The Viceland Wrestling Documentaries

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said:

What's almost as sad as his death is nobody from the business showing up.

That seems to be a recurring theme though. I think the issue is a good number of people who have long retired don't leave the house barely as is. Keep in mind, Tenta passed when there was a glut of pro wrestler funerals. Between 2000-2010, it seemed like there was a major passing every few weeks if not every other week. After about the fifth funeral of one of your close friends, reality starts to set in you might be next. That's something most folks don't want to confront. Does it totally excuse it? No, not it all. But we have to add in the context of what was going on back then. Moreover, guys who are still in the business where guys are actively still having bonds with one another makes it much easier for them to deal with any ramifications caused by the business. At that time when Tenta passed, I am guessing there was probably 2-3 people from wrestling he was still close with and a whole bunch of guys who he fell out of contact with just cause of the circumstances of being away from the business and circumstances of life in general. If those few people you're still in contact with don't show up for your funeral, I highly doubt the latter group is going to show up. That and funerals don't usually play out like we've seen with Aretha, Kobe, and Muhammad Ali in recent years. They usually aren't open to the public like that. When you don't know the family like that especially the widow or the kids, you're not going to show up just to be there. Add in the fact, you have to make arrangements to be there on short notice and airfare/lodging/accommodations cost money that many ex-wrestlers don't have. 

[Curt McGirt]

Yeah, good points one and all. A lot of people probably didn't even know he was sick considering how reticent he was to talk about the diagnosis, or about the funeral until afterwards. His wife was clearly upset about it, but specifically about Vince. 

Probably more important to think is that John was such a good man, he would have understood the circumstances and not been upset.

[hammerva]

I noticed that they showed footage of Koji Kitao taking the mic after the infamous match against the Earthquake saying that "he was a cheater" but it didn't show him say th.at wrestling was fake.  I wonder if the fancam footage actually showed that and didn't feel like showing it or something else.  By the way I am not implying that he didn't say it.  Literally everyone has admitted that it happen.  Just curious if any footage was out there of that part

Haku confirming what everyone thought of him as just like a bear.  If you are nice and gentle with him he will be just a likeable teddy bear.  And if you fuck with him it will rip your guts out and eat it.  

 

Edited March 6 by hammerva

[Curt McGirt]

I don't think anyone had Haku belly laughing or crying on their Bingo card for this season.

[Robert S]

13 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Yeah, good points one and all. A lot of people probably didn't even know he was sick considering how reticent he was to talk about the diagnosis, or about the funeral until afterwards. His wife was clearly upset about it, but specifically about Vince. 

Probably more important to think is that John was such a good man, he would have understood the circumstances and not been upset.

Regarding people not knowing that he had cancer: my memory might be completely off considering that was 20 years ago, but didn't he have either a blog or a website where he was quite open about his bout cancer? Quick googling at least showed that he seemed to post on the Wrestlecrap board. Here is a reddit post (I guess from one of Tenta's sons) containing a screenshot of a Tenta post from August 2005:

(I assume that's legit.)

[colonial]

I do recall John Tenta posting on the WrestleCrap boards from time to time. RD Reynolds would refer to Tenta as a "friend of WrestleCrap" whenever he did inductions that involved Tenta in some way.

[username]

Yeah John Tenta online at least was fairly open about his battle with cancer and was on good terms with the Wrestlecrap folks, I think he even wrote the foreword for their book. I'd say most longtime internet wrestling fans knew of his cancer diagnosis at least a couple of years before he passed.

[Cobra Commander]

watching my taping of the Earthquake episode (tonight's replay)... I was thinking "I thought Earthquake's wife was Japanese, so how did his kids end up looking like Samoans"

Nah... he did meet his wife in Japan, but his wife is a Filipina, so yeah, things make more sense with this information

EDIT: Kitao seems a bit dumb for trying to legitimately fight giant-ass John Tenta. I don't think I expected Kitao to look that small next to Tenta seeing that footage after knowing about it for so long

EDIT 2: I know Meng is Tongan and not Samoan, but the concept that Meng sounds like that laughing his ass off is no surprise because I could believe that Meng is a lot more jolly than his "he could kill everybody" reputation. Also, I'm heavily inclined to call him Meng because I wasn't watching wrestling before 1997 and he was Meng when I first saw him.

Edited March 7 by Cobra Commander

[TheVileOne]

On 1/21/2024 at 4:19 PM, Stefanie Sparkleface said:

Yeah, and there's also the problem where the people making the series probably want to do more with the subject matter but are limited to that amount of time, so they have to decide what's the most important and what can be cut, but it's either take the time you're allotted or the story doesn't get told.

The Benoit story was done in two parts. So they could do two-parters if they deem it necessary.

[Cobra Commander]

now, I should have noticed this last night when I saw 2/5ths of the episode, but..

John Tenta working in the mall in a big and tall retail store... yeah... that's something.

Also, I know that there's Virginia accents and such, but Earl Hebner sounds like he's from Louisiana somehow.

[Cobra Commander]

2 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

John Tenta working in the mall in a big and tall retail store... yeah... that's something.

Quake was just one teaching degree away from being able to be the Principal from Billy Madison. Only without the accidental death of an opponent.

