The Old School Questions thread

[grilledcheese 705]

2 hours ago, Wyld Samurai said:

Why was Flair vs Race at Starrcade set in a cage? 

Pretty heavy duty shit in the build with the Race bounty and Ace Orton and Dick Slater collecting with the spike piledriver, causing the "retirement" of Flair before his comeback. Pretty sufficient hatred levels to get us to the cage stipulation.

[tbarrie 583]

Random question: what did John Tenta do before WWF? I don't remember the chain of thought that led to it, but it recently occurred to me that I don't know anything about his career before he became Earthquake.

[MORELOCK 2,580]

15 minutes ago, tbarrie said:

Random question: what did John Tenta do before WWF? I don't remember the chain of thought that led to it, but it recently occurred to me that I don't know anything about his career before he became Earthquake.

Transitioned from sumo to All Japan in 87, did some NWA Vancouver tours, signed to WWF. 

[tbarrie 583]

5 minutes ago, MORELOCK said:

Transitioned from sumo to All Japan in 87, did some NWA Vancouver tours, signed to WWF. 

Cool, thanks.

[Infinit 1,701]

25 minutes ago, tbarrie said:

Random question: what did John Tenta do before WWF? I don't remember the chain of thought that led to it, but it recently occurred to me that I don't know anything about his career before he became Earthquake.

 

[cwoy2j 3,431]

9 hours ago, grilledcheese said:

Pretty heavy duty shit in the build with the Race bounty and Ace Orton and Dick Slater collecting with the spike piledriver, causing the "retirement" of Flair before his comeback. Pretty sufficient hatred levels to get us to the cage stipulation.

Also gave us some good promos from Race where he was outraged at them putting the World's Heavyweight WRESTLING champion in a cage. 

[Happ Hazzard 385]

Had Tenta wrestled in the US before becoming Earthquake? I always remember him as being the first Hogan opponent who seemed to be a WWF creation as opposed to someone who I was aware of from elsewhere first. None of the mags AFAIK covered the Vancouver territory.

[odessasteps 11,158]

According to Cagematch, just AJPW and Vancouver before his first WWF tv taping. 

Tenta has some funny AJPW results.

tenta/kabuki d. Austin Idol/Tommy Rich

tenta/tiger mask d. Idol & Rich

tenta d. Buddy landell

tenta/tiger mask d. The moondogs

baba / tenta d. George weingroff / tigerjeet singh

 

Edited July 7 by odessasteps

[AxB 6,124]

Tenta went to AJPW from Sumo. He was supposed to be the first non-Japanese Yokozuna, but he couldn't adjust to the lifestyle or something.

[Ryan 4,966]

There is a reason he did the worked sumo match with Yokozuna. He is only 23 in that image. So, no, he never had a full head of hair.

Edited July 7 by Ryan

[Curt McGirt 8,235]

That match is burned into my brain for some reason

 

 

[BurningBeard 3,862]

On 7/7/2019 at 2:25 AM, Happ Hazzard said:

Had Tenta wrestled in the US before becoming Earthquake?

I remember him getting a random shoutout from Bill Watts on commentary during an episode of Mid South. I don't know if he was being scouted or what, but as far as I know that's all it amounted too.

[Pete 13,744]

Cross-posted from the photos thread after I was googling his sumo name (Kototenzan, "Heavenly Mountain Harp"). Look at Tenta go completely horizontal on that thing!

[Curt McGirt 8,235]

So does that mean Hiroyoshi Tenzan's last name is effectively "Mountain Harp"?

[lostinube 159]

It's the Koto part of the name that is a harp . Tenzan is heavenly mountain.

Anyway, I think Tenta was going places in sumo but a combination of things ended that. But he was not there long enough to be a high level sumo wrestler. He was at a place that would be like AA ball at best whereas Tenryu was at the highest level and Akebono was of course, an actual yokozuna. Everyone tends to make it seem like he was on the cusp of being a yokozuna for whatever reason.

