What are your favourite bouts from the almighty Stan Hansen? What do you reckon was his best Lariat? Needless to say, there's a lot of choice here. Have a shout in the comments, and thanks for watching! :)
Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi vs. Stan Hansen & Vader is my favourite Stan Hansen match, though that it is really more to do with Vader, still Hansen was a great part, and had good chemistry with both his tag partner, but also his opponents. His best singles match by far is vs. Toshiaki Kawada (the 1992 match, I actually despise his 1995 match with Kawada). This was about ****1/4 for me. It told a great story, and was really aggressive in a great way. I do find Stan Hansen to be overrated not going to lie.
That literall eye popping war with vader. I actually liked when he won the awa belt when i finally got to watch it. When he and kobashi took pieces of each others souls.
Hansen vs Andre in 81 was great in All-Japan, for people that only know Andre as the broken down immobile wreck from late 80s WWF your in for a treat. Jim Cornette and Brian Last do a great watch along on Jim's channel, it gives a great insight into the phycology of the match. 🤘"Yooouuuth!!!!
@@JackgarPrime I remember first reading about him in Mick Foley's first book, and I was like "Oh, I get it, I've seen Bradshaw..." No. Not even close 😂
I met Stan at an indy show in West Virginia a few years ago. He came out, signed his book, met fans, and gave a great speech in the ring. It's actually quite amazing that the cowboy maniac i'd seen all those years was this same guy. He was polite, soft spoken, friendly, and just an all around nice guy. What a career! I was so honored to meet this legend and shake his hand. Great video Kim as always.
Honestly this channel is the reason why I fell in love with Terry Gordy, Stan Hansen and Japan wrestling in the 80s and 90s in total. Stan Hansen became one of my favorite Wrestlers ever thanks to this channel so thank you for this video❤
I’d like to say the same about Terry Gordy. Total new found respect for the guy. While I knew an okay amount about All Japan, this channel has given me a plethora of stuff I didn’t know.
Hansen's team with Ted Dibiase in AJPW was tremendous. Dick Murdoch was fantastic in Japan as well, and the Funks were Gods. Obviously Brody and Dr. Death deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Hansen & co. Vader, Mike Awesome as The Gladiator in FMW. So many great badass gaijins over the years. Furnas & Kriffat were fantastic in AJPW for years too. If you haven't seen Furnas/Kroffat vs. Kawada/Kikuchi Tsuyoshi I can't recommend it enough. Always dug Sabu & RVD in AJPW and FMW. Steve Corino was great in Hashimoto's ZERO-ONE promotion lol. Going off point a bit here, thinking of more big monster gaijin ala Hansen. I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but sometimes enjoyed seeing Danny Spivey in All Japan, often teaming with Hansen. Joel Deaton as well. Too many to name obviously. Funks vs. Abdullah & The Sheik is an all time favorite of mine Just too much greatness
Terry Gordy and Stan Hansen were my two top favorites growing up. I loved the 90s. I was a pro wrestler for 17 years. I never got to go to Japan. I was born 10 years too late in my opinion. Mad respect to both these guys. They made you believe. RIP Terry Gordy.
I've always liked lariats, just because they look so legit. Other moves might be more entertaining and demonstrate an enormous amount of skill, strength and prowess of the wrestlers involved, but there's something totally primal about seeing someone get absolutely twatted by someone else's arm. You feel it connect just by looking at it.
Look up night train lane, it was the best American football tackle until they made it illegal sometime in the late 60s early 70s, the "night train neck tie" was the way to tackle until it wasn't one year because of rules
Gotta love the hoss fights Stan Hansen had in AJPW. Jumbo, Gordy, etc. Smashmouth, hard-hitting wrestling. Also, I love Hansen's loyalty to Giant Baba and AJPW. The man is an absolute legend. Also, that potatoing scene was featured in the latest Grapple Vision video.
I love how that, thanks to Hansen, wrestling with a cowboy gimmick in the modern era basically guarantees that you’re gonna have a badass lariat somewhere in your arsenal.
I get home from my 5th day in a row doing 12 hour shifts at a factory to see this on my feed . I couldn't be happier !!! Thanks Kim , you made my day ! This morning I would have rather taken Stan's Lariat then go to work today lol ! But for real , I watched Hansen growing up in different territories and I always took to his style but as soon as I started following AJPW in the 90s is when I really started loving this dude !
Fun fact: One mid-90s match between Hansen and Kobashi was so brutal that the bone in Kobashi's arm was almost coming out of his elbow. Kobashi got so hot with Hansen over this, that after the match Kobash saught out Hansen and started brawling with him backstage until Misawa stepped in and pulled Kobashi off Hansen. Thankfully Kobashi and Hansen did patch things up fairly quickly. Kobashi also had a backstage fight with Vader in 1999 that Misawa again had to intervene in, because Kobashi thought that Vader was taking liberties with him during their match earlier that evening.
Thank you!! I love Stan Hansen and his brawling style of wrestling and his wild promos. His run in AJPW was great, and his matches in the 90s were amazing.
One thing that I noticed when watching gordy matches, any gordy match, is just how great of a bumper he was, truly one of the best and most underrated bump takers ever and especially for someone of his size and stature He is one of the most influental and important wrestlers in modern wrestling and he was once the biggest prodigy ever seen in the sport (wasn't he already a main eventer at 17 and 18) And somehow he is still underrated, crazy Oh yeah and stan hansen was great too..
