5 of the worst pro wrestling character changes, and 5 of the best

Worst Repackaging #3: Golga (John Tenta)

On the left is Earthquake, a former WWE tag team champion and celebrated part of WWE's classic era. On the right is Golga, who no one seems to remember.

John Tenta Jr. was a Canadian amateur wrestler and football player who studied the art of Sumotori, or Sumo Wrestling, in Japan.

He was one of the few Gaijin, or westerners, to become a successful Sumo wrestler. Tenta won twenty-two matches in a row while in Japan, and became quite popular with the Sumo wrestling fandom, who dubbed him the Canadian Comet.

However, his success rankled the traditional Sumo community, who didn't like the fact that a westerner was defeating so many of their native countrymen. Also, his tiger tattoo was forbidden, and in order to advance to the highest ranks in Sumo Tenta would have been forced to remove it via skin graft.

Tenta returned to North America, where he would be trained as a pro wrestler. He wrestled as Avalanche before signing with the WWE, who dubbed him Canadian Earthquake and teamed him up with Dino Bravo. Tenta made his debut as a 'plant' in the crowd, chosen because of his size.

Ultimate Warrior and Dino Bravo were supposed to have a push-up contest with Tenta on their back. Bravo did ten push-ups, but when it was Warrior's turn Tenta attacked him in his vulnerable state. Bobby Heenan, who was on commentary, would claim that Warrior 'must have said something to make him angry.'

Tenta wrestled as a heel, until he teamed up with fellow big man Tugboat Thomas, who was re-dubbed Typhoon. As the Natural disasters, they were unlikely but beloved babyfaces and enjoyed a tag team title reign.

Tenta left WWE for WCW for several years, and lost a lot of weight in the interim. When he returned to the WWE in 1998, Vince McMahon believed he was too light weight to be Earthquake anymore, and he was given a gimmick of a man with a disfiguring bone disease called Golga.

Tenta would join the Oddities stable, who are best known for their association with the Insane Clown Posse, but Golga never caught on the way Earthquake had.