BATON ROUGE — Former LSU wrestler John Tenta, known professionally as “Earthquake” as a competitor in the World Wrestling Federation, has died at the age of 42.
Tenta, a massive man who lettered for the Tigers in the early 1980s when wrestling was a nationally-renowned varsity sport at LSU, died after a lengthy battle with bladder cancer. He is survived by his wife and three children.
“Big John,” as he was known at LSU, also participated in football for the Tigers. Born in Surrey, British Columbia, he weighed 11 pounds, 3 ounces at birth. Recently he measured 6-foot-6 and weighed in at over 400 pounds.
After leaving LSU, Tenta took up sumo wrestling in Japan for a brief period of time, before going into pro wrestling. He joined the World Wrestling Federation in 1989 and gained fame as “Earthquake” as he feuded with Hulk Hogan.
Tenta performed for both World Wrestling Entertainment and World Championship Wrestling throughout the 1990s. He made multiple appearances on wrestling’s grandest stage, participating in matches at WrestleManias VI, VII, VIII, X and X-Seven.
Tenta went on to perform under a number of other identities as a professional wrestler, and in recent years had lived in Florida.