 

[lostinube 159]

Wait. How did I not know that it was King Curtis Iaukea who suggested sumo to Konishiki? He got him hooked up with Jesse Kuhaulua, the first sumotori from Hawaii.

[ka-to 129]

As seen in the magazine photo, Tenta was at a level where he was not yet allowed to to have sumo hair style. Besides that, I wish that there was an English language sumo magazine now.

[Curt McGirt 8,235]

11 hours ago, lostinube said:

It's the Koto part of the name that is a harp . Tenzan is heavenly mountain.

Ah, thanks. I forgot that Japanese is in reverse to English language in sentence structure (or at least seems that way).

[Ryan 4,966]

On 7/8/2019 at 5:35 PM, Curt McGirt said:

So does that mean Hiroyoshi Tenzan's last name is effectively "Mountain Harp"?

And his last name is Yamamoto! Oh wait, uh, kayfabe. I never did know until just now why he got the name. "The name was given to him by Tokyo Joe, who derived the name from the Tien Shan mountains"

[ReiseReise 518]

On 7/10/2019 at 12:18 AM, ka-to said:

As seen in the magazine photo, Tenta was at a level where he was not yet allowed to to have sumo hair style. Besides that, I wish that there was an English language sumo magazine now.

You're very welcome to join our little thread of Sumo discussion in the Sport-Forum. Not that we are experts, but we love to talk about it on occasion and we are happy about everyone who wants to join *shameless plug*

Tenta was 21-0 and edged to the salaried level. I don't think he was ever really happy in Sumo, maybe with being in Japan in general. I vaguely remember him saying something to that extent. 

Also, the amount of back elbows in the Tenta match is mesmerizing. 

[BloodyChamp 40]

Is there a Flyin Brian vs Bradstreet match from The Omni floating around somewhere? I can’t find 1 but I was watching Joey Maggs vs Badstreet in what was either a rematch of their Lightweight Tournament or a repeat of that match on the Power Hour with JR doing overdubbed commentary. I think it’s option 2 because he said something like fans have been writing wanting to know more about the Lightheavyweight Tournament so we bring you this match, followed by the explanation that Flyin Brian beat Badstreet at the Clash in the tournament. Next he said they had a rematch last Thursday night that was 1 of the best Lightheavyweight matches he’d ever called. I’m assuming that was an Omni match. He didn’t say anymore about it. Obviously he was selling there but of course the Omni produced a ton of forgotten classic, especially with midcard guys going for extra lengths of time. I’d definitely be down for some 20 minute Brian vs Brad.

[No Point Stance 12]

Is there footage anywhere online of a WCW skit where Norman Smiley stole a belt from some backyarder kid? Just saw a reference to it and it sounds like gold.

[grilledcheese 705]

3 hours ago, No Point Stance said:

Is there footage anywhere online of a WCW skit where Norman Smiley stole a belt from some backyarder kid? Just saw a reference to it and it sounds like gold.

It's the same Thunder as the Candido-Funk horse stall incident. 5/31/2000. It's in a couple of parts through the show, if you want to watch the entire deal.

 

[cwoy2j 3,431]

7 hours ago, grilledcheese said:

It's the same Thunder as the Candido-Funk horse stall incident. 5/31/2000. It's in a couple of parts through the show, if you want to watch the entire deal.

 

"The horse with one of the biggest highspots of the night!"
"Fuck you fucking horse! I'll kick your fucking ass!"

Edited July 27 by cwoy2j

[BurningBeard 3,862]

Okay, what if time.

It's an accepted fact that Magnum TA was being given the keys to the kingdom in the late 80s/early 90s. This was prior to Turner buying Crockett and Luger and Sting being seen as the bankable stars of the future.

Say Magnum doesn't get in his accident and does unseat Flair in 88/89, how does the trajectory of WCW change if at all? Do Sting and/or Luger end up in upper midcarder territory forever? Does he leave with others to WWF in 89 only to make his way back in a couple of years? How does Magnum evolve into the 90s with the advent of the nWo and Attitude era?