About Me
John Stanley "Stan" Hansen was born October 12, 1949 in Knox City, Texas. He is a retired American professional wrestler, who spent much of his career wrestling in Japan and popularized the "Lariat". He is mostly famous for his "cowboy" gimmick, (complete with cowboy hat and chewing tobacco), his stiffness and for being a wild heel.
Stan Hansen began his wrestling career in 1973 in his hometown promotion at Amarillo, Texas, and was trained by Dory Funk, Sr. He had initially taking up wrestling as a part-time job while trying out for the Detroit Wheels, but with their folding, he pursued wrestling full-time.
He competed in the World Wide Wrestling Federation in the late 1970s, and achieved his first amount of infamy there by accidently breaking Bruno Sammartino's neck. It was from this incident that both Hansen and promoters who booked him claimed enormous power for his Lariat move, despite the fact that it was a botched bodyslam that caused Bruno's injury.
In the mid to late 1970s, Hansen wrestled in Georgia Championship Wrestling where he teamed with Tommy Rich and Ole Anderson. He also made forays into New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he feuded with its top star, Antonio Inoki. In 1981, however, Hansen abruptly jumped to All Japan Pro Wrestling, where he became one of the greatest gajins (foreign wrestlers) of all-time.
He joined the American Wrestling Association in 1985 and won the AWA World Heavyweight Championship only a year later. He no-showed a title defense on June 29, 1986 resulting in the AWA to default the title to his opponent, Nick Bockwinkel. Rumors suggest that Hansen was actually in the building that night and had been informed by AWA promoter Verne Gagne of the pending loss to Bockwinkel. Further speculation incidates that Hansen had asked All Japan Pro Wrestling president Giant Baba if defending the title against Bockwinkel was acceptable, to which Baba replied that he already lined up challengers for Hansen. Hansen was given the option of dropping the title to Bockwinkel or being stripped; Hansen returned to Japan and defended the title there. As a result of Hansen being in possession of the physical title belt, a new one had to be made. To compensate, Bockwinkel was awarded one of the tag team titles on the night that he was rewarded the title.
He wrestled most of his latter career in All Japan, where he formed various teams with Gary Albright, Terry Gordy, Ted DiBiase, Genichiro Tenryu and Dan Spivey, as he would end up winning the AJPW United Tag Team Championship on nine occassions with these partners. More importantly, Hansen primarily tagged with Bruiser Brody, as they would become one of the best tag teams in All-Japan history.
In 1990, Hansen had a short stint in World Championship Wrestling and feuded with Lex Luger over the United States title while it was still under the banner of the NWA. He would soon return to All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1991 after a disagreement over a storyline involving The Desperados, a threesome of bumbling cowboys looking for Hansen through a series of vignettes. When Hansen refused to have anything to do with the Desperados, the threesome were made into jobbers. From there Hansen continued to trade the Triple Crown with Mitsuharu Misawa and others. When Giant Baba died, Misawa became the new booker, and began de-emphasizing Hansen and other foreign talent in favor of new native recruits such as Takao Omori and Yoshihiro Takayama. Nevertheless, when Misawa and most of the natives left to form Pro Wrestling NOAH (in 2000), Hansen remained an integral wrestler in the beginning stages of the rebuilding process.
Despite Hansen's loyalty, he was already suffering from nagging lumbago that cut his career short. Hansen's last match was in 2000, during a tournament for the vacant Triple Crown, a semifinal match against the returning Tenryu. He officially retired later in the year and in 2001 he became President (Commissioner) of All Japan's Pacific Wrestling Federation title governing body. He often appears during Triple Crown and Double Cup matches (in civilian clothes) to issue "proclamations" of the matches. On July 10, 2007, Hansen resigned from the position, allowing Hiroshi Hase to become the third President of the PWF.
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Stan Hansen vs. Big Van Vader: The Eye Socket Incident
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A Video Compilation of Lariats
Championships:
*1-Time AJPW International Tag Team Champion (with Ron Bass)
*4-Time AJPW Triple Crown World Heavyweight Champion
*9-Time AJPW Unified Tag Team Champion (with Gary Albright once, Dan Spivey once, Terry Gordy 3 times, Genichiro Tenryu 3 times and Ted DiBiase once)
*1-Time AJPW United National Champion
*1-Time NWA International Heavyweight Champion
*3-Time PWF Heavyweight Champion
*4-Time PWF Tag Team Champion (with Ted DiBiase twice, Bruiser Brody once and Austin Idol once)
*1-Time AWA World Heavyweight Champion
*2-Time NWA Georgia Heavyweight Champion
*3-Time NWA Georgia Tag Team Champion (with Tommy Rich twice and Ole Anderson once)
*1-Time Mid-Southern International Champion
*1-Time NWA Tri-State North American Champion
*1-Time NWA United States Heavyweight Champion
*1-Time NWA World Tag Team Champion (with Ole Anderson)
*1-Time NWF Heavyweight Champion
*1-Time WCCW Texas Tag Team Champion (with Killer Tim Brooks)
Awards:
*Ranked #16 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI Years in 2003.
*Ranked #7 with Bruiser Brody, #24 with Ted DiBiase, #34 with Terry Gordy and #66 with Ole Anderson of the 100 best tag teams of the PWI Years.
*PWI Most Hated Wrestler Award (1976)
*PWI Match of the Year - 1976, vs. Bruno Sammartino
*A member of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (inducted in 1996)
*1982 Tag Team of the Year (with Ole Anderson) in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter
*1985 Best Brawler in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter
*1990 Best Brawler in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter
