Stan Hansen

I grew up watching Stan Hansen and reading about him in the kayfabe magazines. He was 'The Guy That Broke Bruno's Neck!' Seems Stan had recently been in the business and got the call from Vince Sr. to come to the WWWF. Bruno Sammartino, the legendary champion needed big heels to eat up. So Stan went to the WWWF and was put in matches against Bruno. Stan was big and raw and he could really move around the ring. He and Bruno had some wars!



During the match Hansen accidentally slammed Bruno awkwardly and Bruno came down on his head and broke his neck. The mags said that Stan hit Bruno with his dreaded 'Lariat' (a closeline off the ropes) and they showed pics of Bruno in his white and blue checkered pajamas in a neck and back brace in the hospital. This accident really caterpulted Stans career. He faced opponent after opponent who were trying to get revenge for Bruno! Gorilla Monsoon defended the belt for him while he was gone and Stan took beatings from Ivan Putski, Monsoon and others. But he dished a lot of them out too. As a favor to Vince Sr. Bruno came back way to early and wrestled Stan in Shea Stadium because Vince was nervous that he was going to lose his ass on the Ali/Inoki boxer vs wrestler close circuit stinkfest. Bruno was limited but he came back and beat Hansen from pillar to post. Stan took off like a scalded dog to the dug out and the fans pelted him with everything that wasn't nailed down.

Stan wrestled a lot on Georgia Championship Wrestling when it first went national. He was a big heel when I first started watching it and was the Georgia State Heavyweight Champion. He wrestled Mr. Wrestling II, Tommy Rich, Tony Atlas and even some heels like Angelo 'King Kong' Mosca. Stan also wrestled as a face in Georgia and had a really successful team with Tommy 'Wildfire' Rich.



Stan always had time to run up to New York and kick the shit out of Howdy Doody Bob Backlund.



Stan really made a name for himself and launched himself to god like status in Japan. He beat the hell out of Inoki. He beat the hell out of Baba and Jumbo, and he and Bruiser Brody beat the hell out of everybody as one of the greatest tag teams of all time. Heck Stan even beat the hell out of Andre The Giant!



And Stan was so resiliant that he beat the hell out of the next generation of Japanese superstars. Misawa, Kawada, and Kenta Kobashi all felt 'The Lariat'!



Stan Hansen... a real legend in classic pro rasslin' DADDY!