Personal financial difficulties led Tenta to contact World Championship Wrestling. Hulk Hogan, a longtime friend, lobbied to have Tenta come in, and so Tenta left the WWF to join WCW. Before joining WCW, Tenta worked a tour of Japan for UWF International, where he teamed up with Super Vader. Tenta was introduced as Avalanche and was a member of Kevin Sullivan's The Three Faces of Fear, billed at 517lbs. He later aligned with Big Bubba Rogers and feuded with Sting and Randy Savage. At Clash of the Champions XXIX, Avalanche, The Butcher and Kevin Sullivan lost to Hulk Hogan, Sting and Dave Sullivan in a Six-Man Tag Team match with Mr. T as the special referee. At Starrcade, Avalanche lost to Sting by disqualification. At SuperBrawl V, Avalanche and Big Bubba Rogers lost to Sting and Randy Savage when Sting pinned Avalanche. At Uncensored, Avalanche lost to Randy Savage by disqualification. At Clash of the Champions XXX, Avalanche lost to Sting with The Guardian Angel as the special guest referee. The Avalanche name was dropped after WWF threatened legal action over similarities to the Earthquake character. Tenta returned under the ring name The Shark and joined the Dungeon of Doom faction. He believed this could be the beginning of a long term gimmick and even changed the tattoo on his arm of an LSU Tiger to that of a shark, a process that took 24 hours. Rumors were that WCW management forced him to do that, but in reality, it was Tenta himself that brought the idea up. At Fall Brawl (1995), Tenta teamed with other members of The Dungeon of Doom Kamala, The Zodiac and Meng with The Taskmaster) to face The Hulkamaniacs (Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Lex Luger and Sting) in a WarGames match where they lost. On the October 9, 1995, edition of "WCW Monday Nitro", Shark lost to Sting in a match for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship. on the November 20 episode of Nitro, Shark lost to Scott Norton. Shark competed in the WCW World War 3 (60 Man Battle Royal in Three Rings) for the vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship which was won by Randy Savage.