After watching the Dark Side of the Ring episode of Earthquake, it's really interesting to look back at this match, knowing that one man became a beloved figure in the locker room while the other man got fired for going off the rails. Seriously, John Tenta looked like an old veteran wrestler who's in his 40's. But he was 28 here and handled it like a pro. That alone should tell you how impressive he was for his age and size. What a legend.
Kitao was an unprofessional coward. He tried to poke his eye and when he realized tenta had his number he knew tenta would destroy him. A huge man with sumo training, yeah even if he was a grand champion tenta would eat him alive. Such an amazing professional and man Earthquake was. Sad he’s no longer with us
Good. Kitao was completely useless and it makes me smile whenever I see him get humiliated. Why anyone would screw with Tenta, one of the nicest people on earth, a careful wrestler, and a big cuddly teddy bear of a man that could maim you if he wanted to, I will never understand.
If you enjoy Koji being humiliated, then his UFC fight against 175lb Mark Hall is a MUST SEE. He basically gets his nose broken, stops fighting, and scrambles out of the cage in complete panic and terror. You'd think a 12 year old would have more of a pain tolerance. Some mmartists get their nose broken every fight they're in. Kojis first busted nose brought his cage fighting dreams to a screeching halt!😩😭🤕
@@BradleyVolk3Kitao didn't go scrambling out the cage at all, he was actually on top of Mark Hall until they called the fight to check his nose and after it was broken he quit. He was actually very respectful to Hall after the loss bowing to him.
@@smokeyrameriz478 I find it interesting to note that he claimed in the ensuing shoot promo that Tenta would never be able to beat him in a real fight, when all he seemed to have; was shoot kicks, which Tenta mostly dodged or blocked, some slaps and trying to go for Tenta's eyes, which would have been scummy even if had worked, but which Tenta blocked. Then it became clear that he couldn't overpower Tenta, he assaulted the Ref, laid into the crowd, talked about how he could TOTALLY beat Tenta in a real fight and then left without actually doing anything to prove it. Frankly the most impressive physical feat in this match was Tenta deadlifting Kitao and throwing him like halfway across the ring at 3:19 (where notice that Kitao didn't seem to be having an easy time making Tenta let go).
If you want to see Kitao get his nose completely detroyed you can find his UFC 9 fight against Mark Hall on YT. Might be the bloodiest nose I've ever seen. It's funny watching Kitao having a fit throwing a table all because Tenta used some basic amateur wrestling on him. Tenta was legit. Wrestled for Louisiana State when they still had a wrestling program.
John Tenta is such a good friend. He put himself at risk to protect Hogan's reputation and the business of pro wrestling. He deserves his flowers for that.
Hogan's memory is pretty wrecked. Kitao was never a big enough draw to go against Hogan. Also Tenta already pinned Kitao in a worked match days before this. According to Bret Hart, Tenta already anticipated the shoot between him and Kitao days before this.
@@bricepaul80 me either because of the lack of actual combat but it does seem that Koji went to hook the eye and EQ got pissed and started cussing at him,
If you’re talking about the slap at 4:30, it’s because Kitao tried to legit wrench Earthquake’s arm with that hold. Though yes, I think there was trouble brewing with Kitao going into the match.
Tenta seemed intent on embarrassing him from the outset. no one likes public humiliation. after Tenta manhandled Kitao at 3:18 and Kitao twisted his arm at 4:28, this match was effectively over.
wasn't Kitao supposed to wrestle Hulk Hogan, but they found out before the match that Kitao was actually going to fight him, so Tenta stepped in because he used to Sumo so Hogan didn't get hurt? Just heard that on the Theo Von/Hogan podcast
John was freinds with Hogan and knew that kitao was going to shoot on Hogan in there match so John stepped in and said he'll wrestle kitao so if kitao shoots tenta can handle it and John was right
Well yeah. Kitao decided midway through the match that he wasn’t going to cooperate and sandbagged Tenta every spot that he called. So it turned into two guys just poking and mad dogging one another, instead of an actual match.
