All Star Wrestling 1986 - John Tenta, featuring Mauro Ranallo

A 16-year-old Mauro Ranallo (The Fight Network, EliteXC) does color commentary on a 1986 Vancouver match. A surprisingly slim John Tenta ('Earthquake') & Rick Davis vs. Terry 'The Ripper' Rivera & 'The Great' Dave Scott

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• wrestling
• vancouver
• earthquake
• tenta
• mauro ranallo
• 1986
• all star

[BrickhouseB2]

Wow, John looked great! He got back down to this size for his last (unfortunately) run in WWE. He did it to increase his stamina, but once Vince saw that John had lost about 100 pounds he wasn't sure if folks would buy his as Earthquake any more. Vince's solution? The South Park obsessed masked lumpy headed Oddity, Golga! A waste of a great talent. I miss the big man.

[bigasssuperstar]

Mmmm, not quite true. This was before his Earthquake debut.

[nicedreams]

@bigasssuperstar He meant when Earthquake returned to the WWF in 1998, he had returned to looking like this, so Vince stopped him from using the Earthquake gimmick upon his return

[bloodinjuns]

b.c. wrestling sucked. Calgary was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay better!

[bearpaw72]

The feeling is probably mutual with the other posts here, but as a British Columbian born and raised I salute John Tenta. He is the only Vancouverite to ever win a major WWF title during the Hulkamania era. Tenta also made all the true wrestling fans in B.C. proud in that he was probably the only performer (to my knowledge) to go from All-Star directly to the WWF in one change of employment, considering that this promotion was just a little guy.

Rest in peace, Tenta.

[bearpaw72]

I remember this confrontation between Earthquake and Moose Morowski. Morowski also had another feud with another fellow named Wojo (who was sort of B.C.'s answer to Hulk Hogan). Morowski claims to have defeated both men in this promotion.

In this promotion, Morowski would have been billed to defeat Tenta. In the WWF, however, Tenta would have won because Tenta was a featured star (and a one-time tag-team champion) in the WWF; whereas Morowski lost a match as a jobber in a WWF card I attended.

[Abyono]

@bostonpaul212 Couldn't be-- he debuted as a pro in '87 or '88. Most likely '88.

[moley8791]

@BrickhouseB2 i thought he was Golga before his last run as Earthquake? Could be wrong. You're right, the Earthquake gimmick couldn't work once he'd trimmed down the weight but i suspect he did that for health reasons. Too late sadly. Also he'd slipped to a mid-carder before he left the WWF after his first run even with the weight on. He was quality though and it's great watching videos of him on this site as a leaner guy showing how talented he was as a wrestler

[DJROCKINRON1]

Loverboy song "Lucky Ones"

[36hcupsizeandgrowing]

B.C. WRESTLING baby

[CZ61600]

@DVDAD2 It sounds like it's by Loverboy, but I don't know the title.

[misterprickly]

This was Canadian wrestling at it's finest.

The UWA had people like Buddy Wayne, Tim Flowers, Mike Star, The Frog, King Kong Jr Bundy and of course BIG John Tenta.

I still remember his UWF Farewell... It was right after he helped Dino Bravo beat up the Warrior during the push-up challenge.

R.I.P. John Tenta.