Genichiro Tenryu, Ashura Hara3/26/88 John Tenta, Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Bruiser Brody, Big Bubba Rogers3/27/88 John Tenta, Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Abdullah the Butcher, Tiger Jeet Singh5/1/88 John Tenta, Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Bruiser Brody, Jimmy Snuka5/22/88 John Tenta, Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Tiger Jeet Singh, Jesse Barr10/9/88 John Tenta, Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Genichiro Tenryu, Toshiaki Kawada JOHN TENTA IN ALL JAPAN VOL. 3Running Time: 2:03 3/19/88 John Tenta, Shunji Takano vs. Stan Hansen, Terry Gordy10/16/88 John Tenta, Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Abdullah the Butcher, Greg Brown10/30/88 John Tenta, Great Kabuki vs. Dan Spivey, Doug Furnas11/20/88 John Tenta, Shunji Takano vs. Stan Hansen, Terry Gordy7/16/89 John Tenta, Giant Baba, Rusher Kimura vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Great Kabuki, Masanobu Fuchi9/2/89 John Tenta, Great Kabuki vs. Tiger Conway Jr., Shaska WhatleyBONUS MATCHES3/30/91 John Tenta vs. Koji Kitao4/1/91 John Tenta vs. Koji Kitao12/12/91 Natural Disasters vs. Road Warriors7/17/94 John Tenta, Ashura Hara, Ginsei Shinzaki vs Gedo, Jado, Hiromichi Fuyuki (WAR) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Did any of those make the '80s AJPW set? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 I'm curious. I'm sure there are a lot of people reading this that had some really negative feelings about Tenta either in the 90s or the last decade. Is there anyone that still feels that way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool arrow Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 If there is, then those people are what we call "assholes." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted February 18, 2014 Author Share Posted February 18, 2014 http://youtu.be/HAfKiKeoW5A Y'all should watch this just for Tenta doing Hogan poses 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadianChris Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 Growing up in BC, I remember watching Tenta on All Star Wrestling in the late 80s. I marked out watching him debut in the push up contest, and couldn't believe it when he squashed Warrior. It also reminds me about how much of a difference DVRs make. I was screaming for Dad to come see Tenta on TV. Now, you could just pause it and not freak out Mom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobbyWhioux Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Y'all should watch this just for Tenta doing Hogan poses Heenan thinking Tenta's Hogan poses are the funniest thing ever made my day. He's got a nice sarcastic "Hooooooooooo" and thumbs up to mock Duggan, too. Tenta was big and mean looking enough that he could've gotten by just on looking big and glowering, but there's many ways for a heel to convey how mean he is, and taking the time to do little Asshole moves like that is a fine one. Tenta would probably still have been a good wrestler even if he hadn't been big. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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