Stan Hansen

John Stanley Hansen Jr.
Ring name(s)	Stan Hansen
Billed height	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Billed weight	321 lb (146 kg; 22.9 st)
Born	August 29, 1949 (1949-08-29) (age 60) Knox City, Texas, United States
Billed from	Borger, Texas
Trained by	Dory Funk
Debut	1973
Retired	2001

John Stanley Hansen, Jr. (born August 29, 1949)^[1] is a retired American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Stan "The Lariat" Hansen.

Career

Stan Hansen began his wrestling career in 1973 for his hometown promotion in Amarillo, Texas. He had initially taken up wrestling as a part-time job while trying for the Detroit Wheels, but he began wrestling full-time with the team's folding. Hansen first teamed with future partner Frank Goodish (who later became Bruiser Brody) in 1975 while in Leroy McGuirk's Tri-State territory. He wrestled in the World Wide Wrestling Federation in the late 1970s, and achieved his first amount of infamy there by breaking Bruno Sammartino's neck; it was from this incident that both Hansen and promoters claimed enormous power for his Lariat move, although a botched bodyslam caused Bruno's broken neck.

He is best known for his stiffness, which he attributes to poor eyesight, as he is nearly blind without glasses; as a result, in order to avoid his work from appearing too fake, he overcompensated with stiff strikes.

Hansen is also one of the few men who have body slammed Andre The Giant having done so during a match in Japan in 1981.

Georgia Championship Wrestling/New Japan Pro Wrestling

In the mid to late 1970s, Hansen wrestled in Georgia Championship Wrestling, where he teamed with Tommy Rich and Ole Anderson. He also competed in New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he feuded with promotional ace Antonio Inoki and teamed with Hulk Hogan and Dick Murdoch. Hansen temporarily returned there in 1990 for the first time in nine years, and formed a tag team with Riki Chōshū called "The Lariat Combo", due to both using a lariat clothesline as their finisher. Hansen's lariat became a much respected finisher in Japan, and commentators would often yell "LARIATO!" hysterically when Hansen performed his finisher.

All Japan Pro Wrestling

In 1981, Hansen abruptly jumped to All Japan Pro Wrestling, where he would remain until his retirement. Hansen would become the only man to pin Inoki and Giant Baba in singles matches for championship belts. He kept participating from 1982 to 1999 in World's Strongest Tag Team League. He wrestled primarily in tag matches, where he formed many teams with Bruiser Brody, Terry Gordy, Ted DiBiase, Genichiro Tenryu, Dan Spivey, Bobby Duncum Jr., and Big Van Vader. Hansen also engaged in a legendary brawl with André the Giant in Japan.

In 1989, Hansen appeared in the WWF-produced movie No Holds Barred, which starred Hulk Hogan. At the time, there had been a rumor that Hansen would join the WWF, but as that would imply having to vacate the PWF and United National titles (and interrupt the Triple Crown unification process) and permanently burning bridges with AJPW promoter Giant Baba, nothing came out of it.

At the "NJPW vs. AJPW" Tokyo Dome show on February 10, 1990, Hansen infamously squared off against Big Van Vader in what would become one of the most legendary stiff contests of all time; Hansen repeatedly punched Vader in the face, which caused Vader's eyeball to pop out of its socket, held back only by his eyelid. After removing his mask and pushing the eye back into its socket, Vader continued the match until it was rendered a no contest.

On April 13, 1990, the WWF and All-Japan held a supershow (entitled "Wrestling Summit") at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, with the scheduled main event of Hulk Hogan squaring off against AJPW Triple Crown Champion Terry Gordy. Gordy was scheduled to do a clean job to Hogan, but Gordy refused as he thought it would not benefit his career to do so. As a result, Hansen was a last-minute replacement for Terry Gordy, as Hansen had no problem doing the job for Hogan. Hogan was not champion having lost the title two weeks prior to the Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VI.

World Championship Wrestling/return to All Japan Pro Wrestling

In 1990, Hansen briefly competed in World Championship Wrestling, feuding with Lex Luger over the United States Title while it was still under the NWA. His title win over Luger broke Luger's record reign at 523 days, but lost it back to him a little less than two months later. He left the organization for All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1991, after a disagreement over an idea to group him with The Desperados, a threesome of bumbling cowboys looking for Hansen through a series of vignettes; as a result of Hansen's departure, the threesome became jobbers.

From there, Hansen traded the Triple Crown with Mitsuharu Misawa and others. Following Giant Baba's death, Misawa became the new booker and quickly began de-emphasizing Hansen and other foreign talent, in favor of new native recruits such as Takao Ōmori and Yoshihiro Takayama. In 2000, Misawa and all but two natives defected the promotion and formed Pro Wrestling Noah, but Hansen chose to remain loyal to All Japan. However, Hansen had been suffering from nagging lumbago at the time, and he wrestled his final match against the returning Genichiro Tenryu in a semi-final match to determine a new Triple Crown Champion in 2000.

