| Stan Hansen |
| Stan Hansen
Height: 6’2" Weight: 322 lbs. Real name: John Stanley Hansen Hometown: Borger, Texas Finishing move: Western Lariat Pro debut: January 1, 1973 Other aliases: "The Lariat" (US), "Unsinkable Battleship" (Japan) Career highlights: NWA United States Champion, All Japan World Tag Team Champion (8), All Japan Triple Crown Champion (3), NWA United National Heavyweight Champion, NWA International Heavyweight Champion, AWA World Heavyweight Champion, PWF (Pacific Wrestling Federation) Heavyweight Champion (4), PWF (Pacific Wrestling Federation) Tag Team Champion, AWA International Heavyweight Champion, NWA International Tag Team Champion, NWA Mid-Atlantic/Georgia Tag Team Champion, NWA Georgia Heavyweight Champion, NWA Georgia Tag Team Champion (w/Ole Anderson), NWA Tri State North American Heavyweight Champion, NWA Tri State United States Tag Team Champion Trained by: Dory Funk Stan Hansen started wrestling in 1973. He wrestled in the World Wide Wrestling Federation and achieved his first amount of infamy by breaking Bruno Sammartino's neck. It was from this incident that Hansen - and promoters who booked him - claimed enormous power for his Lariat move, although what had caused Bruno's broken neck was actually a botched bodyslam. In the mid to late 1970's, 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, which remained his foreign affiliation until his retirement. Hansen is the only man to pin Inoki and Giant Baba in singles matches for titles. He wrestled in the American Wrestling Association in 1985 and 1986 and won their World Title. He no-showed a title defense on June 29, 1986 forcing the AWA to default the title to his opponent, Nick Bockwinkel. Hansen was in the building that night and had been informed by AWA promoter Verne Gagne that night of the pending loss to Bockwinkel. Rumors say Hansen called All Japan Pro Wrestling president Giant Baba to ask if this was acceptable. Baba had already lined up challengers for Hansen and thus said no. Hansen was given the option of dropping the title to Bockwinkel or being stripped, Hansen chose the latter. Hansen returned to Japan and defended the AWA title there. Due to the fact Hansen had the physical title belt a new one had to be made. To compensate, Bockwinkel was given one of the tag team titles the night the title was stripped. He wrestled most of his latter career in All Japan, where he formed teams with Bruiser Brody, Terry Gordy, Ted DiBiase and Genichiro Tenryu. In 1990, Hansen wrestled in World Championship Wrestling and feuded with Lex Luger over the United States Title while it was still under the banner of the NWA. From there Hansen continued to trade the Triple Crown with Mitsuharu Misawa and others. 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. |
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