This Day in Wrestling History (June 23): Austin 3:16 is Born

32 years ago today in San Antonio, Texas, Gino Hernandez defeated Ric Flair in the finals of a one-night tournament to win the vacated WCCW Texas Heavyweight Championship.

The title was vacated back in February following the death of David Von Erich. In an interesting note, Hernandez was actually eliminated in the semifinals by Kerry Von Erich, but Kerry was injured in the match. Other participants in the tournament were Terry Gordy, Black Gordman, Johnny Mantel, Jules Strongbow, John Tatum, Buck Zumhofe, Michael Hayes, Kevin Von Erich, Killer Khan, and Jose Lothario.

24 years ago today in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Super Destroyers defeated Glenn Osbourne & Max Thrasher to become the first Eastern Championship Wrestling tag team champions.

Ric Flair vs Sting-WCW Heavyweight Title... by Yosihait

Ric Flair vs Sting-WCW Heavyweight Title... by Yosihait

22 years ago today, WCW presented Clash of the Champions XXVII (WWE Network link) from McAllister Fieldhouse in Charleston, South Carolina.

• In a dark match, The Patriot defeated Bobby Eaton.
• Cactus Jack & Kevin Sullivan defeated The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs & Jerry Sags) to retain the WCW World Tag Team Championship.
• The Guardian Angel defeated Tex Slazenger.
• Lord Steven Regal defeated Larry Zbyszko to win the WCW World Television Championship.
• Johnny B. Badd defeated Steve Austin by disqualification in a WCW United States Championship match.
• Ric Flair defeated Sting to unify the WCW International and World Heavyweight Championships.

20 years ago today, WWF presented King of the Ring (WWE Network link) from the MECCA Arena in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 8,762 were in attendance, with 197,000 homes watching on PPV.

• In a Free for All match, The Bodydonnas defeated The New Rockers Marty Jannetty & Leif Cassidy.
• In a dark match, Hunter-Hearst Helmsley defeated Aldo Montoya.

King of the Ring Semifinals:

• Steve Austin defeated Marc Mero.
• Jake Roberts defeated Vader.

King of the Ring final:

• Steve Austin defeated Jake Roberts to win the King of the Ring tournament. His victory speech would cement him in wrestling lore (promo transcript via genius.com):

[Austin:] The first thing I want to be done, is to get that piece of crap out of my ring. Don't just get him out of the ring, get him out of the WWF because I've proved son, without a shadow of a doubt, you ain't got what it takes anymore! You sit there and you thump your Bible, and you say your prayers, and it didn't get you anywhere. Talk about your psalms, talk about John 3:16...

Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass!

*crowd cheer*

[Hendrix:] Come on, that's not necessary...

[Austin:] All he's gotta do is go buy him a cheap bottle of Thunderbird and try to dig back some of that courage he had in his prime.

As the King of the Ring, I'm serving notice to every one of the WWF superstars. I don't give a damn what they are, they're all on the list, and that's Stone Cold's list, and I'm fixing to start running through all of 'em.

And as far as this championship match is considered son, I don't give a damn if it's Davey Boy Smith or Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin's time is come, and when I get that shot you're looking at the next WWF Champion. And that's the bottom line, because Stone Cold said so.

Though stories varied on when he was presented with the premise of the promo (Roberts' becoming a born-again Christian), his "Austin 3:16" declaration would inspire many T-shirts, including this one that goes on to become the most popular shirt in wrestling history. Austin himself would become the face of a resurging WWF less than two years later.

Non-tournament matches in order of occurrence:

• The Smokin' Gunns (Billy & Bart) defeated The Godwinns (Henry & Phineas) to retain the WWF Tag Team Championship.
• The Ultimate Warrior defeated Jerry Lawler. This would be Warrior's final WWF PPV appearance until Wrestlemania XXX; he was fired before next month's In Your House 9 after allegedly missing house shows.
• Mankind defeated The Undertaker by submission.
• Ahmed Johnson defeated Goldust to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship.
• Shawn Michaels defeated The British Bulldog to retain the WWF Championship.

14 years ago today, WWE presented King of the Ring (WWE Network link) from the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. 14,200 were in attendance, with 320,000 homes watching on PPV. This was the last time the tournament was held until 2006, and the last time the tournament was held on a traditional PPV.

• In a Sunday Night Heat preshow match, The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff) defeated Raven and Steven Richards.

