WWE Reveals Original Artwork For Late Star’s Return

A late WWE Hall of Famer could have returned to the company looking very different as seen in newly released artwork.

The 2025 WWE Hall of Fame paid tribute to some of the greats in the wrestling industry, including Triple H, Lex Luger, and Michelle McCool. The Natural Disasters pairing of Typhoon and Earthquake were also inducted with Typhoon there to accept the honour with the family of his late tag team partner, otherwise known as John Tenta, who passed away in 2006.

While best known for his Earthquake character in WWE, Tenta portrayed both Avalanche and The Shark in WCW before he returned to WWE in the late nineties as Golga. Golga was part of The Oddities group alongside Kurrgan, Giant Silva, Luna Vachon, Sable, and the Insane Clown Posse.

But Tenta’s return to WWE almost looked very different.

WWE Fans Stopped From Seeing Plague Or Contagion Compete

WWE Vault released artwork for John Tenta’s 1998 WWE return that have been put together by Meng’s Mullet on social media. The concepts include characters with disaster-like themes such as Plague, Pestilence, Anthrax, Hazard, and Contagion.

WWE Vault released concept art for John Tenta's 1998 WWF return. Golga was almost named Plague, Pestilence, Anthrax, Hazard, or Contagion. Better yet, if you look at the final shot, they almost had him looking like Abyss years before Abyss pic.twitter.com/0rpC2qlJIi

— Meng's Mullet (@MengsMullet) May 20, 2025

Ultimately, WWE decided to go with the masked Golga character for Tenta in a classic case of what might have been. The star’s return to WWE only lasted nine months when the remaining Oddities were released in February 1999.