In 2001 he became the Commissioner of All Japan's Pacific Wrestling Federation title governing body, a position that was formerly held by Lord James Blears. He would appear during Triple Crown and Double Cup matches in civilian clothes to issue "proclamations" of the matches. In July 2007, Hansen voluntarily resigned from the position, with Hiroshi Hase replacing him.

AWA World Heavyweight Championship controversy

Hansen competed in the American Wrestling Association in 1985-1986 and won the AWA World Heavyweight Championship on December 29, 1985, from Rick Martel. On June 29, 1986, he no-showed a title defense against the #1 contender Nick Bockwinkel, forcing the AWA to default the title to Bockwinkel. Rumors suggest that Hansen was actually in the building that evening and had been informed by AWA promoter Verne Gagne of the pending loss to Bockwinkel. Hansen allegedly called All Japan Pro Wrestling president Giant Baba to ask if losing the championship was acceptable, but Baba had already lined up challengers for Hansen and did not permit Hansen to drop the championship.^[2]As a result, Hansen refused to drop the title to Bockwinkel and was stripped of the championship; Bockwinkel was given one of the tag team belts (billed as the AWA World Title belt), because Hansen was still in possession of the physical title belt. Hansen immediately returned to Japan and defended the AWA World Heavyweight Championship, despite being stripped of it. The AWA threatened legal action if Hansen continued to carry the belt and refer to himself as the organization's champion, so Hansen responded by running over the belt with his truck and mailing it back with the mud tracks still on it. This chain of events was reviewed in an interview with Hansen at an NWA Legends convention, in which he expressed regret over the way he handled the situation and ultimately complimented Gagne.

In wrestling

• Finishing moves
  • Western Lariat (Standing, short-range or a running lariat)

• Signature moves
  • Brazos Valley Backbreaker (Boston crab)^[3]
  • DDT
  • Dropkick - used on rare occasions
  • Elbow drop
  • Piledriver
  • Powerbomb
  • Running knee drop
  • Running shoulder block
  • Scoop slam
  • Snap suplex

• Managers
  • Freddie Blassie
  • Buck Robley
  • Larry Sharpe

• Nicknames
  • Stan "The Lariat" Hansen
  • "The Man"
  • "The Bad Man from Borger, Texas"
  • "The Unsinkable Battleship"
  • "The Unstoppable Dump Truck"

Championships and accomplishments

• All Japan Pro Wrestling
  • AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship (4 times)^[4]
  • AJPW Unified World Tag Team Championship (8 times) - with Terry Gordy (2), Genichiro Tenryu (3), Dan Spivey (1), Ted DiBiase (1), and Gary Albright (1)^[5]
  • NWA International Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[6]
  • NWA International Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Ron Bass^[7]
  • NWA United National Championship (1 time)^[8]
  • PWF World Heavyweight Championship (4 times)^[9]
  • PWF World Tag Team Championship (4 times) - with Bruiser Brody (1), Ted DiBiase (2), and Austin Idol (1)^[10]
  • Champion's Carnival (1992)
  • Champion's Carnival (1993)
  • World's Strongest Tag Team League (1983) - with Bruiser Brody
  • World's Strongest Tag Team League (1985) - with Ted DiBiase
  • World's Strongest Tag Team League (1988) - with Terry Gordy
  • World's Strongest Tag Team League (1989) - with Genichiro Tenryu

• American Wrestling Association
  • AWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[11]

• Cauliflower Alley Club

• Other honoree (1996)

• Continental Wrestling Association
  • CWA International Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[12]

• Georgia Championship Wrestling
  • NWA Columbus Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[13]
  • NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship (2 times)^[14]
  • NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Tommy Rich (2) and Ole Anderson (1)^[15]

• Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling / World Championship Wrestling
  • NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^1[16]
  • NWA World Tag Team Championship (Mid-Atlantic version) (1 time) - with Ole Anderson^[17]

• NWA Big Time Wrestling
  • NWA Texas Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Killer Tim Brooks^[18]

• NWA Tri-State
  • NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time)^[19]
  • NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time) - with Frank Goodish^[20]

• National Wrestling Federation
  • NWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[21]

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • PWI Match of the Year (1976) vs. Bruno Sammartino on April 26
  • PWI Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (1976)
  • PWI ranked him # 7 of the 100 best tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Bruiser Brody in 2003

• Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
  • 5 Star Match (1984) with Bruiser Brody vs. Dory and Terry Funk on December 8
  • 5 Star Match (1993) vs. Kenta Kobashi on July 29
  • Tag Team of the Year (1982) with Ole Anderson
  • Best Brawler (1985, 1990)
  • Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)

¹Hansen won the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship after Ted Turner's purchase of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling from Jim Crockett, Jr. and renamed the promotion World Championship Wrestling. Hansen's reign was also prior to the championship being renamed the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship.

References

Professional wrestling portal