King of the Ring semifinals:

• Rob Van Dam defeated Chris Jericho.
• Brock Lesnar defeated Test.

King of the Ring final:

• Brock Lesnar defeated Rob Van Dam to win the King of the Ring tournament and a WWE Championship match at Summerslam.

Non-tournament matches in order of occurrence:

• Jamie Noble defeated The Hurricane to win the WWE Cruiserweight Championship.
• Ric Flair defeated Eddie Guerrero.
• Molly Holly defeated Trish Stratus to win the WWE Women's Championship.
• Kurt Angle defeated Hulk Hogan by submission. This was Hogan's first submission loss in a WWE ring.
• The Undertaker defeated Triple H to retain the Undisputed WWE Championship.

13 years ago today on RAW from New York City (WWE Network link), Triple H defeated Kane in a title versus mask match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. As a result of the loss, Kane was forced to unmask.

8 years ago today, WWE presented the 2008 Draft Lottery on RAW from San Antonio, Texas.

Eleven men were moved during the show; two of them were RAW and Smackdown's respective longtime commentators Jim Ross and Michael Cole; Ross had no prior knowledge of the move and was on the verge of quitting the company in protest. Ultimately, he decided to stick around. He lasted just over a year just before a bout with Bell's palsy forced him away from the booth.

Pick #	Brand (to)	Employee	Brand (from)
1	Raw	Rey Mysterio	SmackDown
2	SmackDown	Jeff Hardy	Raw
3	Raw	CM Punk	ECW
4	ECW	Matt Hardy	SmackDown
5	SmackDown	Jim Ross	Raw
6	Raw	Michael Cole	SmackDown
7	Raw	Batista	SmackDown
8	SmackDown	Umaga	Raw
9	Raw	Kane	ECW
10	SmackDown	Mr. Kennedy	Raw
11	SmackDown	Triple H	Raw

Supplemental draft results (taking place two days later):

Pick #	Brand (to)	Employee	Brand (from)
12	ECW	Mark Henry	SmackDown
13	Raw	Jamie Noble	SmackDown
14	SmackDown	Trevor Murdoch	Raw
15	SmackDown	Big Daddy V	ECW
16	Raw	Deuce	SmackDown
17	SmackDown	DH Smith	Raw
18	ECW	Hornswoggle	SmackDown
19	ECW	Super Crazy	Raw
20	Raw	Chuck Palumbo	SmackDown
21	SmackDown	Brian Kendrick	Raw
22	Raw	Matt Striker	ECW
23	SmackDown	Maria	Raw
24	SmackDown	Shelton Benjamin	ECW
25	ECW	Finlay	SmackDown
26	SmackDown	Carlito	Raw
27	Raw	Layla	ECW
28	Raw	Kofi Kingston	ECW

Trevor Murdoch, Big Daddy V, and Chuck Palumbo were all released before they could appear on their new brands. Also on the same show, Million Dollar Mania ends with a $500,000 giveaway. After the giveaway, a piece of the RAW set collapses, landing on McMahon. This may or may not have been the second attempt in as many years to kill off McMahon. Either way, this plotline is never resolved.

3 years ago today at a ROH on Sinclair taping in Baltimore, Maryland, Team ROH (BJ Whitmer, Jay Lethal, Kevin Steen, and Michael Elgin) defeated SCUM (Cliff Compton, Jimmy Jacobs, Rhett Titus, and Rhino) in Steel Cage Warfare. As a result of the loss, SCUM had to disband.

2 years ago today on RAW from Washington, DC (WWE Network link), Stephanie McMahon, in her first match in over a decade, defeated Vickie Guerrero in a mud wrestling match. As a result of the loss, Vickie was fired. This served as a write-off for Guerrero, who was retiring from the wrestling business.

1 year ago today, WWE debuts the sixth season of Tough Enough.

As with past seasons, the reality competition series focuses on a group of outsiders going through rigorous training overseen by former WWE competitors. In the end, one man and one woman will earn a one-year, $250,000 deal with WWE.

Unlike past seasons, eliminations were decided by a nationwide vote, with each judge (Hulk Hogan, Daniel Bryan, and Paige) nominating one person for elimination, and the vote deciding who goes home. Each judge is allowed to save one person from elimination during the season.