Theres quite a few guys that died in the early/mid 2000s who would have done pretty well when fan conventions became a bigger deal and I’d think that Tenta could have had a pretty good run of things during that. And in an era with more social media than just the wrestlecrap forums.

[Curt McGirt]

10 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

Also, I'm heavily inclined to call him Meng because I wasn't watching wrestling before 1997 and he was Meng when I first saw him.

Me too, but ever since I found out his name is Tonga Tonga, from Tonga, in real life I like to write that most of the time. 

Kitao was stupid enough to make the Three Stooges 'eye poke' fingers when he was actually gonna poke someone in the eyes thus warning them, so, not the sharpest knife in the drawer. If John was not the nicest guy out there he would have hit one ham-hock punch to the jaw and we would have never heard of that asshole ever again. Tenryu must've really needed the extra deng to rehire him...

[RazorbladeKiss87]

Thought this was a good episode. Light on dirt but sometimes a good profile of someone does the trick. Earthquake came off as such a good guy. I loved that he was a karaoke guy. I can't explain why but it just made sense and every picture of him singing it just looked right. 

It's sad to think no wrestlers went to his funeral. I wish he'd been alive to get to enjoy the convention circuit that's going now. I think it would have brought a lot of joy to him. 

[Curt McGirt]

You know, this is something important that I think is gonna go completely unnoticed, but it's something that Foley mentioned in his book about living on the road. A lot of guys go out to strip clubs, go drinking and drugging, play pranks, do all kinds of crazy or destructive stuff, and that's what always gets talked about. But like he said there are some guys that don't go out and just don't do anything. The Natural Disasters were two of those guys! They were NORMAL. They just hung around in the hotel room relaxing and shooting the shit. Not every guy is out there banging rats and throwing boulders through windows.

[(BP)]

Owen was kind of the perfect middle ground; he was a family man whose only road vice was deviously elaborate pranks. No prankster who also parties hard on the road is going to have the discipline or energy to fill their boss’s office with livestock.

[Cobra Commander]

Foley and Tenta weren't really in the same place at the same time for long (aside from 1998 WWF) and I bet they'd probably gel pretty well on the road

now, what sort of lunatic bumps would Cactus Jack do in a match for the Earthquake?

there's also a video of Tony Atlas jumping around to mess with Gary Michael Cappetta, which looks like something Earthquake should have done to fuck with people. https://twitter.com/WrestlingNewsCo/status/1763981426976854443

[Curt McGirt]

Poor dude even gets booed haha

I can see Jack getting belly bucked over the ropes and blasting the ring barrier, or getting belly bucked into the ring ropes head-trap. 

[Hamhock]

How did Tenta never get booked in ECW? I would have loved seeing the Earthquake Splash off the apron and through a table.

[zendragon]

On 3/6/2024 at 8:02 PM, username said:

Yeah John Tenta online at least was fairly open about his battle with cancer and was on good terms with the Wrestlecrap folks, I think he even wrote the foreword for their book. I'd say most longtime internet wrestling fans knew of his cancer diagnosis at least a couple of years before he passed.

yes he wrote the forward for the book, He said that his career highlights where the Hogan feud, winning the tag titles and considered Golga with the Cartman doll goofyfun

[Elsalvajeloco]

5 hours ago, Hamhock said:

How did Tenta never get booked in ECW? I would have loved seeing the Earthquake Splash off the apron and through a table.

I think the time he would have been available (the mid 90s), there was still an anti cartoon wrestler vibe. You had to be a personal rehab project for Heyman or a Sid type guy where the hyenas wouldn't devour you.

[odessasteps]

Or denounce your gimmick like Borne.

[Elsalvajeloco]

How long was Borne there for with the Borne Again thing? I think I started my 1994 rewatch right around the time he was there. He was there for like 2 maybe 3 shows and then I never saw him again.

I am guessing they wanted do something with him, shot the angle, and then he was Matt Borne and was hard to deal with.

I mean he (Tenta) could've had a PN News trivia footnote role where you totally forgot he was in ECW if you blink and fade into the background of some thrown together, bloated stable. That was a trend in late era ECW.

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

1 minute ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

How long was Borne there for with the Borne Again thing? I think I started my 1994 rewatch right around the time he was there. He was there for like 2 maybe 3 shows and then I never saw him again.

I am guessing they wanted do something with him, shot the angle, and then he was Matt Borne and was hard to deal with.

I think it was a drug arrest? I know he got arrested around that time but can't remember if it was then or the next year. But either way, if your drug problems are too bad for ECW, you had some serious problems.

All that said, Borne Again was brilliant.

[zendragon]

I have to think Tenta when from WCW pretty much straight back to WWF right? After that it probably made more financial sense to sell suits and drive trucks than get stiffed on HHG checks 

[Elsalvajeloco]

3 minutes ago, zendragon said:

I have to think Tenta when from WCW pretty much straight back to WWF right? After that it probably made more financial sense to sell suits and drive trucks than get stiffed on HHG checks 

He disappeared from WCW after the Big Bubba stuff. That was summer heading into fall 1996. The Oddities thing was mid 1998 to 1999. There was almost full two years where he could have popped back up somewhere.