— SLAM! Wrestling has a never-before-published article from 1988 on the late John Tenta (a/k/a Earthquake) where he discussed leaving behind a sumo wrestling career in Japan to pursue professional wrestling.
While competing in North America, the behemoth wrestler generally weighed well over 400 pounds—he was billed at 468 in the World Wrestling Federation. In the article, Tenta revealed that his ideal weight was well below that number.
“My ideal weight is 350 to 360 pounds,” said Tenta in 1988. “When I feel the pounds packing on I go training on the hills. Right now my weight is about 390 so when I go back to Japan I’ll train and lose that weight again. It’s funny but in training for pro wrestling we eat the same stuff as I did in sumo, but now I like it.”
— Reader Ryan Talbot sent this in: Hello, I write for a Buffalo site called Queen City Sports. Recently I conducted an interview with Lex Luger on growing up in Buffalo, this wrestling career and his current life. A few wrestling topics covered were:
-How he had no say in being billed from Chicago instead of Buffalo
-How he changed the way contracts were done in the wrestling business
-Being handed a makeshift belt after defeating Barry Windham
-How Vince McMahon reacted to Luger’s motorcycle accident
-His relationship with Bobby Heenan
-How Sting led him to rejoining WCW
-On if he’d like to see Sting in the WWE
-And one angle he didn’t enjoy.
The entire interview can be read here: http://queencitysports.net/exclusive-interview-with-buffalos-own-lex-luger/