For the record, Hank Avery was eliminated in the season opener. Joshua Bredl and Sara Lee went on to win the competition. In the end, seven of the thirteen contestants were signed to WWE deals. The full season is available on WWE Network here.

1 year ago today, Matt Hardy and Rebecca Reyes, aka Reby Sky, give birth to their first child. Son Maxel was born weighing 8 pounds, 9 ounces. And for reasons not quite explained, Maxel has his own Twitter account.

Yesterday would have been the 53^rd birthday of John Anthony Tenta, Jr. Wrestling under such names as Kototenzan, Shark, Avalanche, and Golga, Tenta is perhaps best remembered as Earthquake.

Born 11 pounds, 3 ounces in Surrey, British Columbia, Tenta, inspired by the likes of Gene Kiniski and Don Leo Jonathan, began wrestling at age 6. Taking up freestyle wrestling for North Surrey Secondary, Tenta became very successful, winning the Canadian junior nationals in 1981 and placing sixth in the super heavyweight category at the World Junior Wrestling Championships.

He wrestled collegiately for Louisiana State University on a football scholarship; teammates nicknamed him "Big John" Tenta. Tenta's college wrestling career ended in 1985 when the school dropped wrestling to comply with Title IX (a law that prohibits any education program receiving federal money from discriminating based on gender). He walked on the LSU football team, where he was a junior varsity defensive lineman. While at LSU, he also played rugby and was employed as a bouncer.

After encountering a former yokozuna while in Vancouver, Tenta moved to Japan to take up sumo wrestling. Following tradition. he took on the sumo name Kototenta, or Tenta the Harp. Tenta was a late starter, taking up sumo at 22 when most take it up in their mid-teens. At 6' 5¾" and 423 pounds and already trained as an amateur wrestler, Tenta won all 24 of his bouts in his sumo career. Later renamed Kototenzan (Heavenly Mountain Harp), the young Caucasian Westerner sumotori, among the rarest of breeds in sumo, garnered national press coverage and was dubbed by the press as the Canadian Comet.

But Tenta couldn't cope with the sumo lifestyle. The hard ring surface took a toll on his body. In addition, his large tiger tattoo on his left biceps was frowned upon (tattoos are often associated with the gangster lifestyle in Japan), and though he covered it up prior to matches, he would have to have it removed altogether before moving up to higher levels.

Tenta left the sumo world behind and decided to give puroresu—pro wrestling—a try. He joined Giant Baba's All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1987, making his debut on May 1 that year. He teamed with Baba in his debut and defeated Rusher Kimura and Goro Tsurumi. For the next year and a half or so, he would team with All Japan's most popular performers, including The Great Kabuki, Jumbo Tsuruta, and Baba. He also toured for NWA All-Star Wrestling based out of Vancouver. Eventually, he caught the attention of the WWF.

After appearing in two dark matches in early 1989, Tenta joined the WWF in September 1989. He worked a dark match as Earthquake Evans under the management of Slick. His television debut came in November 1989 as a plant for Dino Bravo, who challenged Ultimate Warrior to a strength competition. Identifying himself as "John from West Virginia", he first sat on Dino Bravo's back as Dino did a set of pushups. He then sat on Ultimate Warrior's back. As Warrior did pushups, Tenta leaptdown onto Warrior, and Bravo and Tenta put a beating on Warrior. With Jimmy Hart as his manager, Tenta became The Canadian Earthquake, shortened to Earthquake by Wrestlemania VI. His seated senton was sold as a dangerous maneuver, with many of his victims being stretchered out.

Tenta's signature feud came in May 1990 when he feuded with Hulk Hogan. At a WWF Superstars of Wrestling taping during a Brother Love Show segment, Earthquake jumped Hogan from behind and repeatedly used his "Earthquake splash", crushing Hogan's ribs. Hogan recovered in time for Summerslam that August, and Hogan would defeat Earthquake. The feud continued until the 1991 Royal Rumble match, with Hogan last eliminating Earthquake to win the bout.