I frickin' HATED Gordy when I was a kid. Those gatdamn Freebird bastards GO GET 'EM KERRY! Of course you grow up and go back and watch this stuff with some knowledge of how it works and Gordy just jumps out of the screen. Absolute top talent. Up there with Bobby Eaton in terms of wrestlers I absolutely hated before I really knew what I was looking at. 😁
I'm really glad I found your channel so now I have a great way to look for old matches to watch. I'm glad I learned how to enjoy wrestling again 2 years ago :)
what an absolute pleasure of a video to run into my recs. i knew he was a big deal in japan, but its great to learn why, i gotta watch some matches now.
The mention of Gordy takes me back…..The first show i ever worked in March of 1997….Gordy was working on top and i had heard stories that Bam Bam wasn’t all there and holy crap i wasn’t ready…..He signed an autograph to a guy named Bob and he asked how to spell Bob……The amazing thing is when Freebird would hit up he hit that curtain and could still go…..Fast forward some 4 years later and i worked his tribute show in Chattanooga (in a 60 man single ring battle royal)….The ring ironically belonged to Gordy’s nephew and early Noah mainstay Richard Slinger (theres another story of Richard Slinger’s ring sitting in my best friends yard for like 5 months while Slinger was on tour for Noah)
I've been a wrestling fan for nearly 40 years.. never followed ajpw, njpw etc but I knew of it some what.. this video was amazing! A great retrospective of some of his time in Japan.. ill be watching the rest, and keep these coming!
As a kid, just seeing Stan Hansen perform "Sunrise" in his cowboy hat, leather vest and bell rope would send the crowds into a frenzy. Signaling for a lariat by touching his right hand to the black supporter on his left arm, Stan Hansen overwhelmed Japanese audiences with his powerful attacks on his opponents and gained immense popularity. He was a rare wrestler who came to Japan as a villain but never became a complete villain, and he is undoubtedly the most successful foreign wrestler in Japan. Thanks for the fond memories, Mr.Stan Hansen.🤘
Dude real talk accounts like this have created a new love for wrestling and given so much back to the community major salute to you I’m a big fan seriously
I would like to see a full vid on his tag run . But any Puro vids you do I imagine I would be down with . And thanks again for this great vid Kim . You are one of the best Puro content providers out there .
I’ve got to say Kim, in both the games and Wrestling videos you’re doing your best work in 2024. Long may it continue. Phenomenal work, and getting noticed now by some incredible wrestlers too!
You are without a doubt my favorite RU-vid channel, thank you for consistently churning out excellent content. This and your Morishima video I’ve recommended to dozens of fellow wrestlers looking to learn more about 80’s-2000’s Japanese wrestling. Keep it up!
As a diehard fan of the "Fuchinsenkan", I've gotta say, when I first watched AJPW around 6 years ago, the 1st wrestling match I saw was Hansen v. Kawada for the triple crown in '94 (I believe), & after that barnburner, I became an immediate fan of Toshiaki Kawada (my favorite Japanese wrestler of ALL time) & Stan Hansen (my favorite gaijin) & since then, I haven't looked back. I also love how well structured this vid is, goin' over his semi-rough WW(W)F beginnings to get to where he is in Japanese puro.
I love watching your videos. Your documentaries are cover topics that are 1. Not the same old content that’s been covered numerous times by various channels. 2. Wrestling I didn’t think I would be interested in but now have become fascinated with! Bravo Sir!
This was an absolutely phenomenal video and it's quite cool hearing that despite how out of control the wrestling persona of Stan Hansen was, that the real man behind all that was a chill dude.
Pretty perfect timing for a couple of reasons. One is I just watched Hansen's series of matches with Carlos Colon in Puerto Rico which are a lot of fun. The other is we just learned of Akira Toriyama's passing yesterday and some might know that he had a few wrestling references in Dragon Ball, notably a character inspired by Stan Hansen.
I think one thing that helped him stay loyal to Japan (besides Giant Baba being an honest boss) is the fact that Hansen's wife is Japanese and it was good for his home life to take a few times between tours staying there so she could be with her family. Happy wife, happy life.
My favorite wrestler. He was wild and really intimidating. He was like a bull in a china shop. Ive met him several times and he was always humble and took time out to chat. Hes a legend!
i wish that i had access to his stuff in the 90's. he woulda been my fave back then. back then even wwf tapes were hard to come by and WCW was non exsistant till nitro
I knew that this video was coming. You can't tell the story of wrestling in Japan without mentioning the Lariat Stan Hansen. Great video and wonderful research.
you can see why eddie kingston loves this era of wrestling and how it influences his own wrestling style. this channel and joseph M's channel are the reasons why i've come to appreciate king's road and all japan wrestling. we didn't have tape traders when i was a kid, so seeing all this is glorious. thanks for all your hard work. :D
Akira taue deserves a video on his own. He had a hof worthy career but he's overshadowed by the other 3 pillars to the point he's almost forgotten about.
Kim, you cover THE BEST topics which I'm interested in. (Minus paranormal stuff.. Totally understandable though). Just now discovered this other channel of yours and I'm impressed. Cheers from Tennessee
Stan Hansen is another guy I knew nothing about until I got into the Fire Pro Wrestling games. He has been a mainstay in that series, almost since the beginning.
i love watching these docs. i learn so much about all japan. i knew of stan hansen from his days in wcw but wow.... it pales into what he was doing in japan. the man is a legend.
Great vid as always Kim. I think it's interesting you decided to use Natsume game music since they made AJPW games around the same time as stuff like their Power Rangers games and Wild Guns.