His next big feud again revolved around squashing. In a segment on WWF Superstars involving Jake "The Snake" Roberts after Wrestlemania VII, Earthquake squashed Jake's snake Damien (in reality, Earthquake didn't actually squash a snake; it was a pantyhose stuffed with hamburger meat and a live motor used to simulate a snake). The incident did not air on Superstars (it cut away before the actual squashing took place), but it did air uninterrupted on Prime Time Wrestling. In an infamous segment on Prime Time, Earthquake served up "Quakeburgers" to hosts Vince McMahon, Lord Alfred Hayes, and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. After eating a few, Hayes got a little curious about the meat. It's then when Earthquake let them in on the secret ingredient: the meat's made from an animal that rhymes with quake. The hosts put two and two together; Hayes nearly threw up and McMahon knocked the tray out of Earthquake's hands. Roberts and Earthquake would feud for most of the spring and into the summer.

In late 1991, Earthquake teamed with Typhoon (the former Tugboat, Fred Ottman) as the Natural Disasters. They were managed by Jimmy Hart initially, but Hart would turn on them after they not only failed to win the WWF Tag Team Championship, but Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster) were successful. The Disasters did have a brief tag team championship run in the summer and early fall of 1992, defeating Money Inc. for the titles.

After a year away from the company for stints in Japanese-based Wrestle and Romance (WAR) and Mexico's CMLL, Tenta returned to the WWF in January 1994 when he countered Diesel's interference during a match between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. After quickly defeating Adam Bomb at Wrestlemania X, Earthquake feuded with Yokozuna; it was during this feud that Tenta's sumo roots were explained on WWF programming for the first time. The feud ended when Yokozuna and Crush injured Earthquake at a house show in May 1994. He was to face Owen Hart in a King of the Ring qualifying match, but the bout never took place. He returned to Japan for WAR.

Facing financial difficulties, Tenta turned to World Championship Wrestling. With longtime friend Hulk Hogan lobbying for him, Tenta broke his WWF contract and joined WCW following a tour with UWF international.

Tenta was introduced as a member of Kevin Sullivan's Three Faces of Fear, Avalance. He aligned with Big Bubba Rogers and feuded with Sting and Randy Savage, with Avalanche losing to both Sting and Savage via disqualification at Starrcade '94 and Uncensored in March 1995. Avalanche again lost to Sting at Clash at the Champions XXX with The Guardian Angel (the former Bubba Rogers) as the special referee. The Avalanche gimmick was dropped when WWF threatened legal action over similarities to the Earthquake character.

Tenta returned as The Shark as part of the Dungeon of Doom. As Tenta saw this as a potential long-term gimmick, he changed the tattoo on his arm from a tiger (the LSU mascot) to a shark. The process took 24 hours. He had a few notable bouts as Shark, teaming with Kamala, Zodiac, and Meng against the Hulkamaniacs in the WarGames match at Fall Brawl, against Sting for the WCW United States Championship in October 1995, and as a part of the World War 3 match (a three-ring, 60-man battle royal), but all were in losing efforts.

In 1996, Tenta left the Dungeon of Doom and cut a worked shoot promo on his past gimmicks, declaring himself to be not a shark, or a fish, or an avalanche, but a man. Tenta would feud with Big Bubba Rogers through the spring and early summer of 1996, with each man shaving the other at one point (Tenta cutting Rogers' goatee; Rogers shaving half of Tenta's head). Tenta left the WWF in early 1997 after an angle in which he was a part of Roddy Piper's "family" was dropped.

Tenta would resurface in the WWF in May 1998 as the masked Golga, a man who had a fascination with Eric Cartman from the animated series South Park. WWF officials believed that Tenta reprising the Earthquake gimmick wouldn't be believable as he had lost a lot of weight. Golga would be a part of the Oddities stable, a collection of freakish wrestlers. Golga was relegated to tag team duty, teaming mostly with other members of the Oddities, feuding with the Headbangers and Insane Clown Posse. Golga's last notable appearance came at the 1999 Royal Rumble match where he drew #3 and was quickly ousted by Stone Cold Steve Austin. The group dissolved in February 1999 when all of its members were released.

Tenta's final WWF appearance came in 2001 when he reprised his Earthquake gimmick in the Gimmick Battle Royal at Wrestlemania X-Seven. He was eliminated by Kamala.

Tenta retired from wrestling in 2004 when he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. He was given just a 20% chance to live assuming chemotherapy treatments worked out. Unfortunately, the treatments did not take and the cancer had spread to his lungs as he revealed in an interview with Wrestlecrap Radio in November 2005. The bladder cancer claimed his life on June 7, 2006. He was 42. At the time of his passing, he left behind a wife, Josephine and three children, Johnny, Joanna, and Jeff.